In-App Purchases Explained: Types, Fees and the Charts

Most of the money in the Top Grossing charts never touches a paid download: it arrives as coins, unlocks and renewing subscriptions bought inside free apps. This guide explains the purchase types both stores offer, what Apple and Google keep as of October 2026, and how that spend turns into a chart position.

The four purchase types

Apple groups In-App Purchases into four kinds: consumable, non-consumable, auto-renewable subscription and non-renewing subscription ¹. Google Play's catalogue is organised a little differently, as one-time products (which can be consumed or kept) and subscriptions built from base plans and offers, but the buyer-facing behaviour maps closely.

Apple's rules put real constraints on how these are used. Credits or in-game currency bought through IAP may not expire, every restorable purchase needs a restore path, and loot boxes must disclose odds before purchase ¹¹. The same guideline draws the line between digital and physical: unlocking features, levels or premium content must go through IAP, while physical goods or services consumed outside the app must use something else, such as a card form or Apple Pay ¹¹.

What the stores keep

The headline rate on both stores is still 30%, but very few developers actually pay it on every transaction. The reductions arrived in stages, so it helps to know the dates.

Apple

Apple's App Store Small Business Program launched on 1 January 2021 and cuts the commission to 15% on paid apps and IAP for developers whose proceeds, across all associated accounts, stayed at or below $1 million in the previous calendar year ^3,4. If you cross $1 million during the current year, the standard rate applies to sales from then on, and you can re-qualify the year after your proceeds fall back under the line ³. Separately, auto-renewable subscriptions move from 70% to 85% net once a subscriber accumulates a full year of paid service; free trial days do not count, and a lapse of more than 60 days resets the clock ². Small Business Program members get 85% on subscriptions from the first billing cycle, so the two reductions do not stack into anything lower than 15% ².

Google Play

Google introduced a 15% rate on each developer's first $1 million of annual revenue on 1 July 2021 ⁶, then dropped subscriptions to 15% from day one on 1 January 2022 ⁷. That structure still applies in most of the world ⁵.

The bigger change came on 30 June 2026, when Google split its fee into a service fee and a separate billing fee in the United States, United Kingdom and European Economic Area, with Australia and Japan following on 30 September 2026 ^5,8. The service fee starts at 10% on the first $1 million of annual earnings and is 10% on all auto-renewing subscriptions; purchases that go through Google Play Billing then carry a 5% billing fee on top, while alternative billing and external web links do not ⁸. For a subscription app using Play Billing, the arithmetic lands back at 15%, which is why the "10%" headline felt underwhelming to many developers. Above $1 million, Google's own table lists other transactions at 20% (new installs) or 25% (existing installs) plus the billing fee, with lower rates for apps in the Play Games Level Up and Apps Experience programs ⁵. The column mapping in that table is dense, so check it against your own account before budgeting.

The EU and the US, briefly

Both stores now run different terms in the European Union because of the Digital Markets Act, and both have changed those terms more than once. Apple's current structure took effect on 1 October 2026 and replaces the per-install Core Technology Fee with a 5% Core Technology Commission on digital sales in apps distributed outside the App Store; inside the App Store, Apple's IAP is 26% (15% reduced), in-app alternative payment processing is 20% (10%), and link-outs to the web are 15% (10%), with the reduced rates for Small Business Program members and subscriptions after year one ⁹. Google's EEA programs let developers steer users to external offers or run alternative billing in-app; external-offer transactions carry ongoing fees of 10% for subscriptions and 20% for other items, with no initial acquisition fee ¹⁰. These numbers have shifted roughly yearly, so treat any EU figure as provisional.

In the United States, Apple's guidelines currently state that apps on the US storefront do not need an entitlement to include buttons or external links to other purchase methods ¹¹. This follows the 2025 court order in Epic v. Apple; the dispute over whether Apple may charge a commission on those link-outs was still before the US Supreme Court as of October 2026 unconfirmed.

How this shows up in the charts

Neither Apple nor Google publishes the formula behind Top Grossing, but the chart is widely understood to rank apps by recent customer spend processed through the store's own billing, refreshed many times a day unconfirmed. Three practical consequences follow. First, a subscription app's renewals keep feeding the chart long after the install, which is why mature apps dominate the top of Grossing while new releases churn through Top Free. Second, purchases routed through an external link or alternative billing in the EU or US are not store transactions, so a developer who moves a meaningful share of revenue off-store can slide down Grossing even as their business grows. Third, consumable-heavy games can spike into the top ten on an event weekend and fall back within days, because the ranking window is short. When you read AppWinners' grossing tables, remember they reflect store-billed spend, not total company revenue, and that the commission tiers above never appear in the ranking: the chart sees the gross price the customer paid.

Practical pricing tips

• Pick the purchase type by behaviour, not by margin. If users need to buy repeatedly, a consumable is honest; if they expect to own it, a non-consumable avoids refund friction.
• Price subscriptions for the year-two rate. Apple's 15% after twelve months of paid service rewards retention, so an annual plan that actually renews is worth more than its sticker suggests ².
• Use the store's price-point ladder. Apple offers 900 price points from $0.29 to $10,000 with comparable prices generated across 175 storefronts ¹; local price conventions convert better than a flat USD figure.
• If you qualify for the Small Business Program, enrol before the month you want the rate; proceeds adjust fifteen days after the end of the fiscal month in which enrolment is approved ³.
• Model Google's 5% billing fee separately from the service fee if you sell in the US, UK or EEA; it only disappears when you stop using Play Billing, which carries its own processor cost ⁸.
• Do not assume EU or US link-out terms are stable. Build the app so the IAP path works everywhere, then add alternatives region by region.