App Revenue Calculator

Mobile app revenue depends on daily active users and monetisation per user. Ranges quoted in app-industry commentary put casual ad-supported apps around 0.10 to 1.00 of monthly revenue per daily active user, and subscription apps somewhere between 1 and 10, though both vary widely by category, region and user quality. The platform store then takes a commission off the gross.

10,000 daily active users at 2 of monthly revenue each is 20,000 gross. A 30% store fee leaves 14,000 net a month, or 168,000 over a year, before any staff or marketing costs. Scale the user count and the revenue scales with it in a straight line.

Both major stores charge a standard commission of 30%, reduced to 15% for developers below an annual earnings threshold under their small-business programmes, and to 15% on subscription revenue after a subscriber’s first year. Alternative billing arrangements are available in some markets where platform rules or regulation permit them. The thresholds, rates and eligibility rules are set by each platform and change periodically, which is why the fee is an input here rather than a stored figure.

Run it with sensible defaults

Using daily active users of 10,000, revenue per DAU monthly of 2, and a store fee of 30%, the calculation works out to 14,000.00 a month, with 168,000 annual net, 20,000 gross monthly and 6,000 going to store fees.

The levers in this calculation

Daily Active Users and Revenue per DAU Monthly are the larger levers: a 1% change in either moves Net Monthly Revenue by about 1%, against 0.43% for Store Fee % in the opposite direction.

The two revenue inputs are interchangeable in the arithmetic, since the model multiplies them together. Doubling the user count and doubling the revenue per user produce identical results, even though one usually costs marketing spend and the other usually costs product work. The store fee moves the result less in relative terms but matters at the margin: dropping it from 30% to 15% takes the loaded net from 14,000 to 17,000, and a purely ad-supported model with no store commission at all keeps the full 20,000.

How the math works

Gross revenue is daily active users multiplied by monthly revenue per user. Store fees are that gross multiplied by the fee percentage. Net is gross less fees, and the annual figure is twelve times the monthly one. The model is linear throughout, so every output scales proportionally with any input.

What this doesn’t capture

Store commissions are the only deduction this model makes, and several others sit alongside them. Payment processor fees, refunds and chargebacks, regional tax withholding, ad network revenue shares and any co-publisher agreement all reduce the figure further. On the cost side, marketing, servers, support and the developer’s own time sit outside the calculation entirely. The number on screen is a top-line figure after platform commission, not cash available to spend.

Worked example

Suppose a subscription fitness app with 25,000 daily active users. Each user generates an average of 4.50 per month in revenue. The store charges a 30% fee.

Gross monthly revenue: 25,000 × 4.50 = 112,500

Store fee (30%): 112,500 × 0.30 = 33,750

Net monthly revenue: 112,500 − 33,750 = 78,750

Annual net revenue: 78,750 × 12 = 945,000

This illustrates how user scale and revenue-per-user interact. A 10% increase in daily active users, meaning 2,500 more, adds 7,875 net per month. A 10% increase in revenue per user adds exactly the same amount, because the two are multiplied rather than added. Either lever moves the outcome, but user growth often requires marketing spend or organic traction over time.

Common scenarios

• Ad-supported casual game: high user counts, low revenue per user, and often no store commission at all where the revenue arrives through an ad network rather than store billing.
• Subscription app (fitness, learning, productivity): moderate user counts, higher revenue per user, and a commission that may drop to the reduced rate on renewals after the first year.
• In-app purchase model (strategy game, marketplace): variable on both inputs, with a small share of high-spending users dominating the revenue per user figure. Store commission applies to every transaction.
• Freemium with trial conversion: revenue per user rises as trials convert, and the effective commission falls as the subscriber base ages past the first-year threshold.

What the result does and does not capture

This calculator estimates the net revenue flowing to the developer after store fees. It does not account for payment processor fees, refund rates, regional tax withholding, chargebacks, or revenue-share agreements with co-publishers.

It also does not model marketing cost, server infrastructure, support labour, or the time required to acquire and retain those daily active users. Net revenue on paper differs from cash available for reinvestment or personal use.

The calculator operates at the top line. It shows a relationship between user count, monetisation rate, and take-home revenue. It does not predict whether those inputs will move or remain stable.

Educational illustration

This calculator is for educational illustration only. Actual app revenue depends on user behaviour, platform policy changes, and market conditions outside this model.