App Store Fee Calculator

App stores take a percentage of what a developer earns through them. A standard rate applies by default, and two separate routes lead to a reduced one: a small-business programme, which is gated on a revenue threshold, and auto-renewing subscriptions that have passed twelve consecutive months, which is not. This calculator applies whichever rate results and shows the gap against the standard rate.

How to use it

Both rates and the threshold are entered rather than stored. Apple and Google structure their reduced-rate programmes differently, the figures vary by market, and competition regulation in several jurisdictions has been reshaping them, most visibly the EU rules on large platform gatekeepers that opened app distribution and billing to alternatives. Entering the rates from the developer agreement that applies to your account and market gives a result specific to it; the values loaded here are illustrative.

How the rate is chosen

The standard rate applies unless one of the two routes qualifies. The small-business route requires enrolment and revenue below the threshold, so it stops applying once revenue passes it. The test is strictly below, so revenue sitting exactly on the threshold falls back to the standard rate. The subscription route depends on subscriber tenure rather than revenue, so it continues to apply above the threshold. The fee is the applied rate times annual revenue; net revenue is what remains.

Entering a reduced rate above the standard one is rejected rather than calculated, since it would produce a fee higher than the standard-rate comparison it is meant to beat.

A worked example

Start with the loaded figures: annual revenue of 500,000, enrolled in the programme, with subscriptions past year one. Both routes qualify, so the reduced 15% rate applies, giving a fee of 75,000 and net revenue of 425,000 against 150,000 at the standard rate. The result row names both qualifying routes rather than picking one.

Drop to 200,000 with neither route in play and the standard 30% applies: a fee of 60,000 and net revenue of 140,000. Add programme enrolment alone at that revenue and the reduced rate takes the fee to 30,000 and net revenue to 170,000, halving the deduction on identical revenue.

Now raise revenue to 2,000,000 with enrolment still in place but no year-two subscriptions. The threshold closes the small-business route and the standard rate returns: a fee of 600,000. Turn the subscription route on at that same revenue and the fee drops back to 300,000, because that route carries no revenue condition at all. The 300,000 difference between those two runs is the clearest illustration of why the two routes are not interchangeable.

What moves the number most

Annual revenue moves the result proportionally, since a single rate applies to all of it. The two eligibility settings move it in a step rather than a curve: they switch the applied rate between the two figures entered, so the fee either halves or doubles at the default rates rather than shifting gradually. The gap between the two rates widens in absolute terms as revenue rises, from 30,000 on a 200,000 year to 300,000 on a 2,000,000 one.

Which currency the threshold is in

Programme thresholds are denominated in the platform’s own currency, which for both major stores is US dollars, and eligibility is assessed in that currency regardless of what the calculator displays. Entering a threshold converted into the display currency keeps the comparison meaningful; leaving the figure at a nominal million while displaying a currency worth far less than the dollar will place the boundary in the wrong place.

Where the two stores differ

The two major stores are treated here as a single rate structure, which they are not. They differ in how the threshold is assessed, in how subscription tenure is counted, and in how alternative billing arrangements affect the rate in particular markets. Each publishes its own current terms, and those terms have been moving under regulatory pressure in the EU and elsewhere. The calculator reproduces the shape common to both, a standard rate with reduced-rate routes, rather than either programme exactly, which is why the rates and threshold are editable.

What this doesn’t capture

Development, hosting and infrastructure costs sit outside this calculation, as do marketing spend, payroll, tax obligations, and any payment-processing charges levied separately from commission. So does a revenue mix split across categories charged at different rates: the model applies one rate to the whole amount. Future changes to rates, thresholds and eligibility rules are exactly why those figures are inputs.