Apple's 30% commission is the most discussed number in the app economy, and in the US it is now the most out of date. After the Epic v. Apple ruling and the court fights that followed, a US app can link out to web checkout with no Apple commission at all. That changes the math most guides still run. This piece is specific to the United States in 2026: what the rules permit today, what each path actually costs, and how to decide which one fits your product.
What US developers actually pay in 2026
Situation | Apple's cut |
|---|---|
Standard in-app purchase | 30% |
Small Business Program (under $1M a year) | 15% |
External payment link (US) | 0% today, see the legal note below |
Reader app (content bought elsewhere, used in-app) | 0% |
Physical goods and services (Uber, Amazon, etc.) | 0% |
Web2App (user pays on web, app only signs them in) | 0%, with a US caveat |
The row most guides still get wrong is the external payment link. For a while Apple charged 27% on purchases made through those links. A court found that this made linking out pointless, since 27% plus payment processing runs past the 30% you were trying to avoid, and it barred Apple from charging anything. So the real US figure today is 0% Apple commission on external links, against 15 to 30% on in-app purchase. The saving from going external is the full 15 to 30 points, not a sliver.
The legal picture, and how stable 0% is
It helps to know why the number is 0% and how solid that is, because it is still moving.
A 2021 ruling ordered Apple to let developers point users to outside payment options. Apple complied narrowly and attached a 27% fee, which led to an April 30, 2025 contempt finding that barred Apple from taking any commission on link-outs. On December 11, 2025 the Ninth Circuit upheld the contempt finding but said Apple should eventually be allowed a reasonable, cost-based fee, and sent that question back to the district court. Apple then tried to pause the order. The Ninth Circuit lifted its stay in April 2026, the Supreme Court declined to pause the mandate in May, and on June 30, 2026 the Supreme Court agreed to hear the contempt question, with arguments expected late in 2026 and a ruling likely in 2027.
The practical read: US external links are 0% right now. A modest cost-based fee could be set later on remand, so build your external checkout so you can switch on a fee calculation without re-architecting, and capture external-purchase analytics from day one.
Path 1: the Small Business Program
The highest return move for most teams is not technical. Apple halves the commission, from 30% to 15%, for any developer whose global App Store proceeds in the prior calendar year were under $1,000,000.
To enroll, log in to your Apple Developer account, open Agreements, Tax, and Banking, and apply through the Small Business Program page. It takes minutes and the saving is immediate. On $800,000 of App Store revenue, the gap between 30% and 15% is $120,000 a year, with no engineering work and no change to your checkout.
One detail to plan around: Apple checks proceeds on a rolling calendar-year basis, so if you pass $1,000,000 in a year you leave the program the next year. Build that into your forecast.
Path 2: the reader-app model
If your app mainly lets people use content they bought somewhere else, Apple does not require in-app purchase at all. Books, articles, audio, video, courses, and podcasts all qualify, and no in-app transaction means no commission.
Apps that usually qualify include streaming audio and video, e-readers, course and learning apps, news and magazine apps, and podcast players. The word that matters is 'primarily'. App Review looks at what the app does, not how you describe it. An app that sells content inside the session is not a reader app. Keep the in-app experience consumption-only, and document your external purchase flow before you submit.
The tradeoff is that users subscribe on your site first, and some will not finish. Measure your web-to-app conversion rather than assuming reader status is a free upgrade over in-app purchase.
Path 3: external payment links, now the strong US move
This is where the old math flips. A US app can include a link or button to its own web checkout, with no entitlement, no approval step, and no Apple commission. You keep the full transaction minus your payment processor, instead of handing Apple 15 or 30%.
The friction argument has shrunk too. The court removed Apple's customizable warning screen for the US, so users no longer see a message engineered to scare them off. They see a neutral notice that they are moving to an external site. That still costs some conversion, but far less than the old screen did.
Here is the corrected break-even. Say you are a Small Business Program developer with $500,000 of revenue. Through in-app purchase at 15%, Apple takes $75,000. Through a US external link at 0% Apple commission, Apple takes nothing. You pay your processor instead, roughly 3%, so about $15,000, and you handle tax. Even with a real conversion dip on the external flow, you keep most of that 15 point swing. For a standard 30% developer the swing is twice as large. Going external is now a gain, not the loss the old 27% math produced.
Two cautions. Some categories, games in particular, face more restrictions, so check the current App Review Guidelines before building. And keep the remand in mind: a cost-based fee could return later, so design the flow to absorb one.
Path 4: Web2App, and its one US caveat
Web2App means the user subscribes and pays entirely on the web, and the app only signs them in. Nothing is sold inside the app, so there is no Apple fee by design. In the EU this is settled under the Digital Markets Act.
In the US the nuance is narrower than it used to be. For reader-style content the path is clean. For general software, such as SaaS tools, productivity apps, or games, Apple's position that digital goods 'for use in the app' should run through in-app purchase puts pure Web2App in a gray zone, and Apple has rejected apps for steering users to web purchases of in-app features. The useful part is that you no longer need to take that risk to reach 0%, because the in-app external link is now a permitted 0% path. Use Web2App where the content is genuinely bought for general use, and use an external link where it is not.
Path 5: choosing your payment infrastructure
The moment any revenue leaves Apple's system, you inherit what Apple used to handle: tax calculation and remittance, fraud screening, chargebacks, and payment support. There are two ways to carry that.
A direct processor such as Stripe gives you a lower per-transaction cost, but you own every compliance layer: sales tax across US states, tax in international markets, disputes, and PCI scope. Most teams underestimate that work.
A Merchant of Record sells your product to the customer on your behalf and handles all of it, for a higher fee. You receive revenue net of that fee without building the compliance stack.
Direct processor | Merchant of Record | |
|---|---|---|
Tax handling | You | The MoR |
Fraud screening | You | The MoR |
Chargebacks | You | The MoR |
Per-transaction cost | Lower | Higher |
Compliance overhead | High | Low |
For teams under about $5,000,000 in external payment volume, the MoR route is usually the right call, since building this yourself at small scale costs more than the fee difference. tiun is a Merchant of Record built for AI and SaaS companies. As the seller of record it handles tax registration and remittance across jurisdictions, plus refunds, chargebacks, and disputes, which is what lets you capture the 0% external upside without standing up the compliance work yourself.
The conversion reality check
Any move to external checkout gives up some revenue to friction. With the US warning screen gone the loss is smaller than older guides assume, but it is never zero. Run the external path alongside in-app purchase, or A/B test the switch, and watch these.
Metric | What it tells you |
|---|---|
External link tap-through rate | Whether users engage with the prompt |
Web checkout completion rate | Where drop-off happens externally |
Account-link success rate | Whether purchases sync back to the app |
30, 60, 90 day retention | Whether the change affects long-term behavior |
Trial-to-paid vs your baseline | Whether the extra step hurts conversion |
For context, RevenueCat's 2026 benchmark shows trial-to-paid conversion runs by category from about 43.5% for Travel down to 22.2% for Photo and Video, with North America near 34.2%. Benchmark against your own category and region, not a single blended number.
How to decide
Under $1,000,000 and not looking to build: apply for the Small Business Program today. You are at 15% instead of 30% as fast as you can fill in the form.
Content people subscribe to on the web: take the reader-app path and keep the in-app experience consumption-only. That is 0%.
SaaS or productivity tool with mostly US users: the external link is now genuinely worth it, because the saving is the full 15 or 30 points rather than a sliver. Pair it with a Merchant of Record so you skip the tax and dispute build, and model your conversion before you commit.
High-volume app with strong external acquisition: external links, or Web2App for reader-style content, save real money in absolute terms at scale.
Mixed US and international base: keep US and international payment paths separate in your code. What Apple allows in the EU and the US differs, and a single hardcoded path makes every policy change expensive to react to.
Frequently asked questions
Can US iOS apps use their own payment processor to avoid Apple fees?
Yes. A US app can link out to its own web checkout with 0% Apple commission right now, and reader apps can use web checkout at 0% as well. That saves the full in-app purchase rate of 15 or 30 points. A cost-based fee could be set later on remand, so build the flow to absorb one.
Is there still a warning screen for US external links?
No. The customizable screen that told users they were leaving Apple's payment system was removed for the US. Users see a neutral notice instead, so the conversion hit is much smaller than older guides describe.
Does Web2App work for a US digital product?
For reader-style content, yes. For general software meant for use in the app, pure Web2App sits in a US gray zone and has drawn rejections. Since the in-app external link is now a permitted 0% path, most apps can use that instead of taking the gray-zone risk.
When does a Merchant of Record make sense?
When your external volume means collecting and remitting tax across jurisdictions, or when fraud and chargebacks would need dedicated headcount. Under about $5,000,000 in external volume, an MoR's fee is usually lower than the cost of building the same infrastructure yourself.