Apple's standard commission on digital sales through the App Store is 30%. In practice, not every developer pays that rate. Business size, product type, and geography all affect what you actually owe. But for many apps selling digital subscriptions or in-app purchases in the US, 30% is the default, and on $500,000 in annual revenue that is $150,000 going to a platform that did not build your product, your acquisition funnel, or your support infrastructure.
In 2026, that fee is no longer mandatory for most apps. Court rulings, the EU Digital Markets Act, and a series of Apple policy concessions have cracked open the ecosystem. Developers who understand the current rules can legally reduce their commission to 15%, sometimes to near zero, without risking their apps being pulled.
This guide covers every viable path, who qualifies for each one, and what you need to implement them correctly.
What Apple actually charges in 2026
Apple's commission structure has fractured considerably since 2020. The headline 30% rate still applies to US-based digital sales through standard in-app purchase (IAP), but geography, business size, and product type all change the number.
Scenario | Commission Rate |
|---|---|
Standard US in-app purchase | 30% |
Apple Small Business Program (under $1M/year) | 15% |
EU: Web2App or Reader App (no in-app purchase link) | 0% |
EU: In-app external purchase link, Tier 1 store services | 10% to 12% |
EU: In-app external purchase link, Tier 2 store services | 18% to 20% |
Alternative app stores (e.g. AltStore, Epic) | 15% or less |
Physical goods and services | 0% (IAP not required) |
An in-app purchase is any digital product, subscription, or upgrade sold directly within a mobile application using the platform's native payment system. If your product is digital and sold inside the app in the US, Apple's IAP is currently mandatory unless you have a specific entitlement or your app qualifies as a reader app.
Apple's native checkout is also limited to card-based payments, which means users without a credit card on file simply cannot convert. When you route payments outside IAP through a platform like Tiun, you can offer alternative payment methods (APMs) alongside cards – local payment methods, wallets, and region-specific options that match how users in different markets actually pay. That flexibility tends to lift conversion, particularly in markets where card penetration is lower.
The EU picture is more nuanced than a single number. The DMA opened three distinct paths, and the cost of each depends on your architecture, not just your geography. Web2App and the Reader App entitlement both land at 0%: no Apple fee applies because no purchase occurs inside the app. An in-app external purchase link is different. The moment a link that initiates a transaction sits inside the app, Apple's fee structure kicks in. How much depends on your store services tier: 10% to 12% if you are on Tier 1, 18% to 20% on Tier 2. Developers who build the wrong architecture pay fees that were avoidable. The fee table below maps out every scenario.
Path 1: Apply for the Small Business Program
The fastest fee reduction available to most developers does not require any engineering work. Apple's Small Business Program cuts the standard commission in half, from 30% to 15%, for any developer whose App Store proceeds in the previous calendar year were under $1,000,000.
Who qualifies: Any individual developer or company that earned less than $1M across all their App Store apps in the preceding year.
How to apply:
Log in to your Apple Developer account
Navigate to the Agreements, Tax, and Banking section
Apply through the Small Business Program enrolment page
Confirm your previous year's proceeds are under the threshold
Monitor annually as your proceeds grow, since crossing $1M in a year removes you from the programme
This is the right starting point for early-stage teams and startups who want to reduce costs without adding engineering or compliance overhead. It does nothing about the underlying dependency on Apple's payment system, but it cuts your effective rate immediately.
Path 2: The reader-app model
A reader app is one that primarily lets users access content they have already purchased or subscribed to outside the app. Books, audio, video, learning materials, podcasts. If your product fits this definition, Apple does not require you to use IAP, and no commission is taken on those transactions.
The App Store category matters here. Apple applies this exemption narrowly. Your app needs to genuinely function as a content consumption portal, not a storefront. Attempting to claim reader-app status for an app that primarily sells within the session will fail App Review.
Apps that typically qualify:
E-reader and ebook platforms
Streaming audio and video services
Online course and learning platforms
Podcast apps
News and magazine apps
The workflow is straightforward. Users purchase a subscription or content on your website, then log in to the app to access what they bought. No transaction occurs inside the app, so no commission applies. The tradeoff is friction: you lose the one-tap in-app checkout experience, and some users will drop off during the web-to-app handoff.
One distinction that matters here: reader apps cannot use an in-app browser checkout**.** The entire transaction must happen on the external web, fully outside the app. If your app is not a reader app, the rules flip – you are permitted to open a checkout inside an in-app browser. The reader-app path trades checkout flexibility for a zero-commission rate. Understanding which category your app falls into determines not just your fee structure, but what your checkout flow is actually allowed to look like
Path 3: External payment links and web-first checkout
Post-Epic v. Apple (2021) and the EU Digital Markets Act (DMA), Apple now permits many apps to route users to web checkout instead of Apple IAP. The architecture you choose, however, determines whether Apple still takes a cut. In the EU there are two fundamentally different approaches, and they carry very different costs.
Web2App (0%, no entitlement needed). The user subscribes and pays on the web, outside the app entirely. The app only handles authentication and unlocks access. No purchase link sits inside the app, so Apple's fee structure does not apply. This works for any app type, not just reader apps, and requires no Apple entitlement, no disclosure sheet, and no transaction reporting to Apple. It is the lowest-friction path to 0% and the default architecture most Merchant of Record platforms recommend.
In-app external purchase link (10% to 20% in the EU). If you include an actionable link inside the app that takes users to a web checkout, Apple's fee structure applies. The cost depends on your store services tier. Tier 1 covers mandatory services and costs 10% to 12% total. Tier 2 adds App Store discovery, featuring, and analytics dashboards, and costs 18% to 20%. Apps that do not rely on App Store discovery can move to Tier 1 and cut the store services fee from 13% to 5%. Note that Tiun provides analytics and customer insights directly, so much of what Tier 2 offers is already covered under the Tiun MoR.
EU in-app external purchase link fee breakdown:
Fee component | Tier 1 | Tier 2 |
|---|---|---|
Initial acquisition fee (first 6 months after install) | 2% (0% reduced rate) | 2% (0% reduced rate) |
Store services fee | 5% | 13% (10% reduced rate) |
Core Technology Commission | 5% | 5% |
Approximate total to Apple | 10% to 12% | 18% to 20% |
In the US, the legal picture has moved significantly since the Epic ruling. In April 2025, Judge Gonzalez Rogers barred Apple from collecting any commission on US purchases made through external links, striking down the prior fee structure entirely. Apple appealed, and on December 11, 2025 the Ninth Circuit upheld most of that ruling but found the blanket ban overbroad – leaving room for Apple to charge a commission limited to costs genuinely and reasonably necessary to coordinate the handoff, likely well under previous rates. Critically, Apple cannot charge any commission until the district court approves a specific fee structure, and as of mid-2026 Apple is seeking Supreme Court review while that remand proceeds. In practice, external link transactions in the US carry no Apple commission today. A modest cost-based fee may eventually be introduced, but the number and timeline remain unresolved. Enforcement and reporting mechanics continue to evolve. If your primary market is the EU and your acquisition channel is not App Store discovery, the Web2App path at 0% is the cleaner choice.
You can switch your app between Tier 1 and Tier 2 once per quarter per storefront, so this is not a permanent decision. Start with Tier 2 if you are still building App Store presence, then move to Tier 1 once your acquisition is primarily organic or web-sourced.
App Store compliance and requesting entitlements
The Web2App path needs no Apple entitlement, no disclosure sheet, and no transaction reporting to Apple. The in-app external purchase link path requires all three.
There are two addendum options. The StoreKit External Purchase Link Entitlement (EU) Addendum bolts the external link right onto standard App Store terms and adds a 5% Core Technology Commission on external sales. The Alternative Terms Addendum replaces that 5% commission with a Core Technology Fee of 0.50 EUR per first annual install above one million installs, so apps under one million installs pay no Core Technology Fee at all under the Alternative Terms. For small apps, the Alternative Terms typically costs less per transaction. The trade-off is that it is a broader DMA commitment.
It is worth noting that Apple has signaled intent to consolidate these two structures into a single model, with the CTF folding into the CTC framework but has not published the mechanics or a firm date. As of mid-2026 the two-addendum choice described above remains the operative one
Regardless of which addendum you choose, the in-app external link path has three build requirements beyond the entitlement itself:
Show the disclosure sheet. Before the user leaves the app for the web checkout, the app must call the Apple ExternalPurchaseCustomLink API to display a system-level sheet telling the user they are paying the developer and not Apple. This is built once and runs automatically on every checkout.
Generate Apple tokens. Your app generates ACQUISITION and SERVICES tokens through StoreKit and passes them to your payment processor at checkout. These tokens are what Apple uses to track which purchases originated from in-app links.
Report transactions monthly. You file a report with Apple within 15 days of the end of each Apple fiscal month. The report must include all transactions, refunds, renewals, and tokens that did not result in a purchase. Tiun pre-formats this report for you in Apple External Purchase Server API format. You sign it with your App Store Connect API key and submit.
Open checkout in your default browser, not a WebView. This is a hard compliance requirement. Apps that open web payments in an in-app browser risk rejection.
Prepare your compliance documentation before submission. App Review requires a demonstration of the full external checkout flow. Vague or incomplete submissions delay the process. Build and test the round-trip on a real device before filing.
Path 4: Choosing a payment processor or Merchant of Record
When you take payments outside Apple's system, you own the full stack of operational responsibilities that Apple previously handled: tax calculation, fraud screening, chargeback processing, and customer payment support.
A Merchant of Record (MoR) is the legal entity that handles payments, taxes, compliance, chargebacks, and customer support. You receive the revenue net of their fee, without the overhead of building those systems yourself.
Comparison:
Model | Who handles tax | Who handles fraud | Who handles chargebacks |
|---|---|---|---|
Payment processor | You | You | You |
Merchant of Record | MoR | MoR | MoR |
The MoR model removes a significant compliance burden, particularly for apps serving multiple countries. VAT in the EU, GST in Australia, sales tax across US states: each jurisdiction has different rates, filing deadlines, and registration thresholds. Getting this wrong creates legal exposure that compounds quickly as you scale.
Tiun is built specifically for AI and SaaS companies operating in European markets. It combines identity, a payment vault, and AI-powered analytics in a single backend. As your Merchant of Record, Tiun handles disputes, refunds, chargebacks, and VAT registration, calculation, and remittance across all customer jurisdictions. When you use the in-app external purchase link path, Tiun also pre-formats your Apple transaction report in the required External Purchase Server API format each month, so you just sign it with your own App Store Connect key and file it. You keep control of your Apple credential. Tiun removes the compliance and reporting surface area. Find more detail in the Tiun help centre for businesses.
Building for regional differences
Regulatory requirements for in-app payments differ materially between the EU and the US, and they will continue to change. The right architecture treats jurisdiction as a variable, not a constant.
Practically, this means:
Build a feature flag or geo-detection layer that shows users the relevant payment path for their region
In EU markets, route to external checkout by default to capture the DMA benefit
In US markets, evaluate the Epic ruling fee structure against your volume before committing to external routing
Maintain a compliance change log and assign ownership for monitoring App Store policy updates
Apple's commission policies have shifted more in the last five years than in the previous decade. The developers who capture the most value from the current regulatory environment are the ones who build flexible systems rather than hardcoded payment paths.
Frequently asked questions
Can iOS apps use their own payment processor to avoid Apple fees?
Yes. In the EU under the DMA, and in some cases in the US following the Epic ruling, iOS apps can route users to external web checkout using their own payment processor. Eligibility depends on your app category and geography, and you need the appropriate entitlement from Apple.
How does the EU Digital Markets Act affect app payments?
The DMA classifies Apple as a gatekeeper and requires it to allow alternative payment paths for apps in EU markets. In practice, this means Web2App checkout and the Reader App entitlement carry no Apple commission, while in-app external purchase links attract a reduced fee of 10% to 20% depending on store services tier. The right path for your app depends on how your acquisition and checkout flows are structured.
What are the compliance requirements when bypassing Apple's IAP?
It depends on which path your app qualifies for. If your app is not a reader app, you need Apple's External Purchase Link Entitlement, and you are permitted to open checkout inside an in-app browser, though it must meet App Review standards. If your app is a reader app, the rules are stricter: in-app browser checkouts are not allowed at all, and the full transaction must happen on the external web, outside the app entirely. In both cases you take on responsibility for tax, fraud, and customer support – which is where a Merchant of Record handles the operational side for you
How do apps handle taxes on web-based subscriptions?
When processing payments outside Apple's system, developers must calculate and remit VAT or sales tax in each customer's jurisdiction. A Merchant of Record platform like Tiun automates this and assumes the compliance liability on your behalf.
When should developers continue using Apple's IAP?
Apple's IAP remains the right choice for teams selling digital goods to a global audience who want zero operational overhead on taxes, fraud, and customer support, and who are not yet generating enough volume to justify the engineering investment in external payment routing.