Do Apple and Google Take a Cut of App Payments? A 2026 Guide
Apple and Google only take commission on digital goods sold inside your app. Here is where the line sits, what each store charges in 2026, and how the rules differ by country.
Apple and Google only take a cut of app payments when you sell digital goods or services that are used inside the app, such as subscriptions, premium features or in-app content. If your app sells physical products or real-world services (food orders, appointments, deliveries, repairs, tickets to a venue), you take payment through your own card processor and the app stores take nothing. On digital sales the cut is typically between 10% and 30%, depending on the platform, your revenue and where your customers live.
That one distinction decides more about your app's economics than almost any design choice, so it is worth settling before a line of code is written. The rest of this guide explains where the line sits, what each store charges in late 2026, and how the rules differ between the UK, US, EU, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
Do Apple and Google take a cut of app payments on every sale?
No. Both stores separate purchases into two groups.
- Physical goods and real-world services. Anything delivered or performed outside the phone. You must use an ordinary payment method here: your own card processor, Apple Pay or Google Pay through that processor, or a local gateway. The stores take no commission. Wix's help centre, for example, tells merchants plainly that they do not need Apple In-App Purchase for physical goods sold through their store apps.
- Digital goods and services consumed in the app. Premium features, subscriptions to content, extra credits, e-books, courses, ad-free upgrades. By default these must go through Apple's In-App Purchase or Google Play Billing, and the store takes its fee.
If your business sells things people collect, receive or attend in person, the commission question largely disappears. If your app is the product, it becomes central to your pricing.
What counts as physical and what counts as digital?
The test is where the value is delivered. These are typical examples for small and mid-size businesses.
| What the app sells | Category | How you take payment |
|---|---|---|
| Restaurant or grocery order | Physical | Your own processor |
| Salon, clinic or tradesperson booking | Real-world service | Your own processor |
| Retail products shipped to the customer | Physical | Your own processor |
| Ticket for a match, show or class at a venue | Real-world service | Your own processor |
| Gym membership for access to the building | Real-world service | Your own processor |
| On-demand workout videos inside the app | Digital | Store billing by default |
| Online course or premium articles | Digital | Store billing by default |
| Unlocking a "pro" feature or removing ads | Digital | Store billing by default |
Where it gets grey
Hybrid products cause much of the confusion. A fitness business that sells gym access (physical) and a library of streamed classes (digital) in a single subscription is the classic case. So is a training company selling a live, in-person workshop bundled with recorded lessons.
The practical approach is to separate the two in the product itself: charge for the real-world service with your own processor, and either sell the digital element through store billing or make it a free extra. App reviewers judge what the user actually receives inside the app, not what you call it, so labelling a digital product as a "service" will not get it through.
How much do Apple and Google charge on digital sales?
Rates have changed more in the past two years than in the previous decade, so treat any figure older than a few months with caution.
Apple. Commission on In-App Purchase sits between 15% and 30% depending on the developer and product. The lower rate applies to smaller developers and some subscriptions; the higher rate is the standard one. Apple's eligibility criteria for the reduced rate are worth checking each year, because they depend on your previous year's earnings.
Google. From 30 June 2026, Google introduced a new fee structure starting with the United States, the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom. In those regions the service fee starts at 10% on your first US$1 million in annual earnings, whether you use Google Play's billing, an alternative billing system or a link to your website. Google says the programme will extend to more regions over time. Until it reaches your customers' country, the older 15% to 30% structure applies.
For comparison, a card processor. Stripe's standard US pricing is 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction, according to the same Adapty comparison of Stripe and app store fees. Processor rates differ by country, card type and volume, so get a quote for your market. Even so, the gap between a few per cent and 10% to 30% is why so many businesses ask whether they can avoid store billing.
What the fee pays for
It is not all cost with no return. Store billing handles payment, tax collection in many countries, refunds, family sharing and subscription management, and customers already trust it. A one-tap store purchase can convert better than sending people to a web checkout. For a low-priced subscription, paying the store fee can still earn you more than a cheaper checkout fewer people complete.
Can I send customers to my website to pay instead?
This is where the answer depends on the country of the customer's app store account, not where your business is registered.
United States
US rules changed after the Epic Games litigation. Apple had allowed external purchase links, but it cut its commission by only three percentage points on those sales and added warning screens; a federal judge ruled that this did not comply with the court's earlier injunction, as TechCrunch reported in May 2025. On the US storefront, apps can now include buttons and links to an external checkout without needing special permission from Apple.
United Kingdom
On Android, the UK was one of the first regions in Google's billing choice programme, so UK users can be offered alternative billing or web links under the fee structure above. On iOS, the US freedom does not carry over. Outside the US, Apple's guideline still prohibits links to external checkouts unless you hold a specific entitlement. UK regulators continue to scrutinise both app stores, so this may change; check the current position before you commit to a pricing model.
European Union
The EU has its own set of alternative payment terms on both platforms, and Apple has revised its EU terms several times. If EU customers matter to you, model the fees using the terms in force at launch rather than a summary from last year.
Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and other markets
For customers in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and most other countries, the default rules still apply to digital goods on both platforms: store billing for digital purchases, no in-app links to an external checkout unless you qualify for a specific programme. The physical goods rule is the same worldwide, so a Riyadh restaurant or a Lahore retailer taking card payments for orders pays no app store commission.
Can I use Stripe or my own gateway inside the app for everything?
For physical goods and real-world services, yes. That is the expected approach. You can use Stripe, a local gateway, or Apple Pay and Google Pay routed through your processor, and the app works much like an online shop on the web does.
For digital goods, only where the rules for that storefront allow it. Building a card form for a digital subscription and hoping review misses it is the quickest route to a rejected release, or to an app being pulled after launch when you can least afford it.
A common, compliant pattern for digital products is to sell mainly through your website and let the app act as the place customers use what they bought. Customers sign in with the same account on both. Done properly, this needs a solid web platform with shared accounts and billing behind it, and you still need to follow each store's rules on what the app may say about pricing elsewhere.
How to plan app payments before you build
Work through these questions with your developer before design starts.
- List everything you will charge for, including add-ons and future plans, and classify each as physical or digital.
- Identify where your customers are. US, UK, EU and other customers can fall under different rules on the same day.
- Model the fees at realistic volume. Compare store billing, alternative billing where available, and web checkout, including the drop-off you expect from sending people out of the app.
- Keep subscription state on your own server. Whether a purchase came from Apple, Google or your website, your back end should be the single record of what a customer is entitled to.
- Build for change. These rules have moved several times since 2024. With one codebase for iPhone and Android, payment logic can be switched by platform and region without rebuilding the app.
Frequently asked questions
01.Does Apple take a commission if my app sells physical products?
No. Physical products and real-world services are paid for through your own processor, and Apple takes no commission. You pay only your normal card processing fees.
02.Will I pay commission on a gym or club membership sold in my app?
Not if the membership is for access to a physical venue or in-person sessions. If the same subscription also unlocks streamed or on-demand content inside the app, that digital part may need store billing, so it is safer to price the two separately.
03.Do the same rules apply in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia?
The physical versus digital rule applies everywhere. The newer options for linking to your own checkout or using alternative billing started in the US, the EU and the UK, so for digital goods sold to customers in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia, plan on store billing unless a programme has since reached those countries.
If you are planning an app that takes payments and want the commercial model worked out before you spend money on the build, our app development team can map what you sell against the rules in each of your markets and design the payment flow to suit. Book a free consultation and we will go through it with you.
