Money

How much do Apple and Google actually take in 2026? Small Business Program, EU changes, and what you really keep

Reevee TeamJuly 15, 2026

5 min read

"Apple and Google take 30%" hasn't been the whole story for years, and in 2026 it's barely even the headline. Between Apple's Small Business Program, Google's brand-new fee structure that went live in the US, UK, and EEA on June 30, 2026, and the EU's DMA-driven fee stack, your effective rate depends on your revenue, your product type, your region, and — now on Google — whether an install is new or old.

Here's the state of play as of July 2026, with every number sourced. Fee structures are moving fast right now; treat the linked official pages as the source of truth.

Apple: the baseline

Apple's standard commission on paid apps and in-app purchases is 30%. Two long-standing reductions apply globally:

Small Business Program (15%). Per Apple: "Existing developers who made up to 1 million USD in proceeds in the prior calendar year for all their apps, as well as developers new to the App Store, can qualify." Note the word proceeds — "sales net of Apple's commission and certain taxes and adjustments" — so the threshold is measured post-commission, meaning roughly $1.17M gross gets you there. If you cross $1M in the current year, "the standard commission rate will apply to future sales" (you don't lose the discount retroactively); drop back under, and you can re-qualify the following year. You must enroll — it's not automatic — and any Associated Developer Accounts count toward the collective threshold.

Subscriptions after year one (15%). From Apple's subscription docs: "After a subscriber accumulates one year of paid service, your net revenue increases to 85% of the subscription price, minus applicable taxes." This applies regardless of program enrollment.

Google: a new fee structure just went live

The structure most developers memorized — 15% on your first $1M each calendar year (since July 1, 2021, requires enrolling and creating an Account Group), 30% above that, and 15% flat on auto-renewing subscriptions — still applies in most of the world. Media apps in the Play Media Experience Program can go as low as 10%.

But on June 30, 2026, Google rolled out a fundamentally different structure in the EEA, UK, and US (per Google's "Understanding Google Play's lower service fees" page), splitting the fee into a service fee plus a billing fee — 5% in these regions — that you pay only when using Google Play's billing. The service fee now depends on whether the purchase comes from a new install or an existing install:

New installs: 20% + billing fee for one-time purchases (15% + billing fee for participants in Google's Apps & Games programs, such as the revamped Games Level Up Program and new Apps Experience Program); 10% + billing fee for auto-renewing subscriptions.
Existing installs: 25% + billing fee for one-time purchases through Play billing (20% for program participants); externally-billed one-time purchases at 20% (15% for participants); subscriptions stay at 10% + billing fee.
First $1M per year: 10% + billing fee across the board.

Rollout continues: Australia and Japan on September 30, 2026; South Korea on December 31, 2026; rest of world September 30, 2027. If you sell in the US/UK/EEA, your Play fee changed this month — re-check your assumptions.

The EU: Apple's DMA fee stack

Apple's EU terms are the most complex, and its official "Update on apps distributed in the European Union" page is the authority. What it currently documents:

Under the alternative business terms, App Store apps pay "a reduced commission of either 10% (for the vast majority of developers, and for subscriptions after their first year) or 17% on transactions for digital goods and services," plus "an additional 3% fee" for using Apple's payment processing. The Core Technology Fee is "€0.50 for each first annual install per year over a one million threshold," with a 3-year on-ramp for developers under €10M global revenue.

In June 2025, Apple restructured further: "Starting June 26, 2025, the CTC [Core Technology Commission] of 5% applies on sales of digital goods or services that the developer communicates and promotes in their app." For external purchases, Apple introduced a fee stack — a 2% initial acquisition fee (waived for Small Business Program members) plus a Store Services fee at two tiers (Tier 2 with full App Store services at 13%, or 10% for Small Business Program members; the reduced Tier 1 at 5%, dropping auto-updates and discovery features), plus the 5% CTC — as broken down by RevenueCat's analysis of the announcement.

On timing, Apple's page states: "By January 1, 2026, Apple plans to move to a single business model in the EU for all developers," transitioning from the CTF to the CTC across App Store, Web Distribution, and alternative marketplaces. As of this writing, Apple's page still describes both the CTF and CTC — if you distribute in the EU, read that page directly before modeling your rates.

The US: external links, commission TBD

Following the April 2025 contempt ruling in Epic v. Apple, US storefront apps can link out to external purchases. On December 11, 2025, the Ninth Circuit partially reversed, holding Apple may collect a "reasonable" commission on link-outs and remanding to the district court to determine it; in May 2026, the Supreme Court declined Apple's request for a stay. Practical upshot: external purchase links remain available in the US, and what Apple may eventually charge on them is still being litigated.

What you really keep

A rough sketch for a small subscription app (under $1M/year, outside the EU): Apple takes 15% via the Small Business Program; on Google post-June-30 in the US/UK/EEA, subscriptions run 10% + 5% billing fee — effectively 15% through Play billing. Larger apps face 30% at Apple past the threshold, and on Google a rate that now varies by install age and program participation. And none of these percentages include the FX conversion and payout timing covered in our other two posts — the sticker rate is the start of the math, not the end.

Reevee computes your actual effective take rate from your real payout data — across programs, tiers, and regions — instead of the sticker rate, so you always know what a subscriber is actually worth to you.

Sources

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