If you sell through the app stores and earn under about a million dollars a year, both Apple and Google will take 15% instead of 30%, but only if you enroll; the default for both is the full rate. Indie forums are full of anger at "the 30% cut," and a striking amount of it comes from developers who qualify for the half-price tier and have never filed the paperwork. Here is exactly what the two programs say, how they differ in a way that matters at the margin, and the checklists.
Apple: the Small Business Program
Per Apple's program page (checked July 23, 2026): a 15% commission on paid apps and in-app purchases for developers whose proceeds, sales net of Apple's commission and certain taxes, summed across all Associated Developer Accounts, were at most $1M USD in the prior calendar year and stay under $1M in the current one. Enrollment requires being the Account Holder, accepting the latest Paid Apps agreement, and declaring associated accounts; the reduced rate takes effect roughly 15 days after the end of the fiscal month your enrollment is approved. (Developers on the EU's alternative terms have a separate structure with a 10% small-business tier.)
The structural detail to respect: Apple's threshold is a cliff. Cross $1M in proceeds mid-year and future sales that year revert to the standard rate; drop back under $1M and you can re-qualify the following year.
Google: the 15% first-million tier
Per Google Play's documentation: a 15% service fee on the first $1M USD of digital-goods earnings each calendar year, 30% above that for the remainder of the year. It is not automatic either: you must create an Account Group in Play Console covering all your developer accounts, accept the terms, and enroll.
Note the difference: Google's structure is marginal, the first million is at 15% every year regardless of what you earn beyond it, while Apple's is all-or-nothing by year. For a developer hovering near the threshold, the same revenue produces different effective rates on the two stores, and on Apple, the timing of a spike matters.
The money, concretely
Our arithmetic at indie scale: on $5,000/month of store revenue, the difference between 30% and 15% is $750 a month, $9,000 a year, recovered by filling in forms once. At $20,000/month it is $36,000 a year. There is no other action in an indie developer's business with this ratio of payoff to effort, and it is the first thing to check before any pricing or growth work: you may be donating 15 points of revenue by default.
Enrollment checklists
- Apple: confirm last year's proceeds (App Store Connect payments reports, net figure) are ≤ $1M including associated accounts → Account Holder accepts the current Paid Apps agreement → apply to the Small Business Program, declaring associated accounts → verify the rate change in your next fiscal-month reports.
- Google: confirm a payments profile exists → create the Account Group listing every associated developer account → accept the program terms and enroll in Play Console → confirm the 15% line appears in earnings reports.
- Both: recheck standing annually, thresholds are evaluated per calendar year, and an acquisition, a spike, or a new associated account changes the math.
The strategic footnote
Even at 15%, a store is a chokepoint that reviews your app, holds your payouts, and sets terms unilaterally, the structure we mapped in the platform dependency audit. The fee programs change your margin, not your exposure; developers with web-sellable products increasingly run both rails. And whichever rate you pay, it compounds with your own pricing decisions, a 15% fee on an underpriced product is still the smaller of the two problems.
Limitations
Both program pages were checked July 23, 2026; terms, thresholds and the EU regulatory landscape are actively moving, and the proceeds calculations interact with taxes and adjustments individually, verify your own numbers in your own reports before relying on the math here. Forum reports exist of enrollment and rate-application hiccups, which we could not verify to our sourcing standard; the practical guidance stands regardless: enroll, then audit your statements to confirm the rate actually applied.
The bottom line
The stores halved their cut for small developers years ago and left the default at full price. If your proceeds are under a million dollars, enrollment in both programs is worth 15 points of revenue for an afternoon of paperwork, check your statements, file, and verify.
Discussion
Sign in with Google or just a name. No email link, no password to remember.