App Store Small Business Program: The 15% Rate Explained

If your app earns less than a million dollars a year on the App Store, Apple will take a smaller cut of it, but you have to ask. The App Store Small Business Program lowers the commission on paid apps and in-app purchases to 15%. For an indie subscription app that can be the difference between 70 and 85 cents of every dollar in a subscriber's opening year. This guide explains who qualifies, how to enrol and what changes. Apple's details below come from its own pages as of 19 February 2026.

Shipping on Android too? The Google Play version of this guide is Google Play Service Fees in 2026: What Small Developers Pay.

The short version

• The program sets a 15% commission on paid apps and in-app purchases.
• You qualify if you, together with any associated developer accounts, earned up to 1 million USD in proceeds in the prior calendar year. Developers new to the App Store qualify too.
• You have to enrol. Your proceeds change fifteen days after the end of the fiscal month in which Apple approves you.
• For subscriptions, members receive 85% from a subscriber's opening month, instead of 70% for the opening year.

Who qualifies

As of 19 February 2026, Apple's App Store Small Business Program page sets these rules:

• Existing developers who made up to 1 million USD in proceeds in the prior calendar year, across all their apps, can qualify, as can developers new to the App Store.
• If you pass 1 million USD during the current calendar year, the standard commission applies to your future sales.
• If your proceeds fall back below the threshold in a later calendar year, you can qualify again the year after.

Proceeds, not sales

The limit is measured in proceeds, which Apple defines as sales net of Apple's commission and certain taxes and adjustments. The million is what reaches you, not what customers pay. Apple's page explains how to estimate it: add the App Store payments deposited into your bank account in the prior calendar year, adjust for the taxes and adjustments shown in App Store Connect's Payments and Financial Reports, and convert to USD if your bank account is in another currency.

Associated developer accounts

The program is for small businesses, so Apple adds up related accounts. You must list every associated developer account when you enrol. As of 19 February 2026, Apple's page says you have one if any of these apply:

• You own more than 50% of another Apple Developer Program account, or another member owns more than 50% of yours.
• You have ultimate decision-making authority over another account, or another member has it over yours.

For each one you give the name, Team ID, Account Holder email address and a description of the relationship. The combined proceeds of all of them must stay under the threshold. App transfers count too: when an app is transferred, its proceeds for the calendar year are associated with both the account that sends it and the account that accepts it.

How to enrol

Apple's page lists three steps:

1. Be the Account Holder in the Apple Developer Program.
2. Review and accept the latest Paid Apps agreement (Schedule 2 to the Apple Developer Program License Agreement) in App Store Connect.
3. List all your associated developer accounts, if you have any, and submit the enrolment form from the program page.

Timing matters. Apple says your proceeds are adjusted fifteen days after the end of the fiscal calendar month in which your enrolment is approved. Apple's own example: approved on 10 February 2022, adjusted from 14 March 2022. The rate applies from that point forward, so a new developer who means to charge for anything should enrol before launch, not after.

What it means for subscriptions

Subscriptions already have a lower rate built in. As of 19 February 2026, Apple's auto-renewable subscriptions page says that during a subscriber's opening year you receive 70% of the price at each billing cycle, minus applicable taxes, rising to 85% once that subscriber has a year of paid service. Members of the Small Business Program receive 85% at each billing cycle regardless of how long the subscription has run.

A worked example

Take a fictional hiking app, Trailmate, with 1,000 subscribers paying 4.99 USD a month, all in their opening year. Ignoring taxes:

For a small team that is a part-time contractor, a marketing budget, or simply a longer runway.

Things to watch

• Keep an eye on the threshold. If a launch goes well and you pass 1 million USD in the current year, the standard rate applies to sales after that point.
• Be honest about related accounts. A holding company that owns two studios is one small business for this purpose, not two.
• The EU alternative terms are different. Apple's page says developers on the alternative terms in the EU who are in the program pay a further reduced commission of 10%. If that applies to you, read Apple's terms for it in full.
• Check your agreements before you enrol. Without an accepted Paid Apps agreement there is nothing to discount.

How FeedbackKit fits in

The Small Business Program changes how much of each subscription reaches you. It is a good moment to think about which users that money comes from, and what they are asking for.

FeedbackKit lets your app pass each user's MRR through the SDK, on every plan. In Swift that is one call, for example SwiftlyFeedback.updateUser(payment: .yearly(49.99)), which FeedbackKit turns into a monthly figure. Requests can then be sorted by the total MRR of the users behind them, so you can tell a request with many free users behind it from one your paying subscribers want.

One tip: pick one definition of MRR and keep it. The price the customer pays is the simplest, and it does not change when your commission does. If you would rather rank by what reaches you, pass proceeds instead, but do it everywhere, or the ranking stops meaning anything. Setup is in the Swift docs. Here is how revenue-ranked triage looks in FeedbackKit, with sample data from a fictional hiking app:

Revenue is one input, not the whole answer. Our guides to RICE scoring and prioritisation frameworks show how to weigh it against reach and effort. To see which requests your paying users care about, start free.