Read from Apple’s and Google’s own pages
Apple’s App Store Small Business Program: how to enrol for the 15% rate, and how long it takes
Apple’s App Store Small Business Program cuts Apple’s commission on paid apps and in-app purchases from 30% to 15%, for developers who made up to 1 million US dollars in proceeds in the previous calendar year. It doesn’t start by itself: your Account Holder has to enrol, and the lower rate begins 15 days after the end of the month in which Apple approves you. Google Play’s fees for UK users changed on 30 June 2026, and Google’s pages still link its lower rate to a sign-up of its own. Here’s who it’s for, the three steps, when it starts, and how to check whether you’re already in.
One thing first: if you came here for a discount on Macs or iPhones for your business, this isn’t that. This post is about the share Apple takes when your app sells something.
The short version
- It only matters if your app sells digital things. Apple’s commission is on “the sale of digital goods and services through the App Store”. Google says “the 3% of developers who charge for their apps or offer digital goods are subject to a service fee”. Bookings, takeaways and deliveries are paid for another way.
- Apple: 15% instead of 30%, once you enrol. Apple’s own wording is “15% if you’re enrolled in the App Store Small Business Program”.
- Only the Account Holder can enrol. The first step on Apple’s list is “Be an Account Holder in the Apple Developer Program”. If your developer holds your account, they’re the one who enrols.
- It isn’t instant. The lower rate starts 15 days after the end of Apple’s month in which your enrolment is approved. In Apple’s own example, that was 32 days.
- Google Play, for UK users since 30 June 2026: 10% on your first 1 million US dollars a year, plus a 5% billing fee when the payment goes through Google Play’s billing. Google doesn’t say plainly whether that needs a fresh sign-up, so check Play Console.
First: does your app pay either store anything?
Probably not, if it’s a typical small-business app. Apple’s membership page puts it this way: “The commission on the sale of digital goods and services through the App Store is 30% (15% if you’re enrolled in the App Store Small Business Program, Video Partner Program, Mini Apps Partner Program, or News Partner Program) and 15% for qualifying subscriptions.” Google’s service fee page says the same in its own words: “Developers are subject to a Google Play service fee based on a percentage of the purchase price of digital purchases in their app.”
Real-world things are different. Apple’s App Review Guidelines, section 3.1.3(e), say: “If your app enables people to purchase physical goods or services that will be consumed outside of the app, you must use purchase methods other than in-app purchase to collect those payments, such as Apple Pay or traditional credit card entry.” Google Play’s payments policy lists, among the purchases its billing doesn’t support, “Purchases or rentals of physical goods (such as groceries, clothing, houseware or electronics)” and “Purchases of physical services (such as transportation services, airfare, gym memberships or food delivery)”.
So a salon’s booking app, a café’s ordering app or a shop’s loyalty app takes its payments through the business’s own card payments, and the stores’ commission doesn’t come into it. That’s where most app money goes: in a study Apple paid for, about three-quarters of what was spent through iPhone and iPad apps in the UK in 2025 was on physical goods and services. We went through the figures in how free apps make money. The rest of this post is for apps that sell something digital: a paid app, in-app purchases or subscriptions.
What the App Store Small Business Program gives you
Apple’s Small Business Program page describes “a reduced commission rate of 15% on paid apps and Apple In-App Purchases”. The standard rate, from the membership page above, is 30%. Subscriptions are a separate line there: “15% for qualifying subscriptions”.
To put the gap in pounds: on £1,000 of in-app sales, 30% is £300 and 15% is £150. That’s simple arithmetic for illustration. Apple’s own payment reports, which also take off certain taxes, give the real figures.
Who qualifies
Apple’s rule: “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 for the program and the reduced commission.”
Two details matter. Proceeds means “sales net of Apple’s commission and certain taxes and adjustments”, so the 1 million is counted on what Apple pays you, not on what your customers paid. And there are two tests, not one: together with any associated accounts, you must have earned no more than 1 million US dollars in the previous calendar year “and have earned no more than 1 million USD during the current year”.
Apple sets the threshold in US dollars. If you’re paid in pounds, Apple says to convert each payment with “a publicly available exchange rate that corresponds with the end of each fiscal month in Apple’s fiscal calendar”.
How to enrol in the Apple Small Business Program
Apple says: “The vast majority of developers on the App Store who sell digital goods and services are eligible — simply complete a few steps to enroll.” There are three:
- “Be an Account Holder in the Apple Developer Program”
- “Review and accept the latest Paid Apps agreement (Schedule 2 to the Apple Developer Program License Agreement) in App Store Connect”
- “If applicable, list all of your Associated Developer Accounts”
Then use the Enroll now button on Apple’s Small Business Program page. The form itself sits behind Apple’s sign-in, so we haven’t seen it.
Who is your Account Holder?
Only the Account Holder can enrol. If a developer or an agency set up your Apple developer account, they may be its Account Holder. Then they’re the one who enrols, and the account is in their hands, not yours. That’s worth putting right whatever you decide about the 15%: it’s the first thing to agree when you hire an app developer. A company account needs a D-U-N-S number, and we’ve set out what an Apple developer account costs in the UK.
Associated Developer Accounts
If your business controls more than one Apple developer account, or another account controls yours, Apple adds their proceeds together. You have one if, for example, you have “majority (over 50%) corporate, individual, or partnership interest in the ownership or shares of another Apple Developer Program account”, or “ultimate decision-making authority” over one. For each, Apple asks for the name, the Team ID, the Account Holder’s email address and a description of the relationship. A business with one account, which nobody else controls, has none to list.
How long it takes: when the 15% starts
Apple’s answer: “Your proceeds will be adjusted fifteen (15) days after the end of the fiscal calendar month in which your enrollment is approved. For example, if your enrollment is approved on February 10, 2022, your proceeds are adjusted starting March 14, 2022.”
So the wait depends on when in the month you’re approved. Near the end of one of Apple’s months, it’s little more than 15 days. Near the start, it’s the rest of the month and then 15 days more. Apple’s own example comes to 32 days. Apple counts in its own fiscal months, and the fiscal calendar it links to sits inside App Store Connect, behind the sign-in.
Nothing on Apple’s page says the lower rate reaches back before that date. So if you qualify, every month you leave it is a month of sales at the standard rate.
Apple’s page doesn’t say how long approval itself takes, either. If yours seems stuck, the page points you to Apple Developer Support.
If you grow past 1 million US dollars
“If a participating developer surpasses the 1 million USD threshold in the current calendar year, the standard commission rate will apply to future sales.” Note the words: future sales. If your proceeds later drop back below the line, “they can re-qualify for the 15% commission the year after”.
If an app moves between accounts
Apple: “When an app is transferred, proceeds for the calendar year will be associated with all accounts that initiate or accept the transfer of that app.” So if an agency hands your app over to your own account, that app’s sales for the year count towards both.
Google Play: what changed for UK apps in 2026
Google changed its fees for UK users on 30 June 2026. Its announcement page, read in UK English, says: “As announced on 4 March 2026, these changes will be rolled out in a staggered schedule.” Its rollout table puts 30 June 2026 against “EEA, UK, US”. For transactions with UK users, Google’s service fees page now gives these rates:
| Subscriptions | Other sales, new installs | Other sales, existing installs | |
|---|---|---|---|
| First 1 million US dollars of annual earnings | 10% + 5% billing fee | ||
| Standard | 10% + 5% billing fee | 20% + 5% billing fee | 25% + 5% billing fee, or 20% for external web links |
| In Google’s Apps Experience or Play Games Level Up programmes | 10% + 5% billing fee | 15% + 5% billing fee | 20% + 5% billing fee, or 15% for external web links |
The billing fee, in Google’s words, “applies when a user completes a purchase of an in-app digital service or feature using Google Play Billing or for the initial purchase of a paid app or game”. And “new” and “existing” are about the customer, not the app. A new install is “A transaction from a user whose first-time install or first update of the app from Google Play occurred on or after the regional rollout date for the user's region.”
Does Google’s lower rate need signing up?
This is the question Google’s pages don’t answer in plain words. The service fees page links its “First $1M (USD) of annual earnings” row to Google’s 2021 page on the old 15% rate, which says: “To officially enrol for the 15% service fee tier, you must:” have a payments profile, create an account group, and accept that tier’s terms of service. Google’s account group page adds: “If you only own a single developer account, you will still need to create an account group for the single account that you own.” Both pages still talk about the 15% tier, not the new 10%.
So check rather than assume. In Play Console, go to Developer account, then Associated developer accounts. Google’s enrolment page says “you can see your enrolment status at any time at the bottom of the Associated developer accounts page.” If there’s no account group there, ask Google through the Help page in Play Console before you assume the 10% applies to you.
Under the 2021 rules, signing up late cost money: “If you enrolled after 1 July, the 15% service fee applied as of the date that you complete enrolment.” Google’s pages don’t say whether the new UK rate works the same way.
Above 1 million US dollars on Google Play
Google’s new Apps Experience programme lowers the standard rates: “By participating, developers are eligible for a 15% rate on new installs or a 20% rate on existing installs for non-recurring SKUs (excluding the billing fee).” The rollout table makes it available in the UK from 30 September 2026. Below 1 million US dollars it adds little, because the 10% rate is already lower.
What to do this week
- Check what your app sells. If it’s bookings, orders or anything physical, you can stop here.
- Find out who the Account Holder is on your Apple developer account, and whose name is on your Google Play developer account.
- Apple: the Account Holder accepts the latest Paid Apps agreement in App Store Connect, then enrols from Apple’s Small Business Program page, listing any associated accounts.
- Note the date Apple approves you, and check your next payment report after the adjustment date.
- Google: open Play Console, go to Associated developer accounts, and read the enrolment status at the bottom of the page.
What argues the other way
- For most small-business apps, none of this matters. If your customers pay for real things, the stores’ commission doesn’t apply to those payments, and you can skip the lot.
- Several accounts can take you over the line. A group of companies with an app each adds them together, on both stores.
- Google’s account group shares a little information. Its page says “Your Account Group name and the contact email address of the Primary Developer Account will be visible to any other Developer Accounts that you add”. That only matters if you have more than one account.
- Our interest. These are Apple’s and Google’s fees, not ours, and we gain nothing when you enrol. We do build apps for UK businesses, so read this as a guide from one of the firms you might hire. How we build apps.
Sources, and what we checked
- Apple: App Store Small Business Program, the Apple Developer Program membership page and the App Review Guidelines (“Last Updated: October 16, 2026”). Apple’s enrolment form and its fiscal calendar are behind its sign-in, so we haven’t read them.
- Google, Play Console Help, read in UK English: Understanding Google Play’s lower service fees, Service fees, Changes to Google Play’s service fee in 2021, Create and manage your Account Group, Understanding Google Play’s service fee and the Payments policy. The wording changes with the language: in US English, the first page reads “As announced on March 4, 2026”.
- All of the pages above were read in full on 2 November 2026, and again on 4 November 2026, the morning we published. Every quotation was checked word for word against the page it comes from, keeping Apple’s US spellings (“program”, “enroll”) and Google’s straight apostrophes.