TL;DR
Google’s new Android fee structure cuts costs for developers, with subscriptions dropping to 10%, IAP fees falling to 20%, and alternative billing now available. The changes create new opportunities to improve margins, strengthen hybrid monetization, own customer relationships, and explore alternative distribution channels. Publishers should revisit their monetization strategy and pricing now to take advantage of the new economics.
This post was written by Omri Barnes, CMO at Start.io.
For as long as most of us have been shipping Android apps, one number defined the business model: Google’s 30% cut. That era officially ended on June 30, when Google’s post-Epic-settlement fee structure went live in the US, UK, and EEA — and it expands to Australia this month, with Japan and South Korea following by year-end.
This isn’t just legal news. For developers and publishers, it’s found money and new strategic options. Here’s what changed, and what to do about it.
The new numbers, in plain terms
Standard in-app purchases: 20% service fee on new installs (~25% on existing), down from 30%.
Subscriptions: just 10% — the biggest single win in the new structure.
Small and mid-size developers (US): your first $1M in annual earnings is charged at a flat 10%.
Program participants: Apps Experience and Games Level Up members pay 15% on new installs.
Billing is now unbundled: Google Play Billing costs a separate 5% — and it’s optional. You can run your own billing or link users out to your website to pay (link-out transactions completed within 24 hours carry a 20% fee).
Where the added value is for you
1. Your subscription margin just jumped — reinvest it.
A subscription app that paid 30% now pays 10–15%. On every $9.99/month subscriber, that’s roughly $1.50–$2.00 back in your pocket. That reclaimed margin can fund higher UA bids, more aggressive intro offers, or paywall experiments you couldn’t previously afford. Model it before your competitors do.
2. Hybrid monetization just got stronger.
Lower IAP and subscription fees don’t diminish ad revenue — they complement it. The best-performing apps in 2026 stack revenue streams: ads for the broad free base, subscriptions and IAP for engaged users. With platform fees shrinking on the purchase side, a well-tuned hybrid setup — rewarded video, interstitials, and native placements alongside a sharper paywall — is now the highest-leverage configuration for most publishers.
3. Own the customer relationship through web checkout.
Link-outs and alternative billing mean you can finally build a direct payment relationship: your own customer data, your own offers, your own refund flow. For high-LTV segments, test a web store against the in-app default — even after the 20% link-out fee, the data ownership alone often justifies it.
4. Watch the distribution shift.
Google’s Registered App Stores program and the new Play Catalog access (live since July) make third-party Android stores a sanctioned channel rather than a workaround. For publishers, that means new shelf space — and new supply paths worth monitoring.
One caveat
The court process behind the settlement isn’t fully closed, so terms may still shift at the edges. Verify current fees in your Play Console before locking in pricing decisions.
Bottom line: billing and distribution are now levers, not defaults. The publishers who re-run their monetization math this quarter — and pair the new fee structure with a smart ad strategy — will compound the advantage all through 2027.
