Apple’s EU App Store Fees Change October 1: 26%, 20%, 15%, or 5%—Which Route Applies?

Apple’s EU App Store economics are changing again on October 1, 2026, and the headline percentages only make sense once you separate payment method from distribution method.

For an app distributed through the App Store, Apple’s updated agreement sets a standard 26% commission for Apple In-App Purchase, 20% for alternative payment processing inside the app, and 15% for qualifying purchases completed after an actionable link out of the app. Apps distributed through an alternative marketplace or directly from the web fall under a 5% Core Technology Commission (CTC) on covered digital sales.

The percentages are not interchangeable discounts. They describe different product, payment, distribution, reporting, tax, and user-experience choices.

And one detail is easy to miss: under Apple’s new EU terms, an App Store app’s election to use Apple IAP, alternative payment processing, and/or actionable out-of-app offers generally remains in effect for 12 months. That makes this less like toggling a checkout setting and more like choosing a commercial architecture.

Terms check: August 20, 2026. Apple’s current Developer Program License Agreement says the new EU Attachment 14 is effective October 1, 2026, or the date a developer signs the agreement including the attachment, whichever is later. It supersedes the previous Alternative Terms Addendum for Apps in the EU and StoreKit External Purchase Link Addendum for Apps in the EU.

The short answer

For a normal digital purchase in an App Store app, the new standard Apple commission path is:

The reduced App Store rates can apply to qualifying developers or transactions, including participants in the App Store Small Business Program, eligible Video Partner or Mini Apps Partner arrangements, and qualifying auto-renewing subscription renewals after the first year, depending on the route.

The important comparison is therefore not simply 26 vs 20 vs 15 vs 5. It is:

Apple fee + payment-processing cost + tax/compliance work + support burden + conversion impact + distribution cost

That is the number a product team actually needs.

What changes on October 1

Apple updated its Developer Program License Agreement on August 18. The new Attachment 14 — Additional Terms for Apps in the European Union says it becomes effective October 1, 2026, or when signed if that is later.

It also says Attachment 14 replaces and supersedes the earlier EU alternative-terms and external-purchase-link addenda.

That is important because the EU model has gone through several versions involving reduced App Store commissions, a per-install Core Technology Fee, acquisition fees, store-services tiers, and external-purchase commissions. Reading an older explainer can therefore produce the wrong answer even when the numbers in that explainer were correct at the time.

Reuters reported on August 18 that Apple said the October changes are intended to resolve its disagreements with the European Commission over alternative distribution. The Commission’s public DMA guidance continues to say Apple must allow alternative app distribution and let developers steer users toward other purchase channels, while the Commission monitors compliance.

For a developer making a decision now, the August 18 agreement text is the useful source of truth for the October fee structure.

The four routes are different businesses, not just different fees

1. Apple In-App Purchase: 26%

Under the new EU attachment, Apple’s standard commission for sales using its In-App Purchase system is 26%.

Eligible reduced-rate transactions are 15%.

This is the highest headline percentage of the four routes, but it also leaves more of the transaction machinery with Apple. The developer is not building its own card flow, managing a separate PSP relationship for that purchase, or creating the same external billing experience required by the other paths.

For teams optimising for simplicity, conversion, and lower operational overhead, comparing only commission percentage can understate what IAP is buying.

2. Alternative payment inside the app: 20%

If an App Store app uses an alternative payment system, Apple’s standard commission is 20%. The eligible reduced rate is 10%.

The payment flow must complete inside the same application. Apple’s agreement also requires the app to use relevant StoreKit APIs to confirm eligibility and, where applicable, display the system disclosure sheet before the alternative payment flow.

The lower Apple commission does not mean payment processing becomes free. A developer now needs to account for the PSP’s fee, fraud and chargeback handling, subscription management, customer support, and tax/compliance obligations that Apple would otherwise handle as part of its commerce stack.

Apple’s terms require an outside payment service provider handling cards to meet PCI Level 1 requirements, and the developer must provide a customer-service process for disputes, subscription management where applicable, and refunds.

3. Link out to a website: 15%

An App Store app can instead use an actionable link to send a user outside the app to complete a purchase.

Apple’s standard store-services commission is 15%, with an eligible reduced rate of 10%.

But the 15% is not simply “all website revenue forever.” Apple’s agreement ties it to promoted digital goods or services usable in the App Store app when the sale is initiated within seven calendar days after the user taps or scans the actionable link.

For subscriptions initiated through that route, subsequent auto-renewals can remain subject to commission under the agreement.

The link also has implementation rules. It must take the user to a destination outside the app, such as the default browser, rather than completing the transaction in an in-app web view.

That creates a genuine trade-off: the Apple percentage is lower, but every extra transition in checkout can affect conversion.

4. Alternative marketplace or web distribution: 5% CTC

For covered digital transactions in apps distributed through an alternative app marketplace or directly from a developer’s website in the EU, Apple’s new Core Technology Commission is 5%.

This is structurally different from the App Store payment choices above because the developer is changing the distribution channel, not just the checkout method.

Apple’s agreement says the CTC applies to covered sales of digital goods and services in alternatively distributed apps, including specified linked website transactions. It is calculated on amounts payable by the user, net of transaction taxes and subject to adjustments such as refunds or reversals.

The attractive 5% headline therefore comes with the largest operational change: discovery, installation, distribution eligibility, updates, payment processing, reporting, support, and user trust all need to be considered.

What a €100 digital sale looks like

A simple calculation makes the differences easier to see.

Assume €100 of commissionable transaction value after transaction taxes, before PSP costs and other operating expenses.

For eligible reduced App Store rates:

These are deliberately not net-profit calculations.

An alternative payment provider might charge a percentage plus a fixed amount. Fraud tooling may cost more. Tax handling may move to the developer. Refunds and subscription support need systems and staff. An external website flow may convert differently from native IAP. Alternative distribution may require acquisition spending that the App Store previously supplied organically.

The useful question is not “Which percentage is smallest?” It is “Does the percentage saved exceed everything that changes around it?”

The break-even test most teams should run

For a standard-rate App Store app, moving from Apple IAP to alternative in-app payment reduces Apple’s headline commission by 6 percentage points: 26% to 20%.

So a first-pass break-even test is:

PSP cost
+ extra fraud/chargeback cost
+ incremental tax/compliance cost
+ incremental support cost
+ conversion loss expressed as % of revenue
< 6%

If the combined incremental cost is comfortably below 6%, alternative in-app payment can have a stronger direct economic case.

For link-out checkout, the headline Apple-fee gap versus standard IAP is 11 percentage points: 26% to 15%.

But link-out adds another variable that an accounting spreadsheet can easily miss: checkout abandonment.

A hypothetical example:

• 10,000 users reach a €10 purchase screen;
• native IAP converts 10% of them → €10,000 gross transaction value;
• external checkout converts 8% → €8,000 gross transaction value.

Before fees, the lower-converting route has already lost €2,000 of revenue. A lower commission can still make it worthwhile, but the comparison must use real conversion, not just fee rates.

For reduced-rate developers, the gap is narrower: 15% for IAP versus 10% for alternative in-app payment or link-out. That is only 5 percentage points, so PSP and conversion economics matter even more.

The 12-month lock changes how to experiment

One of the most consequential clauses is easy to overlook.

Apple says the election an App Store app makes around Apple IAP, alternative payment processing, and actionable out-of-app offers generally remains in effect for 12 months. The election applies across EU storefronts.

That makes a casual “ship it and see” experiment risky.

A safer process is to model the decision before changing the production configuration:

1. measure current IAP conversion by product and country;
2. estimate realistic PSP fees using the actual payment mix, not an advertised starting rate;
3. estimate refunds, chargebacks, fraud losses, and support contacts;
4. determine who becomes responsible for VAT and transaction reporting;
5. prototype the alternative checkout flow and test usability before committing;
6. calculate downside scenarios if conversion falls 5%, 10%, or 20%;
7. document the 12-month commercial decision and owner.

A five-minute fee comparison can point in the right direction. A 12-month election deserves a proper model.

Can an app offer Apple IAP and an alternative method together?

Yes, under the new EU attachment Apple allows an App Store app to elect alternative payment processing and/or actionable out-of-app offers with or without Apple IAP, subject to the detailed presentation rules.

If the app shows Apple IAP alongside other payment choices for a digital purchase, Apple requires IAP to be offered on that interface and displayed at least as prominently as the other option.

If an app does not offer IAP but offers both an alternative in-app payment and a link-out option, Apple requires the in-app alternative payment to be viewable and selectable on the same screen as the link-out choice without discouraging its use.

So “support both” is possible, but it is not a free-form checkout design.

External payment shifts work back to the developer

The commission reduction is easiest to understand as an exchange.

With Apple IAP, Apple handles a large portion of the commerce system. With alternative payment or external distribution, more of that system becomes the developer’s responsibility.

The new agreement and Apple’s App Store Connect documentation point to several concrete obligations:

Payment compliance

An outside PSP handling credit/debit card data must meet PCI Level 1 requirements under Apple’s agreement, along with relevant payment-services rules.

Customer service

The developer needs processes for unauthorized-transaction disputes, subscriptions where applicable, and refunds.

Taxes

Apple’s documentation says developers using alternative payment processing or link-outs in EU storefronts are responsible for transaction-tax obligations and must provide an EU VAT ID for these flows.

Transaction reporting

Apple says apps using alternative payment options or selling digital goods/services through alternative distribution need to report relevant transaction tokens and transactions. Its current App Store Connect guidance says monthly reports are due within 15 days after the end of the calendar month for applicable flows.

That is why a 6- or 11-point commission saving should not be treated as pure margin.

A decision framework for October

The cleanest way to choose is to start with the problem being solved.

Choose Apple IAP first when:

• checkout conversion matters more than squeezing the last few percentage points from fees;
• the team is small and does not want to own payments/tax/support infrastructure;
• the app already qualifies for a reduced 15% rate;
• subscription recovery, refunds, and billing support would otherwise create meaningful operational work.

Model alternative in-app payment when:

• the product already has a mature web payments stack;
• the PSP cost is well below the Apple-fee savings;
• the team can own fraud, refunds, subscriptions, tax, and reporting;
• keeping checkout inside the app is important for conversion.

Model link-out when:

• an existing web checkout is strong and familiar to customers;
• the extra browser step is unlikely to destroy conversion;
• the 15%/10% Apple rate creates enough headroom to cover PSP and operations;
• attribution can reliably track the seven-day commission window and subscription lifecycle.

Consider alternative distribution when:

• the distribution strategy itself is valuable, not merely the 5% fee;
• the product already has direct demand or a strong owned audience;
• the team can operate updates, acquisition, payments, support, and reporting outside the App Store model;
• control over distribution is strategically worth the added complexity.

Choosing alternative distribution only because “5% is less than 26%” ignores the biggest cost: the App Store is also a distribution channel.

A practical pre-October checklist

Before changing anything, answer these nine questions for each EU app:

• What rate applies today? Standard, Small Business, subscription-after-year-one, or another program rate?
• Where is the app distributed? App Store only, alternative marketplace, web, or a mix?
• Where does checkout happen? Apple IAP, inside the app with a PSP, or outside the app?
• What is the real PSP cost? Include fixed fees, cross-border cards, refunds, disputes, and FX.
• Who handles VAT? Confirm tax registration and reporting responsibilities for alternative flows.
• What does checkout conversion look like? Measure native versus browser or PSP flows before committing.
• Can the backend report transactions to Apple correctly? Include renewals, refunds, corrections, and no-purchase tokens where required.
• Can support absorb billing ownership? Refunds and failed renewals become product operations, not just payment engineering.
• Is the team comfortable with the 12-month election? Treat the decision as annual commercial infrastructure, not a UI experiment.

If one of these questions has no owner, the migration is not ready even if the fee spreadsheet looks attractive.

What is confirmed, and what can still change

Confirmed in Apple’s current agreement

As checked August 20:

• Attachment 14 is effective October 1, 2026, or the signing date if later;
• alternative in-app payment carries a standard 20% Apple commission;
• Apple IAP carries a standard 26% commission;
• qualifying actionable link-out sales carry a standard 15% store-services commission;
• covered alternative-distribution digital sales carry a 5% Core Technology Commission;
• qualifying program/reduced rates are 15% for IAP and 10% for alternative in-app payment/link-out;
• payment-option elections for App Store apps generally remain in effect for 12 months;
• external payment and alternative distribution add reporting, payment, tax, and support responsibilities.

Still worth monitoring

The European Commission has said it will continue monitoring Apple’s compliance with the Digital Markets Act. Apple can also update developer materials, implementation APIs, App Store Connect workflows, and operational guidance before or after the October effective date.

That means developers should treat the signed agreement as the contractual baseline, but recheck Apple’s implementation documentation before shipping a payment migration.

What to watch next

Three things matter between now and October 1.

1. App Store Connect implementation details

The agreement defines the commercial structure. The day-to-day difficulty will depend on the final App Store Connect controls, StoreKit APIs, transaction reporting, and migration tooling.

2. European Commission monitoring

The new terms arrive after a long DMA dispute over steering and alternative distribution. The Commission’s developer portal says it is assessing compliance and possible circumvention. Further regulatory action could affect how durable the current structure proves to be.

3. Real conversion data

The most important evidence will not come from a fee table. It will come from developers measuring whether alternative payments and link-outs preserve enough checkout conversion to justify the lower Apple commission.

A 5- or 11-point fee advantage can disappear quickly if the payment flow creates significantly more abandonment, support cost, fraud, or failed renewals.

Conclusion

Apple’s October 1 EU terms make the fee structure easier to summarize, but not necessarily easier to choose.

For App Store distribution, the headline ladder is 26% for Apple IAP, 20% for alternative in-app payments, and 15% for qualifying actionable link-outs, with lower program rates for eligible developers and transactions. Alternative marketplace or web distribution moves to a 5% Core Technology Commission on covered digital sales.

The smart decision is not automatically the lowest percentage.

Start with the current effective rate, add the real cost of payment processing and operations, test conversion, account for tax and reporting, and remember that the App Store payment election is generally a 12-month commitment.

If the economics still work after those costs are included, the lower-fee route is meaningful. If they only work in a spreadsheet that assumes identical conversion and zero operating cost, they probably are not ready for production.

Sources

Checked August 20, 2026:

• Apple Developer — Apple Developer Program License Agreement, including Attachment 14 for EU apps
• Apple Developer — Reporting tokens and transactions to Apple
• Apple Developer — Tax information for external purchases and alternative distribution
• European Commission — App distribution under the Digital Markets Act
• Reuters — Apple changes fees for alternative app stores in EU, August 18, 2026