A paywall is the screen inside an app that asks you to pay, and on phones that payment usually runs through Apple's or Google's own billing, which takes a cut.
You build an app, you add a subscription or a one-time purchase, and you put a paywall in front of it. The moment you sell a digital good or a subscription on iOS or Android, Apple and Google generally require you to use their in-app purchase system, and they keep a commission on every sale. For years the headline number was 30 percent, dropping to roughly 15 percent if you were in a small-business program or once a subscriber passed their first year. So when a customer pays a few hundred rupees for premium, a real slice never reaches you.
You should know this only applies to digital stuff consumed inside the app. If you sell physical goods or real-world services, a ride, a meal, a haircut, a shipped product, you are exempt and you use normal card and wallet processors at normal rates. That distinction is why an ecommerce app pays ordinary processing fees while a meditation app hands over a platform commission.
You are also living through a genuine shift. In the US, after the Epic v. Apple ruling in 2025, Apple was forced to let developers place external payment links, and at the time of writing it charges no commission on those outside purchases, though the case is on appeal and a reasonable fee may eventually apply. In the EU under the Digital Markets Act, both platforms now allow alternative billing and external offers, but Apple and Google responded with their own stacked fees, so your take is better than before yet far from free.
Because this changed repeatedly across 2024 to 2026 and is region-dependent, do not trust an old blog. The exact commission, and whether you can even steer users to an outside checkout, depends on your market and the date, so verify what applies to your app today rather than assuming last year's rules still hold.
The platform cut is real, but your paywall design and pricing is where app revenue is actually won or lost.
Sources
- App-store IAP economics verified via RevenueCat on the Epic v. Apple external-link ruling and FunnelFox on Apple's EU DMA fee stack; the ~30%/15% commissions and physical-vs-digital split are long-standing, while external-payment rules are contested and region-dependent as of writing. revenuecat.com · funnelfox.com · verified 9th August 2026
Last checked 9th August 2026. Next check 15th August 2026.