Google Play Service Fees in 2026: The 15%, 30%, and New 20%/10% Rules

Google Play's service fees are about to change in the biggest restructure since 2022. Starting June 2026, the standard 30% rate gets a new 20%/10% split structure for many developers. Here's what fees you pay today, what changes in June, and how the new rules affect your take-home revenue.

The current fee structure

Standard rate: 30%. Google charges 30% of revenue on most in-app purchases and one-time app purchases. This has been the historical default since the Play Store launched.

Small business reduced rate: 15%. The first $1 million in annual revenue per developer account is charged at 15%, dropping back to 30% on revenue above the threshold. The threshold resets each calendar year. To qualify, you enroll once in the Play Console; eligibility is essentially automatic for developers under the threshold.

Subscription rate: 15%. All subscription revenue is charged at 15% from day one. Previously this was 30% for the first year and 15% afterward — Google moved everything to a flat 15% in 2022.

Media app rate: 10%. A small set of media apps (ebooks, audiobooks, on-demand music) qualify for a 10% rate under the Play Media Experience Program. The bar is high and acceptance is by invitation.

What changes in June 2026

Google announced a new fee structure in early 2026, with a phased rollout starting June 1. The headline change: a 20%/10% split that applies to most developers, replacing the legacy 30%/15% defaults for many transaction types.

Under the new structure:

• 20% on the first year of any user's purchases. When a user first makes a purchase in your app, that user's purchases for the next 12 months are charged at 20%.
• 10% on subsequent years. After 12 months from a user's first purchase, their ongoing purchases (renewing subscriptions, repeat in-app purchases) drop to 10%.
• Small business program continues at 15%. Developers under $1M annual revenue still qualify for the alternative 15% flat rate; you choose between the new tiered structure and the small-business flat rate based on what's cheaper for you.

Who benefits, who pays more

The new structure favors developers with high subscription retention. If your average subscriber stays past 12 months, you go from paying 15% indefinitely under the old structure to paying 10% on year-2+ revenue under the new — a 5 percentage-point improvement. For a subscription business at $500k annual revenue with 60% retention past year one, that's roughly $15k/year more in your pocket.

Pure paid-up-front apps lose under the new structure. Their fee goes from 15% (small business) or 30% (standard) to 20% on the first sale and no second-year benefit (no recurring transactions). Many paid app developers will stay on the small-business flat rate as long as they qualify.

High-volume IAP developers (consumable purchases like in-game currency) are mixed. New users pay 20%, returning users with old purchase history drop to 10%. Whether the change helps depends on what fraction of revenue comes from repeat purchasers.

Regional variations

The fee rate also varies by region. In South Korea, the 15% Korea rate was introduced after the 2021 law requiring alternative billing options. In India, regulatory pressure has produced reduced rates for specific app categories. The European Union's Digital Markets Act has produced its own special rules around alternative billing systems and external payment links — those are covered in our alternative billing guide.

What you pay in practice

When a user makes a purchase, Google calculates the fee based on the user's region, your enrolled programs, the purchase type, and the timing relative to the user's first purchase. The remainder goes to your developer payout, after tax withholding for applicable jurisdictions.

Payouts happen monthly, on the 15th, for revenue earned 30+ days prior. So revenue from January gets paid out around March 15.

Taxes on top of fees

Google handles indirect tax (VAT, GST, sales tax) collection and remittance in many jurisdictions. In others, you remit the tax yourself. The Play Console's tax settings page shows which is which based on your business location and your buyers' locations.

The fee is calculated on the post-tax revenue Google forwards to you, not on the gross transaction value. Your effective take-home is therefore: gross price minus tax minus service fee.

How the wizard handles this

The pricing calculator in Step 10 of the wizard uses your monetization model, region, and enrolled programs to compute your projected fees under both the current and June-2026 structures. You see the projected year-1 revenue, Google's cut, and your take-home, with a toggle to compare regimes. The numbers are illustrative — actual revenue depends on user behavior we cannot predict — but the fee math is exact.