App Revenue Calculator

Why your revenue is not what you keep

An app doing $500 a month in subscriptions looks like $500 in your pocket. It is not. The store takes its cut first - 30 percent standard, or 15 percent if you qualify for the Small Business program - and any running costs come out after that. At 15 percent, that $500 becomes $425 before costs; at 30 percent, it becomes $350. The mistake first-time builders make is pricing and planning around gross revenue, then being surprised at what actually lands. This calculator does the store-fee and cost math for you, so the number you plan around is the number you keep.

The store cut is the single biggest line item, and which rate you pay changes the math on your whole app. The same $500 in revenue keeps very different amounts at 30 percent versus the 15 percent Small Business rate. Qualifying for 15 percent - available to developers earning under $1M a year - is one of the highest-leverage moves a new app can make, because it keeps 85 percent of every dollar instead of 70 percent. The comparison rows above show you that gap at a glance.

The store fees you actually pay

• Standard rate - Apple and Google both take 30 percent of your subscription and in-app purchase revenue by default.
• Small Business program - 15 percent for developers earning under $1M a year, which most new apps qualify for.
• Second-year subscriptions - Apple drops to 15 percent on a subscriber's revenue after their first year, even outside the program.
• Free apps - no store cut on revenue you do not run through in-app purchases.
• Running costs - your backend, tools, and services come out of what is left after the store's cut.

What a healthy app economy looks like

There is no single magic number, but two simple checks keep your app sustainable. First, your take-home after the store cut and running costs should comfortably exceed those costs - an app that keeps $30 a month against $25 of costs is not really earning yet. Second, watch your kept margin: on the 15 percent program with modest running costs, most of your revenue should reach you. As subscribers grow, fixed running costs shrink as a share of revenue, so scale is where the economics get good.

Use it to price your subscription

The real power of this calculator is running it while you decide on a price. You know your running costs and which store rate applies. Try different revenue figures - subscribers times price - until your take-home hits a number worth building around. That tells you how many subscribers at what price you need to make the app worth it. The App Store Fee Calculator on this site breaks the 15 percent versus 30 percent question down further if you want the store cut isolated.

A note on real numbers

Every figure this calculator gives you is only as good as the revenue you enter. Do not plan around a hopeful subscriber count - use a realistic one based on your actual conversions, or run several scenarios from conservative to optimistic. Include the store cut that truly applies to you, and enter your real running costs, not a guess. Honest inputs are the difference between a plan you can build on and a fantasy that falls apart at your first payout.