Apple proposes a 15% commission on App Store link-out purchases — down from 27%, still not free
Apple filed a court proposal on 13 August 2026 to charge a 15% commission on US purchases made after a user follows a link out of an iOS app to pay on the web, with 10% for video, news and subscription-renewal apps and 5% for Small Business Program participants — a big cut from the 27% rate a court already ruled unlawful, but still a real cost every app owner needs to model before relying on external payment links.
18 August 2026
Apple filed a new commission proposal with the US District Court for the Northern District of California on 13 August 2026, in the long-running Epic v. Apple case over how much it can charge developers who send customers outside the App Store to pay. The tiered structure asks for 15% on standard apps, 10% for apps in the Video Partner, News Partner and Mini Apps Partner programmes plus subscription renewals, and 5% for Small Business Program participants. That’s a sharp drop from the 27% rate Apple tried to charge after the original injunction forced it to allow external payment links at all — a rate a federal judge found Apple had “willfully” used to keep those links commercially pointless while technically complying with the ruling.
Epic’s response makes the more interesting point: under the Ninth Circuit’s own definition of the “necessary costs” Apple is allowed to recover, Apple has effectively admitted it could charge 0% and still be made whole. Apple’s counter is that its proposed rates reflect independent expert analysis of what it actually costs to provide the tools, discovery and services that make an app’s existence on iOS possible in the first place — payment processing not included.
So what
If you’re building or maintaining an iOS app with in-app purchases or subscriptions, this changes the payment-strategy maths, not the App Store rules themselves. A 15% external commission versus Apple’s standard 30% in-app cut is now a genuinely material saving worth routing through, once you also account for building your own checkout, handling your own refunds and chargebacks, and the UX cost of sending a user out of your app to pay. None of this is settled — the rate still needs court approval and Apple has a long history of appealing unfavourable outcomes — so plan around the current 30% baseline and treat any external-link savings as upside, not a line item to spend before it’s confirmed. If you’re weighing how to structure payments, entitlements and platform compliance for a new or existing iOS app, our platform & API work covers exactly this kind of commercial-technical decision — get in touch if you want a second opinion before you build.