Apple Proposes 15% Year-One Link-Out Fee, 10% on Subscription Renewals

apple Aug 14, 2026

Apple is asking a federal court to let it collect commissions on U.S. purchases completed outside the App Store, including a proposed 15% rate for linked-out subscriptions during the first year and 10% after that.

Apple has put a new number on what it wants to charge when U.S. App Store customers leave an app to pay somewhere else.

In an August 13 court filing in its ongoing fight with Epic Games, Apple proposed commissions of 15% for standard apps, 10% for subscription renewals and certain partner programs, and 5% for developers in the App Store Small Business Program.

For subscriptions, there is an important wrinkle. Apple proposes a 15% linked-out commission during a subscriber’s first year and a 10% rate after that.

These rates are only a proposal. The court has not approved them.

Apple is asking U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to decide what, if anything, the company may charge when an app sends a user to an outside purchasing option. Epic has said it will oppose Apple’s proposed rates.

For subscription businesses, this matters because it starts to put real numbers around a long-running question: how much of the economic benefit of taking payments outside Apple’s in-app purchasing system would remain if Apple is allowed to charge for the transaction anyway?

From 27% to a New Proposed Fee Structure

The latest proposal comes after years of litigation over Apple’s restrictions on developers directing users to payment options outside the App Store.

In April 2025, Judge Rogers found Apple in civil contempt over its response to an earlier anti-steering injunction. One of the practices at issue was Apple’s 27% commission on purchases made after customers followed external links.

The Ninth Circuit upheld the contempt finding in December 2025. It agreed that the 27% commission had a prohibitive effect on developers’ ability to offer outside purchasing options.

But the appeals court also said the district court went too far by banning any linked-out commission at all. It sent the issue back for more consideration, including what Apple might reasonably be able to charge for costs tied to supporting external purchasing links and related intellectual property.

Apple is now proposing:

15% for standard apps that would otherwise generally face a 30% in-app purchase commission.
10% for the Video Partner Program, News Partner Program, Mini Apps Partner Program and subscription renewals.
5% for App Store Small Business Program apps.

For subscriptions specifically, Apple says the linked-out rate would be 15% during the first year and 10% after that.

Apple argues that developers could still profitably use outside purchasing links at those rates while Apple is compensated for the technology, intellectual property, tools and services it provides.

That conclusion comes from expert analysis submitted by Apple.

Epic disagrees. It says Apple’s proposed fees go beyond what the Ninth Circuit contemplated and plans to challenge the proposal.

The Subscription Economics Are Different

This is where the story becomes especially relevant for subscription operators.

Apple’s proposed structure makes subscriber tenure part of the payment economics.

Under Apple’s standard in-app subscription model, developers generally receive 70% of the subscription price during a subscriber’s first year of paid service and 85% after the subscriber reaches one year. Developers in Apple’s Small Business Program receive 85% from the first billing cycle.

In simple terms:

Standard Apple in-app subscription: 30% commission in year one, then 15%

Apple’s proposed linked-out subscription: 15% commission in year one, then 10%

That leaves a meaningful gap, especially during the first year.

But outside checkout comes with its own costs.

Depending on how a company handles payments, those can include processing costs, fraud and chargebacks, tax services, refunds, billing recovery and customer support.

Apple’s own economic analysis includes third-party payment costs when looking at whether developers could still come out ahead by sending customers outside the App Store.

And fees are only part of the equation.

Developers may also place value on having the customer relationship directly, including access to subscriber data and more control over pricing, promotions and future marketing. Apple’s filing acknowledges that potential value, although its expert did not include those benefits in the profitability calculations.

For subscription businesses, that makes the comparison bigger than 30% versus 15%, or 15% versus 10%.

The billing relationship itself has value.

Apple Says the Narrowest Cost Calculation Would Be Essentially Zero

There is an especially interesting tension inside Apple’s own filing.

The Ninth Circuit said one possible approach would be to compensate Apple for costs genuinely and reasonably necessary to support external links, including an appropriate portion of the intellectual property directly involved.

Apple says that if those costs are calculated narrowly, the result looks very different from the rates it is proposing.

According to Apple’s filing, those necessary costs are small enough that, expressed as a percentage of linked-out revenue, the commission needed to recover them would be essentially zero.

Apple argues that this approach is too narrow.

It wants the court to consider the broader value of the App Store platform, Apple’s intellectual property, its developer tools and other services.

That gets to the heart of the fight now before the court.

Should Apple’s compensation mostly reflect the cost of supporting an outside transaction? Or should Apple continue receiving a share of the revenue because the subscriber originated inside its ecosystem?

The Court Still Has to Decide

The fee proceeding is continuing while Apple pursues part of the larger case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

On June 30, the Supreme Court agreed to review one question from Apple’s appeal involving the civil-contempt standard used in the case.

Apple then asked the Court to pause the district-court proceedings while that review continues. Justice Elena Kagan briefly entered an administrative stay on August 12, then denied Apple’s stay request on August 13.

That means the lower-court fee proceeding can continue while the Supreme Court case remains pending.

Apple’s proposed percentages are still far from settled.

The district court could accept the rates, reject them or choose another approach. The reporting, attribution and implementation rules that would come with any approved commission will also matter to the final economics.

For now, U.S. linked-out purchases remain under the current zero-commission structure while the court decides what Apple may ultimately charge.

Insider Take

Apple’s proposal makes the subscription economics much clearer.

For subscriptions, Apple is proposing a two-stage linked-out commission: 15% during the subscriber’s first year and 10% after that. That compares with Apple’s existing 30% first-year commission and 15% rate after one year for standard in-app subscriptions.

Subscriber tenure is now part of the payment-channel economics.

Outside checkout still brings costs of its own, from payment processing to fraud and billing support. There may also be conversion loss when a customer leaves an app to complete the purchase elsewhere.

The other side of the equation is control. A direct billing relationship can give the subscription company greater access to subscriber data, pricing options, promotions and future customer interactions. Apple’s own filing acknowledges that those relationships may carry value.

The court has not decided whether Apple can charge the proposed rates.

But the question facing the court is becoming much clearer: how much subscription revenue should Apple continue to collect after a subscriber leaves the App Store to pay?

Related Member Resource

For a practical look at the payment infrastructure behind subscription billing, including where costs, control, recovery, and operating risk can show up:

Is Your Payment Stack Supporting Your Subscription Business? 15 Questions to Ask