App store rules
Apple and Google In-App Purchase Rules for Digital Goods
Short answer
As of October 2026, Apple and Google both require store billing for digital features sold inside an app, including subscriptions, virtual currency and premium content. Physical goods, services consumed outside the app, and real-time person-to-person services are exempt on Apple, and Google exempts physical goods and services and peer-to-peer payments. Link-outs to web checkout depend on the country and program.
Key takeaways
- Digital goods consumed inside an app, such as coins, subscriptions and unlocks, must use Apple in-app purchase and Google Play billing.
- Physical goods and services consumed outside the app use your own payment method, and Apple also exempts real-time one-to-one services.
- Tips are allowed through in-app purchase currencies on Apple, and a gift tied to digital content or services must use in-app purchase.
- Whether an app may point users to a web checkout depends on the storefront and on enrolled programs, so decide it per country.
- The store's commission is a design input: model one product at store margin and at web margin before you set prices.
- Policy text and fee tables change, so re-read the primary pages before every pricing decision.
On this page 10 sections
- Why the rules exist and who they affect
- Decision table by product type
- Subscriptions, coins and unlocks
- Tips, gifts and live events
- Physical goods and person-to-person services
- What store billing costs in practice
- Web checkout and linking out
- Designing the product around the rules
- Pricing, refunds and staying current
- What to decide this week
If your app sells something that exists only inside the app, such as a coin pack, a subscription or an unlocked episode, Apple and Google both expect you to sell it through their billing, and both take a commission. If it sells a physical good or a service consumed outside the app, you use your own payment method. Between those two poles sit tips, gifts, live events and person-to-person services, and that is where most founders get the rules wrong.
This is the general guide, with a decision table by product type, as of October 2026. It applies to a white-label ReelShort clone, a short video network, a live app or a fan platform alike. The brand-specific case for drama coins is in Apple and Google billing for drama coins. Nothing here is legal advice, and the stores decide.
Why the rules exist and who they affect
Both stores run a payment system and charge a share of what passes through it. In exchange they handle receipts, refunds, family sharing and subscription management. The rules close the obvious gap: if an app could sell digital goods through its own checkout, the store would carry the distribution but collect nothing. So both stores define which sales must go through them.
Apple states the principle in guideline 3.1.1: if you want to unlock features or functionality in your app, giving examples such as subscriptions, in-game currencies, game levels, access to premium content and a full version unlock, you must use in-app purchase. Apps may not use their own mechanisms for this, and the guideline names license keys, AR markers, QR codes and cryptocurrencies. Google's Payments policy says Play-distributed apps requiring or accepting payment for access to in-app features or services must use Google Play's billing system unless one of its exceptions applies. Its list of in-app purchases includes virtual currencies, avatars and similar items, subscriptions, ad-free or premium app functionality, and cloud services.
The rules bind the app, not the company. They apply when the sale happens in or from an app distributed through the store. Your website, a browser checkout and a web app that users reach by a normal URL sit on a different footing, covered later in this post.
Decision table by product type
Use the table as a first pass. The right-hand column carries the caveats you must check against the live rules, because many items have conditions.
| Product type | Apple App Store | Google Play | Check before you build |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coins or virtual currency | In-app purchase required (3.1.1) | Play billing required for virtual currencies | Purchased credits may not expire on Apple; currency may only be used within the app on Google |
| Subscriptions to digital content or features | In-app purchase, auto-renewable (3.1.2) | Play billing required | Apple needs at least seven days and ongoing value; disclose price and term before asking |
| Single unlocks (episode, video, premium post) | In-app purchase | Play billing | Consumed in the app, so it counts as digital content |
| Tips to creators | In-app purchase currencies may be used to tip digital content providers (3.1.1); a pure optional gift of 100% to an individual can skip it (3.2.1(viii)) | Peer-to-peer payments are an exception, but a tip that unlocks something digital is likely in scope | Is the tip optional, fully passed on, and unconnected to receiving content? |
| Virtual gifts during a live stream | In-app purchase; gifts of eligible items may be refunded only to the original purchaser | Virtual currency rules apply | Gifts that convert to creator earnings still start as a store purchase |
| Paid live events delivered in the app | One-to-few and one-to-many real-time services must use in-app purchase (3.1.3(d)) | Event tickets are listed as an exception for real-world events; an in-app stream is digital | Real venue ticket or in-app stream? |
| One-to-one live sessions (tutoring, coaching) | May use other methods if real-time and one-to-one (3.1.3(d)) | Services consumed outside the app are an exception | Is it truly real time and between two individuals? |
| Physical goods | Use Apple Pay or a card, not in-app purchase (3.1.3(e)) | Exception for physical goods | Delivered outside the app |
| Services consumed outside the app | Other methods required (3.1.3(e)) | Exception for physical goods and services | Not delivered through the app |
| Content bought on the web, used in the app | Allowed if also sold as in-app purchases (3.1.3(b)) | Subject to the no-steering rule | The same items must be on sale in the app |
| Advertising bought by creators or brands | Campaign management apps may skip it; boosts consumed in the app must use in-app purchase (3.1.3(g)) | Check whether the item is consumed in the app | Where the ad product is delivered |
Read the table as a flow of questions: is the thing consumed inside the app, is it digital, and is the service real time and one-to-one? A yes to the first two pushes the sale toward store billing.
Subscriptions, coins and unlocks
Subscriptions
Apple's guideline 3.1.2 lets any category offer auto-renewable subscriptions, provided they give ongoing value, last at least seven days and work across the user's devices. Episodic content and large, continually updated media collections appear in its list of acceptable uses. Subscriptions may sit next to a la carte offers, and may include consumable credits. Before asking someone to subscribe, the app must clearly describe what the user gets for the price. Apple also says apps with subscriptions should let users get the paid-for content without extra tasks such as social media posting or contact uploads.
Google puts subscriptions in the same billing requirement as virtual currency. The fee differs, and the fee page shows lower subscription rates than for other digital items in several regions.
Coins
Coins are the standard "digital good by design". Apple's 3.1.1 says purchased credits may not expire and requires restore mechanisms for restorable purchases. It also requires odds disclosure for loot boxes or randomized items. Google's policy asks for odds disclosure too (section 7). The practical design is two balances: purchased coins that last, and reward coins from check-ins or quests that may expire if your terms say so. How the economy behaves around those balances is covered in how a coin economy works, and pack sizing in micro drama coin pricing.
Unlocks
A single episode or post unlocked inside the app is digital content consumed in the app. Whether you sell it directly or through coins, the underlying sale is an in-app digital sale. Selling the unlock directly through a card form inside the app is the pattern reviewers flag fastest.
Tips, gifts and live events
This is the least obvious part of the rules, so go slowly.
Tips. Apple's 3.1.1 says apps may use in-app purchase currencies to enable customers to tip the developer or digital content providers. So a creator tip bought with store-billed coins is explicitly acceptable. A separate rule, 3.2.1(viii), lets apps enable individuals to give a monetary gift to another individual without in-app purchase, but only if the gift is completely optional for the giver and 100% of the funds go to the receiver. It adds that a gift connected to or associated with receiving digital content or services must use in-app purchase. A platform that keeps a share, or that thanks the tipper with a badge unlock, does not fit the exemption. Google lists peer-to-peer payments among its exceptions, but the page also says apps requiring payment for in-app features must use Play billing, so a tip that bundles a digital benefit is a risk. Treat tips in a monetized creator app as in-app purchases unless a lawyer tells you otherwise.
Gifts. Apple lets apps enable the gifting of in-app-purchase-eligible items to others. Those gifts may only be refunded to the original purchaser and may not be exchanged. In a live app, the gift is a store-billed currency item sent to a creator, who then earns a balance in your system. The general mechanics are in how virtual gifts work on live streaming apps, and the TikTok-specific case in how TikTok gifts and coins work. A TikTok clone app with live gifting follows exactly that pattern.
Live events. Apple's 3.1.3(d) is precise. Real-time person-to-person services between two individuals, such as tutoring, medical consultations, real estate tours or fitness training, may use other payment methods. One-to-few and one-to-many real-time services must use in-app purchase. A paid group stream in your app is therefore a store-billed item. Google's exceptions mention event tickets for real-world events. A ticket to a physical venue is different from a paid in-app broadcast, which delivers a digital service inside the app.
Physical goods and person-to-person services
Apple's 3.1.3(e) says that if an app enables people to purchase physical goods or services that will be consumed outside of the app, it must use purchase methods other than in-app purchase, such as Apple Pay or traditional credit card processing. Google's exceptions list physical goods and services such as groceries, clothing, transportation, airfare, gym memberships, food delivery and event tickets.
That matters for social commerce. A seller marketplace inside a video app can charge card payments for shoes, a creator merch drop or a delivered meal, with no store commission. The same app's coin purchases still go through the store. If you run both, keep the two payment paths visibly separate in the interface and in your accounting, because a buyer who sees one wallet for both will confuse a reviewer too. For commerce inside the feed, see the TikTok clone features page for how the shop module works.
Services that happen between individuals in real time, such as a one-to-one tutoring call, follow Apple's 3.1.3(d) exemption. A recorded course, a group class or a library of lessons is digital content consumed in the app and goes the other way.
What store billing costs in practice
Commission is a design input. These are the published figures as of October 2026, from Apple's Small Business Program page and Google's service fees page. Fee tables change, so read the live page before pricing.
| Store | What the page says | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Apple, standard | 30% commission | Applies once a developer is above the threshold or outside the program |
| Apple, Small Business Program | 15% reduced commission | Up to 1 million USD in proceeds in the prior calendar year, including developers new to the store; the standard rate applies to later sales if the threshold is passed in the current year |
| Apple, EU alternative terms | 10% further reduced for subscriptions after their first year | Participants on the program's EU terms |
| Google, listed regions (EEA, UK, US from June 30, 2026; Australia and Japan from September 30, 2026) | Tiered by new or existing installs, with a separate 5% billing fee; subscriptions at 10% plus the 5% billing fee on the first 1 million USD | Depends on the install date and on program participation |
| Google, other markets | 15% on the first 1 million USD a year, 30% above it, and 15% for auto-renewing subscriptions | Per the page's tables for those markets |
| Google, South Korea and India alternative billing | Reduces the applicable fee by 4% | Where alternative billing is used under the program |
A worked example with invented numbers shows the stakes. Say a coin pack sells for 10 and a card processor takes 3% on web sales. On the web you keep 9.70. In an app at a 30% commission you keep 7.00, and at 15% you keep 8.50. If a viewer spends 40 in a month, the gap between web and 30% in-app is 10.80, so it is worth knowing which rate you fall under before you set prices. Taxes, refunds and fixed processor fees are ignored. For how this feeds the operator's revenue model, the ReelShort clone business model page walks through the coin and subscription levers.
Web checkout and linking out
Selling on your own website is allowed and common. The restriction is on what the app may do to steer people there.
Apple
Guideline 3.1.1(a) says developers may apply for entitlements to include a link to a website they own so customers can purchase digital content there. It says the entitlements are not required to include buttons, external links or other calls to action on apps on the United States storefront. For specific other regions, the StoreKit External Purchase Link Entitlement lets an app include a link informing users of other ways to buy, and per the entitlement agreements the link may mention comparative pricing. On every other storefront, apps and their metadata may not include buttons, external links or calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms other than in-app purchase. Misleading marketing or fraud around these entitlements can lead to removal from the App Store and the developer program.
Guideline 3.1.3(b) also covers multiplatform services: users may access content or features acquired elsewhere, including consumable items, provided those items are also available as in-app purchases within the app.
Section 4 of the Payments policy says apps may not lead users to a payment method other than Google Play billing in listings, in-app promotions, webviews or user flows, except as sections 3, 8 and 9 allow. Sections 8 and 9 cover alternative billing and directing users outside the app in eligible regions, with enrollment. The external offers program page says the program is currently limited to the EEA, requires approval of the app and its linked destinations, and cannot be combined with Google Play billing in the same app. It lists fees on transactions within 24 hours of an external link click, effective June 4, 2026: 10% on auto-renewing subscriptions, 20% on other digital items, and a per-install charge for app downloads.
The practical reading: outside the United States on iOS, and outside enrolled programs on Android, assume the app cannot direct users to a web top-up. Where a program applies, the link is possible, not free, and subject to placement and reporting rules. For a market with its own payment habits, see regional pricing and local payments for a drama app.
Designing the product around the rules
A product that respects the rules from the start is cheaper than one retrofitted after a rejection. These design choices follow directly from the quoted text.
- Put every in-app digital sale on store products. Create the products in your own Apple and Google accounts and map each to a coin pack or plan in your console.
- Keep one wallet across channels. A coin is a coin whether it came from the app or the web. Apple's multiplatform rule only works if the same packs also sell in the app.
- Separate purchased and reward balances. Purchased coins do not expire; reward coins may, if your terms say so.
- Build the creator payout outside the store flow. A viewer pays through store billing. The creator's withdrawal is a payout from your balance sheet to a bank or wallet, handled by your operator console and your own payment provider.
- Disclose odds and prices. Randomized items need odds before purchase. Google's section 6 asks that prices shown in the app match what the billing interface displays.
- Make physical and digital checkouts visibly different. Shop orders use your card processor, coin purchases use the store.
- Treat link-outs as optional. Never depend on one. Every viewer should be able to finish a purchase inside the app.
Our ReelShort clone script follows this design: one wallet and one unlock record across the web app and the store apps, store product keys on each coin pack, and hosted checkout for web purchases. The separate ReelShort clone features page lists the wallet pieces. The accounts, commissions and refunds sit in your own store accounts, not with us.
Pricing, refunds and staying current
Pricing under store billing is constrained by the store's price points. You choose from the tiers the store offers and build the pack around that price. If your web price differs, the difference needs to be explained honestly wherever the rules let you explain it. Apple's 2.3.2 asks that listings and screenshots clearly indicate whether featured items or subscriptions need additional purchases, and its 2.1(b) asks that in-app purchases be complete, visible to the reviewer and functional.
Refunds run through the store. Apple says gifts may be refunded only to the original purchaser. Plan for refunded coins that have already been spent: decide whether the balance goes negative, the account is flagged, or the unlocks are revoked, and write the rule into your terms. Chargebacks on web purchases follow your processor's rules instead.
Where to watch for changes
- The App Review Guidelines page, which Apple revises from time to time.
- Apple's Small Business Program page for threshold and rate changes.
- Google's Payments policy and its service fees page, which has been reorganized by region in 2026.
- Google's external offers and alternative billing program pages, for eligible countries and fees.
- Your own review notes: every rejection that cites a billing section is a data point on how reviewers read your flow.
Put a recurring review of those pages on the calendar for each quarter and again before any price change or new market launch. Court decisions and regulators have changed these rules in recent years, so a date in a blog post, this one included, is a reason to check, not a reason to rely.
What to decide this week
- List every product you plan to sell, then label each digital or physical, in-app or outside, one-to-one or group.
- Mark which ones the decision table sends to store billing, and price each at store margin.
- Decide whether web checkout is part of the plan, and in which countries a link-out is permitted for you.
- Open your Apple and Google accounts in the business's name, and create the store products early, because review of purchases needs them.
- Check how the same coins move into creator earnings and out as payouts, and make sure that flow has no store-billing gap.
- Ask a lawyer who knows your market to confirm tips, bundled services and link-out wording.
If you run a fan or subscription platform, the same rules apply to subscriptions and tips, with extra limits on content, as described in app store rules for creator subscription apps and the matching moderation duties in app store review for user-generated content. A fan app on an OnlyFans clone base must make the same billing decisions, with a web-first fallback when the store route is closed. Our published price covers the software; the commissions above are paid to the stores on top.
Questions and answers
Do tips need in-app purchase?
On Apple, apps may use in-app purchase currencies to let customers tip digital content providers, and a monetary gift between individuals can skip in-app purchase only if it is fully optional and 100% of the funds reach the receiver, and is not tied to receiving digital content. Google lists peer-to-peer payments as an exception. Check your exact flow before relying on either.
Can I send users to my website to pay?
It depends on the country and the program. Apple's guideline says buttons and links to other purchase methods are not restricted by entitlement on the United States storefront, while other storefronts need the StoreKit entitlement where available. Google allows it only through enrolled programs in eligible regions. Elsewhere, assume you may not.
What do the stores charge?
As of October 2026, Apple lists 30% as the standard rate and 15% for Small Business Program members earning up to 1 million USD in proceeds. Google's fee page varies by region and by new or existing installs, with 15% on the first 1 million USD and 30% above it in markets outside its newer regional tables. Read both live pages.
Does the rule apply to my web app?
The store rules govern apps distributed through the stores, not your own website. A purchase made in a browser on your domain uses your payment processor. Apple's multiplatform rule lets an app unlock content bought elsewhere if the same items are also sold as in-app purchases within the app.
Are physical goods and services exempt?
Yes when they are consumed outside the app. Apple says apps selling physical goods or services consumed outside the app must use methods such as Apple Pay or a card, and Google lists physical goods and services such as food delivery and event tickets as exceptions. Digital items delivered inside the app do not qualify.
Do coins have to be refundable or last forever?
Apple says credits or in-game currencies bought through in-app purchase may not expire, and restore mechanisms must be available for restorable purchases. Gifts of eligible items may be refunded only to the original purchaser. Reward coins earned for free are a separate category you can expire, if your terms say so.
Who decides whether my app complies?
Apple and Google reviewers decide at submission and can act later if the app changes. This post is a planning guide, not legal advice. Ask a lawyer who knows your market about edge cases such as tips, bundled services and link-out wording.
Sources
- Apple: App Review Guidelines (section 3, Business)
- Google Play: Payments policy
- Google Play: Service fees
- Google Play: Enroll in the external offers program
- Apple: App Store Small Business Program
- Apple: App Review process
Checked in October 2026. Rules, fees and programme terms change; confirm on the source before you rely on them.
Independence note. GetFame is an independent software company. ReelShort is a trademark of its owner and is named here only to describe a category of platform. GetFame is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by ReelShort.
Keep reading
Apple and Google Billing for Drama Coins Explained
In-app purchase rules for coins: what Apple and Google require, how fees work, what web top-up allows and how to plan drama app billing. As of October 2026.
How TikTok Gifts and Coins Work: Live Gifting Economics
How do TikTok gifts work? Follow the chain from coins bought to gifts sent to diamonds earned and cashed out, with the store rules and margin math.
App Store Review Guidelines for User-Generated Content Apps
What Apple guideline 1.2 and Google Play's user generated content policy require, mapped to app features, with a pre-submission checklist and a test script.