The iOS App Store tax is Apple’s 30% cut on subscriptions and digital goods sold inside an iOS app through its In-App Purchase (IAP) system. Google Play operates a parallel program at the same 30% rate in year one, dropping to 15% after 12 months for recurring subscribers. For creators selling memberships or subscriptions on any platform, this fee is almost always hidden on top of the platform’s own cut. The two fees compound.
How the tax works
When a fan taps “Join” or “Subscribe” inside an iOS or Android app, the payment processes through the store — not through the platform directly. Apple or Google takes its 30% first. What’s left flows to the platform, which takes its own cut. Only then does the creator see their share.
On a $4.99 YouTube channel membership signed up via iOS: Apple takes $1.50, leaving $3.49. YouTube then takes 30% of $3.49 ($1.05), leaving the creator $2.44. The published 70% creator share becomes 49% in practice.
The same logic applies to Instagram Subscriptions (30% Meta in year 2+, stacked with 30% store), Patreon (5–12% Patreon fee, stacked with 30% store as of Apple’s November 2024 policy), TikTok Subscriptions, Twitch Subs (some tiers), and any creator product sold via iOS IAP. The layer of fee the viewer never sees is the difference between a sustainable creator business and a squeezed one.
The math on common tiers
Here’s a side-by-side on three common membership prices, comparing web and iOS sign-ups on a standard YouTube-style 70/30 platform split:
- $4.99 tier. Web: $3.49. iOS: $2.44. Delta: $1.05 / member / month — $12.60 per member per year.
- $9.99 tier. Web: $6.99. iOS: $4.89. Delta: $2.10 / member / month — $25.20 per member per year.
- $24.99 tier. Web: $17.49. iOS: $12.24. Delta: $5.25 / member / month — $63 per member per year.
A creator with 200 members at a $9.99 tier, 60% of whom signed up in-app, is losing roughly $252 per month — over $3,000 per year — to store fees they could skip with a web sign-up funnel.
Common misconceptions
“Platforms just absorb the fee.” They don’t. The fee comes out of the gross sign-up amount before the platform’s split, and the creator share takes the hit. Meta, YouTube, and Patreon all pass the iOS fee through to the creator.
“My existing members on iOS are grandfathered.” The fee applies to every billing cycle, not just the initial sign-up. An iOS member renewing for their 14th month still costs you the 30%.
“I can tell fans to use my web link and it’s no big deal.” It’s the biggest single lever on your take-home. A pinned link in a Story or a line at the bottom of your video description is worth several percent of your annual subscription revenue in many cases.