Apple has just announced a big change is coming to the App Store. It will offer greater certainty to developers, and better prices for users who want the savings of a yearly plan without the immediate financial hit. The changes will apply to the App Store on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV and Apple Vision Pro.
The change was unveiled on the Apple developer website, and means that developers can now, for the first time since the App Store was launched back in July 2008, offer subscribers monthly payments for annual commitments.
The End Of Upfront Annual Fees
Until now, 12-month subscriptions, which could be set to give a discount compared to monthly pricing to reflect the longer commitment, had to be paid up front.
The change means that the discounted pricing that traditionally accompanies longer subscriptions can be paid in monthly installments.
“Today, we’re introducing a new way that people can pay for your auto-renewable subscriptions on the App Store: monthly subscriptions with a 12-month commitment. This new payment option allows you to offer subscribers more affordable options. People can cancel their subscription at any time, which will prevent the subscription from renewing after they’ve completed their agreed-to payments to fulfill their commitment,” Apple said in the announcement.
For transparency, users can easily view how many payments have been made and how many remain. Apple will also send an email to users ahead of the renewal date, as well as push notifications if the user opts in.
A Global Rollout With Two Exceptions
Interestingly, it is available worldwide except in two countries, the U.S. and Singapore. It’s not clear if this is expected to change.
The change is a big one and it means users are more likely to sign up for a year at a time, which is helpful to developers and financially beneficial to users.
The change will come with iOS 26.5 but will be compatible to iPhone users running iOS 26.4 and later.
