How much does it cost to publish an app? There is a short answer and a long one. The short one is the store fees: $25 once on Google Play and $99 a year on Apple. The long one is everything that comes after, because a published app has monthly expenses and yearly obligations.
Here we break down the three items: what you pay to publish, what each store keeps when you sell, and what it costs to keep the app alive. The fees and commissions are verified on the official pages. The server and maintenance are market ranges, for guidance.
The short answer
| Item | How much | When |
|---|---|---|
| Google Play account | $25 | One time |
| Apple Developer Program | $99, in local currency | Every year |
| Digital sales commission | From 15% to 30%, depending on store and volume | On every sale |
| Server | From about €20 a month, if the app needs it | Every month |
| Maintenance | Between 15% and 20% of development cost | Every year |
The first two rows are a fact. The last two are market ranges: they depend on what your app does.
What it costs to publish
Google Play charges a 25-dollar signup fee. It is paid once, when you create the developer account, and it covers all the apps you publish with it.
Apple charges $99 per year for membership in the Apple Developer Program, in local currency where available. It is not per app: one account can publish as many as you want. But if the fee expires, your apps can no longer be downloaded. Anyone who already has them installed can keep using them.
If a company publishes, both stores ask for a D-U-N-S number. It is free.
Those fees do not include the work of publishing: preparing the store listings, screenshots, privacy policy, data declarations, and review rounds. In a custom project, this is usually included in the budget. The steps are in how to publish an app on Google Play and App Store.
What each store keeps
A free app that does not sell anything inside does not pay commission. The commission appears when you charge for the app, for in-app purchases, or for subscriptions to digital content. Physical products and services delivered outside the phone do not go through the stores’ payment system.
| Google Play (Europe) | App Store | |
|---|---|---|
| Subscriptions | 10% service + 5% billing | 30%; 15% in the small business program |
| One-time purchases, first million dollars per year | 10% + 5% | 15% in the small business program |
| One-time purchases, standard rate | 20% + 5% on new installs | 30% |
Two notes. The reduced tier is not automatic: in both stores you have to enroll. And the commission is calculated on the price before taxes. In Spain, from a €4.99 subscription, VAT is deducted first, leaving €4.12, and then the store’s 15%. You receive about €3.50.
Google applies these rates in the European Economic Area, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan, and keeps the previous ones in the rest of the countries until the change is complete. In the European Union, Apple also offers other commercial terms that are worth checking case by case.
What it costs each month
- Server. Only if the app has user accounts, changing content, or data shared between devices. For a small or medium app, from about €20 a month. It goes up with the number of users and with what is stored: photos and videos take up space.
- Third-party services. Maps, SMS messages, email, payments, artificial intelligence. Almost all are paid by usage: cheap at the start and proportional to success. Google and Apple push notifications have no cost.
- Domain and email. The privacy policy and support address need a website and a mailbox that someone reads.
- Maintenance. This is the big item and the one most often forgotten. The most repeated rule in the industry is to set aside each year between 15% and 20% of what it cost to develop it.
Why you have to update it even if it works
An app does not break on its own, but the stores move the ground every year. These are the requirements in force in 2026:
- Android: API level. From August 31, 2026, new apps and updates must target Android 16 (API level 36). Apps already published must target at least Android 15 to keep appearing to new users with newer phones.
- Android: 16 KB memory pages. Apps targeting Android 15 or later must support them. From February 1, 2027, Google will not allow updates that do not.
- Apple: Xcode version. From April 28, 2026, only apps built with Xcode 26 and the iOS 26 SDK will be accepted. The minimum goes up every year.
- Both: rules and declarations. Privacy, age ratings, account deletion. When they change, you have to declare them again and sometimes change the app.
None of this improves the app in the user’s eyes. But an app that does not keep up eventually cannot even publish a small fix. And then the update costs more than maintaining it would have.
A full year, with numbers
Let’s take an app that cost €10,000, published in both stores and with a modest server. The figures are indicative:
| Item | Per year |
|---|---|
| Apple Developer Program | $99 |
| Google Play | €0 (the $25 were paid when the account was opened) |
| Server, from €20 to €100 per month | From €240 to €1,200 |
| Maintenance, from 15% to 20% | From €1,500 to €2,000 |
| Total | From €1,850 to €3,300, between €150 and €275 per month |
Using the same rule, a €5,000 app requires between €750 and €1,000 of maintenance per year, and a €25,000 app between €3,750 and €5,000. Commissions are not in the table because they are not a fixed expense: they come out of each sale.
How to spend less without letting it die
- Start with one store. If your audience is clearly on Android, you save the annual Apple fee and half the reviews until you know whether the app works.
- Use the server you already have. If your website or management software already exposes the data, the app connects to it and you do not need a new one.
- Remove what you do not use. Every third-party library is one more thing to update every year, and sometimes the one that blocks a release.
- Group the mandatory updates. Android changes arrive at the end of August and Apple’s in spring. Planning them is cheaper than doing them under deadline pressure.
- Enroll in the reduced tiers. If you sell, that is the difference between 15% and 30%.
- Choose a plan or one-off intervention knowing what you are choosing. Without a plan you pay less the first year and more from the second, because the mandatory updates still come.
The full cost, before you start
In our custom app projects, the budget is closed in phases and maintenance is explained from day one: what it covers, what it costs, and what happens if you prefer not to contract it. That way, month thirteen brings no surprises.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to publish an app on Google Play?
$25, once, when creating the developer account. Publishing more apps with the same account does not cost more.
How much does Apple’s developer account cost?
$99 a year, charged in local currency. It is required to publish on the App Store and to distribute test versions with TestFlight.
What happens if I do not renew Apple’s fee?
Your apps can no longer be downloaded and you cannot send new versions. Anyone who already has them installed can keep using them.
Does publishing a free app have a commission?
No. The commission only applies to what is charged through the store’s payment system.
How much does it cost to maintain an app per month?
It depends on how much it cost to build and whether it has a server. Using the 15% to 20% annual rule, a €10,000 app comes out to between €150 and €275 per month including server and fees.
Do I have to update the app if it works well?
Yes. Google and Apple raise the technical requirements every year, and an app that does not meet them cannot publish updates.
How much do Google or Apple keep from each sale?
Between 15% and 30% of the price before taxes, depending on the store, the type of sale, and what you bill per year.
Conclusion
Publishing an app is cheap: $25 in one store and 99 a year in the other. What costs money is keeping it alive. The server, the commissions if you sell, and above all the updates that the stores require every year make up a fixed expense that should be included in the budget from the start, alongside development.
The fees, commissions, and requirements were checked on Google and Apple’s official pages on October 9, 2026. The server and maintenance amounts are indicative market ranges, not a budget.
Useful links
- Custom apps: phases, what is included and what is not, and maintenance afterward.
- How to publish an app on Google Play and App Store: steps, requirements, and deadlines.
- How much it costs to make an app: what the development price depends on.
- App or web: what your business needs, in case the web solves the same thing with less expense.
- Google Play service fees, in Play Console help.
- What the Apple Developer Program includes and small business program, on Apple Developer.
