Google Play Store & Apple App Store Account Pricing: The Complete Guide

The Short Answer

If you just want the numbers: Google Play charges a one-time fee of $25 USD to open a developer account, and Apple charges $99 USD every year for its standard Developer Program. That's the core difference Google asks you to pay once and you're in for good, while Apple asks you to keep paying annually to stay listed.

But the sticker price is only part of the story. Below is the full breakdown of what each platform actually charges, what that money buys you, and the costs that tend to catch first-time developers off guard.

Google Play Store: $25, One Time, For Life

To publish an Android app, you need a Google Play Developer account, created through the Google Play Console. The registration fee is a flat $25 USD, paid once when you set up the account.

• No annual renewal pay once, keep the account indefinitely
• No per-app charge publish unlimited apps under the same account
• No per-update charge push as many updates as you want, forever, for free
• Non-refundable if your identity verification fails, the $25 is not returned, so get your documents ready before paying

To pay the fee, you'll need a verified Google account with 2-step verification enabled, a valid debit or credit card (prepaid cards are usually rejected), and depending on the account type a government-issued ID for personal accounts or a D-U-N-S number and business documents for organization accounts.

Apple App Store: $99 Every Year

To publish an iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, or tvOS app, you need the Apple Developer Program, priced at $99 USD per year for both individuals and organizations the price is identical whether you sign up as a person or a registered company.

• Recurring annual fee — the membership auto-renews unless cancelled, and lapsing means your apps come off the App Store
• Covers all Apple platforms one $99 fee gets you iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS, with no extra per-platform cost
• Unlimited apps included no per-app or per-update charges within the membership
• TestFlight beta testing included up to 100 internal testers and up to 10,000 external testers once a build clears beta review

There's also a separate Apple Developer Enterprise Program at $299/year, but that's a different product entirely it's for distributing apps privately to a company's own employees, not for publishing on the public App Store. Most developers publishing consumer apps never need it.

Side-by-Side Comparison

The Real Cost: Commissions on Sales

The registration fee is just the entry ticket it's not what either platform actually makes most of its money from. If your app sells anything, both stores take a commission on the transaction:

• Google Play: 15% on the first $1 million in annual revenue, 30% above that threshold, for paid apps and in-app purchases. Subscriptions are charged 15% from year one onward.
• Apple App Store: 15% for developers earning under $1 million a year through the Small Business Program, 30% standard rate above that.

Free apps with no in-app purchases or subscriptions pay zero commission on either platform the registration fee is the only cost.

Other Costs People Forget to Budget For

• D-U-N-S Number: Free to obtain from Dun & Bradstreet, but can take days to weeks to process if you're registering as an organization on either platform
• Closed testing requirements: New personal Google Play accounts must run a 14-day closed test with at least 12 opted-in testers before going live in production
• Development devices: A Mac is required to build and submit iOS apps through Xcode
• Backend, hosting, and third-party tools: Neither the $25 nor the $99 covers servers, push notification services, or payment processing tools outside the store's own billing

Which Should You Register On First?

If budget is genuinely tight, Google Play's $25 one-time fee is the cheaper way to get a working app in front of real users and start validating your idea. Many founders launch on Android first, gather feedback, and only pay Apple's $99 once they're confident the product is worth the recurring cost. If your audience is primarily iOS users, though, delaying the App Store launch can cost you more in lost users than the $99 itself.

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The Bottom Line

Google Play's $25 one-time fee and Apple's $99 annual fee are both small compared to the actual cost of building and maintaining a good app but understanding them upfront helps you budget correctly and avoid surprises. Pay attention to the commission rates too, since that's where the real long-term cost lives once your app starts generating revenue.