Apple has added 700 new price points for developers to take advantage of and make their App Store prices more flexible, with the lowest price set at $0.29.
- What’s happening? Apple has announced that developers now have more flexibility in picking app prices with more than 700 new App Store price points.
- Why care? Because apps and subscriptions are getting pricier and pricier and the change might prompt some developers to price their apps more fairly.
- What to do? If you’re a developer, log in to App Store Connect to access the new price points, which will begin rolling out today and continue throughout 2023.
700 new App Store price points, including $0.29
The Apple Newsroom announcement says there are now 600 new price points, starting from just 29 cents and going all the way up to $10,000. In addition, developers can contact Apple to ask for additional higher price points. Before the change, 99 cents was the lowest App Spore price point available to developers.
These new pricing enhancements will be available for apps offering auto-renewable subscriptions starting today, and for all other apps and in-app purchases in spring 2023, giving all developers unprecedented flexibility and control to price their products in 45 currencies throughout 175 storefronts.
The new price points enable smaller price increments, like every ten cents up to ten bucks or every fifty cents between ten and fifty bucks.
In other words, developers are no longer restricted to 99 cents as the lowest possible price point on the App Store. Instead, developers can now charge people a third of that, which could be useful for micro transactions costing less than 99 cents.
In each of the App Store’s 175 storefronts, developers will be able to leverage additional pricing conventions, including those that begin with two repeating digits (e.g., ₩110,000), and will be able to price products beyond $0.99 or €X.99 endings to incorporate rounded price endings (e.g., X.00 or X.90), which are particularly useful for managing bundles and annual plans.
Why this is a clever move on Apple’s part
With the inflation continuing unabated, the economy cratering and economic downturn looming on the horizon, developers are complaining about the lack of flexibility when it comes to app prices. Developers have the freedom to set the price but can only choose between predefined pricing brackets.
With this change, according to the official announcement, App Store developers will have a total of 900 price points to choose from, which is almost 10 times the number of price points previously available for most apps.
Keep in mind that Apple may update the App Store price points in specific regions based on changes in taxes and foreign exchange rates. “This is done using publicly available exchange rate information from financial data providers to help ensure prices for in-app purchases stay equalized across all storefronts,” Apple says.
Right now, app makers can adjust app prices to respond to tax and foreign currency adjustments. Next year, they’ll be allowed to set local territory pricing for paid apps and in-app purchases which won’t be impacted by automatic price adjustments. Read: App Store missing on iPhone? Here’s how to get it back!