Google Play fees for games in 2026

Google rebuilt its Play fees in 2026. The old 15% and 30% tiers are giving way, region by region, to a model that separates what Google charges for the store from what it charges to process the payment, and that prices players by when they installed your game. In the US, Google’s fees on web links and alternative billing have been due since 1 October 2026. This page sets out the rules as of 8 October 2026 and flags where they are in dispute.

How the 2026 fee model works: service fee plus billing fee

Google now charges two things. The service fee applies to every transaction, “regardless of whether the transaction uses Google Play Billing, Alternative Billing or external web links.” The billing fee applies only when Play Billing processes the payment. In the US, UK, EEA, Australia and Japan the billing fee is 5%.

The service fee then depends on whether the paying player is on a new install or an existing one. A new install is a player whose first install from Play, or first update from Play if they installed elsewhere, happened on or after the date the new model reached their region. In the US, UK and EEA that date is 30 June 2026; in Australia and Japan it is 30 September 2026. Everyone who installed before then is an existing install, and existing installs pay more.

Add 5% to any cell when the purchase goes through Play Billing.

The program rates opened on 30 September 2026 for players in Australia, the EEA, Japan, the UK and the US. They are not automatic, even for games already in the old Level Up program. A game qualifies once it meets every guideline Google announced on 24 June 2026 and Google validates it in Play Console, and the lower rate applies from that validation. The guidelines include Play Games Services sign-in, the Play Games Sidekick overlay switched on by default, achievements, cloud save from any provider, controller, keyboard and mouse support, availability on Google Play Games on PC, crash and frame-rate targets on Google’s reference devices, and Vulkan. Some guidelines have exemptions, and Google says it may change them over time.

When your players’ region switches

Until its switch date, a region stays on the legacy model: 15% on your first $1M of annual earnings, 30% above that, and 15% on auto-renewing subscriptions. Each region’s switch date is also its cut-off for counting new installs. Australia and Japan also gained Google’s billing choice program on 30 September 2026.

What $100 of player spend leaves you on the new model

For a game past its first $1M of annual earnings, with players in the US, UK, EEA, Australia or Japan, before your own payment, tax and fraud costs:

On a new install, a web link saves you 5 points against Play Billing (20% against 25%), and your own payment and tax costs have to fit inside those 5 points. On an existing install the saving is 10 points (20% against 30%). Most of a live game’s current payers are existing installs, so that is where a web shop earns its keep first.

The rate also has a time limit. Google’s fee applies to transactions completed within 24 hours of following a link. A player who comes back to your web shop a week later, from a bookmark or your email, is outside it. Google confirmed the point to the US court in September 2026: purchases more than 24 hours after a link, or on your website without a link, carry no fee and need no report.

The US programs: web links and alternative billing, with fees due since 1 October

Google launched two US programs on 9 December 2025 to comply with the Epic injunction, and deferred the fees. On 22 July 2026, according to its US policy update page, it gave notice that enrolled developers “will need to report transactions and pay the relevant service fees starting on October 1, 2026.” That date has passed and Google has not moved it. In its compliance report to the court on 17 September 2026, Google said it had collected $0 from link-outs through August, and would start collecting on purchase links on 1 October and on download links on 1 December. At the time 759 apps were enrolled in the US link program.

External content links. You can link US players to buy in-app items on the web, in place of or alongside Play Billing, or link them to download an app outside Play. Links may open in a browser, a webview or another app store already on the device. You must show Google’s information screen through its APIs, which also enable parental controls. You must also offer refunds unless the player was told clearly before buying that the item is non-refundable, and give players a way to dispute unauthorized charges. The fees:

• in-app items bought within 24 hours of the link: 10% on your first $1M and on subscriptions, 20% standard, 15% for Games Level Up members, the same for new and existing installs;
• app downloads within 24 hours of the link: $3.65 per game install and $2.85 per app install. A link to an install pays only the install fee, even if the player then buys inside the new app within 24 hours.

On 17 September 2026 Google moved the deadline to report downloads and pay the install fee to 1 December 2026. Transaction fees have been due since 1 October.

Alternative billing. You can run your own payment processor inside the game, in place of or alongside Play Billing. Fees are 10% on your first $1M and on subscriptions, 20% for new installs and 25% for existing installs, and 15% and 20% for Games Level Up members. Reporting and payment have also been due since 1 October 2026.

Both program pages carry the same caveat:

Can Google charge for US links at all?

Judge James Donato’s permanent injunction of 7 October 2024 applies in the US. It requires Google to allow developers to link out and tell players about prices elsewhere, to stop requiring Play Billing, to carry rival app stores in Play and to give them access to the Play catalog. The Supreme Court docket records the Ninth Circuit’s decision affirming it on 31 July 2025 and the dismissal of Google’s own petition on 9 March 2026, after the parties filed a joint stipulation. SCOTUSblog reported in October 2025 that the Court had refused to pause the injunction. Google describes its compliance this way:

The injunction does not expressly bar fees on those links, and that gap is the dispute. Google’s compliance page says: “On March 4, 2026, we entered a new settlement agreement with Epic and the parties have asked the US District Court to enter a revised Modified Injunction.” The court docket shows the two companies withdrew that request on 14 July 2026, and Judge Donato cancelled the hearing on it the next day, so the October 2024 order still governs. Google’s page, checked on 8 October 2026, still describes the settlement as pending before the court. The same page says rival stores in Play and catalog access have been in effect since 22 July 2026.

The court now watches the fees month by month. A 24 July 2026 order requires Google and Epic to file a joint report every month covering, among other things, any change to Google’s fee schedules for link-outs and the revenue Google collects from them, and keeps the court’s economist, Professor Nancy Rose, to help monitor compliance. The September status conference was cancelled at both parties’ request. As of 8 October 2026 the court had not ruled on link fees. The report due on 15 October 2026 is the first that can show what Google has collected on links.

Appcharge, a web shop vendor, wrote on 16 July 2026 that US external links “run at 0% today” and, citing the court-appointed economist, argued that any link fee should be limited to Google’s costs. The 0% held until 30 September. We treat Google’s published program terms as the operative rule, because they are the terms you accept on enrollment.

The EEA and UK: external offers, billing choice and the €430m decision

The EEA has two routes for web sales.

External offers program. Fees apply to purchases and installs within 24 hours of a link, and have stood since 4 June 2026 at a 0% initial acquisition fee plus an ongoing 20% on in-app items (15% for program members, 10% on your first $1M), 10% on subscriptions and €1.20 per app install. Apps enrolled in this program may only use alternative billing without user choice. They cannot use Play Billing, and store listings must not mention purchases outside the app.

Billing choice program (EEA and UK, and since 30 September 2026 Australia and Japan). You offer Play Billing side by side with either alternative billing in the app or web links, and you may render your own choice screen within Google’s UX guidelines. Links may only go to your own offers. Fees follow the new model: alternative billing 20% on new installs and 25% on existing ones, web links 20%, subscriptions 10%, with program rates of 15% and 20%. Before 30 June 2026, alternative billing in the EEA and UK was the standard fee minus 4 points and web links paid 10% or 20%.

For most games the billing choice program is the better fit, because it keeps Play Billing for players who prefer it. User choice billing also remains available in the EEA.

On 23 July 2026 the European Commission fined Google €430m (the Play part of an €890m decision that also covered Search) for breaching the Digital Markets Act’s anti-steering rule on Play, and ordered it to end the breach:

The Commission gave Google 60 days to comply, on pain of periodic penalty payments of up to 5% of its worldwide turnover. It also said changes Google had already made to its steering terms were “good progress” towards compliance and would be assessed against the order.

In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority designated Google with strategic market status on 22 October 2025 and consulted on a steering conduct requirement from 30 June 2026. It has not imposed one. Until it does, the UK billing choice terms above apply.

Australia, Japan, South Korea and India

Australia and Japan moved to the new fee model and the billing choice program on 30 September 2026. Games can offer alternative billing or a web link next to Play Billing, at the rates in the tables above, and players who first installed from Play on or after that date count as new installs.

Japan’s older external payments program, which charges 20% on purchases within 24 hours of a link (10% on subscriptions and your first $1M), stopped taking new apps on 30 September 2026 and closes after 31 March 2027. Games already enrolled must move to billing choice by then to keep web links for Japanese players.

In South Korea and India, alternative billing inside the app costs the Play Billing service fee minus 4 points, and we found no link-out program. The rest-of-world page covers each country.

Timeline

Checklist for Android games this quarter

1. Pull the split of your revenue between new installs and existing installs: on or after 30 June 2026 for the US, UK and EEA, and 30 September 2026 for Australia and Japan. The two groups pay different rates on every route except web links.
2. If you are enrolled in US external content links or alternative billing, you have owed transaction reports and fees since 1 October 2026. Build install reporting before 1 December 2026.
3. Measure what share of web spend happens within 24 hours of a link tap. Only that share pays Google’s link fee.
4. Check your game against the Games Level Up guidelines. Five points off every non-subscription sale is worth an integration sprint for most live games, and the lower rate starts only when Google validates the title.
5. In the EEA, prefer the billing choice program if you want to keep Play Billing, and expect fee changes after the Commission’s July 2026 decision. In Japan, move any external payments integration to billing choice before 31 March 2027.
6. Budget US link fees at both 0% and 20% until a court settles whether Google may charge them.