Apps are getting more expensive in Brazil, Russia, India, and more

By Joe Wituschek
published

App Store
App Store (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • Apple is raising the price of apps and in-app purchases due to tax and exchange rate changes.
  • Countries affected include Brazil, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Russia, and South Africa.
  • Developers can choose to honor the previous pricing for subscription customers.

Apple is increasing the price of apps and in-app purchases in Brazil, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Russia, and South Africa. The company announced the upcoming change in a news post (opens in new tab) on its Developer website, explaining that tax changes in the countries led to the change.

When taxes or foreign exchange rates change, we sometimes need to update prices on the App Store. In the next few days, prices of apps and in-app purchases (excluding auto-renewable subscriptions) on the App Store will increase in Brazil, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Russia, and South Africa. These increases also reflect the following tax changes:

  • India: New equalization levy of 2% (in addition to the existing goods and services tax of 18%)
  • Indonesia: New value-added tax of 10% for developers based outside of Indonesia

Prices of apps and in-app purchases (excluding auto-renewable subscriptions) will also be adjusted in Iceland and Albania to align with pricing used in other markets selling in U.S. dollars with value-added tax.

Apple goes on to say that developers will be able to adjust the prices of their apps accordingly due to the changes and that they can choose to keep subscriptions the same price for existing customers if they wish.

Once these changes go into effect, the Pricing and Availability section of My Apps will be updated, and your proceeds will be adjusted accordingly and calculated based on the tax-exclusive price. You can change the price of your apps and in-app purchases (including auto-renewable subscriptions) at any time in App Store Connect. If you offer subscriptions, you can choose to preserve prices for existing subscribers.

Developers can download the new price tier charts (opens in new tab) to see all of the new changes now.

Joe Wituschek
Joe Wituschek
Contributor

Joe Wituschek is a Contributor at iMore. With over ten years in the technology industry, one of them being at Apple, Joe now covers the company for the website. In addition to covering breaking news, Joe also writes editorials and reviews for a range of products. He fell in love with Apple products when he got an iPod nano for Christmas almost twenty years ago. Despite being considered a "heavy" user, he has always preferred the consumer-focused products like the MacBook Air, iPad mini, and iPhone 13 mini. He will fight to the death to keep a mini iPhone in the lineup. In his free time, Joe enjoys video games, movies, photography, running, and basically everything outdoors.