# How much do apps make per download? The real numbers

Source: https://rushilo.com/blog/how-much-apps-make-per-download
By om.assets, Rushilo. Updated 2026-10-31.

> Most apps make between a few cents and a few dollars per download. RevenueCat's State of Subscription Apps 2026 puts the median at about $0.23 per install after 14 days and $0.34 after 60 days. Hard paywall apps earn a median of about $3.09 per install by day 60 versus $0.38 for freemium, while ad supported apps usually earn cents per user unless they keep users for months.

You built an app, or you are thinking about it, and you want to know what a download is actually worth. Is 1,000 downloads a nice side income or a rounding error? Should you pay $1 to get an install?

The honest answer is that **a download is worth whatever share of those users pay, times what they pay, minus Apple's cut**. For most apps that lands somewhere between a few cents and a few dollars. Below are the real benchmarks, the math to work out your own number, and what the developers who moved theirs actually changed.

## How much do apps make per download on average?

**The median subscription app earns about $0.23 per download after 14 days and about $0.34 after 60 days**, according to RevenueCat's State of Subscription Apps 2026, which tracks revenue across a very large number of apps that use its billing tools. That is per install, counting everyone who downloaded, not just payers.

The spread around that median is huge. Here is what the report shows for median revenue per install (RPI):

| Segment | Day 14 | Day 60 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| All categories | $0.23 | $0.34 |
| Hard paywall apps | $2.32 | $3.09 |
| Freemium apps | $0.27 | $0.38 |
| Health and fitness | $0.48 | $0.66 |
| Business | $0.31 | $0.50 |
| Education | $0.30 | not stated |
| Games (subscriptions) | $0.08 | $0.14 |
| North America | $0.38 | $0.55 |
| India and South East Asia | $0.08 | $0.11 |

Two things jump out. First, **how you charge matters more than what category you are in**: a hard paywall app earns roughly eight times more per install than a freemium app. Second, **where your users live matters almost as much**: an install from North America is worth about five times one from India or South East Asia.

> **Watch out:** these are medians from apps that already use a subscription platform. Many apps on the store make nothing at all, so a brand new app with no paywall tests is usually below these numbers, not at them.

## Does Apple pay developers for each download?

**No. A free download earns you zero.** Apple pays you only when a user buys something: a paid app, an in app purchase or a subscription. Then it keeps a commission.

- Standard commission: 30% of each sale.
- App Store Small Business Program: 15% for developers who made up to $1 million in proceeds the previous year, and new developers can join. Most indie apps pay 15%.
- The Apple Developer Program costs $99 a year, whether you earn anything or not.

So when someone says an app makes "$0.50 per download", ask whether that is before or after Apple's cut. RevenueCat's figures are revenue, and the money that reaches your bank is lower. If you want the full picture of the ways a free app can charge, we cover it in [how free apps make money](/blog/how-free-apps-make-money).

## How do you calculate revenue per download for your app?

**Revenue per download equals total revenue in a period divided by installs in that period.** You can also build it up from three numbers, which is more useful because it shows which lever to pull:

```
revenue per download = conversion rate x average revenue per payer x (1 - Apple cut)
```

### A worked example

Say you have a habit tracker with a $29.99 yearly plan.

1. 1,000 people download it this month.
2. 2.0% of them buy the yearly plan within a month. That is the global median download to paid rate RevenueCat reports, so 20 payers.
3. Gross revenue: 20 x $29.99 = $599.80.
4. After the 15% Small Business commission: about $509.83.
5. Revenue per download: $509.83 / 1,000 = **about $0.51**.

Now change one number. Move conversion to 4% and you get about $1.02 per download. Drop the price to $14.99 at the same 2% and you are down near $0.25. This is why developers who earn well obsess over the paywall more than the download count.

### Monthly and weekly plans change the timing

A yearly plan pays up front. A monthly plan at $4.99 pays a little now and more later, if people stay. That is why the report shows day 60 numbers higher than day 14: renewals and late conversions keep adding revenue to the same group of installs. When you compare yourself to benchmarks, compare the same time window.

## How much do ads pay per download?

**Ads usually pay a few cents to a few tens of cents per download over the whole life of the user.** Ad networks pay per thousand impressions (eCPM), and vendor benchmarks for 2026 put US iOS rewarded video around $10 to $25 per thousand views, interstitials around $5 to $15, and banners under $2. Android and lower income countries pay a fraction of that.

The catch is retention. A rough example for an ad supported utility:

| Assumption | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Ad views per active day | 3 interstitials |
| eCPM | $8 per 1,000 |
| Revenue per active day | 3 x $8 / 1,000 = $0.024 |
| Days the average user opens the app | 5 |
| Revenue per download | about $0.12 |

That is before the user who never opens it again after day one. Ads work for games and apps people open many times a day with very large traffic. For a small solo app, one r/AppBusiness thread after another lands on the same view: ads are a top up, a paywall is the business.

> **Tip:** these eCPM figures mostly come from ad networks and monetisation vendors, who benefit from high numbers. Treat them as a ceiling and test with your own traffic.

## What do indie developers actually report?

**Real solo apps cluster from about $0.10 to a few dollars per download, and the ones at the top changed pricing and traffic, not features.** A few examples from r/AppBusiness:

- A Japanese learning app reached about 10,000 users and $1,000 in revenue, roughly $0.10 per user. Fine for a hobby, thin for a business.
- One developer whose app was "dead" removed the free trial, raised the yearly price from about $11 to $22 and added a $1.99 weekly plan as a cheap paid trial. Conversion held, so revenue per download roughly doubled. He also reported that paid installs converted around 2% while organic App Store search installs converted around 12%.
- Another operator wired RevenueCat to Slack and emailed everyone who cancelled a trial on the same day. He reported trial to paid moving from 21% to 44% in five weeks, which nearly doubles what each trial start is worth.

The second point is the one people miss: **not all downloads are equal**. Someone who searched the App Store for exactly what your app does is worth several times more than someone who tapped an ad by accident. That is why the operators in the [App Store Apps pack](/app-store) put search ranking and listing work ahead of paid ads.

## Is it worth paying for downloads?

**Only if one download earns more than it costs, and for most new apps it does not.** Compare your revenue per download with your cost per install, using the same time window.

One r/AppBusiness founder spent $5,674 across Apple Search Ads, TikTok and Reddit ads and worked out about $114 to acquire one paying customer, against about $18 in lifetime value per customer. Every paying user cost more than six times what they brought in. He stopped paid ads and moved to content and search.

A quick test before you spend:

1. Work out your day 30 revenue per download from organic users.
2. Assume paid users convert at half that rate or worse (the 2% versus 12% example above is worse).
3. Divide your daily budget by the cost per install your ad platform quotes.
4. If paid revenue per download is below cost per install, stop. Fix the paywall or the listing first.

Some small developers do make Apple Search Ads work on tight budgets: one country, exact match keywords, Search Match turned off. In one niche a developer saw about $2 per acquisition in the US but close to $0.10 in Germany and Brazil. That only pays off when your revenue per download in that country is higher.

## How many downloads do you need to make $1,000 a month?

**Divide the money you want by your revenue per download.** Using the RevenueCat day 60 medians:

| Revenue per download | Downloads per month for $1,000 |
| --- | --- |
| $0.12 (ads only example) | about 8,300 |
| $0.38 (freemium median) | about 2,600 |
| $0.55 (North America median) | about 1,800 |
| $3.09 (hard paywall median) | about 330 |

Subscriptions soften this over time, because last month's subscribers renew while new ones arrive. But the table shows why raising revenue per download is usually easier than chasing 8,000 extra installs a month. Results vary a lot, and many apps never reach $1,000 a month, so treat this as a planning tool, not a promise.

## How do you raise revenue per download?

**Pull the four levers in order: who downloads, whether they see the offer, the price, and whether they stay.**

1. **Get better downloads.** Rank for the exact search phrases your buyers use. Localise your store listing for richer markets such as Germany and France before you translate the whole app.
2. **Show the paywall early.** Test a hard paywall or a paywall at the end of onboarding against a soft freemium wall. The 10.7% versus 2.1% conversion gap in the RevenueCat data is the biggest single lever there is.
3. **Test the price up, not down.** Several solo developers raised prices and kept conversion flat. Add a yearly plan with a clear discount and consider a weekly plan as a paid trial.
4. **Rescue cancellations.** Watch trial cancellations in real time and reach out. Track revenue per install, not subscriber count, so you can see whether a change really worked.

## Mistakes that keep revenue per download low

- **Celebrating downloads.** 10,000 downloads at $0.05 each is $500. Track revenue per download from day one.
- **Buying cheap installs to look busy.** One developer spent several hundred euros on ads in low cost countries. Most installs were bots or the wrong audience, uninstalls piled up and organic ranking dropped afterwards.
- **Comparing the wrong windows.** Your day 7 number against a day 60 benchmark will always look bad.
- **Leaving the default price.** Many first apps sit at $0.99 or $9.99 a year because it felt fair, not because anyone tested it.
- **Ads in a small app.** A few hundred daily users with banner ads earns pocket change and can hurt ratings.

## Where to go from here

1. Set up RevenueCat or App Store Connect reports and calculate your revenue per download for the last 30 days.
2. Split it by country and by traffic source so you know which downloads are worth the most.
3. Run one paywall test (hard paywall or trial versus no trial) for two to four weeks.
4. Run one price test on the yearly plan.
5. Only then consider paid ads, and only where revenue per download beats cost per install.

The [App Store Apps pack](/app-store) walks through the full process step by step, with the paywall and pricing tests, the listing and localisation checklist and the content playbook that drives App Store search. It is $19, or $39 for all 16 Money Printer packs.

## Frequently asked questions

### How much does an app make per download on average?

For subscription apps, RevenueCat's 2026 report puts the median at about $0.23 per install after 14 days and $0.34 after 60 days across all categories. Averages are pulled up by a few big apps, so the typical indie app sits near or below the median until it improves its paywall and traffic.

### Does Apple pay developers per download?

No. Apple pays you only when someone buys something: a paid app, an in app purchase or a subscription. A free download earns nothing by itself. Apple keeps 30% of each sale, or 15% for developers in the Small Business Program earning under $1 million a year.

### How much do ads pay per app download?

Usually a few cents to tens of cents over the life of the user. Vendor benchmarks put US iOS rewarded video around $10 to $25 per thousand views and banners under $2, and most users stop opening an app within days. Ads only add up with heavy daily use or very large traffic.

### How many downloads do I need to make $1,000 a month?

Divide your target by your revenue per download. At the freemium median of about $0.38 you would need roughly 2,600 new downloads a month, and at a hard paywall median of about $3 you would need around 330. Subscriptions also stack month over month, so the number falls as renewals build up.

### Is a hard paywall better than freemium?

On revenue per install, yes: RevenueCat reports a median of $3.09 by day 60 for hard paywall apps against $0.38 for freemium, and 10.7% download to paid conversion versus 2.1%. Hard paywalls can lower downloads, ratings and word of mouth, so test it on your own app instead of assuming.

### Why do iPhone apps earn more per download than Android apps?

iPhone users skew toward richer countries and are more used to paying for apps and subscriptions. Region matters even more than platform: RevenueCat reports about $0.55 per install by day 60 in North America against $0.11 in India and South East Asia.

### Is revenue per download the same as lifetime value?

No. Revenue per download spreads revenue across everyone who installed, including people who never paid. Lifetime value usually means what one paying customer brings in. You need both: revenue per download tells you what an install is worth, lifetime value tells you what a payer is worth.

### What is the best way to learn to make money from apps?

If per-download numbers are your concern, the Rushilo App Store Apps pack covers them in its revenue-to-download filter lesson and in what the numbers actually look like, so you can screen an idea before building. It includes 24 lessons built from developers' public posts and copy-ready checklists. Pay $19 one time, or $39 for all 16 packs. It promises no income; your results are your own.

## Sources

- [State of Subscription Apps 2026 (RevenueCat)](https://www.revenuecat.com/state-of-subscription-apps)
- [App Store Small Business Program (Apple Developer)](https://developer.apple.com/app-store/small-business-program/)
- [How Much Ad Revenue Can Apps Really Make in 2026? (MonetizeMore)](https://www.monetizemore.com/blog/how-much-ad-revenue-can-apps-generate/)
- [My app was dead. I killed the free trial, doubled the price, and hit $3k revenue (r/AppBusiness)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AppBusiness/comments/1vw950q/)
- [My iOS app is 4 months old and does $944 MRR (r/AppBusiness)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AppBusiness/comments/1usio9p/)