Indie Tooling

Apple cuts its Taiwan App Store commission to 26%

Taiwan becomes one more storefront with its own Apple rate, giving big sellers four points back while most solo devs on 15% see no change.

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5 min read

A phone showing a shop window, beside a pie chart with one slice pulled out and a stack of coins with one coin tipping off the top.
Illustration: Indie Tooling

Apple dropped its standard App Store commission on the Taiwan storefront from 30% to 26% on 31 October 2026. Its developer news post, dated 29 October, says the cut covers paid apps and Apple In-App Purchase transactions on iOS and iPadOS. Apple links the change to talks with Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission, the country’s competition regulator. You don’t have to accept the revised agreement before 31 October to get the new rate.

What changed, and what didn’t

The headline number is simple. On the Taiwan storefront, the standard rate is now 26% instead of 30%. Because In-App Purchase is covered, that includes the coins, level packs and season passes most mobile games sell. Gadget Review’s write-up, republished on Yahoo Finance, frames it plainly: on NT$100 of eligible sales, Apple’s share falls from NT$30 to NT$26, and yours rises from NT$70 to NT$74.

Apple’s post is short, and it leaves gaps. It only mentions the standard rate. It says nothing about the Small Business Program rate, subscription renewals after the first year, or the Mini Apps Partner Program. Gadget Review reports that eligible small developers keep their 15% rate. We couldn’t find that in Apple’s own wording, so treat it as likely rather than settled until the revised agreement text appears.

Apple also doesn’t mention alternative payment providers or links to an outside web store for Taiwan. Nothing in the post suggests either is now allowed there. Gadget Review describes it as a rate change only, with no new payment or distribution options. Apple says it has revised the Apple Developer Program License Agreement, with translations due within a month.

One more scoping point. Apple describes this as a change to the Taiwan storefront. That reads as applying to sales made to customers on the Taiwan App Store, wherever the developer is based. Apple doesn’t spell that out, though, so check your own agreement.

One more country with its own rate

Taiwan joins a growing list of storefronts where Apple’s terms differ from its global defaults. The closest match is China. In March 2026, Apple cut the China mainland storefront to 25% for standard transactions, from 15% to 12% for Small Business Program members and Mini Apps Partner Program purchases, and from 15% to 12% for subscription renewals after year one. Those rates took effect on 15 March 2026. China’s cut reached the small developer tier, but Taiwan’s announced cut does not.

Japan went further under its Mobile Software Competition Act, which took effect on 18 December 2025. According to MacRumors, Apple’s Japan terms split the fee into a 21% store commission plus a 5% charge for using Apple’s In-App Purchase. Small Business Program members pay 10% plus the same 5%. Japan also allows third-party payment processing and links out to web purchases, with a 15% commission on those linked sales (10% for small developers). For standard sellers, Japan’s 21% plus 5% lands on the same 26% total as Taiwan.

Bar chart of Apple's standard App Store rate by storefront. Global default 30%. Taiwan 26% from 31 October 2026. Japan 26%, made up of a 21% store commission plus 5% for Apple In-App Purchase, from 18 December 2025. China mainland 25% from 15 March 2026. A second row of small developer rates shows 15% by default, 15% in Taiwan as reported but not confirmed by Apple, 10% plus 5% in Japan, and 12% in China.
Apple's standard and small developer rates on four storefronts. Figure: Indie Tooling, from Apple Developer News, MacRumors and Gadget Review

The pattern is a local regulator applying pressure and Apple announcing a storefront-specific rate. Each change arrives as a short developer news post and a revised licence agreement.

What it means for a solo dev or small team

For most indie mobile developers, very little changes. Apple’s Small Business Program charges 15% if your proceeds were US$1 million or less across the previous calendar year and the current one. If you’re enrolled, your Taiwan rate was 15% before this week. If Gadget Review is right, it stays 15%.

The cut matters if you earn over that US$1 million line, or if you qualify for the Small Business Program but never enrolled. Enrolment isn’t automatic. Apple’s program page says you have to apply, and lower rates start 15 days after the end of the fiscal month in which you’re approved. If you haven’t enrolled, you’re paying 30% almost everywhere. Fixing that saves far more than Taiwan’s four points.

For developers on the standard rate, the gain depends on how much of your revenue comes from Taiwan. Take a game earning US$20,000 a month from Taiwan before Apple’s cut. At 30% you keep US$14,000. At 26% you keep US$14,800, an extra US$800 a month. If Taiwan brings you US$300 a month, the same change is worth US$12.

You don’t need to reprice. Apple’s post describes a change to its commission, not to customer prices, so your Taiwan prices stay where you set them. A small price cut on your Taiwan tiers is an option, but the commission change on its own isn’t a reason to do it.

What to do now: concrete steps

Most of this is reading and a little arithmetic.

  1. Log in to your Apple Developer account and look for the revised Apple Developer Program License Agreement. Read it and accept it. Apple says you’ll get the new rate without accepting it first, but the agreement is where any detail on other rates will live.
  2. Check your Small Business Program status. If you made under US$1 million last year and you’re not enrolled, apply now. It’s the biggest win on this list.
  3. Pull your Sales and Trends report filtered by territory for the past 12 months. Work out what share of your proceeds comes from Taiwan. If it’s a rounding error, you can stop here.
  4. If you’re on the standard rate and Taiwan matters, model three cases in a spreadsheet: 15%, 26% and 30%. Use your actual Taiwan revenue, not a guess.
  5. Keep a simple per-storefront fee table. List each country where your terms differ (China, Japan, the EU and now Taiwan) with the rate, the date it changed and a link to Apple’s post. Update it whenever Apple publishes a storefront adjustment.
  6. Wait for the translated agreement before assuming anything about subscriptions after year one or the Small Business Program rate in Taiwan.

If you sell subscriptions, step 6 matters most. China’s cut covered subscription renewals explicitly. Taiwan’s announcement doesn’t mention them, and we’d rather wait for the agreement text than guess.

Sources

Topicsappleapp storecommissioniosmobile games

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