$0.29 is a new 99 cents: Apple adds 700 new price points for apps in the App Store

Apple has added 700 new pricing tiers for developers to take advantage of and make their App Store pricing more flexible, with the lowest price set at $0.29.

• What is happening? Apple announced that developers now have more flexibility in app pricing with over 700 new pricing points in the App Store.
• Why care? Because apps and subscriptions are getting more and more expensive and this change may encourage some developers to price their apps more fairly.
• What to do? If you’re a developer, sign in to App Store Connect to access new pricing starting today and valid throughout 2023.

700 new App Store pricing points including $0.29.

The Apple Newsroom announcement says there are now 600 new price tiers, starting at 29 cents and going up to $10,000. Additionally, developers can contact Apple to request additional higher prices. Prior to the change, 99 cents was the lowest App Spore price available to developers.

These new pricing improvements will be available to apps that offer auto-renewable subscriptions starting today, and to all other apps and in-app purchases in spring 2023, giving all developers unprecedented flexibility and control over pricing their products in 45 currencies across 175 storefronts..

The new price tiers provide smaller price increases, such as every dime up to ten dollars, or every fifty cents between ten and fifty dollars.

In other words, developers are no longer limited to 99 cents as the lowest possible price on the App Store. Instead, developers can now charge people a third of that amount, which can be useful for microtransactions under 99 cents.

In each of the 175 App Store storefronts, developers will be able to use additional pricing rules, including those that start with two repeated digits (for example, ₩110,000), and will be able to price products over $0.99 or €X.99. ending with include rounded price endings (for example, X.00 or X.90), which are especially useful for managing packages and annual plans.

Why this is a smart move by Apple

With inflation unabated, the economy collapsing, and an economic downturn looming on the horizon, developers have complained about the lack of flexibility when it comes to app pricing. Developers have the right to set the price, but can only choose from predefined price categories.

With this change, according to the official announcement, App Store developers will have a total of 900 price points to choose from, nearly 10 times the number of price points previously available for most apps.

Please be aware that Apple may update App Store pricing in certain regions based on changes in taxes and exchange rates. “This is done using publicly available exchange rate information from financial data providers to ensure that in-app purchase prices remain the same across all storefronts,” says Apple.

Right now, app makers can adjust app prices to reflect tax and currency adjustments. Next year, they will be allowed to set local prices for paid apps and in-app purchases that won’t be affected by automatic price adjustments.