The model, not the sticker price

Monetization Mix

Upfront price is nearly extinct — most search results are 100% free apps, and the money is all happening inside them. This shows how the 25 apps you share a result with actually charge, and what a download is worth to each.

Why not just compare prices

Because there are almost none left to compare. Sampled live, a search for “pdf scanner” returned 20 apps and none of them charged upfront; “weather” returned 22 and none did; “calculator” returned 23 and exactly one did. A price chart of that is a flat line. What separates these apps is whether they sell anything inside, and how much a download ends up being worth.

Pair it with the rating benchmark — reach without ratings and reach without revenue are different problems.

How do the apps in your category actually charge?

Upfront price is nearly extinct: measured live, zero of 20 apps for "pdf scanner" and zero of 25 in a Productivity cohort charged anything to download. A page built on price alone would report "100% free" for almost every category and teach you nothing.

What matters is the MODEL — free, freemium, paid, or paid with in-app purchases — plus what an install is worth in revenue. That is what this reports across the 25 apps in your search result.

How it works

  1. 1One search call builds the cohort, one lookup gets your app, and one batched call gets estimates for all of them.
  2. 2Each app is bucketed by whether it charges upfront and whether it sells in-app purchases.
  3. 3Revenue per install is computed where both figures exist, and shown as a bracket rather than a precise number.
  4. 4Apps whose IAP status is not an explicit yes or no get their own unknown bucket and are excluded from the share calculation.

What it cannot tell you

  • Apple publishes no in-app purchase prices and no subscription tiers, anywhere in the public API. This page can say how many rivals sell IAP; it must never state or imply what they charge. Anyone claiming to know a competitor’s subscription pricing from public data is guessing.
  • Revenue per install is two coarsely-rounded estimates divided by each other — a live top-100 sample returned just 24 distinct download values — and it is revenue BEFORE Apple’s commission.
  • A whole cohort on one model is a fact about the category, not proof that the model is right for your app.

Frequently asked questions

Can I see what a competitor charges for their subscription?

No. Apple does not publish in-app purchase prices or subscription tiers in any public API. What is observable is whether an app offers in-app purchases at all.

Should my app be free or paid?

This page shows what your category actually does and what an install is worth there. It deliberately does not recommend a price — that depends on your costs and your product, neither of which it can see.

Is revenue per install my revenue?

No. It is one third-party estimate divided by another, worldwide, over a rolling 30 days, before Apple’s cut. Treat it as a way to compare apps against each other, not as anyone’s accounts.