Google’s Play Store is about to feel a lot less closed off.
Starting June 30, developers in the US, UK, and European Economic Area will be able to steer users to external payment options, use alternative billing systems, and pay a newly split fee structure that is noticeably lighter than the old 30% commission model that helped fuel years of antitrust fights. The change is part of Google’s settlement with Epic Games, and it’s not just a small policy tweak. It’s a real shift in how Android app payments work.
The headline move is simple enough: Google is separating the cost of access to the Play Store from the cost of processing payments. Developers will still pay a service fee, but if they use their own billing system or send users to a website, they can avoid Google’s billing fee entirely. In markets covered by the rollout, that billing fee is 5% when transactions go through Google Play billing.
For smaller developers, the first $1 million in annual earnings gets the gentlest treatment. Google says the service fee on that revenue is 10% regardless of whether the app uses Play billing, an alternative system, or an external web link. That applies to auto-renewing subscriptions too. Beyond that threshold, the numbers rise, with the exact cut depending on whether the transaction comes from a new install or an existing one.
That distinction matters more than it sounds. Google defines a “new install” as one whose first install or first update happened on or after the new rules launch in that region. Existing installs are anything older than that. In practice, apps installed after June 30 can hit a lower ceiling than older ones, which creates a kind of two-track Play Store economy while the rollout takes hold.
If you’re tracking the broader antitrust story, this is the part where the legal pressure becomes visible in everyday product policy. The Play Store used to behave much more like Apple’s App Store, with a single billing path and a steep cut. The Epic case forced Google to open the door to outside payments, and now that door is actually swinging open. Apple, meanwhile, is still fighting over what its own outside-payment rules should look like, which makes Google’s move feel a bit like a preview of what regulators could eventually push elsewhere. Apple’s ongoing App Store fight remains a very different legal mess, but the pressure is clearly similar.
Google is also trying to make this feel less like a punishment and more like an incentive program. Developers who qualify for its Games Level Up or Apps Experience schemes can get lower fees if they meet Google’s requirements for quality, crash rates, and support for multiple form factors. The company says those programs will open to developers in the US, UK, Europe, and other initial markets later in September. That lines up with Google’s broader effort to make Play feel less like a toll booth and more like a platform that rewards better apps — not unlike some of the nudges we’ve already seen in Google Play’s buy-once game push.
There’s still a catch, though. Google isn’t walking away from the payment business. If a developer chooses Play billing, the company still gets a 5% billing fee on top of the service fee. So the new system doesn’t erase Google’s role in transactions; it just makes the price of that role easier to separate from store distribution itself.
The rollout won’t stop with June 30. Google says Australia will join the new structure on September 30, while Japan and Korea will follow on December 31. The rest of the world is slated to move over on September 30, 2027. That staggered approach suggests Google wants to move carefully, even as it responds to the settlement. It also gives the company time to thread the needle between developer pressure, local regulation, and the reality that Android is still one of the most tightly controlled “open” ecosystems in tech.
And the settlement may not be done changing the Play Store yet. Google still has to work through the next phase, including certification and support for third-party app stores that can operate more like Play on Android devices. That could take a while, especially as the company also tightens developer verification rules. In other words, the payment changes are only the first visible crack in a much bigger wall.
For now, though, Google has done something app developers have wanted for years: it’s made the store feel a little less like the only road in town.
If you want to see how Google has been reshaping other corners of the store, its recent work on sideloading protections and Play Store review tools shows the company is still very much in control — just under more pressure than before.
