# What young subscription apps charge: weekly, monthly and yearly prices from 70 earning iPhone apps

By Mika Heinonen (Indie iOS developer and maker of Fledly). Published 2026-10-27, updated 2026-10-27.
Canonical: https://fledly.app/blog/app-subscription-pricing-2026/

> The real prices of 70 young iPhone apps that are on the US Top Grossing charts: typical weekly, monthly and yearly prices, which plans they offer, how big the yearly discount is, and what that means for pricing your own app.

**Key takeaways**

- Among **70 young iPhone apps with subscriptions** on the US Top Grossing charts (October 27, 2026), the typical cheapest prices were **$7.99 a week, $9.99 a month and $39.99 a year**.
- **Yearly is the default.** 81% of the apps whose plans we could read offer a yearly plan; 60% offer weekly and 53% monthly.
- The two most common setups are **monthly + yearly** (19 apps) and **weekly + yearly** (17 apps). Apps that sell **only weekly** are mostly short-drama streaming apps.
- When an app offers both, the yearly plan costs a median **58% less than twelve months of the monthly plan**, roughly five months' price for a year.
- A $7.99 weekly plan costs **about $415 a year**, ten times the typical yearly plan. Weekly pricing belongs to ad-driven funnels; users of budget-conscious apps complain about it.

How much should an iOS app charge? Big-app benchmarks don't help much when you're launching alone, and survey data mixes games, utilities and enterprise apps. So we looked at a narrower, more useful group: **apps under two years old that already earn enough to appear on the US Top Grossing charts**, and read the subscription prices on their App Store pages.

## The data

On October 27, 2026, Fledly tracked 926 young earning apps across six countries. For **82** of them (all in the US) we had the in-app purchase list from the App Store product page, and **70** of those sell subscriptions. For **58** the purchase names state the period (weekly, monthly, yearly), so those 58 are the basis for the plan analysis below.

Two caveats before the numbers:

- An App Store page lists an app's in-app purchases, which can include **introductory offers and price tests**. We use the **cheapest listed price per period** for each app, which is often the price new users actually see first.
- These are apps that *earn*, not a random sample. That's the point, but it means the prices are those that work for apps with a working funnel.

## Typical prices

*Figure: Each dot is one app's cheapest listed price for that period. The line marks the median. Prices above the axis maximum are drawn at the edge.*

| Period | Apps offering it | Median | Middle half | Most common price |
|:--|--:|--:|--:|:--|
| Weekly | 35 | $7.99 | $6.99–9.99 | $6.99 (10 apps), $9.99 (8) |
| Monthly | 31 | $9.99 | $9.99–17.99 | $9.99 (10 apps) |
| Yearly | 47 | $39.99 | $34.99–71 | $39.99 (15 apps), $29.99 (6) |

The price points cluster tightly. **$9.99 a month and $39.99 a year are the default answers**; a third of the yearly plans are exactly $39.99. Higher prices exist (up to $349 a year, and $199.99 for several streaming apps), but they are the exception among young apps.

Counting every listed price point instead of the cheapest per app gives slightly higher medians: $9.99 a week, $12.99 a month and $49.99 a year. The difference comes mostly from intro offers listed alongside the regular price.

## Which plans they offer

*Figure: Combinations of subscription periods among the 58 apps whose plan periods are named.*

Three patterns cover almost everything:

1. **Monthly + yearly (19 apps).** The classic setup. Common in Food & Drink, Health & Fitness, finance and productivity apps: meal planners, workout trackers, benefits finders. Typically $9.99 a month and $29.99–59.99 a year.
2. **Weekly + yearly (17 apps).** The paywall shows a weekly price as the low entry point and a yearly plan as the "best value". Typical of AI photo and video apps, scanners and camera-based health apps, and a setup often paired with paid-ad funnels.
3. **Weekly only (8 apps).** Six of them are short-drama streaming apps that sell episode access by the week, from $4.99 to $49.99.

Nine apps offer all three periods.

## The yearly discount

For the 28 apps that sell both monthly and yearly plans, the yearly price is a median **58% below twelve times the monthly price**. Put differently, a year costs about **five months** of the monthly plan. The range is wide: from 11% (a yearly plan that's barely cheaper) to over 90% (a yearly price that is really an anchor to make the monthly plan look expensive, or the other way round).

A steep yearly discount does two things: it moves people to the plan with the lowest churn, and it makes the monthly price feel like a penalty. Both help revenue, as long as the yearly price still looks reasonable on its own.

## Weekly pricing: when it fits and when it backfires

A weekly plan at $7.99 looks small on a paywall but adds up to **about $35 a month or $415 a year**. Apps use it because it converts well from paid ads: the first charge is low, and the app recoups its ad cost within weeks.

The reviews show where it backfires. In our teardown of [budget meal planner apps](/blog/budget-meal-planner-apps/), "$10 a week" was one of the most repeated complaints, because the audience is people trying to save money. In [AI photo-to-video apps](/blog/ai-photo-to-video-apps/), weekly plans combined with coin packs drive most one-star reviews.

A simple rule: **if your users find you through search and stay for months, monthly and yearly fit better.** Weekly suits short, intense use (a trip, an exam, a creative trend) and paid-traffic funnels.

## What this means for your app

- **Start with $9.99 a month and $39.99 a year** (or $29.99 if your category is price-sensitive). It's what earning young apps converge on, and users have seen those prices many times.
- **Make yearly the highlighted plan** and price it at roughly four to six months of the monthly price.
- **Add weekly only if you have a reason**, such as short-term use or a paid acquisition funnel, and be explicit about the price per month.
- **Test prices against your category**, not the whole App Store. Food & Drink apps cluster lower ($19.99–29.99 a year), while creative AI apps lean on weekly plans.
- **Say what the trial converts to.** Trial and billing complaints were among the most common one-star topics in both categories we've studied in depth.

Fledly shows the in-app purchase prices of the young earners and competitors in each idea card, so you can see the price range of your exact category before you set yours.

## Frequently asked questions

### How much should I charge for my iOS app subscription?

Young apps that already earn on the US App Store most often charge $9.99 a month and $39.99 a year, with $29.99 a year common in price-sensitive categories like food. Start near those prices, make the yearly plan the highlighted option, and test against the apps in your own category.

### Should my app offer a weekly subscription?

Only if your app is used intensively for a short time or you acquire users through paid ads. Weekly plans of $7–10 add up to $30–40 a month, and users of everyday or budget-oriented apps often complain about them in reviews.

### How much cheaper should the yearly plan be?

Among young earning apps that sell both, the yearly plan costs a median 58% less than twelve months of the monthly price, about five months of the monthly price for a full year.

### What is the most common subscription price on the App Store?

Among the young US apps we analysed, the most common prices were $9.99 a month, $39.99 a year and $6.99 a week.

## Sources

- Fledly data: in-app purchase lists on the US App Store product pages of 82 young apps on the US Top Grossing charts, October 27, 2026 (70 with subscriptions, 58 with named periods).