Disclosure: I work on ZoopCoder, a small Indian dev shop that sells App Store submission as a paid fixed-price service. Every fee in this post is money paid to Apple, not to us, and I have linked Apple’s own page for each one so you can check it. The single paid thing we sell is flagged at the very end — the rest of the post works fine if you ignore it.
Every few weeks someone asks me the same question in a slightly different form: “how much does it cost to put an app on the App Store?” The answers online are either American, or a year out of date, or quietly skip the part that actually costs money. So here are the 2026 numbers, in rupees, with sources.
1. The fee: US$99 a year, and the word year is the whole story
The Apple Developer Program is 99 USD per membership year, “in local currency where available” — so Apple bills you in rupees during enrolment. At ₹95.61 to the dollar (14 September 2026) that is about ₹9,500 a year.
Compare that to Google:
Store What you pay How often Google Play US$25 (about ₹2,400) Once. Ever. One account, every app you ever ship Apple App Store US$99 (about ₹9,500) Every year, for as long as you want the apps listedThat difference compounds. Three years on Google Play costs US$25. Three years on the App Store costs US$297.
And Apple’s fee does not lapse quietly. When the membership expires, your apps are removed from the App Store. People who already installed the app keep their copy, but nobody new can download it and you cannot ship an update until you renew. If you are a solo dev with one free app and no revenue, budget that ₹9,500 as a permanent line, not a launch cost.
(Accredited educational institutions, government entities and qualifying non-profits can apply to Apple for a fee waiver. Most people reading this will not qualify.)
2. Individual or organization? Decide before you pay, not after
This one costs people days, and it is free to get right.
Individual enrolment needs your Apple Account with two-factor on, and a card. That is it. But your own legal name is shown as the seller on the App Store listing. For a personal project, fine. For anything you want to look like a company, not fine.
Organization enrolment shows your company name as the seller instead, and Apple requires rather more:
- a D-U-N-S Number for the legal entity (free from Dun & Bradstreet, but requesting one takes days);
- a legal entity that can contract with Apple — Apple explicitly does not accept DBAs, trade names or branches;
- a work email on your organization’s own domain — a Gmail address will not do;
- a publicly working company website on that same domain. A domain-registrar parking page or a link to your Instagram gets rejected;
- and the person enrolling must actually have authority to bind the company.
If you are an Indian private limited or LLP and do not yet have a D-U-N-S number, start that request first and do everything else while it processes. Switching from individual to organization later is a support ticket, not a checkbox.
3. Review takes a day. Rework takes a fortnight.
Apple’s own number on the App Review page: “On average, 90% of submissions are reviewed in less than 24 hours.”
That is genuinely fast — faster than Google Play’s typical turnaround right now. The reason iOS launches feel slow is the other Apple statistic on that same page:
“On average, over 40% of unresolved issues are related to guideline 2.1: App Completeness”
Guideline 2.1 is not a design judgement or a policy grey area. It is the boring stuff:
- the app crashed on the reviewer’s device;
- placeholder content — lorem ipsum, a stock avatar, an empty tab — still in the build you submitted;
- incomplete information: no demo account, so the reviewer hit your login screen and could not get past it;
- broken links (a privacy policy URL that 404s will do it);
- a screenshot showing an Android device, or UI that is not in the build.
Every one of those is checkable in twenty minutes before you submit. Each one you miss costs a full review cycle, and cycles are where the two weeks go.
The demo account is the single highest-value thing you can add. If your app has any sign-in at all, put a working username and password in the App Review notes, make sure the account has realistic data in it, and keep it alive until the app is approved. Reviewers do not sign up.
4. Guideline 4.2, and why website wrappers die on iOS
If your plan is “wrap our website in a WebView and ship it”, read guideline 4.2 first. Apple says it plainly:
“Websites served in an iOS app, web content that is not formatted for iOS, and limited web interactions do not make a quality app.”
Android will usually take that app. iOS will usually not. If you want the same web content on the App Store, it needs real native behaviour on top — push notifications, offline handling, native navigation, device features that a browser tab cannot offer. Plan that as build work, not as a conversion step.
5. The whole first-year bill, in rupees
For an Indian founder shipping one iPhone app, with a build that already exists:
What Who charges it Amount How often Apple Developer Program Apple US$99 (~₹9,500) Every year D-U-N-S number (org accounts) Dun & Bradstreet ₹0 Once Apple commission on in-app sales Apple 15% under US$1M/yr revenue Per sale App Store submission, if you do it yourself — ₹0 and a day or two of your time Per appYear one: about ₹9,500 plus your time. Year two onwards: about ₹9,500. There is no per-app charge and no submission fee — the recurring membership is the entire Apple bill until you start selling inside the app.
FX used throughout: ₹95.61 to the US dollar, 14 September 2026. Apple charges the rupee price shown at enrolment, which will not track the spot rate exactly.
6. When it is not worth it
Be honest with yourself about the ₹9,500 a year. If you are shipping a free app with no revenue model, no update plan and no users waiting for it, an iOS build is a subscription you will resent in month fourteen. Ship Android first — US$25, once, forever — see whether anyone wants the thing, and buy the Apple membership when there is a reason to.
7. The paid option, stated plainly
If you would rather not learn App Store Connect: ZoopCoder does the whole submission — app record, listing, App Privacy labels, age rating, export compliance, build upload, review notes and demo login — for a fixed ₹4,999, sent to Apple review in 2–3 working days. That is the service page, price and scope on it. The ₹4,999 is on top of Apple’s US$99, not instead of it, and nobody outside Apple can promise you approval — treat anyone who does as a red flag.
If you are still costing the build itself, we keep an itemised breakdown at mobile app development cost in India, including the yearly fees both stores charge.
Corrections welcome — if Apple changes a number, tell me and I will fix the post.