Free vs Paid Apps: Which Model Actually Makes Money?
TrendApps Research · updated October 26, 2026 · 62,959 apps
Free apps with IAP earn more than $1,000 a month 45.7% of the time. Paid apps without IAP clear the same bar 2.3% of the time. When a free-with-IAP app earns, the median is $50k a month. Among paid apps, no price point does better than 10.4%. Store revenue only; advertising income is not included, so ad-supported apps show as not earning here.
- 45.7%
- of free + IAP apps earn $1k+
- 2.3%
- of paid apps without IAP earn $1k+
- $50k
- median among free + IAP earners
- 20×
- free + IAP vs paid, earning rate
Four monetization models compared
- Free + IAP22,195 · 35.3%
- Paid + IAP3,720 · 5.9%
- Paid, no IAP24,022 · 38.2%
- Free, no IAP13,022 · 20.7%
22,195 apps are free with IAP and 45.7% of them earn more than $1,000 a month; 24,022 are paid with nothing to buy inside and 2.3% of those earn. Free-with-IAP apps clear the bar 20× as often as paid apps.
A free app with no IAP has no way to generate store revenue; its near-zero here is a limit of the measurement, not evidence that ad-supported apps fail. The fair comparison is between the first three models.
Data table
| Model | Apps | Earn $1k+/mo | Median (earners) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free + IAP | 22,195 | 45.7% | $50k |
| Paid + IAP | 3,720 | 10.6% | $6k |
| Paid, no IAP | 24,022 | 2.3% | $6k |
| Free, no IAP | 13,022 | 0.1% | — |
How much each model earns when it works
The median earning free-with-IAP app makes $50k a month. The median earning paid app makes $6k, and the paid-plus-IAP hybrid $6k.
Free entry removes the biggest objection at the moment of discovery; the users who stay are asked to pay once the value is clear, and subscriptions turn that into recurring revenue. A paid app has to win the sale on a store page against free alternatives one scroll away.
Do paid apps make more? Price points from $0.49 to $29.99
The most common paid price is $0.99, and only 0.9% of apps at that price earn more than $1,000 a month. Higher prices do better — at $24.99, 10.4% earn — but every price point lands far below the 45.7% of free apps with IAP.
At $0.99 you need over a thousand sales a month to clear the floor; a $14.99 app needs seventy. If you charge upfront, price like a tool, not like a candy bar.
Data table
| Price | Apps | Earn $1k+/mo |
|---|---|---|
| $0.29 | 122 | 3.3% |
| $0.49 | 251 | 3.2% |
| $0.99 | 5,554 | 0.9% |
| $1.49 | 586 | 0.3% |
| $1.99 | 4,423 | 1.4% |
| $2.49 | 224 | 1.8% |
| $2.99 | 3,617 | 2.3% |
| $3.49 | 149 | 5.4% |
| $3.99 | 2,139 | 2.0% |
| $4.49 | 118 | 5.9% |
| $4.99 | 3,054 | 4.6% |
| $5.99 | 876 | 7.2% |
| $6.99 | 618 | 8.1% |
| $7.99 | 555 | 4.9% |
| $8.99 | 311 | 9.0% |
| $9.99 | 1,607 | 4.6% |
| $11.99 | 127 | 10.2% |
| $12.99 | 242 | 5.4% |
| $14.99 | 438 | 8.2% |
| $19.99 | 503 | 7.6% |
| $24.99 | 182 | 10.4% |
| $29.99 | 200 | 7.0% |
Monetization model by platform
Free-with-IAP apps earn 52.1% of the time on iOS and 40.1% on Android. Paid apps without IAP earn 1.4% of the time on iOS and 5.3% on Android.
Hold the model fixed and the two stores land within a few points of each other; change the model and the rate moves by an order of magnitude.
Games vs apps
- Games4,168 · 6.6%
- Other categories58,564 · 93.4%
Games earn more than $1,000 a month 39.5% of the time, against 16.2% for apps outside games, with a median of $50k among earning games.
Games are the free-with-IAP model in its purest form. The lesson for non-game developers is not to build a game but to borrow the mechanics: free entry, value first, a purchase when the user is invested.
What this means if you're building an app
If you are choosing a model for a new app, ship it free and sell something inside. That model earns 20× as often as a paid app and its earners make a median of $50k a month.
If you already have a paid app, the least risky move is the hybrid: keep the price for existing users, add an in-app subscription for the feature people ask for most, and watch whether it outgrows the sales. If your app is ad-supported, none of this measures you.
Questions developers ask
How these numbers are computed
- An app counts as earning when its estimated monthly store revenue is above $1,000. Estimates below that sit at a floor of $1,000, so medians across all apps would be meaningless; every ratio on this page is the share of a segment above that floor.
- Revenue and downloads are estimates in bands ($5k–10k by $1k, $10k–100k by $10k, then by $100k and $1M). Medians among earners are the median band.
- Store revenue only — paid downloads and IAP (in-app purchases, including subscriptions). Advertising income is never included, so ad-supported apps show as not earning.
- Apps enter the catalogue from the US top charts, including Top Paid, so paid apps are over-represented. Ratios by monetization model are unaffected; overall ratios lean slightly paid.
- Delisted apps are excluded; unrated apps are excluded from rating charts. Recomputed after every crawl — last data point 2026-10-26, 62,959 active apps.
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