iOS vs Android App Revenue: Which Platform Pays Developers More?
TrendApps Research · updated September 11, 2026 · 59,282 apps
Android apps cross $1,000 a month more often than iOS apps, at 21.0%. iOS apps cross that line 16.4% of the time. iOS apps that earn make more, with a median of $70k a month. The Android median among earners is $30k. Store revenue only; advertising income is not included, so ad-supported apps show as not earning here.
- 21.0%
- of Android apps earn $1k+ a month
- 16.4%
- of iOS apps earn $1k+ a month
- $70k
- iOS median among earners
- $30k
- Android median among earners
Which platform earns more per app?
Bar = 25th to 90th percentile · dot = median
Among apps that clear the floor, the iOS median is $70k a month against $30k on Android — 2.3× the size. At the top, the tenth-best iOS earners pass $900k a month versus $400k on Android.
This is the half of the cliché that holds: once an app is earning, it earns more on iOS at every percentile, and the gap widens toward the top.
Downloads: Android's volume advantage
Bar = 25th to 90th percentile · dot = median
43.7% of Android apps get more than 1,000 downloads a month, against 23.3% of iOS apps. Above that line the median Android app gets 80,000 downloads a month; the median iOS app 50,000.
Google Play has roughly three times the active devices worldwide. That is the argument for Android first when the model is ads or reach itself is the product.
Revenue per download by platform
The median earning iOS app makes $2.50 per download; the median Android app $0.70 — an iOS download is worth 3.6× an Android one.
Android gives more downloads, iOS gives more revenue per download; the product of the two is what pays. For subscriptions the iOS side usually wins; for ads the download side wins and none of this revenue data applies.
Monetization model by platform
Free apps with IAP earn 53.2% of the time on iOS and 41.7% on Android; paid apps without IAP earn 1.2% and 5.7%.
The monetization model matters more than the platform. If you are debating iOS versus Android before free-with-IAP versus paid, you are debating the smaller variable first.
Data table
| Model | iOS apps | iOS earn $1k+ | Android apps | Android earn $1k+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free + IAP | 9,913 | 53.2% | 11,232 | 41.7% |
| Paid, no IAP | 16,558 | 1.2% | 5,742 | 5.7% |
Ratings by platform
On iOS, apps with more than 100,000 ratings earn 51.3% of the time; on Android the same band earns 55.6%.
Google Play prompts for ratings more aggressively, so an Android rating count is worth slightly less per rating as a signal. The shape is the same on both stores.
Where the platforms differ by category
2 categories exist only on iOS, such as Sports, Developer Tools; 11 only on Android, such as Personalization, Events, Auto & Vehicles.
Every category page shows its own iOS-versus-Android split, which is where the platform question becomes useful — at the level of the category you are building in.
What this means if you're building an app
If your model is subscriptions or unlocks, start on iOS: an earning iOS app makes 2.3× the revenue of an earning Android app at the median. If your model is ads or reach is the product, start on Android: apps there pass 1,000 monthly downloads 1.9× as often.
Either way, settle the monetization model before the platform. Platform changes the size of the prize; the model changes whether there is one.
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 2026-09-11, 59,282 active apps.
Related reports
- How Much Do Mobile Apps Make? Revenue Data From Every Tracked App
18.3% of apps earn more than $1,000 a month; the rest sit at or below the floor.
- App Revenue per Download: What a Download Is Actually Worth
Median revenue per download: $1.43.
- Mobile App Revenue by Category: Which Categories Make the Most Money?
Highest share of earning apps: Dating at 60.4%.