{"id":49152,"date":"2025-09-04T15:15:01","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T19:15:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=49152"},"modified":"2025-09-04T15:15:01","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T19:15:01","slug":"substack-iap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/04\/substack-iap\/","title":{"rendered":"Substack IAP"},"content":{"rendered":"

Substack<\/a> (Hacker News<\/a>):<\/p>\n

The Substack app drives more than 30% of all paid subscriptions, making it a major source of discovery and discussion. Until now, however, it hasn’t always been possible to upgrade to a paid subscription directly in the app.<\/p>

That’s changing. Apple now allows Substack to include external links for paid subscriptions in the iOS app in the U.S., while also requiring that all publications offer in-app purchase (IAP) as an option.<\/p>

Subscriptions purchased via Apple’s IAP have different fees, payout timing, and billing controls compared with web-based subscriptions. This FAQ explains those differences and the tools Substack has built to help you protect your revenue, maintain your subscriber relationships, and stay in control.<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

To protect your earnings, Substack will automatically set your price in the iOS app higher for subscriptions purchased through Apple’s in-app purchase (IAP) system. This increase offsets Apple’s fee, so you receive approximately the same payout you would for a web-based subscription.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can opt out of the price adjustment, but you can’t opt out of IAP. So payments that go through Apple will be delayed, and there’s a bifurcated refund system.<\/p>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n