App Store in Brazil: alternative payments and commissions

In Brazil, since iOS 26.5, an App Store app can sell its digital content in three ways: Apple's in-app purchase, a third-party payment provider inside the app, or an offer on your website. Apple takes a 21% commission, or 10% for small developers and for subscriptions after one year, plus a 5% fee if the payment goes through in-app purchase. A link to your website costs 15%, or 10%, on sales made within 7 days of the click.

These options come from an agreement between Apple and CADE, Brazil's competition authority. Two conditions matter above all: in-app purchase stays displayed alongside, and no user under 18 sees an offer on your website. Everything here comes from the official pages of Apple and CADE, reviewed on October 27, 2026.

I publish my own iOS apps with Expo, sold by subscription. The general in-app purchase rules are in the guideline 3.1.1 guide. Here, we only talk about Brazil.

The agreement between Apple and CADE

On December 23, 2025, the tribunal of the Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econômica (CADE) unanimously approved the Termo de Compromisso de Cessação (TCC) proposed by Apple, according to CADE's official note. The investigation had been opened in December 2022, after a complaint from the Mercado Livre group.

According to that note, the agreement requires Apple to:

• let developers promote external offers and direct users to a purchase outside the app;
• accept other payment methods inside the app;
• open up distribution through alternative marketplaces.

Alternative payments and external offers must be shown side by side with in-app purchase.

The agreement also includes protections for children and sets the structure of Apple's commissions. It lasts three years from the moment the new terms become mandatory for developers. In case of total non-compliance, Apple faces a fine of up to 150 million reais and the reopening of the investigation.

I haven't read the full text of the TCC. CADE announced it would be published "em breve" (soon), and its note gives no rates. So the numbers in this guide come from Apple's pages. On June 18, 2026, Apple presented its changes for Brazil, available with iOS 26.5. Apple states that developers selling digital content in Brazil will pay it "the same or less than they do today".

The four ways to sell in Brazil

Apple's Changes to iOS in Brazil page describes four paths.

Option	Who collects	What you need
Apple's in-app purchase	Apple	Nothing new
Third-party payment in app	Your provider	The entitlement
Offer on your website	Your website	The entitlement
Alternative marketplace	You or the marketplace	Notarization

On the technical side, in-app purchase doesn't change: Apple writes that no changes are required on your end. Only its commission follows Brazil's new rate schedule. For the next two options, the page on payment options in Brazil requires the StoreKit External Purchases or Offers entitlement. It covers the offer on your website, with or without a clickable link.

Apple's commissions in Brazil, option by option

Here's what Apple publishes. I copied this table from the HTML of its two pages, not from a summary.

Option	Standard rate	Reduced rate
In-app purchase	21% + 5%	10% + 5%
Third-party payment in app	21%	10%
Link to your website	15%	10%
Alternative marketplace	5%	5%

How to read it:

• The reduced rate applies to members of the Small Business Program, the Mini Apps Partner Program and the Video Partner Program, and to subscriptions after their first year. For the App Store commission, the general page adds the News Partner Program, which is missing from the payment options page, from Apple's announcement and from the link-to-website rate schedule.
• The 5% on in-app purchase is a payment processing fee, separate from the commission.
• The link to your website pays the "store services commission", only on sales made within 7 days of the click. Apple only defines it for a clickable link that opens the browser.
• The alternative marketplace pays the Core Technology Commission (CTC): 5% of digital content sales, paid apps included, excluding taxes.

For in-app purchase, Apple specifies that the commission and fee apply to the price paid by the customer, and that the license agreement governs how taxes are calculated. The CTC is calculated on the price excluding taxes. With a third-party provider, its fees come on top.

Example: R$100 paid by a customer

This calculation is an example, not a measurement. I ignore taxes, and I write "+ fees" for the provider's fees, which I didn't look up: they depend on your contract. The small developer here is a member of the Small Business Program.

Option	Small developer	Standard rate
In-app purchase	R$15 for Apple	R$26 for Apple
Third-party payment in app	R$10 + fees	R$21 + fees
Link to your website	R$10 + fees	R$15 + fees

With in-app purchase, the small developer keeps R$85. With a third-party payment, they keep R$90, minus their provider's fees.

For a Small Business Program member, leaving in-app purchase saves 5 points on a sale subject to commission, before the provider's fees. If your provider takes more than R$5 on R$100, in-app purchase is still cheaper. At the standard rate, the gap reaches 5 points for third-party payment and 11 points for the link to your website. One exception: on your website, a sale made more than 7 days after the click doesn't pay the link commission.

Those points don't count what you take on yourself:

• customer support: for these purchases, Apple no longer handles refunds, purchase history or subscriptions;
• taxes, which you collect and remit;
• a monthly report sent by your server, with every transaction token, even with no purchase;
• Apple's invoice, payable within 30 days of receipt. Otherwise, Apple can withhold the amount from your earnings in other markets, remove your app from the App Store, or even kick you out of the developer program.

The App Store also warns the buyer: a banner on your product page, a notice in the Information section, and the External Purchases label when confirming the download. I have no measurement of their effect on conversion.

For a first app, I stick with in-app purchase in Brazil: 15% total for a small developer, with no reporting server and no payment customer support. Alternative payment makes sense once you sell enough for a gap of a few points to pay for that work.

Choosing between a subscription and a one-time purchase also changes the commission: the details are in subscription or one-time purchase for your iOS app.

The rules your app must follow

If you offer a third-party payment or a link to your website, Apple imposes these rules, according to the payment options page:

• In-app purchase must be offered at the same time, on every screen that sells digital content.
• It must be at least as visible as any other option. Apple judges the whole thing: layout, wording, font, color, size.
• The in-app purchase button uses the artwork provided by Apple, on a black or white background. On a standard iOS button, the text next to it is at least 15 points.
• You can show different prices and benefits depending on the option.
• Your flow must not discourage or disrupt in-app purchase.
• Your App Store product page doesn't say people can buy on your website or through a third-party payment.
• Before sending the user to the other option, your app shows an information sheet: it tells them they're dealing with you, not Apple. On iOS 26.5, you build it following the specs Apple provides. A system-provided sheet arrives with iOS 27.2, in beta.

Your provider must meet PCI Level 1 for card data. It must also offer customer support: disputes over unauthorized transactions, subscription management, refunds.

If you're building your first purchase screen, iOS paywall mistakes still apply with two buttons.

Minors: the strictest rule

These Apple rules apply to any app offering an alternative payment in Brazil:

• Kids category: parental control before any third-party payment, and no purchase offer on a website;
• other apps: support for parental purchase controls, and parental consent for alternative options;
• under 18: third-party payment in the app behind a parental control, and no purchase offer on a website.

In Brazil, a user under 18 must not see any purchase offer on your website, even with a parent's approval. Japan is more flexible, according to Apple's page on Japan. In this table, "no web" means no purchase offer on a website.

User	Brazil	Japan
Kids category	Parental control, no web	Parental control, no web
Under 13	Parental control, no web	Parental control, no web
13 to 17	Parental control, no web	Third-party payment and web, parental control

To know whether the user can pay, Apple points to canMakePayments in StoreKit, and promises new APIs. For age, Apple announced in February 2026 that the Declared Age Range API gives you the user's age range in Brazil, if they or a parent agree to share it. My take: as long as your app doesn't know whether the user is an adult, don't show the link to your website.

Age matters for your product page too. According to Apple's February 24, 2026 announcement, an app that declares paid loot boxes becomes 18+ on the Brazilian storefront. Since that date, the App Store there blocks downloads of 18+ apps until the user has been confirmed as an adult.

Setting up alternative payment, step by step

1. Have the Account Holder accept the updated agreement. The Apple Developer Program License Agreement now includes the Brazil terms. Only the Account Holder can accept it, and Apple set the deadline at July 6, 2026 for all members. Check in your developer account that it's been accepted.
2. Add the entitlement to your App ID. Once the agreement is accepted, your account has access to the StoreKit External Purchases or Offers entitlement. Add it to your app's identifier in Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles.
3. Declare it in your project. The key is com.apple.developer.storekit.custom-purchase-link.allowed-regions, an array containing a single value: br. With Expo, it goes in the config entitlements. Your provisioning profile must then include the entitlement.
4. Code the flow in the required order. Check canMakePayments, then the isEligible property of ExternalPurchaseCustomLink. Before each possible transaction, request a token with token(for:): that's what you'll report to Apple. When the user taps the alternative button, show the information sheet. Apple's page mentions showNotice, but the API documentation reserves the system sheet for iOS 27.2: before that, you draw it yourself.
5. Keep in-app purchase on screen, with the parental controls described above.
6. Name your provider in the App Review notes. It must be ready to process your app's transactions. An incomplete submission can delay review or end in a rejection.
7. Report your transactions every month. App Store Connect Help asks for a report within 15 days after the end of the calendar month, sent through the External Purchase Server API. It contains every token: purchases, renewals, refunds, and even those with no purchase.

Here's step 3 with Expo, in app.json:

{
  "expo": {
    "ios": {
      "entitlements": {
        "com.apple.developer.storekit.custom-purchase-link.allowed-regions": [
          "br"
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

The step 4 APIs are native. I haven't checked whether RevenueCat or any other React Native library supports them. Check before choosing this path, otherwise you'll need a native module. Finally, Apple specifies that the entitlement only works on the Brazilian storefront, on iPhone, from iOS 26.5.

Alternative marketplaces and notarization

Distributing your app in an alternative marketplace is handled in App Store Connect: you register the marketplace, your Developer ID and the token provided by the marketplace. In-app purchase doesn't exist there, and your digital content sales pay the 5% CTC. Every app goes through notarization, whatever its channel: a baseline check, automated and human, lighter than App Store review.

Opening your own marketplace requires Apple's authorization. According to the page on alternative marketplaces in Brazil, you notably need to be enrolled as an organization. You also need either to provide a 1 million dollar standby letter of credit, or to have two years of uninterrupted membership and an app that passed one million first installs worldwide in the previous calendar year.

Selling in Brazil from France

Apple's pages target apps distributed in Brazil, with no condition on the developer's country. If your app is on sale in Brazil, three points matter:

• If you do nothing, your app keeps selling through in-app purchase, at Brazil's commission rates.
• Apple's pages for Brazil don't require a separate app. The entitlement only applies to the Brazilian storefront, and isEligible tells you whether the option is open to the user. Japan, the European Union and South Korea have their own rules; the EU's are detailed in the guideline 3.1.1 guide.
• Outside in-app purchase, taxes are on you. Apple's pages don't detail any Brazilian tax. Have your accountant approve the setup before collecting reais directly.

What I checked, and when

Reviewed on October 27, 2026. Rates, conditions and steps come from Apple's pages, read in their HTML that day. The agreement comes from CADE's official note, not the full TCC text. No real-world test: the reais calculation is an example, without taxes or provider fees.

These pages change fast: Apple is already announcing a system information sheet and new parental APIs. Reread them before you code.

Frequently asked questions

What is the App Store commission in Brazil?

21% on digital content sales, or 10% for members of the Small Business Program and a few other Apple programs, and for subscriptions after one year. In-app purchase adds a 5% processing fee. A link to your website costs 15%, or 10%, on sales within 7 days of the click.

Can you put a link to your website in an iOS app in Brazil?

Yes, with the StoreKit External Purchases or Offers entitlement and in-app purchase displayed at the same time. The link is banned for users under 18 and in Kids category apps. Your App Store product page must not mention it.

Can you offer Pix in an iPhone app in Brazil?

Apple's pages and CADE's note don't name any payment method, Pix or otherwise. They set conditions for the provider: PCI Level 1 for card data, customer support, refunds. Check with your provider that it meets them, and that in-app purchase stays offered alongside.

Do you have to keep in-app purchase if you offer an alternative payment?

Yes. Apple requires in-app purchase to appear at the same time, on every screen that sells digital content, and to be at least as visible as the other option.

Can minors pay outside in-app purchase in Brazil?

Yes, inside the app only, behind a parental control. No purchase offer on a website is allowed before 18. In Japan, the web offer is possible from 13, behind a parental control.

Do these rules apply to a developer who isn't in Brazil?

Apple's pages target apps distributed in Brazil and set no condition on the developer's country. So a French developer whose app is on the Brazilian storefront is affected: by the commission rates for their in-app purchases, and by the alternative payment rules if they turn it on.

What is the agreement between Apple and CADE?

A Termo de Compromisso de Cessação approved on December 23, 2025 by CADE, Brazil's competition authority. It opens up external offers, alternative payments and alternative marketplaces, for three years from the moment the new terms become mandatory.

Sources

• CADE note on the TCC approval, December 23, 2025.
• Apple's announcement for Brazil, June 18, 2026.
• Changes to iOS in Brazil, Payment options on the App Store in Brazil and Operating an alternative app marketplace in Brazil, Apple Developer.
• ExternalPurchaseCustomLink, StoreKit documentation.
• Payment options on the App Store in Japan, for comparing the rules on minors.
• Age requirements for apps distributed in Brazil, Australia, Singapore, Utah, and Louisiana, February 24, 2026.
• Reporting tokens and transactions to Apple, App Store Connect Help.

Selling your app, in Brazil and elsewhere

Before touching your paywall, take the free diagnostic: it tells you what's really blocking your project and sends you my Apple anti-rejection checklist.

To build the app and wire up the subscription through in-app purchase, the iOS Kit contains the starter code of my apps and the four-step path to the App Store, to follow at your own pace. Everything about monetization is gathered on the iOS in-app subscription page.