App Store subscription price increases: when subscribers must consent

When you raise a subscription price, you choose whether existing subscribers keep their current price. If you move them to the new price, Apple either notifies them or asks them to agree, depending on the size of the increase, their country and their history.

Option 1: keep existing subscribers on their price

Anyone who subscribed before the start date keeps paying what they pay today. Apple also lets subscribers whose subscription expires resubscribe at the preserved price within 60 days. This is the safest option and the default in AppPriceKit.

Option 2: apply the increase to existing subscribers

According to Apple’s pricing documentation, subscribers must consent before renewing at the higher price if any of these is true:

• They are in a region that requires consent for any price change.
• The increase is more than 50% of the current price and more than about US$5 per period (US$50 per year for annual plans).
• They already had a price increase on that subscription in the past 12 months.

Otherwise they are only notified, and renew at the new price unless they cancel.

Notice periods

• Annual, 6-, 3- and 2-month plans: 60 days before renewal.
• Monthly plans: 27 days before renewal.
• Weekly plans: 7 days before renewal.

Subscribers who need to consent and don’t respond get reminders about weekly by email, push and in-app message. If they never agree, the subscription expires at the end of the current period. That makes consent-triggering increases risky for retention.

Decreases are different

A decrease reaches every existing subscriber at their next renewal, and you can’t keep them on the higher price. Apple also notes that once a decrease takes effect it can’t be reversed; you would need to schedule a new increase, which then follows the rules above.

Practical rules of thumb

• Keep increases under 50% or under about $5 per period to avoid consent prompts.
• Don’t raise the same subscription twice within 12 months.
• Only one future price change can be scheduled per country and plan; scheduling another overwrites the first.
• When lowering prices in cheaper countries, existing subscribers there benefit too. Budget for that revenue change.

More in the checklist before changing prices by country and the App Store Connect walkthrough.