Do subscriptions cost more on iPhone? We checked 22
6 min read
Jose Pedro Franco MorenoBuilds Kelo, on his own, from Spain.
Mostly no. On 9 October 2026 we compared the App Store in-app price with the website price for 22 US subscriptions, 66 plans in all, and 19 cost the same either way. Three cost far more in the iPhone app: X Premium 37% more, YouTube Premium 31% and Claude Max 25%. Apple lists every in-app price on the app's App Store page, so you can check before you subscribe.
The common belief is that anything you buy inside an iPhone app costs more, because Apple takes a cut. We checked, and for most subscriptions it is not true.
On 9 October 2026 we compared two prices for 22 popular subscriptions in the United States: the in-app price Apple lists on each app’s App Store page, and the price on the company’s own website. That makes 66 plans, with the same plan and the same billing period on both sides.
19 of the 22 cost the same either way. The three that do not are not a few cents off.
The three that cost more in the app
| Service | Plan | In the app | On the web | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| X | Premium, monthly | $11.00 | $8.00 | +37.5% |
| X | Premium, yearly | $114.99 | $84.00 | +37% |
| YouTube Premium | Individual, monthly | $20.99 | $15.99 | +31% |
| YouTube Premium | Family, monthly | $34.99 | $26.99 | +30% |
| Claude | Max 20x, monthly | $249.99 | $200.00 | +25% |
| Claude | Max 5x, monthly | $124.99 | $100.00 | +25% |
| Claude | Pro, yearly | $214.99 | $200.00 | +7.5% |
X has the widest gap in the sample. Pay yearly in the app and you hand over $30.99 more than the same year bought on the web. Every X tier costs more in the app, and X says so in its own help center.
YouTube Premium costs $60 more over a year on the individual plan and $96 more on Family. The YouTube case in detail covers how to move to the web price without losing anything.
Claude charges $20 a month for Pro in both places, so the gap only appears on the Max plans, or if you pay Pro yearly. On Max 20x it comes to $49.99 a month, almost $600 a year. Claude’s two prices in detail covers which plan you are on and how to switch.
The 19 that cost the same
| Service | Plans compared | For example: in the app / on the web |
|---|---|---|
| 1Password | 5 | Families, yearly: $71.99 / $71.88 |
| AllTrails | 1 | Plus, yearly: $35.99 / $35.99 |
| Babbel | 1 | All Languages, 12 months: $107.99 / $107.40 |
| ChatGPT | 2 | Plus, monthly: $19.99 / $20.00 |
| Discord | 3 | Nitro, monthly: $9.99 / $9.99 |
| Disney+ | 5 | Premium, monthly: $21.49 / $21.49 |
| Dropbox | 2 | Plus, monthly: $11.99 / $11.99 |
| Google One | 3 | 100 GB, monthly: $1.99 / $1.99 |
| HBO Max | 6 | Standard, monthly: $18.49 / $18.49 |
| Headspace | 2 | Yearly: $69.99 / $69.99 |
| Hulu | 2 | No Ads, monthly: $21.49 / $21.49 |
| Life360 | 2 | Gold, monthly: $16.99 / $16.99 |
| Microsoft 365 | 6 | Family, monthly: $12.99 / $12.99 |
| MyFitnessPal | 2 | Premium, yearly: $79.99 / $79.99 |
| Netflix | 2 | Standard, monthly: $19.99 / $19.99 |
| Paramount+ | 2 | Premium, monthly: $13.99 / $13.99 |
| Peacock | 8 | Premium, monthly: $12.99 / $12.99 |
| Strava | 2 | Yearly: $79.99 / $79.99 |
| Todoist | 2 | Pro, yearly: $59.99 / $60.00 |
The few cents of difference (ChatGPT Plus, Todoist, 1Password yearly, Babbel) come from rounding to Apple’s price points, not from a markup. ChatGPT in detail: same price on all three plans. Disney+ and Hulu raised prices for new subscribers on 23 September 2026, and they raised them by the same amount in the app and on the web.
Netflix comes with a caveat: its App Store page lists in-app plans at the same prices as its website, but it no longer lets most new or rejoining members pay through Apple.
How to check any app in twenty seconds
- Open the app’s page on the App Store and scroll to In-App Purchases. Apple lists the subscriptions the app sells, with prices for your country.
- Open the company’s pricing page and find the same plan and the same billing period. A yearly price against a monthly one is not a comparison.
- If the app costs more, subscribe on the website. You keep the same account and the same features.
The catch with the cheaper route
A subscription you buy on the website is billed by the company, not by Apple. It will not appear in Settings, your name, Subscriptions, and it will not show up in any of the places Apple keeps your purchases. Saving $60 a year on YouTube is also how people end up with a charge on their card they cannot place six months later.
So if you switch, write the new charge down with its renewal date. Kelo does that on iPhone without connecting to your bank, and warns you before each charge.
Method
- In-app price: the In-App Purchases section of each app’s US App Store page, which Apple publishes without an account. Read on 9 October 2026, except Microsoft 365 Family yearly, which Apple’s page did not display that day and carries its 23 September reading.
- Web price: the company’s official pricing or help page, read without an account. No third-party sites. Most were read on 9 October 2026. Some pricing pages show prices for the reader’s location, and from outside the United States they show other currencies; for those plans the CSV keeps the reading from a US connection on 19 or 23 September 2026 (YouTube Premium, Babbel, AllTrails, and four single plans of Discord, Dropbox, Google One and Headspace).
- Pairs: only when the plan name and the billing period match on both sides. Trials, introductory prices and student or regional discounts are left out.
- Left out: Calm, whose web price we could not confirm, and services that do not publish a web price without an account or block automated reading: Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, Duolingo, Medium, Canva, Perplexity, Twitch, Snapchat and NordVPN (whose web prices are multi-year introductory deals).
- Who did this: Kelo, an iPhone app for tracking subscriptions and bills. We do not sell any of these subscriptions, and none of these companies paid for or reviewed this check.
Download the data: iphone-subscription-prices-us-2026-10-09.csv, 66 rows, with the date each price was checked and the source page for every web price. Prices change; check the date before you rely on a row. The data is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with a link to this page.
Loose ends
Is it cheaper to subscribe on the website than in the iPhone app?
Usually it makes no difference. In our check of 22 US subscriptions on 9 October 2026, 19 cost the same in the iOS app and on the company website, give or take a cent of rounding. The exceptions are large: X Premium costs 37% more in the app, YouTube Premium 31% more and Claude Max 25% more.
Why do some apps charge more on iPhone?
Apple takes a commission on subscriptions sold through the App Store inside an iOS app. Some companies raise the in-app price to cover it, most charge the same everywhere. The company decides, and it does not have to explain the difference.
How can I see the in-app price before I subscribe?
Open the app's page on the App Store and scroll to In-App Purchases. Apple lists the subscriptions the app sells there, with prices for your country. Then open the company's own pricing page and compare the same plan and the same billing period.
If I switch to the web price, do I lose anything?
For the three services that cost more, no: same account, same features, same devices. What changes is who bills you. A subscription bought on the web is not billed by Apple, so it does not appear in Settings, your name, Subscriptions, and you cancel it on the company website instead.
Can I download the data?
Yes. The full table is a CSV file with all 66 plans, both prices, the difference, the date each side was checked and the page we read for the web price. It is linked at the end of this article.