Using Google Play's billing system, you can offer in-app products that charge users for content or services on a recurring basis, known as subscriptions. Subscriptions can include items like a collection of apps, games, or other content for a recurring fee within your app on Google Play.

You can offer multiple subscriptions within the same app. Subscriptions must be priced within the accepted price range. Subscriptions can't be unpublished.

• You can also create an in-app product, which charges users on a one-time basis.

Important: Google Play Developer Program Policies and service fees apply to in-app products and subscriptions.

Availability#

If you're in a supported location for merchant registration, you can use Google Play's billing system.

If you’re in a supported location and want to start using Google Play's billing system features in your apps, set up a payments profile and review the Google Play billing system API documentation.

After you create a subscription, it’s available for users running the latest version of the Google Play Store.

Subscription and free trial time periods#

• Weekly
• 1 month
• 3 months
• 6 months
• Annual

Add a subscription to your app#

Adding a subscription is similar to adding an in-app product, except the price is set for a period of time.

Before creating a subscription, make sure to plan your product IDs carefully. Product IDs need to be unique for your app, and they can’t be changed or reused after they’ve been created.

• Product IDs need to start with a lowercase letter or a number and must be composed of only lowercase letters (a-z), numbers (0-9), underscores (_), and periods (.)
• Note: The product ID android.test is unavailable for use, along with all product IDs that start with android.test.

Before adding a subscription, review our Subscriptions Policy.

To add a subscription:

1. Open Play Console and go to Subscriptions page (Monetize > Products > Subscriptions).
2. Click Create subscription.
3. Enter your subscription details.
   • Name: A short name of the item (up to 55 characters, but we recommend limiting titles to 25 characters to display properly in all contexts) such as "Sleeping potion."
   • Description: A long description of the item (up to 80 characters) such as "Instantly puts creatures to sleep."
   • Benefits: Provide up to 4 benefits, which each describes a feature of the subscription (up to 40 characters each)
     • Benefits should highlight the features to give users a better idea of what your subscription offers, like “Full catalog of TV shows and movies.”
     • Since not all users will be eligible for a promotional price or free trial, the benefit should not mention free trial or price, for example “Try 7 days free” is not allowed.
4. Enter pricing details in the “Price” section:
   • Billing period: Choose the time interval between billing statements.
   • Default price: Enter a default price or import from an existing pricing template; this is used to generate local prices in other countries. Local prices use today’s exchange rate and country-specific pricing patterns. Countries without local currency support use your default price.
5. Choose and define additional options in the “Subscription settings” section:
   • Free trial: You can let users try your subscription before they pay. If you select Enabled, choose how many days you want to make it available for free. Learn more below.
   • Introductory price: You can offer new subscribers a discounted price for a specific duration. If you do, this must be within the accepted price range and cost less per day than the original price. Learn more below.
   • Grace period: You can give users time to resolve payment issues while keeping their subscription active. Grace periods can be 3 days, 7 days, or 14 days. Learn more below.
   • Resubscribe: Enabling resubscribe allows users to resubscribe from the Play Store after cancellation. Learn more below.
     • Important: Resubscribe is only available for apps that use Billing Library 2.0 in all active APKs.
6. Click Save.
7. Click Activate to make the subscription you created active.
   • To be available for purchase, a product needs to be active, and its app needs to be published.
   • If you’re using a test account, active items are available in unpublished apps. To learn more, go to our Android developers site.

Subscription pricing options#

Manage changes to subscriptions#