Create a subscription#
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 Subscriptions can't be unpublished.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 withandroid.test
.
Before adding a subscription, review our Subscriptions Policy.
To add a subscription:
- Open Play Console and go to Subscriptions page (Monetize > Products > Subscriptions).
- Click Create subscription.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Click Save.
- 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#