Apple adds monthly instalments option

Apple has added a new App Store subscription format that lets developers charge monthly while keeping customers on a 12-month commitment. (developer.apple.com) Apple announced the option on April 27 and said developers can already configure it in App Store Connect and test it in Xcode. (developer.apple.com) The public rollout starts in May 2026 with iOS 26.5, iPadOS 26.5, macOS Tahoe 26.5, tvOS 26.5 and visionOS 26.5. Apple said the feature will be available worldwide except in the United States and Singapore. (developer.apple.com) For users, the pitch is simple: smaller monthly charges instead of one large annual payment, while still committing to a full year. Apple said customers will be able to see completed and remaining payments in their Apple Account. (developer.apple.com) The cancellation rule is different from a standard month-to-month plan. Apple said people can cancel at any time, but the cancellation only stops the subscription from renewing after they finish the payments needed to satisfy the 12-month commitment. (developer.apple.com) For developers, this is not just a pricing tweak. Apple’s StoreKit documentation says the new plan has its own billing-plan marker in transactions, with `billingPlanType` set to `monthly` for these commitment subscriptions. (docs.developer.apple.com) Apple also says apps should grant access the same way they do for standard auto-renewable subscriptions, while servers should expect monthly renewals and `DID_RENEW` notifications as each billing period posts. (docs.developer.apple.com 1) (docs.developer.apple.com 2) That means subscription systems now have to track two ideas at once: whether access is active today, and whether a customer still owes future payments under the commitment. Apple’s billing guidance already tells apps to handle active, renewed, lapsed and billing-retry states across time-based subscriptions. (developer.apple.com) Apple’s release notes for its 26.5 platforms show more plumbing behind the change. Developers can read pricing terms for these plans through a new `PricingTerms` model and specify the billing plan type when purchasing in StoreKit testing. (docs.developer.apple.com) The move gives developers a middle ground between a cheap annual headline price and a lower-friction monthly checkout. Apple is treating it as part of its existing auto-renewable subscription stack, not as a separate purchase category. (developer.apple.com 1) (developer.apple.com 2) So the change looks small on the storefront, but it lands deep in the machinery: pricing screens, entitlement logic, renewal handling, customer support and server notifications all have to agree on what “cancelled” means. (developer.apple.com) (docs.developer.apple.com)