What are in-app purchases? Are free apps really free

Just because an app is free to download doesn’t mean it will not cost you. Remember the small line of text next to the app listing that says “In-app purchases”.

Apps in all categories on the App Store and Google Play have in-app purchases. These could be game add-ons, subscriptions, premium features, and more. These extra costs, supposedly optional, can often go straight on credit cards without any alert to the card owner.

An in-app purchase is any fee an app may ask for. Many in-app purchases are optional or give users additional features.

Others serve as subscriptions and require users to sign up and pay a fee to use the app – often after an initial free trial.

App stores on their part have become creative dip into users’ wallets. Creating an account on the app store requires putting a credit or debit card on file, to cover any costs associated with downloading paid apps.

Because apps are downloaded through those platforms, the app companies can charge the card associated with the account directly, making in-app purchases easy and intuitive.

In-app purchases are commonly associated with games and productivity apps. Games like Candy Crush and Pokémon GO may let you level up if you buy digital tokens with real money. Or consider the popular design app Canva – if you spend money on a premium version, it lets you have the latest design templates.

Other apps, including meditation and recipe apps, are free to download, and they allow users to access basic features for free. In some places in-app purchase for a premium account is popular mainly to remove ads, like in the case of YouTube.

The good news is that the App Store and Google Play clearly state if an app has in-app purchases. So, you know about these even before you download such apps. According to Allied Market Research, in-app purchases generated approximately $76 billion in 2019.