Free tools

Magazine Paywall Revenue Calculator

Apple News+ keeps half of every subscription it sells, and Apple’s in-app fee and Google Play take 15–30% of those sold through their stores. Enter your subscribers, ARPU and the share that comes through the app stores, and see how much a paywall of your own would win back.

For digital magazines, news publications and consumer newsletters with a paywall in place. If you sell ebooks or audiobooks, use our Bookshop Storefront Calculator instead.

Magazine paywall calculator

Change any figure and the results update as you go.

Active paying subscribers

Monthly ARPU (USD per subscriber)

% of subscribers who came through Apple News / In-App / Google Play 40%

Store fee on those subscriptions (15–30%) 30%

Annual churn rate 25%

Optional: current paywall platform cost (USD / month)

What your own paywall would win back

Revenue won back each year by moving subscribers who came through the app stores to your own paywall.

From app store fees to revenue of your own

Apple News+ takes 50% of subscription revenue, Apple In-App and Google Play take 30% for the first year and 15% afterwards, and most magazines route at least one-third of their paying subscribers through those channels. For your own paywall on publica.la, the calculator counts payment processing (about 3% through Stripe) and leaves out publica.la’s own commission, which depends on your plan. You also keep the subscriber data, the billing relationship and the chance to sell them more.

This calculator gives you a rough gain in seconds. For a precise model that counts the extra sign-ups the app stores bring, your mix of currencies, failed-payment recovery and the split between annual and monthly plans, book a 30-minute call and we’ll run it with your real figures.

publica.la for magazines and newspapers

Frequently asked questions

How much does Apple News+ keep from a magazine subscription?

Apple News+ takes 50% of the subscription revenue when a reader signs up inside Apple News. That is the largest share any paywall channel takes, which is why many publishers use Apple News only to reach new readers and rely on their own paywall for renewals.

What is the Apple In-App / Google Play subscription fee?

Apple In-App and Google Play take 30% of first-year subscription revenue and 15% afterwards. Under Apple’s Small Business Program the rate is 15% from day one for publishers with under $1M in annual App Store revenue. Either way, subscribers who renew through the app stores cost you a recurring 15% that a Stripe-based paywall of your own would not.

Why does the calculator use 3% as the fee for your own paywall?

It is what payment processing actually costs when you run the paywall on a modern platform with Stripe or a similar processor: typically 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. The paywall on publica.la is built on top of that, so the only real extra cost on each subscription is the processor’s fee.

Should I really take my subscribers off Apple News?

Not necessarily. The sensible move is to keep Apple News for its reach, to win new subscribers, and move renewals to your own paywall. The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times made exactly that move years ago, and it is what this calculator puts a figure on.

How is the payback period calculated?

If you enter a monthly paywall platform cost (e.g. $492 a month, where publica.la’s Enterprise plan starts), we divide it by the revenue won back each month to get the number of months before the platform pays for itself. Magazines with $5–$15 ARPU and a few thousand subscribers usually see it pay back in under ten months.

Who is this tool for?

Digital magazines, news publications and consumer newsletters with a paywall in place. If you sell ebooks or audiobooks through marketplaces such as Amazon, Bookshop.org or Apple Books, use the Bookshop Storefront Calculator instead: the channels work differently.

Want the full breakdown with your real figures?

Book a 30-minute call and we’ll model app store fees, churn, your currency mix and the economics of renewals for your title.

Let’s talk about your shop