Starting on 13 March 2024, developers offering alternative billing as part of the user choice billing pilot must use the alternative billing APIs. See details below and visit our alternative billing API integration guide to get started.
This pilot is designed to test offering an alternative billing option next to Google Play's billing system and to help us explore offering this choice to users. We are looking to gain feedback in different markets and ensure that we can maintain a positive user experience. Service fees, which support our investments in Play and Android will continue to apply, and developers must pay Google the applicable service fees.
Developers who meet the below eligibility and requirements may join the pilot.
Eligibility
In order to be eligible for this pilot:
- Your app must be:
- An app or game across any form factors offering user choice billing to users in the EEA; or
- A non-gaming mobile or tablet app with users in all other locations listed below.
- Developer must be registered as a business.
Requirements
Developers participating in this pilot must comply with the following requirements:
- Only offer user choice billing to eligible users in announced pilot markets, currently:
- European Economic Area (EEA) countries
- Australia
- Brazil
- Indonesia
- Japan
- South Africa
- United States
- Only offer alternative billing systems within the app.
- Comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) (if handling credit and debit card data).
- Provide customer support for users of the alternative billing system (including any products sold using the alternative billing system), and the alternative billing system must provide a process to dispute unauthorised transactions.
- Pay Google the applicable service fees. When a consumer purchases through an alternative billing system, the standard service fee the developer pays will be reduced by 4%.
- Integrate the alternative billing APIs, which streamline implementing user experience requirements and reporting. Developers not yet ready to integrate the alternative billing APIs have the option to manually implement the user choice screen and report transactions until 13 March 2024.
- Prior to integrating with the alternative billing APIs, developers are required to follow our interim user experience guidelines to maintain a consistent user experience and help users make an informed decision.
- Notify us in advance of intended changes to your app enrolment preferences, such as disabling or enabling user choice billing in a particular app or eligible market. For more details on how to submit changes, visit our FAQ.
Please note that eligibility and requirements are subject to change and we expect the pilot details to continue to evolve as we learn more and receive additional feedback.
Integrating with alternative billing APIs
If you would like to offer user choice billing and will be using the alternative billing APIs from the date of your offering, you must complete the following steps:
- Review the requirements on this page to determine if your app(s) meets the eligibility criteria.
- Complete the billing declaration form, accept the Terms of Service and complete any onboarding steps required to enrol in the programme through Google's support team (for example, set up a payments profile as required).
- Complete the integration of the alternative billing APIs as described in this API integration guide.
- Manage your Play Console alternative billing settings to opt in to/out of each of your apps, upload payment method logos and subscription management URLs.
- Report to Google Play all authorised transactions from users in pilot markets within 24 hours using alternative billing APIs.
- For any active subscriptions that started while you were offering alternative billing without automation, you will be required to migrate these subscriptions through the ExternalTransactions API prior to reporting the recurring transactions through the API. This one-time migration must be done prior to the 13 March 2024 alternative billing API migration deadline. For more details, visit our FAQ.
If you are already participating in the programme and are migrating over to the alternative billing APIs, you can skip the steps 1 and 2 above. Once you complete the steps outlined above and start reporting transactions using the API, you no longer need to send transactions manually.
Integrating without automation
If you would like to offer user choice billing but are not yet ready to integrate with the alternative billing APIs, you must complete the following steps for manual enrolment:
- Review the requirements on this page to determine if your app(s) meets the eligibility criteria.
- Complete the billing declaration form, accept the Terms of Service and complete any onboarding steps required to enrol in the programme through Google's support team (for example, set up a payments profile as required).
- Identify the apps and eligible markets in which you will be offering user choice billing using the enrolment form that will be emailed to you after you complete the billing declaration form.
- Follow the requirements as described on this page.
- Account for and report to Google Play the amount of all paid transactions from the alternative billing system for invoicing. Instructions for monthly reporting will be provided to developers who complete the declaration form and complete their onboarding for the pilot.
- Before the migration deadline, integrate with alternative billing APIs, migrate any active subscriptions that started while you were offering alternative billing without automation and update your alternative billing settings in Play Console. Once you migrate active subscriptions and start reporting transactions using the APIs, you no longer need to send transactions manually. This one-time migration must be done prior to the 13 March 2024 alternative billing API migration deadline. For more details, visit our FAQ.
If you have any additional questions, you can contact our support team here.
Frequently asked questions
Why is Google Play's billing system required alongside the alternative billing system for this pilot?Google Play believes that users should have the choice to use Play’s billing system when they make digital goods purchases from apps installed from Google Play. We built Google Play’s billing system to the highest standards for privacy and safety so that users can be confident when they make in-app purchases. Alternative billing systems also may not offer the same protections or payment options and features of Google Play's billing system – such as parental controls, family payment methods, subscription management, Google Play gift cards and Play Points.
Google Play's service fee has never been simply a fee for payment processing. It reflects the value provided by Android and Play and supports our continued investments across Android and Google Play, allowing for the user and developer features that people count on. Visit this article for more information on the service fee.
As of 6 March 2024, gaming and non-gaming apps are eligible for user choice billing when offered to users in the EEA. In all other eligible markets, only non-gaming apps qualify for user choice billing. We expect the pilot details to continue to evolve as we learn more and receive additional feedback.
Currently the EEA includes: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.
User choice billing can be used for digital content and services, such as in-app purchases and subscriptions, in any app or game across all form factors when offered to users in the EEA, or non-gaming mobile and tablet apps when offered to users in all other eligible markets.
Yes. During the enrolment process, you will need to specify the announced pilot countries for which you will offer user choice billing.
Yes. You can participate in both, but you will need to identify whether you are offering user choice billing or alternative billing without user choice during the enrolment process. For a given app, you may only select one programme at a time per country.
If you signed up for the EEA programme before 1 September 2022, and wish to offer users the choice of an alternative billing system alongside Google Play’s billing system, you will need to resubmit the declaration form to enrol in the user choice billing pilot. You do not need to resubmit the form to continue offering alternative billing without user choice.
If you signed up for the EEA programme after 1 September 2022, you do not need to resubmit the declaration form to participate in the user choice billing pilot. However, you will need to notify us by submitting an updated app package enrolment form whether you are offering user choice billing for each country in the EEA.
Starting 14 November 2023, transactions made through the alternative billing system can be reported using the alternative billing APIs and must be reported within 24 hours of the payment being authorised. These APIs streamline reporting for developers, and also enable transactions through an alternative billing system to be reflected in Google Play’s top charts. Please see the FAQ below for more details on how to migrate active subscriptions that started while you were offering alternative billing without automation.
Until 13 March 2024, you can continue to manually self-report the transactions if you have not yet integrated with the alternative billing APIs. If reporting manually, you are required to self-report the amount of paid transactions once a month by the fifth business day of the month. For example, the report for the transactions made in October 2023 will be due by 7 November 2023. Once you complete the declaration form, we will review your information and send you instructions on how to report your paid transactions and what payments you are required to remit for service fees and any applicable taxes.
If you are offering alternative billing without automation, you are required to submit an updated app package enrolment form if you change the alternative billing offering in a market for a given app package. Please note that any updates will only be effective the first of the following month in Universal Coordinated Time (UTC), including changes to applicable service fees.
If you are offering alternative billing using alternative billing APIs, you can change the alternative billing offering in a market for a given app package through your Play Console alternative billing settings. Any updates will be effective immediately, including changes to applicable service fees.
Yes, this programme allows developers to use web-based payments as an alternative payment method in an embedded web view within their app. Like other alternative payment methods, these would be subject to the requirements for the programme listed on this page, including all user trust and safety requirements, as well as the service fee.
No, this is an opt-in pilot. If you do not wish to offer user choice billing, no action is required.
Yes, although South Korea is not part of this user choice billing pilot, we continue to give all developers the ability to offer an alternative billing system alongside Google Play’s for their mobile and tablet users in South Korea. If you are a developer with users in South Korea, you can learn more about implementing an alternative billing system in South Korea in this Help Centre article. If you also want to participate in this user choice billing pilot for your users in pilot countries, you will need to enrol in this pilot by completing the billing declaration form.
If you are offering user choice billing with alternative billing APIs integration, the user experience requirements will be met by integrating with and using the client-side APIs. Starting 14 March 2023, all participating developers will be required to integrate with alternative billing APIs to render the user choice screen and to report transactions.
If you are not yet ready to integrate the alternative billing APIs, you are required to manually implement the interim user experience guidelines.
Yes. In response to recent regulatory developments in India, we now offer all developers the ability to offer an alternative billing system alongside Google Play's billing system for Indian users making in-app purchases within Play-distributed apps on mobile phones and tablets. As this is now a separate programme from our user choice billing pilot, please visit this Help Centre article to find out more about the requirements for offering an alternative billing system for users in India and enrolling.
If your app was enrolled in the user choice billing pilot for Indian users before 22 February 2023, you do not need to enrol again through the India programme for alternative billing. However, you are required to follow the instructions outlined in this FAQ if you change the alternative billing offering in a country for a given app package.
No. If you are currently active in the pilot programme, you can enrol your gaming app in the pilot programme through Play Console and begin offering user choice billing to EEA users. Follow the app enrolment instructions in this Help Centre article.
The alternative billing APIs can be implemented the same way across all eligible form factors. You can leverage the same integration guide for detailed guidelines and resources on how to get started.
If you plan to offer user choice billing on Android Auto, please contact us for more information on how to get started.
To streamline the developer experience, the alternative billing APIs are designed to be integrated and used together. The alternative billing APIs provide the following benefits:
- Alternative billing screens rendered by Google Play, meaning you do not have to build and maintain the information and/or choice screens yourself.
- Simplified transaction reporting, which removes manual touch points and mitigates aggregation or reconciliation errors.
- Alternative billing system transactions reported via API will be reflected in Google Play’s top charts.
In addition, we have also made the following improvements to help make it easier for you to adopt alternative billing:
- Streamlined the user choice experience.
- Self-serve management of alternative billing settings through Play Console, such as enabling or disabling user choice billing per eligible app per eligible market, management of payment method logos and subscription management URLs.
- Exportable reports of alternative billing system transactions reported via API containing additional information such as exchange rate used, associated app package ID and service fee rate.
It is easy to extend your existing integration with Google Play’s billing system to leverage alternative billing APIs. The alternative billing APIs are built upon the same design patterns and principles as our Play Billing Library and Play Developer APIs. This means it is compatible with your existing designs and will be mostly familiar to your teams.
In our integration guide, we provide detailed guidelines and resources on how to get started and address various alternative billing use cases including one-time and recurring purchases, and have sample code snippets to make it easy to implement. We welcome developer feedback on these APIs and any additional resources that would be helpful. If you have any questions or feedback about the alternative billing APIs, please contact us here.
Before the migration deadline, 13 March 2024, complete the steps outlined in Integrating with Alternative Billing APIs. Once you migrate any active subscriptions from the manual period and start reporting transactions using the APIs, you no longer need to send transactions manually.
For any active subscriptions that started while you were offering alternative billing without automated reporting, you will be required to migrate these subscriptions through the ExternalTransactions API prior to reporting the recurring transactions through the API. This one-time migration must be done prior to the 13 March 2024 alternative billing API migration deadline. Once migrated, you only need to report the recurring transactions through the APIs and no longer need to report via manual reporting.
If you have not yet migrated the active subscription, you are still required to continue reporting the recurring transaction through the existing manual reporting instructions.