Developers
In-app Billing is a Google Play service that lets you sell digital content from inside your applications. You can use the service to sell a wide range of content, including downloadable content such as media files or photos, virtual content such as game levels or potions, premium services and features, and more. You can use In-app Billing to sell products as
New in In-App Billing
- Rounded Pricing—After developers set prices for the apps and in-app products that they distribute to multiple countries, the system automatically sets local prices for different currencies using today’s exchange rates and country-specific pricing patterns. To satisfy particular pricing needs, developers can also adjust these prices manually.
- Pricing Templates—Developers can add pricing templates and link these templates to app prices or in-app product prices. These templates include local prices across all markets. By using a template, developers can apply price changes in bulk to all items linked to that template.
- In-app Promotions—Developers can create promo codes which users can redeem for content or features.
- Prorated Subscription Prices—Content providers can lower the price of seasonal subscriptions for users who sign up late in the season. For example, a sports-related service might lower the subscription price halfway through the sport's season.
- Free Trials—Content providers can offer free trial periods for all kinds of subscriptions, including seasonal subscriptions. If a user cancels the subscription in the trial period, they pay nothing. If they do not cancel by the end of the trial period, the subscription automatically converts to a paid subscription.
- Subscription Upgrade/Downgrade—A user can subscribe to a higher or lower tier of subscription while their current subscription is active. The old subscription is canceled, and the unused portion is applied on a prorated basis to the new subscription.
- Manual Subscription Renewal—A user can purchase a subscription at the current rate while their existing subscription is still active. The existing subscription is extended by the appropriate period.
- IAB Sandbox—The In-app Billing Sandbox now supports testing subscription purchases.
- Standard in-app products (one-time billing), or
- Subscriptions (recurring, automated billing)
When you use the in-app billing service to sell an item, whether it's an in-app product or a subscription, Google Play handles all checkout details so your application never has to directly process any financial transactions. Google Play uses the same checkout backend service as is used for application purchases, so your users experience a consistent and familiar purchase flow.
Any application that you publish through Google Play can implement In-app Billing. No special account or registration is required other than a Google Play Developer Console account and a Google Wallet merchant account.
To help you integrate in-app billing into your application, the Android SDK provides a sample application that demonstrates how to sell standard in-app products and subscriptions from inside an app.
To get started, read the documents below or take the Selling In-app Products training class.
- Overview
- Read this document for a description of the underlying concepts in In-app Billing.
- Version 3 API
- Read the documents in this section for an overview of the latest version of In-app Billing, as well as implementation details and API reference.
- Security and Design
- Review these best practices to help ensure that your In-app Billing implementation is secure and well designed.
- Testing In-app Billing
- Understand how the In-app Billing test tools work and learn how to test your In-app Billing implementation.
- Administering In-app Billing
- Learn how to set up your product list, add pricing templates, register test accounts, and handle refunds.