I can’t stand when a subscription tells me its “monthly” price, when, in actuality, the plan charges me annually. Sure, when you divide the yearly cost by 12, the price looks better, but if I’m paying all at once for the year, then it’s really not that amount per month. It’s all a way to get more customers in the digital door, and I’m sure it works—even if I’m not happy about it.
Apple’s new plan improves annual subscriptions
While this pricing isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, there is a positive change on the way—for most of the world, anyway. As highlighted by MacRumors, Apple is giving developers a new type of subscription plan to market to their users. In addition to annual subscriptions, developers can now offer customers monthly subscriptions with a 12-month commitment. Essentially, this plan lets you pay that advertised monthly price per month, so long as you commit to a year of payments. It’s not quite the same as offering a monthly subscription at that price, but it’s better than forcing everyone to pay for a year all at once.
That said, this is still a 12-month commitment. Apple considers a customer who takes this plan the same as one who pays in full, and it isn’t letting users who cancel early off the hook. While you can cancel at any time, you’re still responsible for any remaining payments through the end of your commitment. All cancelling early really accomplishes is ensuring you aren’t enrolled in another 12 months of payments for the following year.
Apple says any customer who subscribes to one of these monthly installment plans can see the number of payments they’ve completed, as well as how many remaining payments are left on their plan. This information is available under the “Subscriptions” section of your Apple Account. In addition, Apple’s subscription reminders are still in effect here, so the company will warn you before you end up stuck in another year-long commitment. That should make it reasonably easy to manage your subscription and make a decision on whether you want to keep paying once the renewel is up.
What do you think so far?
This plan isn’t coming to the U.S.
Developers can test the subscription offers in Xcode starting today, and Apple plans to roll them out globally to all users with the launch of iOS 26.5—though users on at least iOS 26.4 will have access. The major downside here is that there are two countries exempt from this new pricing: Singapore and the United States. Despite being home to Apple, the U.S. won’t have access to this new subscription type, which means those of us in the States will still be stuck with the traditional annual plans.
I’m not exactly sure why Apple is limiting the plan this way. It’s not like the U.S., Singapore, and a host of other countries are left out here, or that Apple is starting with a small pool of countries as an initial trial. These are the only two countries in the world excluded here. Once iOS 26.5 is here, all Apple users across the globe will be able to pay monthly for annual plans—minus these two countries. There must be something about the U.S. and Singapore customer base that would lead Apple to limit the feature’s rollout, but, in my view, this subscription change only makes it more likely for customers to enroll (and limit the number of angry customers who didn’t realize they were signing up for a full year after seeing the monthly price).
