Google Play alternative billing fees started in the US on October 1, and the refunds on those sales are still yours to run

Since October 1, 2026, Google Play has charged a service fee on purchases its US users make outside Google Play's billing. The change applies to the two US programs Google opened in December 2025 under the Epic court order: alternative billing, where your own checkout runs inside the app, and external content links, where the app sends people to your website to pay. Google announced the fee date in a July 22 update to its Play Console help pages, then pushed back only the download fees, to February 1, 2027. The purchase fees stayed on schedule.

What didn't change is who handles the refunds. Google takes a percentage of these sales but none of the customer service. The refund, the disputed charge and the processor fees all stay with you, and every refund now has a second job attached: telling Google about it.

What Google Play alternative billing fees cost in the US

Both US programs use the same split. Google sorts each paying user into a new install or an existing install, with June 30, 2026 as the dividing date. A user whose first install of your app from Google Play, or first update if they installed elsewhere, happened on or after June 30 is new. Everyone before that is existing.

External content links also charge for app downloads. If a link sends someone to install an app that Google Play doesn't manage, Google charges a fixed fee per install, currently $2.85 for apps and $3.65 for games. Purchases that come from that same download linkout don't pay a transaction fee on top, according to Google's FAQ.

Google takes a cut but runs none of the refunds

Google's requirements for both programs read like a list of jobs it isn't doing. You must provide customer support for people who buy outside Google Play, and your billing system has to offer a process to dispute unauthorized transactions. Alternative billing apps must also give users links to their order history, their subscriptions, and a way to start a refund request.

The external content links page adds one detail worth reading twice. You must offer refund methods to buyers outside Google Play, unless the user was clearly told the purchase is non-refundable before they paid. That's a narrow exit. The disclosure has to come before the payment, and it doesn't protect you from a bank dispute.

Do Apple's or Google's refund review flows apply?

No. Only two refund flows anywhere let a developer submit evidence before the store decides. Apple sends a CONSUMPTION_REQUEST and gives you 12 hours to answer it. Google Play opens a chargeback review that you answer through orders.reviewrefund within 24 hours. Both exist because the store processed the payment. When the customer paid through your own checkout, neither one fires, and there's no store review for you to win or lose.

Does Google's August 3 chargeback change cover these sales?

Not directly. From August 3, 2026, Google shifts the purchase price and bank fees of chargebacks on Google Play orders onto developers. An externally billed sale was never a Google Play order. Its chargeback goes to your payment processor and follows that processor's rules from day one.

How to report a refund to Google Play

Every externally billed sale is reported to Google through the externaltransactions API in the Google Play Developer API. US alternative billing apps must report authorized transactions within 24 hours. Refunds go back through the same API with a refund call that names the original external transaction ID. Google's backend guide lists refunds alongside initial charges and renewals as transactions you report.

• A full refund closes out the remaining amount of the transaction, and Google marks it TRANSACTION_CANCELED.
• A partial refund names the pre-tax amount you returned, which must be less than what's left on the transaction, plus a refundId that's unique for that transaction.
• A subscription refund names the specific payment you refunded. Refunding a subscription with an initial charge and two renewals takes three separate refund calls.
• Create and refund calls share a limit of 1,200 queries per minute, so a refund wave after a bad release needs a queue, not a loop.
• Transactions from license testers aren't invoiced, and Google says it won't charge for test transactions.

What a refund on an external sale costs you in money

Take a US$10 credit pack bought on your website after an external link, from a new install, by a developer past their first US$1M of annual earnings. Google's fee on that sale is 20%, or $2. If you charge cards through Stripe at its standard 2.9% plus 30 cents, the processor takes another 59 cents.

The fee lines are the small part. If the credits paid for something before the refund came in, that money is gone too: GPU time for each image a customer generated, the paid model or data API calls behind each answer, storage for files they exported, a payout to a creator whose content they bought. A refund returns the US$10. It doesn't return any of those bills.

Is a lower fee worth taking on the refunds?

Often, yes, but run it with your real numbers. On the Google Play Billing side, Google's own refund rules decide many refunds without asking you, from its 48-hour self-service window to auto-refunds of purchases you never acknowledged. On your own checkout, you write the refund policy and you see every request. What you give up is the store standing between you and the customer. Every support ticket, refund decision and dispute response becomes a cost on your side.

What to set up before you link out

• Store Google's external transaction ID next to your processor's charge ID for every sale, so a refund can be reported in one lookup.
• Report refunds from the same code path that issues them. A refund issued by hand in your processor's dashboard still has to reach Google.
• If a purchase is non-refundable, say so on the screen before payment, as the program requires. A line in your terms of service isn't the same thing.
• Put the order history and refund request links in the app, where Google requires them for alternative billing.
• Answer refund requests fast. A customer who gets a quick refund rarely goes to their bank, and a bank dispute costs the $15 fee on top.

RefundHalt watches the refunds that still run through Apple and Google, and answers every CONSUMPTION_REQUEST and Google Play chargeback review inside its window with your real usage data. For the sales you move to your own checkout, the defense is a fast refund process and clean reporting to Google.