What happens to existing subscribers when I raise my subscription price on the App Store?

Apple notifies affected subscribers directly (email and notifications). Depending on the increase's size, frequency and region, it either continues automatically after notice or requires the subscriber to actively accept, and subscribers who never respond to a consent-required increase lapse at renewal. You also choose whether to grandfather existing subscribers at their current price instead, which sidesteps the whole flow.

Should I grandfather existing subscribers at the old price?

For most indies, yes. Existing subscribers are your highest-margin users (long-tenured subscriptions drop to Apple's 15% commission) and the goodwill of "your price never changes" converts into retention and reviews. Raising only new-subscriber prices captures most of the revenue upside with none of the churn risk. Raise on existing subscribers only when the old price genuinely can't sustain the service.

How do I measure whether a price increase was worth it?

Proceeds per week against churn, dated from the notification (not the effective date: cancellations start when the email lands). A raise wins if proceeds settle higher after the churn wave passes; it loses if lapsed subscribers outweigh the per-user gain. Watch trial-to-paid conversion on the new price separately: new-customer psychology and existing-customer psychology are different experiments.

FunnelHound / Guides / Raising subscription prices

Raising subscription prices without losing your subscribers

By Emin, indie iOS developer building FunnelHound · Published 2 Oct 2026

Two facts frame every price raise. Apple does the telling: emails and notifications to every affected subscriber, on Apple's schedule, in Apple's words. And bigger raises can require active consent, where silence means cancellation. The safest raise for most indies: new subscribers only, existing ones grandfathered.

The machinery you don't control

Change an auto-renewable subscription's price for existing subscribers and Apple takes over communication: notices before renewal, in email and on-device. Depending on the size and frequency of the increase (thresholds vary by region), the raise either continues automatically after notice or requires the subscriber to actively agree: and in consent-required flows, the non-responders don't stay at the old price; they lapse at renewal. That's the quiet killer: churn from people who didn't decide anything, they just didn't open an email. Whatever your in-app messaging says, plan around Apple's flow being the one your subscribers actually see.

The grandfathering decision (usually: yes)

You can apply the new price to new subscribers only and preserve existing ones, and for most indies that's the whole answer. Existing subscribers are your highest-margin users: past year one, Apple's cut is 15%, not 30%: and "your price never changes" is retention copy money can't buy (it shows up in reviews, too). New-subscriber pricing captures most of the upside with zero churn risk on the base you already won. Raise on existing subscribers only when the old price genuinely can't carry the service costs, and then say exactly that, plainly, in-app before Apple's email lands. A raise with a reason reads like honesty; a raise with silence reads like a test of what you can get away with.

Measuring the trade

Date from the notification, not the effective date. Cancellations start when the email lands: that's your milestone.
Scoreboard: proceeds per week. The raise wins if proceeds settle above baseline after the churn wave; per-user gain minus lapsed users is the entire equation, and only proceeds adds it honestly.
Watch the new-price funnel separately. Trial starts and trial-to-paid at the new price are a different experiment from existing-subscriber consent: mixing them muddies both verdicts.
Expect a review echo. Price complaints cluster after raises; reply to the fair ones with the reason. The two-week patience rule applies to sentiment too.

Know what the raise actually netted

FunnelHound tracks proceeds and churn from App Store Connect with the raise milestone-marked: the trade, in numbers.

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Data notes: price-increase notification and consent mechanics per Apple's subscription documentation as of 2026: the auto-continue thresholds vary by region and have changed before; verify current rules before scheduling a raise. Not pricing advice, except the part about silence.