How to Make Money From Apps: What 744,874 iOS Apps Show

To make money from apps, don’t start with the app. Start with three choices the earning apps have in common. Most apps make nothing: in GetAppNiche’s App Store data, 7.4% of iOS apps show any revenue at all, and 3.2% make $1,000 or more a month. The ones that earn are usually freemium (free to download, paid inside), sit in a niche where other apps already earn, and come from a developer with more than one app. Each of those choices moves the odds a lot.

The short version:

• Charge inside the app, not upfront. 13.76% of freemium apps make $1,000+/month, against 2.12% of paid apps.
• Pick a niche with proof. In the best niches, up to 21% of apps make $1,000+/month. Our 30 app ideas with App Store data lists them.
• Ship more than one app. Developers with two or three apps clear $1,000/month 7.76% of the time, against 3.47% with one.
• Don’t plan on ads alone. An app with 1,000 daily users grosses roughly $150–$900 a month from ads.

How much money do apps make?

Before the how, the honest picture. App revenue is extremely uneven. Most apps earn nothing, a small group earns a living, and a tiny group earns most of the money:

That’s from 746,534 iOS apps in our July 7, 2026 snapshot. If you want the full breakdown, it’s on how many apps make money. The rest of this guide is about getting from the first row to the third.

How to make money from apps, step by step

1. Pick a monetization model that pays

This is the biggest single lever, and the data isn’t close:

App Store, July 7, 2026. GetAppNiche data; App Store purchases and subscriptions only.

Freemium means free to download, with in-app purchases or a subscription. It makes $1,000 a month more than four times as often as the average app, and among freemium apps that earn, the median makes $2,571 a month. At the top of the store it’s the default: of the 4,542 free-to-download apps in Apple’s charts between September 21 and October 21, 2026, 86% sell in-app purchases (what they charge).

Paid upfront still exists, but it has a ceiling. The median paid app costs $2.99, so it needs about 335 new buyers every month to gross $1,000, with no recurring revenue to fall back on. The full comparison is on free vs. paid vs. subscription apps.

2. Pick a niche where apps already make money

Some corners of the App Store pay far more often than others. By category, 15.73% of games make $1,000+/month, and 10.67% of weather apps do, against 3.2% for the store. Categories are wide, though. The useful unit is the niche: in our October 2026 data, about one in five apps with “video editor” in their name makes $1,000 a month, while fewer than one in thirty yoga apps does.

Our list of 30 app ideas ranked by App Store data does this for you, including where new apps still break in. For the category view, see the most profitable app categories.

3. Price inside the app like the apps that earn

Look at what the earning apps in your niche charge before you set a price. Freemium apps sell subscriptions, one-time unlocks or consumables, and every App Store page lists its in-app purchase prices. Copy the structure that works in your niche, then compete on the product. If you do charge upfront, know the range: the median paid app is $2.99 and 90% cost $12.99 or less.

4. Treat ads as a bonus, not a plan

Ads pay per thousand impressions, and the rates are small. Using common US benchmark rates (industry figures, not our data), an app with 1,000 daily active users grosses roughly $150–$900 a month from ads. To reach $1,000 a month you’d need about 6,700 daily users on banners alone, or about 1,100 if they watch rewarded video. That’s why apps with nothing to sell inside rarely make real money from ads alone. The numbers behind this are on how much apps make from ads.

5. Ship more than one app

68.3% of iOS developers have a single app. They’re also the group least likely to earn:

282,907 App Store developers, July 7, 2026. Share whose apps together make $1,000+ a month.

Going from one app to two or three more than doubles the odds. (For what that looks like in practice, see eight iOS app success stories with public revenue numbers.) Part of that is bigger teams shipping more, but part of it is simply more attempts: your first niche may not work, and the second app usually goes faster. More on this in how much indie iOS developers make.

6. Get found in the store

None of this works if nobody sees the app. Search is one of the main ways people find apps in the store, and the apps at the top do the basics consistently: they use nearly the whole name field, localize into several languages and update often. Our data-backed ASO guide shows exactly how far ahead they are, and the free App Store keyword tool shows who ranks for any keyword.

Mistakes that keep apps at $0

• A paid app in a crowded niche. At $2.99 a download, you need hundreds of new buyers every month, competing against free apps that do the same thing.
• Ads with no audience. Ads only add up at thousands of daily users. Below that, a small in-app purchase usually earns more.
• The idea everyone builds. Habit trackers, Pomodoro timers and flashcard apps are crowded and rarely pay. The app ideas list has the numbers.
• One app, then stopping. The data says the second and third apps are where the odds improve.

Where these numbers come from

Every revenue figure here comes from GetAppNiche’s own catalog: 744,874 iOS apps and 282,907 developers in the July 7, 2026 snapshot, the same snapshot our answers pages use. Revenue covers App Store purchases and subscriptions. Ad income and payments taken outside the App Store aren’t included, so ad-funded apps are undercounted, and the ad figures above are industry benchmarks rather than our data. GetAppNiche plans start at $39/month.