Proceeds vs revenue

Proceeds are the amount a store pays you after its commission, plus taxes where they apply. Revenue, as RevenueCat reports it by default, is the gross amount customers paid. The two never match.

Why it matters

Apple reports proceeds in App Store Connect. Apple's standard commission is 30%, and 15% applies to developers in the App Store Small Business Program and to auto-renewable subscriptions after a subscriber's first year. In countries where Apple deducts taxes such as VAT, proceeds are lower still. Google Play also deducts a service fee before paying you.

RevenueCat reads purchases from the stores. Its revenue figures start from the price the customer paid; it can also report proceeds, after the store's commission and taxes. Check which one a chart shows before you compare it with anything.

So a large gap between RevenueCat revenue and Apple proceeds is expected, not a tracking bug. Refunds and currency conversion add smaller differences.

Example (a fictional app)

A developer sells a subscription mostly in the US. They compare a month of RevenueCat revenue with Apple's proceeds for the same sales and find proceeds roughly 30% lower. Most subscribers are in their first year and the developer is not in the Small Business Program, so the standard commission explains the gap. To judge whether an ad campaign paid for itself, they compare its spend with proceeds: what they actually receive.

Where Indevaro fits

Indevaro's Revenue screen shows RevenueCat revenue as gross. When it compares an Apple Ads campaign's spend with what the campaign brought in, it uses RevenueCat's proceeds when they cover the whole period, and gross otherwise, labelled. It does not calculate tax and is not an accounting tool.