32.8% of Google Play payments in the panel between June and August 2026 were for a subscription. A year earlier the figure was 24.0%. In twelve months, subscriptions gained almost nine percentage points of all Play Store payments.
One-time purchases, mostly in-game items and app unlocks, fell from 76.0% of payments to 67.2%.
Every subscription category gained share. YouTube Premium went from 3.0% of all Play payments to 5.1%. Google One, which covers cloud storage and Google’s AI plans, rose from 5.7% to 6.9%. Subscriptions to social apps, such as paid tiers on Snapchat and Meta’s apps, nearly tripled, from 1.5% to 4.2%.
AI chatbot subscriptions are still small but growing fast, rising from 0.2% of payments to 0.5%. Their price point fell sharply. The median AI chatbot payment was about INR 1,950 in 2025 and about INR 400 in 2026, as lower-priced plans built for the Indian market replaced full-price global plans.
Price points on the Play Store remain small. The median payment of any kind was INR 80, and the most common amounts were INR 29, INR 100, INR 30 and INR 50. 62.6% of payments were INR 100 or less, down from 69.6%. One-time purchases rose in value too, with the median going from INR 50 to INR 75.
For an app developer, the Indian Play Store is moving toward recurring payments, and the categories gaining fastest all sit at INR 59 to INR 149 a month. An app that can turn one-time purchases into a low-priced monthly plan is following the same path as the market.
Tags: Digital · Google Play · Subscriptions · YouTube Premium · AI apps · Pricing · Consumer panel data
Get in touch with us for SKU-level insights for your category!