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Patreon criticizes Apple’s renewed in-app purchase mandate, agrees to comply

Apple says Patreon now has until November 2026 to move all remaining creators to the App Store’s in-app purchase system, or risk removal from the App Store. Patreon disagrees, but says it will comply. Here are the details.

‘Creators needs consistency’

In August 2024, Patreon informed its customers that Apple was requiring the company to switch all creator subscriptions on iOS to Apple’s in-app purchase system or risk removal from the App Store.

At the time, Patreon explained that Apple would begin enforcing its in-app purchase requirement in November 2024, triggering a phased migration that would move all remaining creators to subscription billing by November 2025.

Since then, Apple has been forced to loosen certain App Store rules, including one that now allows apps to link to web-based payment options.

Patreon, for its part, adjusted its app accordingly, and reportedly “told creators that the earlier November 2025 deadline was no longer in effect.”

Now, the company says Apple has confirmed that Patreon has until November 2026 to complete the original migration process, moving creators to the App Store’s IAP system.

As reported by TechCrunch, Patreon has confirmed that it will comply, but also doubled down on its previous criticism that creators “need consistency and clarity in order to build healthy, long-term businesses.”

Here’s Patreon:

“(…) creators using legacy billing will now have to endure the whiplash of another policy reversal — the third such change from Apple in the past 18 months. Over the years, we have proposed multiple tools and features to Apple that we could’ve built to allow creators using legacy billing to transition on their own timelines, with more support added in. Unfortunately, Apple has continually declined them,” it says.

To learn more about the new rules, and Patreon’s current game plan to meet Apple’s November 2026 timeline, follow this link.

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Avatar for Marcus Mendes Marcus Mendes

Marcus Mendes is a Brazilian tech podcaster and journalist who has been closely following Apple since the mid-2000s.

He began covering Apple news in Brazilian media in 2012 and later broadened his focus to the wider tech industry, hosting a daily podcast for seven years.