Apple Earns $900M in AI App Commissions in 2025

Apple earned nearly $900 million in commissions from generative AI applications on its App Store in 2025, capitalizing on the popularity of third-party chatbots despite its own limited advancements in artificial intelligence.

The revenue, based on data from analytics firm AppMagic, stemmed primarily from fees on subscriptions and in-app purchases for apps such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and xAI's Grok. ChatGPT alone generated about 75 percent of the total, while Grok contributed 5 percent. Monthly earnings from these apps rose sharply from approximately $35 million in January to a peak of $101 million in August, before declining as downloads of ChatGPT slowed. Apple takes up to 30 percent commissions on first-year subscriptions sold through the App Store, with the rate dropping to 15 percent thereafter. The company is projected to surpass $1 billion in such revenue by the end of 2026, as the iPhone continues to dominate the smartphone market and serve as a primary distribution channel for AI tools.

This windfall highlights Apple's platform-centric strategy in the AI landscape. Unlike competitors such as OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic, which have invested tens of billions in data...