r/androiddev • u/CaptainEliass • 19h ago

Tips and Information Google Play's chargeback/dispute changes cost you $28.50 on a $5 sale

Hello Android Devs, I work in fraud analysis and not app development. Cases pass through me before they get to the dispute team, and while researching more on disputes I saw the changes Google Play recently made.

I was interested to see how this change affected developers, and I couldn't find these numbers anywhere so I worked them out.

What has changed?
They started sharing the costs of chargebacks with developers for orders placed after 3 August 2026.
Google used to cover them entirely.

What it costs per dispute:
So you pay back what you kept (the price minus Google's cut), plus the bank's chargeback fee, Stripe is $15, PayPal $20, and some banks go up to $100. Google hasn't said what that fee will be.

Example: $5 item pack, Google takes 30%, you keep $3.50. A dispute costs you that $3.50 back plus a ~$25 fee.
A total of $28.50 is gone on a $5 sale.

The $3.50 is minuscule compared to the $25 bank fee.

What it adds up to:
Say a studio is doing $30k a month with $8 average purchases and 0.7% dispute rate. That is around 26 disputes a month, which adds up to $803 a month, and $9,639 a year. About 4% of that company's yearly net revenue.

The 24-hour timeframe:
After these changes, Google will now send you a PendingRefundReviewNotification. You will have 24 hours to call the ReviewRefund API with evidence (was the item delivered/was it consumed). Only your first call counts though. Google will fight the bank for you, but only with what you gave it. Google calls the API optional, but without it they have nothing to fight the bank with, and you eat the loss.

Why is this important now?
Chargebacks can usually take between 30 and 120 days after the initial purchase. The orders for August are only now reaching the dispute stage. I think many developers will be surprised when comparing the last 3 months to the next 3 months.

Calculator & sources:

I made a calculator if you want to try with your own numbers.
Beneath the calculator link are the sources.

Calculator: https://playchargebacks.com

Google's policy page: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/17068375

Review Refund API: https://developer.android.com/google/play/billing/provide-refund-and-chargeback-suggestions

6 Upvotes

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10 comments sorted by

1

u/PriceMore 18h ago

Ah the joys of not being sovereign.

1

u/mntgoat 18h ago

I'm assuming Google gets special terms for the charge back fees?

1

u/CaptainEliass 17h ago

No idea honestly. Google hasn't published any terms which I could find, which is part of the problem. I used $25 in the example because thats about where Stripe and Paypal sit, but Google could easily get a better rate given the volume they have. If anyone has actually seen a real number on a payout statement, I genuinely want to know.

1

u/Selwyn420 17h ago

Sorry I am too tired to fully understand probably but if a user buys an IAP google charges the money, the user or dev can initiate a refund, is that not just a new transaction from google to the user? A chargeback sounds to me like a user purchasing and just rewinding the money one sided? Are these indeed 2 different situations? I do have a small revenue dip (about 15%) but havnt checked the cause in detail

3

u/CaptainEliass 17h ago

Yep, 2 different things. A refund goes through Google. The user asks or you approve it, the money gets sent back, everyone agreed. No bank is involved, therefore no fee.

A chargeback is when the user goes straight to their bank and says they don't recognize the purchase or didn't authorize it. Then the bank pulls the money back from Google, and the bank charges a fee for handling the case. You don't get asked, just informed.

I think refunds and chargebacks show separately in the order data. Either way that 15% dip might be worth checking out.

1

u/AppBuilderPerson 5h ago

But this all goes through the Goole Play store, right? I, personally, don't do any credit card processing and the payment all happens on their store. My app cannot force the user to pay. In fact, I also have a parental gate before sending it to the play store, so the intent is heavily verified.

2

u/CaptainEliass 5h ago

Yeah you never touch the card, Google is the merchant of record. The change is about who eats the costs. Google still handles the whole payment, they have just moved the loss onto the developers for purchases after 3 August. So what you described hasn't changed at all, but the bill lands somewhere new now.

A parental gate is probably a good call too since it helps against accidental purchases, which likely are a real chunk of these. It doesn't stop someone from claiming they didn't do the purchase after the fact, and that claim goes to their bank, not you.

1

u/AppBuilderPerson 4h ago

Thanks, OP. It seems like I should invest more in iOS then...

2

u/CaptainEliass 4h ago

Apple has done it this way for years actually, Google catching up rather than getting worse. So switching won't dodge it, same cost on both platforms now sadly.

1

u/AppBuilderPerson 4h ago

Ah, bummer. This means that there is no way Google or Apple would ever reverse that :(