1page.title=In-app Billing Overview
2parent.title=In-app Billing
3parent.link=index.html
4@jd:body
5
6<div id="qv-wrapper">
7<div id="qv">
8  <h2>Quickview</h2>
9  <ul>
10    <li>Use In-app Billing to sell digital goods, including one-time items and
11recurring subscriptions.</li>
12    <li>Supported for any app published on Google Play. You only need a Google
13Play Developer Console account and a Google payments merchant account.</li>
14    <li>Checkout processing is automatically handled by Google Play, with the
15same look-and-feel as for app purchases.</li>
16  </ul>
17  <h2>In this document</h2>
18  <ol>
19    <li><a href="#api">In-app Billing API</a></li>
20    <li><a href="#products">In-app Products</a>
21       <ol>
22       <li><a href="#prodtypes">Product Types</a>
23       </ol>
24    </li>
25    <li><a href="#console">Google Play Developer Console</a></li>
26    <li><a href="#checkout">Google Play Purchase Flow</a></li>
27    <li><a href="#samples">Sample App</a></li>
28    <li><a href="#migration">Migration Considerations</a></li>
29  </ol>
30   <h2>Related Samples</h2>
31  <ol>
32    <li><a href="{@docRoot}training/in-app-billing/preparing-iab-app.html#GetSample">Sample
33      Application (V3)</a></li>
34  </ol>
35   <h2>Related Videos</h2>
36  <ol>
37    <li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvCl5Xx7Z5o">Implementing
38      Freemium</a></li>
39  </ol>
40</div>
41</div>
42
43<p>This documentation describes the fundamental In-app Billing components and
44features that you need to understand in order to add In-app
45Billing features into your application.</p>
46
47<p class="note"><b>Note</b>: Ensure that you comply with applicable laws in the countries where you
48distribute apps. For example, in EU countries, laws based on the
49<a href="http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2005:149:0022:0039:EN:PDF">
50Unfair Commercial Practices Directive</a> prohibit direct exhortations to children to buy advertised
51products or to persuade their parents or other adults to buy advertised products for them.
52See the
53<a href="http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/enforcement/docs/common_position_on_online_games_en.pdf">
54position of the EU consumer protection authorities</a> for more information on this and other
55topics.
56</p>
57
58<h2 id="api">In-app Billing API</h2>
59<p>Your application accesses the In-app Billing service using an API that is
60exposed by the Google Play app that is installed on the device. The Google Play
61app then conveys billing requests and responses between your
62application and the Google Play server. In practice, your application never
63directly communicates with the Google Play server. Instead, your application
64sends billing requests to the Google Play application over interprocess
65communication (IPC) and receives responses from the Google Play app.
66Your application does not manage any network connections between itself and
67the Google Play server.</p>
68<p>In-app Billing can be implemented only in applications that you publish
69through Google Play. To complete in-app purchase requests, the Google Play app
70must be able to access the Google Play server over the network.</p>
71
72<p>In-app billing Version 3 is the latest version, and maintains very broad
73compatibility across the range of Android devices. In-app Billing Version 3 is
74supported on devices running Android 2.2 or higher that have the latest version
75of the Google Play store installed (<a
76href="{@docRoot}about/dashboards/index.html">a vast majority</a> of active
77devices).</p>
78
79<h4>Version 3 features</h4>
80<ul>
81<li>Requests are sent through a streamlined API that allows you to easily request
82product details from Google Play, order in-app products, and quickly restore
83items based on users' product ownership</li>
84<li>Order information is synchronously propagated to the device on purchase
85completion</li>
86<li>All purchases are “managed” (that is, Google Play keeps track of the user's
87ownership of in-app products). The user cannot own multiple copies of an in-app
88item; only one copy can be owned at any point in time</li>
89<li>Purchased items can be consumed. When consumed, the item reverts to the
90"unowned" state and can be purchased again from Google Play</li>
91<li>Provides support for <a
92  href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/billing_subscriptions.html">subscriptions</a></li>
93</ul>
94<p>For details about other versions of In-app Billing, see the
95<a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/versions.html">Version Notes</a>.</p>
96
97<h2 id="products">In-app Products</h2>
98<p>In-app products are the digital goods that you offer for sale from inside your
99application to users. Examples of digital goods includes in-game currency,
100application feature upgrades that enhance the user experience, and new content
101for your application.</p>
102<p>You can use In-app Billing to sell only digital content.
103You cannot use In-app Billing to sell physical goods, personal services, or
104anything that requires physical delivery. Unlike with priced applications, once
105the user has purchased an in-app product there is no refund window.</p>
106<p>Google Play does not provide any form of content delivery. You are
107responsible for delivering the digital content that you sell in your
108applications. In-app products are always explicitly associated with one and
109only one app. That is, one application cannot purchase an in-app product
110published for another app, even if they are from the same developer.</p>
111
112<h3 id="prodtypes">Product types</h3>
113<p>In-app Billing supports different product types to give you flexibility in
114how you monetize your application. In all cases, you define your products using
115the Google Play Developer Console.</p>
116<p>You can specify these types of products for your In-app Billing application
117— <em>managed in-app products</em> and <em>subscriptions</em>. Google Play
118handles and tracks ownership for in-app products and subscriptions on your
119application on a per user account basis.
120<a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/api.html#producttypes">Learn more about
121the product types supported by In-app Billing Version 3</a>.</p>
122
123<h2 id="console">Google Play Developer Console</h2>
124<p>The Developer Console is where you can publish your
125In-app Billing application and manage the various in-app products that are
126available for purchase from your application.</p>
127<p>You can create a product list of
128digital goods that are associated with your application, including items for
129one-time purchase and recurring subscriptions. For each item, you can define
130information such as the item’s unique product ID (also called its SKU), product
131type, pricing, description, and how Google Play should handle and track
132purchases for that product.</p>
133<p>If you sell several of your apps or in-app products at the same price, you
134can add <em>pricing templates</em> to manage these price points from a
135centralized location. When using pricing templates, you can include local taxes
136within the prices you provide, or you can provide prices and have the system
137add local taxes to these prices. You can make changes to the prices in your
138pricing templates, such as refreshing the exchange rates for certain
139countries, and your changes are applied to the apps and in-app products
140that you link to the template.</p>
141<p>You can also create test accounts to authorize
142access for testing applications that are unpublished.</p>
143<p>To learn how to use the Developer Console to configure your in-app
144products and product list, see
145<a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/billing_admin.html">Administering
146In-app Billing</a>.</p>
147
148<h2 id="checkout">Google Play Purchase Flow</h2>
149<p>Google Play uses the same checkout backend service as is used for application
150purchases, so your users experience a consistent and familiar purchase flow.</p>
151<p class="note"><strong>Important:</strong> You must have a Google payments
152merchant account to use the In-app Billing service on Google Play.</p>
153<p>To initiate a purchase, your application sends a billing request for a
154specific in-app product. Google Play then handles all of the checkout details for
155the transaction, including requesting and validating the form of payment and
156processing the financial transaction.</p>
157<p>When the checkout process is complete,
158Google Play sends your application the purchase details, such as the order
159number, the order date and time, and the price paid. At no point does your
160application have to handle any financial transactions; that role is provided by
161Google Play.</p>
162
163<h2 id="samples">Sample Application</h2>
164<p>To help you integrate In-app Billing into your application, the Android SDK
165provides a sample application that demonstrates how to sell in-app products and subscriptions
166from inside an app.</p>
167
168<p>The <a href="{@docRoot}training/in-app-billing/preparing-iab-app.html#GetSample">
169TrivialDrive sample for the Version 3 API</a> sample shows how to use the In-app
170Billing Version 3 API
171to implement in-app product and subscription purchases for a driving game. The
172application demonstrates how to send In-app Billing requests, and handle
173synchronous responses from Google Play. The application also shows how to record
174item consumption with the API. The Version 3 sample includes convenience classes
175for processing In-app Billing operations as well as perform automatic signature
176verification.</p>
177
178<p class="caution"><strong>Recommendation</strong>: Make sure to obfuscate the
179code in your application before you publish it. For more information, see
180<a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/billing_best_practices.html">Security
181and Design</a>.</p>
182
183<h2 id="migration">Migration Considerations</h2>
184<p>The In-app Billing Version 2 API was discontinued in January 2015.
185If you have an existing In-app Billing implementation that uses API Version 2 or
186earlier, you must migrate to <a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/api.html">In-app Billing Version
1873</a>.</p>
188
189<p>If you have published apps selling in-app products, note that:</p>
190<ul>
191<li>Managed items and subscriptions that you have previously defined in the Developer Console will
192work with Version 3 as before.</li>
193<li>Unmanaged items that you have defined for existing applications will be
194treated as managed products if you make a purchase request for these items using
195the Version 3 API. You do not need to create a new product entry in Developer
196Console for these items, and you can use the same product IDs to purchase these
197items.
198</ul>
199