Price point equalization is how Apple turns a price you set in one country into a matching price in every other App Store territory. You pick a base price point, say 9.99 US dollars, and Apple's equalization returns the equivalent price point in each of roughly 175 territories, converted for that market's currency and its own fixed price ladder. It is the machinery behind "set one price, sell everywhere," and understanding it is the difference between pricing each market on purpose and letting Apple's default fill in the blanks.
The catch is that equalization is a currency conversion, not a pricing strategy. It answers "what is 9.99 dollars worth in rupees or lira," not "what should this app cost someone in India or Turkey." This guide explains what price points and equalization actually are, how to pull equalized prices from the App Store Connect API, and when you should accept them versus override them for pricing that reflects what a market can actually pay.
On this page
- What a price point is
- What equalization does
- Equalization is conversion, not localization
- Getting equalized prices from the API
- When to accept and when to override
- Doing it across every product
- FAQ
What a price point is
Apple does not let you type an arbitrary price. Each territory has a fixed ladder of price points, specific allowed prices in the local currency, and you choose a rung on that ladder rather than a raw number. In the US the ladder runs in familiar steps like 0.99, 1.99, 2.99, up through 9.99 and beyond; in India, Japan, or Brazil it is the same idea in the local currency, with rungs Apple has chosen to sit at sensible round numbers for that market.
This is why setting a price is always "pick a price point," never "enter an amount." It keeps every price mapped cleanly to a tier Apple can display, tax, and report on consistently. The consequence for you is that when you move a price across borders, you are really asking which rung on each territory's ladder corresponds to your base rung. That mapping is what equalization provides.
What equalization does
Equalization takes one base price point and returns the corresponding price point on every other territory's ladder. Give it 9.99 dollars in the United States and it hands back the rung in each market that Apple considers equivalent, roughly the same value converted into that currency, then snapped to the nearest allowed local price point.
That snapping is the useful part. You do not get a raw currency conversion like 9.99 dollars equals 834.27 rupees, which is not a price anybody charges. You get the actual price point Apple offers in that market, a clean local number that sits on the ladder and reads correctly to a local customer. One base price in, a full set of local, ladder-aligned prices out.
Equalization is conversion, not localization
Here is the part that costs indie developers money without them noticing. Equalization preserves value, not affordability. The equalized price in India is worth about the same as your US price in dollar terms, which means it is expensive relative to local incomes. Nine dollars and change is a very different ask in San Francisco than in a market where the median wage is a fraction of the US figure.
If you accept equalized prices everywhere, you are charging every country the US price in disguise. That is fine as a starting point and it is what Apple does by default, but it leaves conversions on the table in exactly the markets where a lower, purchasing-power-aware price would win far more subscribers than the small per-sale difference costs you. The developers who price deliberately treat equalization as the baseline they adjust from, not the answer. They keep the equalized price in peer markets and step down to a lower rung in markets where ability to pay is lower.
For how to turn that into an actual per-country strategy, see the 25-country subscription pricing guide.
Getting equalized prices from the API
You do not have to click through territories in App Store Connect to see equalized prices. The App Store Connect API exposes them directly. Given the ID of your base price point, the equalization endpoint returns the matching price point in every territory:
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
"https://api.appstoreconnect.apple.com/v1/subscriptionPricePoints/USA_PRICE_POINT_ID/equalizations?limit=200"Each entry in the response is a real price point with its own id and customerPrice, already snapped to that territory's ladder. To price a subscription worldwide from one base number, you loop over that list and attach each returned price point to the subscription. For the full create-and-price flow around this call, see creating App Store subscriptions with the App Store Connect API.
The response is paginated and long, roughly 175 territories, so page through the links.next cursor rather than assuming the first page is complete. And remember the equalized IDs are specific to the subscription you queried; do not reuse them across products.
When to accept and when to override
Accepting the equalized price is the right call more often than you might think. In markets with purchasing power close to your home market, the equalized number is already correct, and overriding it just adds work and risk for no gain. Peer economies do not need a discount.
Overriding earns its keep in markets where local incomes are materially lower. There, you swap the equalized price point for a lower rung on the same territory's ladder before you attach it, dropping the price to something a local customer will actually pay. How far to drop is a judgment call, and the common strategies range from a light discount to steep cuts of fifty percent or more in the lowest-income markets. The mechanism is always the same: equalization gives you the anchor, and you step down from it where it makes sense.
A practical rule: change the price point, never leave a market unpriced. An empty price ladder means your paywall shows nothing at all in that territory, which is strictly worse than the equalized default. Override deliberately, but always leave a valid price behind.
Doing it across every product
Equalization is trivial for one subscription and tedious for a real catalog. A monthly and an annual tier, each priced across 175 territories, is 350 price points to fetch, decide on, and attach, and you redo the affected ones every time you change a base price. This is why pricing is one of the first things developers script against the API rather than manage by hand.
The pattern is: fetch the equalized set for each product's base price, apply your per-market rules on top, either keep the equalized rung or step down to a chosen one, then attach the results in a single run. Done once as code, repricing your whole catalog for a new base price becomes a command, not a week of clicking.
FAQ
What is App Store price point equalization?
It is Apple's mechanism for converting one base price into a matching price in every App Store territory. You give it a base price point and it returns the equivalent price point on each territory's local price ladder, converted for currency and rounded to an allowed local price.
Does equalization set purchasing-power-adjusted prices?
No. Equalization preserves value, not affordability, so the equalized price in a lower-income market is still worth about the same as your home price in currency terms. To price for local purchasing power, treat the equalized price as a baseline and step down to a lower price point in markets that need it.
How do I get equalized prices programmatically?
Call the App Store Connect API's equalizations endpoint for your base price point. It returns the matching price point for every territory, each already aligned to that market's price ladder, which you then attach to your subscription.
Why can't I just enter any price?
Apple only allows a fixed ladder of price points per territory so every price maps cleanly to a tier it can display, tax, and report. You pick a rung on the ladder rather than typing an amount, and equalization tells you which rung in each country matches your base.
Should I always use the equalized price?
Use it as the default, and override it in markets where local incomes are much lower than your home market. In peer economies the equalized price is usually right; discounting there just leaves money on the table for no gain in conversions.
What happens if I leave a territory without a price?
Your paywall shows nothing in that territory, so no one there can subscribe. Always attach a valid price point to every market you sell in, even if it is just the equalized default, rather than leaving a market unpriced.
Spaceport handles all of this for you. You set one base price and pick a pricing model, and Spaceport uses Apple's equalization as the baseline, then applies a purchasing-power-aware strategy on top, keeping the equalized price in peer markets and stepping it down where ability to pay is lower, across 25 of the top markets, with every other territory left on a valid equalized price so no paywall is ever empty. It pushes the result to App Store Connect and matches it in RevenueCat, both through their APIs. From an indie iOS dev, for indie iOS devs.