Payment Policy

In addition for installable applications, when you acquire new customers using the "Add it now" feature, we ask to share 20% of your revenue from that customer, for the life of our joint relationship with that customer, in return for a simpler install and sign on experience, better application management, built-in billing services, and other integration features exclusive to installable applications.

In general, we ask to share revenue on the total amount your customer ends up paying you for your application and related add-ons. Exactly which revenue is subject to revenue share?

Revenue from software installed into Google Apps, whenever they begin paying you (e.g. after any free period).
If you charge on a recurring basis, we ask that you share revenue on a recurring basis.
Revenue from items that are priced per unit of usage (e.g. per GB, per minute, etc)
Revenue on upgrades to your product, including:

Plan upgrades, like Standard to Premium
Additional users
Feature upgrades, like additional GB of storage

Which revenue is not subject to revshare?

Existing revenue from your existing customers.
Ad revenue.
Service fees such as installation, consulting and support
Ecommerce services that primarily exist to sell goods (e.g. tickets, reservations, books, shipping, food, etc.) are exempt for the value of the goods ordered.
Revenue from customers that are no longer Google Apps subscribers.
Charges consisting of taxes.
Revenue from customers acquired through the marketplace during the revenue sharing exemption period, as defined in the "Revenue sharing exemption period" below.

What remains free?

You can use Google's no-fee APIs, gadgets, and OpenID service for free. You can also use the non-installable Marketplace listings that do not offer the "Add it now" feature.

Note that only Installable applications sold via the "Add it now" button include access the Google universal navigation links, the Google Apps control panel, and other installable application features on our roadmap.

What do I do if I have a question?

If the description above doesn't address your product and its billing scenarios, we're happy to review your specific situation. To request a review, please send email describing your product and billing model in detail to solutions-marketplace-feedback@google.com and we'll reply with a decision about whether or not you must share revenue on those transactions. If you disagree, you can continue to list your product as a non-installable listing, or unlist your product. These are your sole remedies if you disagree with our decision. Please see the Payment Policy FAQ for more information.

Selling your installable application

If you sell an installable application through the Google Apps Marketplace, you are required to share revenue with Google. This revenue sharing is accomplished through Google Checkout. All sales, upgrades, and related transactions must ultimately be cleared through Google Checkout. The details of how to integrate with these billing features follow.

Billing in the Google Apps Marketplace

Revenue sharing exemption period

The Google Apps Marketplace does not currently support billing functionality. Therefore, we are temporarily forgiving your revenue sharing obligation for transactions that occur between March 9, 2010 and 3 months after the release of the Marketplace Billing APIs.

We will release APIs and a test environment against which you can integrate and test soon. Per the Developer Distribution Agreement, it is your responsibility to integrate with the Billing APIs within 3 months of their release. We will notify all vendors through the Google Apps Developer blog and through email to inform them that APIs have been released and clearly state when the revenue sharing exemption period ends. We expect the billing APIs to be published in Q4, 2010.

You will not be required to share revenue on any transactions between you and a customer that you acquired during the revenue sharing exemption period. This exemption extends for the lifetime of the customer. Please see the Payment Policy FAQ for more information.

Integrating with Google Apps Marketplace billing

The Google Apps Marketplace billing service, based on Google Checkout, handles payments for Marketplace vendors. Developers will be able to define the prices and renewal plans for their products as part of the product listing process ("Automatic Billing"), or use a series of APIs to bill customers according to the developer's business processes ("Self Reported Billing")

Automatic Billing:

developer configures price, subscription, and trial parameters into the product listing in the Google Apps Marketplace
Google automatically bills customers and enables/disables the app in the Google Apps Control Panel according to those rules
Google pays developer minus fees

Self Reported Billing:

developer describes pricing model, subscription, and trial information to users in the listing
customers use "add it now" button and go through the first two steps of the install process (accept the TOS, grant data access) in the Google Apps control panel.
For paid listings, the third step of the install process takes the user to a specific URL on the developer's website. The developer manages the purchase flow on their website and uses the Billing APIs to:

charge/refund the customer
enable/disable the app in the Google Apps Control Panel. Enable/Disable can be done automatically by Google based on a developer-set time period or explicitly through API calls.
during intial purchase, redirects user to a Google Checkout checkout page as last step of flow to complete purchase.
for renewals and upgrades, the developer provides the user with a link that takes the user to Google Checkout to pay for the renewal or upgrade.

Google pays developer minus fees

Checkout APIs - coming soon

Documentation on the APIs will be published on code.google.com soon.

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