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Key Takeaways Apple asks big AI companies like OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and xAI to pay the Apple App Store tax, generating nearly $900 million in fees last year alone.
About 75% of that revenue came from ChatGPT, which has 900 million weekly active users.
Apple is on track to cross $1 billion in AI revenue this year from App Store fees alone.
Apple sat back and let everyone else fight over who could build the best AI chatbot. Then, when the dust settled, it charged those same companies fees to reach users through the App Store — pulling in nearly $1 billion last year alone just from AI apps like ChatGPT and Claude.
Mobile market intelligence firm AppMagic told The Wall Street Journal earlier this week that Apple forced big AI companies like OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and xAI to pay the Apple App Store tax, or a 30% cut of subscription fees in the first year and 15% every year after. AppMagic estimated that generative AI apps paid Apple $900 million in fees in 2025.
About 75% of that revenue came from ChatGPT, per the firm’s analysis. Apple’s revenue from AI apps jumped from about $35 million in January 2025 to a peak of $101 million in August. Since then, sales have slipped, in part because ChatGPT downloads have tapered off, the data shows.
The Journal reported that Apple is on track to cross $1 billion in AI revenue this year from App Store fees alone. Apple’s lucrative position as the gatekeeper of more than 2.5 billion active devices allows it to profit without making AI advances of its own.
Apple CEO Tim Cook. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)
Apple’s AI spending is minuscule compared to its competitors — Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft spent close to $400 billion combined on AI infrastructure in 2025. Meanwhile, Apple spent around $12.72 billion on AI for its fiscal year 2025, lagging behind its rivals.
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