Set app pricing and availability

The Pricing and availability page of the app submission process lets you determine how much your app will cost, whether you'll offer a free trial, and how, when, and where it will be available to customers. Here, we'll walk through the options on this page and what you should consider when entering this information.

Markets

The Microsoft Store reaches customers in over 240 countries and regions around the world. By default, we’ll offer your app in all possible markets. If you prefer, you can choose the specific markets in which you'd like to offer your app.

For more info, see Define market selection.

Visibility

The Visibility section allows you to set restrictions on how your app can be discovered and acquired, including whether people can find your app in the Store or see its Store listing at all.

For more info, see Choose visibility options.

Schedule

By default (unless you have selected one of the Make this app available but not discoverable in the Store options in the Visibility section), your app will be available to customers as soon as it passes certification and complete the publishing process. To choose other dates, select Show options to expand this section.

For more info, see Configure precise release scheduling.

Discoverability

The selections in the Discoverability section indicate how customers can discover and acquire your app.

Make this product available and discoverable in the Store

This is the default option. Leave this option selected if you want your app to be listed in the Store for customers to find via the app's direct link and/or by other methods, including searching, browsing, and inclusion in curated lists.

Make this product available but not discoverable in the Store

When you select this option, your app can’t be found in the Store by customers searching or browsing; the only way to get to your app’s listing is by a direct link.

Pricing

You are required to select a base price for your app (unless you have selected the Stop acquisition option under Make this app available but not discoverable in the Store in the Visibility section), choosing either Free or one of the available price tiers. You can also schedule price changes to indicate the date and time at which your app’s price should change. Additionally, you have the option to customize these changes for specific markets. Microsoft periodically updates the recommended prices, to account for currency fluctuations in different markets. When a recommended price changes, the pricing area will show a warning indicator if the prices you’ve selected are not aligned with the new recommended values. The prices in your products will not change, you are in control of when and if you want to update these prices.

For more info, see Set and schedule app pricing.

Free trial

Many developers choose to allow customers to try out their app for free using the trial functionality provided by the Store. By default, No free trial is selected, and there will be no trial for your app. If you’d like to offer a trial, you can select a value from the Free trial dropdown. See Implement a trial version of your app for more information.

There are two types of trial you can choose, and you have the option to configure the date and time when the trial should start and stop being offered.

Time-limited

Choose Time-limited to allow customers to try your app for free for a certain number of days: 1 day, 7 days, 15 days, or 30 days. You can limit features by adding code to exclude or limit features in the trial version, or you can let customers access the full functionality during that period of time.

Note

Time-limited trials are not shown to customers on Windows 10 build 10.0.10586 or earlier, or to customers on Windows Phone 8.1 and earlier.

Unlimited

Choose Unlimited to let customers access your app for free indefinitely. You'll want to encourage them to purchase the full version, so make sure to add code to exclude or limit features in the trial version.

Start and end dates

By default, your trial will be available as soon as your app is published, and it will never stop being offered. If you’d like, you can specify the date and time that your trial should start to be offered and when it should stop being offered.

Note

These dates only apply for customers on Windows 10 or Windows 11 (including Xbox). If your app is available to customers on earlier OS versions, the trial will be offered to those customers for as long as your product is available.

To set dates for when your trial should be offered to customers on Windows 10 or Windows 11, change the Starts on and/or Ends on dropdown to at, then choose the date and time. If you do so, you can either choose UTC so that the time you select will be Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) time, or choose Local so that these times will be used in each time zone associated with a market. (Note that for markets that include more than one time zone, only one time zone in that market will be used. For the United States, the Eastern time zone is used.) You can select Customize for specific markets if you want to set different dates for any market(s).

Sale pricing

If you want to offer your app at a reduced price for a limited period of time, you can create and schedule a sale.

For more info, see Put apps and add-ons on sale.

Organizational licensing

By default, your app may be offered to organizations to purchase in volume. You can indicate whether and how your app can be offered in this section.

For more info, see Organizational licensing options.

Publish date

Previously, the Publish date section appeared on this page. This functionality can now be found on the Submission options page, in the Publishing hold options section.

Markets

The Microsoft Store reaches customers in over 240 countries and regions around the world. By default, we’ll offer your app in all possible markets. If you prefer, you can choose the specific markets in which you'd like to offer your app.

For more info, see Define market selection.

Pricing

Choose your pricing model from Free, Freemium, Subscription and Paid. For more info, see Set app pricing.

Discoverability

The selections in the Discoverability section indicate how customers can discover and acquire your app.

Make this product available and discoverable in the Store

This is the default option. Leave this option selected if you want your app to be listed in the Store for customers to find via the app's direct link and/or by other methods, including searching, browsing, and inclusion in curated lists.

Make this product available through direct link only but not discoverable in the Microsoft Store

When you select this option, your app can’t be found in the Store by customers searching or browsing; the only way to get to your app’s listing is by a direct link.

When submitting an add-on in Partner Center, the options on the Pricing and availability page determine how much to charge customers for your add-on and how it should be offered to customers.

Markets

By default, your add-on will be listed in all possible markets, including any future markets that we may add later, at its base price.

However, just as with an app, you have the option to choose the markets in which you'd like to offer your add-on. In most cases you'll want to pick the same set of markets as the app, but you have the flexibility to make changes as needed.

For more info and a full list of the available markets, see Define market selection.

Visibility

You can determine whether your add-on should be offered for purchase to customers.

The default option is Can be displayed in the parent product’s Store listing. Leave this option checked for add-ons that will be made available to any customer.

For add-ons that you don't want to make broadly available, select Hidden in the Store and one of the following options:

• Available for purchase from within the parent product only: Choosing this option allows any customer to purchase the add-on from within your app, but the add-on will not be displayed in your app's Store listing or discoverable in the Store. Use this only when the offer is not broadly available, for example during initial periods of internal testing.
• Stop acquisition: Any customer with a direct link can see the product’s Store listing, but they can only download it if they owned the product before, or have a promotional code and are using a Windows 10 or Windows 11 device. This add-on is not displayed in the parent product's listing: Choosing this option means that the add-on won't be displayed in your app's listing, and no new customers may purchase the add-on. However, this option is not supported for customers on Windows 8.1 or earlier. If your previously-published app is available on Windows 8.1 or earlier, the add-on will still be available for purchase to those customers. To stop offering the add-on to customers on Windows 8.1 or earlier, you'll need to update your app to remove the code that offers the add-on, then publish a new submission for the app. This is recommended even if your app doesn't target Windows 8.1 or earlier; it's a better experience for your customers if you never offer them an add-on that you've opted to make unavailable.

Note

Choosing the Stop acquisition option and/or submitting an app update that removes the add-on from your app will not prevent customers from using the add-on if they have already purchased it. Existing subscriptions will fail to renew and subsequently be canceled after the current term ends.

Schedule

By default (unless you have selected one of the Hidden in the Store options in the Visibility section), your add-on will be available to customers as soon as it passes certification and complete the publishing process. To choose other dates, select Show options to expand this section.

For more info, see Configure precise release scheduling.

Pricing

You must select a base price for your add-on (unless you have selected the Stop acquisition option in the Visibility section). The default selection is Free, so if you want to charge money for the add-on, be sure to choose one of the available price tiers (starting at .99 USD).

You can also schedule price changes to indicate the date and time at which the add-on’s price should change. Additionally, you have the option to customize these changes for specific markets.

Tip

For subscription add-ons, you can't raise the price after you publish the add-on, either by selecting a higher base price in a later submission or by scheduling a price change that increases the price. You can select a lower price using either of these methods, but once the price is lowered you won't be able to raise it higher than that new price. Because of this, it's especially important to be sure you select the appropriate price tier for subscription add-ons.

For more info, see Set and schedule app pricing.

Sale pricing

If you want to offer your add-on at a reduced price for a limited period of time, you can create and schedule a sale. For more info, see Put apps and add-ons on sale.