Unity issued an update to their runtime pricing on September 22, 2023. See summary here. I have updated this tool to include the new runtime pricing model. If your 12 month revenue is greater than $200k, you need to upgrade to Pro. If your trailing 12 month revenue is greater than $1m, you will need to pay a runtime fee. This calculator automatically handles your tiering.
This new pricing model only applies from Unity 2023 LTS and later.
This tool will estimate the cost of Unity's runtime pricing for your game. Cost calculations exclude the baseline subscription cost, currently $2040/yr with Pro. This tool only estimates your runtime pricing cost. This tool does not account for your Pro subscription or other Unity tools. This tool still needs to include pricing for Enterprise subscriptions.
If your project earns more than $1m in revenue in the past 12 months, you will need to pay a fee to Unity. Our tool assumes that 100% of your revenue comes from your Revenue per Install for this game.
Our tool distributes the revenue evenly per month over the lifetime of your game. For many games, this is an incorrect assumption.
Unity charges a different, lower runtime install fee for installs in Emerging Markets. You can input your Emerging Markets Install Percentage to estimate your cost with Emerging Market Installs.
Unity will charge the lesser of 2.5% royalty or the runtime fee. This calculator includes this calculation.
Before the runtime pricing update, Unity did not charge any fee. Developers were allowed to release full commercial games on the Free tier to the market.
Game developers can opt for Plus or Pro subscriptions. These ran at ~$400 and $2000 annually.
Unity received a lot of backlash on the original Runtime Pricing update. As a result, they updated their Runtime Pricing plans on September 22, 2023.
Developers on the Free tier will never pay a fee. However, you will need to upgrade to the Pro tier if you exceed $200k in 12 month trailing revenue.
On the Pro tier, you will pay fees once you exceed $1m in 12 month trailing revenue. This fee is calculated using the minimum of two values.
First, Unity calculates your install fee. This fee ranges from $0.15 to $0.02 per install as your install counts scale. (Unity calls this "initial engagements").
Second, Unity calculates your royalty fee. This fee is 2.5% of your revenue for that month.
Then, Unity assesses you a fee based on the lesser of the install and royalty fees.
User installs and revenue are self-reported. Obviously, you should report these values truthfully.
Our pricing calculator assumes that the revenue threshold excludes current month revenues. In other words, we assume that charges start accruing in the month after you hit the threshold. Unity has yet to announce how they will determine the trailing 12-month revenue officially.
Unity will charge this fee to the game distributor in cases of Game Pass or other subscription services. Developers that release exclusively on subscription services will not be affected.
91% of indie game developers earn less than $200k in lifetime revenue. Most developers will not reach the threshold for the Free plan. Very few developers will reach the $1m lifetime revenue threshold for the Pro plan.
Unity updated its pricing model effective January 1, 2024. Previously, Unity did not charge any revenue share or runtime install fees. In the future, Unity will charge a runtime install fee for developers that exceed thresholds. You must exceed both an install and revenue threshold for Unity to charge you runtime install fees.
Unity assesses this fee once per install. Unity will not charge for "install bombing." Install bombing is a practice where users repeatedly re-install the game on a single device.
For the Free tier, Unity has fixed the fee at $0.20 per install. It remains the same for any number of installs.
Unity split this fee into groups for the Pro tier. Unity structured these groups based on the number of installs per month. The cost ranges from $0.15 to $0.02 per install as your installs scale from 0 to 1m+ for that month. This calculator does account for per-month brackets.
Our pricing calculator assumes that the revenue threshold excludes current month revenues. In other words, we assume that charges start accruing in the month after you hit the threshold. Unity has yet to announce how they will determine the trailing 12-month revenue officially.
Unity will charge this fee to the game distributor in cases of Game Pass or other subscription services. Developers that release exclusively on subscription services will not be affected.
91% of indie game developers earn less than $200k in lifetime revenue. Most developers will not reach the threshold for the Free plan. Let alone the $1m lifetime revenue threshold for the Pro plan.
Unreal charges 5% royalty on all revenue. This royalty starts after your game exceeds $1m in lifetime revenue. You are exempt if you have less than $10k quarterly revenue. Unreal developers self-report their income. Unreal assesses charges on a quarterly basis.
Unreal charges 5% royalty on all revenues earned. If your revenue per install is $4, your royalty payment to Unreal would be $0.20 per install. In other words, your royalty payment to Unreal matches the runtime fee for Unity on the free tier.
Unreal's 5% royalty starts at $1m+ lifetime revenue with $10k+ quarterly revenue.
Unity's fee for the free tier kicks in at $1m+, trailing 12-month revenue (average $250k+ quarterly revenue). Plus, the install thresholds.
Unreal is more expensive. Unreal charges a 5% royalty. Unity charges a maximum of a 2.5% royalty. Unity will always be less expensive than Unreal Engine.
On September 17, Unity announced that they plan to "make changes to this policy." Unity has yet to announce the specific changes they will make. Leaked documents have indicated that Unity may set a 4% revenue cap on their cost per install. These documents also suggest that Unity may allow developers to self-report install numbers.
On September 22, Unity officially announced changes to this policy. These changes include a 2.5% revenue cap (i.e., maximum royalty). Unity will allow developers to self-report install and revenue numbers.
How you approach this problem depends on your game engine. Using Unity, you must assess your churn rate and game installs. One way to approach this is to segment your customers into different marketing groups. Then, use machine learning (e.g., Google Ads) to serve ads to customers. Adjust your acquisition cost based on your user churn and install rate.
Unity has announced that this pricing does not affect charity bundles, which will not incur any cost per install.
Enterprise customers who enter into a custom license with Unity have an even more favorable cost per install. Depending on your revenue and gross margins, this may be a promising approach for your business.
Our Unity runtime pricing calculator is a third-party tool. We did our best to estimate and analyze Unity's new pricing model and Unreal's current pricing model. Unity may update its pricing model in the future. Or, the tool may calculate the runtime pricing in a way that is different from how Unity will calculate it. Given that context, always conduct your financial estimates. Contact Unity directly to confirm pricing with them. We are not responsible for any inaccuracies or incorrect pricing estimates resulting from the use of this tool.