Website vs. app store purchases
The same subscription differs in list price, tax treatment and refund channel depending on where you buy it
ChatGPT and Claude personal subscriptions can be bought in three places: the vendor's website, the iOS App Store, and Google Play. You get the same membership, but the list price, tax treatment and refund channel are different in each.
Prices differ: app stores include the platform cut
App stores take a cut of subscription revenue, and vendors usually build it into the listed price. In the US storefront (measured September 2026):
| Plan | Website | US App Store |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT Plus | $20 | $19.99 |
| Claude Pro | $20 | $20.00 |
| Claude Max 5x | $100 | $124.99 |
| Claude Max 20x | $200 | $249.99 |
The gap is not uniform: the cheaper tiers are roughly the same, while the two Claude Max tiers cost 25% more in the App Store. "The store is always more expensive" is as wrong as the opposite — it has to be checked plan by plan.
Tax: website prices usually exclude it
Vendor pricing pages state that listed prices exclude applicable tax (Claude's pricing page says "Prices shown don't include applicable tax"), and VAT / GST / sales tax is added at checkout based on your location. App Store prices generally already include local tax, so what you see is what you are charged.
This means comparing a website price with a store price directly is not apples to apples — the former still has tax to come.
Billing and refunds
- Website: the vendor charges your card directly; subscription management, invoices and refunds live in your vendor account settings.
- iOS App Store: Apple charges you; the subscription is managed under Settings → Apple Account → Subscriptions, and refunds are requested from Apple.
- Google Play: Google charges you; same idea.
Vendors usually cannot refund a store purchase directly — they will point you to the platform. Cancellation works the same way: cancelling on the website does not stop an App Store renewal.
Currency and region
Website prices default to US dollars, with a few regions billed in local currency (Anthropic has priced Claude in rupees in India since July 2026; OpenAI also has local pricing in India, the EU and the UK). App stores always price in the currency of the account's region, which is why the same plan carries very different numbers across storefronts — see official subscription prices by region.
What this site covers
Right now this site tracks iOS App Store list prices across regions (collected automatically on a schedule). Per-region website and Google Play prices are not covered yet: the former is shown based on the visitor's IP, the latter requires an account in that region, and neither has a reliable collection method today. That is why the per-region table has no rows for those two channels — the website appears only as a single amber USD baseline row, and Google Play is tagged "not covered yet" on its channel card. A missing row is not the same as "unavailable in that region".