The median subscription app converts about 32.5% of free trials into paid subscriptions, according to RevenueCat's State of Subscription Apps 2026 (2025 data from more than 115,000 apps).
Before that, only about 5-6% of installs start a trial in most categories.
So a typical trial funnel turns 100 installs into roughly 5 or 6 trials and about 2 paying users.
Below are the medians and top-quartile marks by category, platform, region and price point.
After that come the tests in our database that moved these numbers, with the real results.
The average free trial conversion rate, and the range
There are two trial conversion rates, and they get mixed up all the time.
Install-to-trial is the share of downloads that start a trial.
Trial-to-paid is the share of those trials that become a paid subscription.
RevenueCat's 2026 report defines install-to-trial as trials started within 30 days of download, counted only for apps that use trials.
Trial-to-paid is the share of trial starts that convert to a paid subscription.
| Metric | Median | What a strong app looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Install-to-trial (D30) | 5-6% in most non-gaming categories | Top-quartile Business apps above 16.2%; top Health & Fitness apps above 23% |
| Trial-to-paid | 32.6% on iOS, 32.5% on Google Play | Top 10% above 60% in North America, Asia-Pacific and Western Europe |
| Install-to-paid (D35) | 2.9% on iOS, 2.6% on Google Play | Top-quartile North American developers above 5.6% |
Trial length moves the range a lot. RevenueCat found a median trial-to-paid rate of 25.5% for trials of four days or less, 37.4% for 5-9 days and 42.5% for 17-32 days.
Even so, 46.5% of apps now run trials of four days or less, up from 42.1% in 2025, per RevenueCat's 2026 trends summary.
Short trials also get cancelled fast. RevenueCat reports that 55.4% of 3-day trial cancellations happen on day 0, compared with 31.1% for 30-day trials.
The trial-to-paid figures above are medians across apps that offer trials.
If your app is freemium or uses a hard paywall, also read our freemium vs free trial comparison: RevenueCat puts the median day-35 conversion at 10.7% for hard-paywall apps and 2.1% for freemium apps.
Free trial conversion rates by category
Categories differ more at the top of the funnel than at the bottom.
Business apps lead on install-to-trial, while Travel and Health & Fitness lead on trial-to-paid.
| Category | Install-to-trial median | Trial-to-paid median |
|---|---|---|
| Business | 9.1% (top quartile above 16.2%) | Not broken out |
| Health & Fitness | 6.9% | 37.7% (top quartile above 51.4%) |
| Education | 6.5% | Not broken out |
| Utilities | 6.5% | Not broken out |
| Travel | 4.1% | 43.5% (top quartile above 62.4%) |
| Gaming | 4.4% | 25.0% (top quartile above 39.8%) |
| Media & Entertainment | 4.0% | Widest spread: 11.5% to 69.5% |
| Photo & Video | Not broken out | 22.2%, the lowest (top quartile above 33.1%) |
Source: RevenueCat, State of Subscription Apps 2026. "Not broken out" means the report's summary text does not give a figure for that cell.
Travel is the odd one. Few installs start a trial, but those who do convert at the highest median rate.
People who download a travel app usually have a trip coming up, so the ones who start a trial already know what they want.
The best trial length also changes by category.
In RevenueCat's trial length study of 17,000+ apps, monthly Health & Fitness plans converted best with 5-9-day trials (46.8%), while Media & Entertainment and Utilities peaked with 10-16-day trials (58.9% and 47.4%).
iOS vs Android trial conversion
Once a user starts a trial, the platform barely matters.
RevenueCat's median trial-to-paid rate is 32.6% on iOS and 32.5% on Google Play.
The gap is earlier and later in the funnel.
Median install-to-paid conversion is 2.9% on the App Store against 2.6% on Google Play, and revenue per install at day 60 is $0.42 against $0.23, per the same report.
After the trial, Android has a billing problem.
RevenueCat found that 31% of Google Play cancellations in its 2026 summary are billing failures, compared with 14% on the App Store.
If your Android trial-to-paid looks fine but revenue does not, look at failed renewals before you redesign the paywall. Our subscription churn benchmarks cover that side.
By region and price point
Region moves both rates. North American users start trials at a median of 7.1% of installs, against 5.7% in Asia-Pacific, 5.0% in Western Europe and 3.0-3.7% everywhere else.
| User region | Install-to-trial median | Trial-to-paid median |
|---|---|---|
| North America | 7.1% | 34.2% (top quartile above 47.9%) |
| Asia-Pacific | 5.7% | 31.9% |
| Western Europe | 5.0% | 29.7% |
| Latin America, Middle East & Africa, rest of world | 3.0-3.7% | About 20-23% |
| India & Southeast Asia | 3.0-3.7% | 15.2%, the lowest |
Source: RevenueCat, State of Subscription Apps 2026.
Price works in a direction you might not expect.
Apps priced above average convert installs to trials at a median of 8.9%, against 5.4% for mid-priced and 4.4% for low-priced apps.
The report doesn't explain why. One likely reason is that higher-priced apps tend to target users who are ready to pay, so a trial offer lands with people who came looking for it.
So a blended benchmark can mislead. An app with mostly Indian traffic and a 20% trial-to-paid rate may be doing better than a US app at 30%.
What a "good" trial conversion rate means for you
Set your target by comparing yourself to apps like yours, not to the overall median. A practical way to do it:
- Measure both steps separately. Install-to-trial and trial-to-paid respond to different changes. A drop in one can hide behind a rise in the other.
- Pick the right row. Use your category, your main region and your trial length. A 3-day trial at 30% trial-to-paid beats the 25.5% median for short trials, even though it sits under the 32.5% overall median.
- Aim for the top quartile, not the median. For Health & Fitness, that means about 51% trial-to-paid. For North American users, about 48%.
- Judge by revenue per install, not trial starts. More trials from weaker users can lower trial-to-paid and still raise revenue, or raise trials and lose money on refunds.
The last point is where most teams go wrong.
Slopes found that a one-tap trial card in place of the full paywall brought +25% trial starts with trial-to-paid about the same.
That is a clean win. BoldVoice saw the opposite trade: a hard paywall with no close button got more trial starts, but refunds rose by more than the gain.
B2C apps and SaaS products are measured differently, so don't compare your app to SaaS trial benchmarks.
Our SaaS free trial page covers web software, where trials usually need a sign-up and often a card.
How apps in our database moved their trial conversion
Our app test database holds dozens of trial experiments.
These are the ones with clear numbers, sorted by which step of the funnel they moved.
Results are vendor-reported unless the app published them itself.
Raising install-to-trial
Where the paywall appears matters most. Greg showed a paywall during onboarding to every user and saw sign-up-to-trial go from 3% to 15%, about +400% trial sign-ups (bundled with feature gating, RevenueCat-reported).
Adding a trial at all can be the biggest lever.
Stardust added a 7-day free trial to its yearly plan and saw +131% paywall conversion in a multivariate test reported by Superwall.
Explaining how the trial works also helps. Blinkist's trial timeline paywall, tested by Marcus Burke, produced a significant rise in trial opt-in and 4% fewer trial cancellations.
Vahe Baghdasaryan's short paywall redesigns for a food app and a party game app lifted install-to-trial by +72% and +31%.
Localization moves regional rates. Mojo showed its annual plan as a monthly price and saw +45% in Brazil, +26% in Mexico and +8% in the USA.
Daily Horoscope localized paywalls by country and reported +183% trial start rate, in a bundled change.
Raising trial-to-paid
Trial length tests in our database lean shorter, which goes against RevenueCat's median data.
Zumba moved from a 14-day to a 7-day trial and saw +8% install-to-paid.
A wellness app tested the reverse, 14 days instead of 7, and got slightly more trial starts but fewer paid conversions (reported by Daphne Tideman).
The medians show apps that already run long trials convert better.
They do not show that making your trial longer will raise your rate. Test it.
Onboarding built on what users need helps both steps.
Applica's rebuild of Five Minute Journal's onboarding brought about +14% trial conversions, about +10% trial starts and +20% ARPU.
Applica's goal-based onboarding for ASL Bloom reported +15% trial conversion.
Targeting helps too. Flirt AI picked paywalls by demographics and reported +20% trial-to-paid alongside +83% MRR in 30 days.
Preu AI's annual plan priced against monthly brought +22% trial conversion.
For more, browse our free trial tests, the full paywall test library, and our guide to hard vs soft paywalls.
If installs are your bottleneck, start one step earlier with the app store conversion rate benchmarks.