Scheduled Price Change – When does the price change happen for users?

If I have a scheduled price change fror my app, when exactly does this price change happoen for users around the world?


I am changing the pricing model for one of my apps and I want to avoid major confusion for my existing and new users...


For example, if I shedule my price change for Jan 20th:


  • Does this price change happen at (roughly) 00:00 on Jan 20th for users at their local time? (So would take 24hrs for everyone to reach the same price)
  • Does the price change at (roughly) 00:00 UTC (for example) on Jan 20th for all users at the same moment, meaning it will be morning for some, afternoon for some and evening for some, depending on their time zone? (Happens at the same instant of time for everyone at once)


I read somewhere in an old article that Apple had something like 4 designated time zoned for the App Store, and the price changes at 00:00 in each of those zones.


Do we have any official documentation to tell us exactly how this works? I've tried searching the normal places but there's no information.


I understand that I can schedule an update version to release at a specific time relative to my time zone, so I would expect this happens at the same moment worldwide for all users regardless of their time of day, but this doesn't look like the case for a scheduled price change. Anybody have any more info?


Thanks!

Post not yet marked as solved Up vote post of joeallenpro Down vote post of joeallenpro
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AFAIK, scheduled price change release 'time' and when a given user in a given area on a given device can 'see' the change can vary. The new info needs to get pushed out to various server banks, then hit the top of the queue, then the user's device needs to digest thru any cache(s) on their device(s), etc. etc.


I would expect a price change to not take too long to be in effect, but I would not expect it to be instantaneous.


While such details are usually found in App Store Connect Help, or maybe our News feed, I don't see anything specific in the current docs.


I do see this from a 3rd party dated 2014...and off hand I don't see why it doesn't still apply.


h ttps://www.bookappalliance.com/clearing-up-time-zone-confusion-for-itunes-connect/