Microsoft makes it free for developers to publish Windows apps on the Microsoft Store

Microsoft has announced that it's waiving the fees involved with signing up and submitting an app for listing on the Microsoft Store on Windows 10 and Windows 11. Starting in June, it will be free for individuals to get their apps into the Windows app store for the first time.

Announced as part of its Build 2025 developer conference, Microsoft is the first tech giant with an active app store platform to make it entirely free for developers to sign up and submit apps to the storefront. Until today, Microsoft charged individual developers a one-time fee of $19.

To compare, Google currently charges a one-time $25 fee, and Apple charges an annual $99 fee. Removing the fee should make it easier for aspiring app developers to get their apps in front of more Windows users, as the Microsoft Store is a great one-stop shop for discovering new apps.

"This will make Microsoft Store on Windows the first global digital store to waive the fee for publishing apps" says Microsoft in the Build 2025 book of news. Notably, this fee does not appear to have been waived for company accounts. Microsoft charges organizations a fee of $99, and it seems that this fee will remain in place for now.

Microsoft announced a number of new features and changes for developers today as part of its Build 2025 developer keynote, including Model Context Protocol support for AI agentic experiences across Windows apps, and a new App Actions API.