How does RevenueCat verify revenue?
RevenueCat verifies revenue by validating each purchase receipt directly with the App Store and Google Play, then tracking the subscription over its whole life. Because the numbers come from the stores' own confirmation of real transactions, the resulting MRR and revenue reflect money that was actually charged, not a figure someone typed in.
“Verified revenue” only means something if you know what did the verifying. For subscription apps, that job usually falls to RevenueCat, the platform many apps already use to run their in-app purchases. Understanding how it confirms a payment is the difference between trusting a number and taking it on faith.
What RevenueCat actually does
RevenueCat sits between an app and the app stores. When someone buys a subscription or makes an in-app purchase, the store issues a receipt, and RevenueCat handles that receipt for the developer. From there it tracks the whole lifecycle of the purchase:
- whether the subscription is active, in a trial, renewed, or cancelled
- the revenue each purchase brings in over time
- aggregate metrics like monthly recurring revenue and active subscriptions
So it isn't a reporting tool a developer fills in. It reacts to real purchase events as they happen.
Why the numbers can be trusted
The verification comes from where the data starts. Every purchase receipt is validated with the App Store or Google Play, which confirm that the transaction was genuine. A developer can't manufacture a sale that the store never processed, and refunds or cancellations flow back through the same pipeline. That's the core reason RevenueCat revenue is stronger evidence than a cropped chart: it's tied to the stores' own record of what people actually paid.
How AppOrbit turns that into a public number
This is the part AppOrbit is built on. A founder connects their RevenueCat account, and AppOrbit reads the metrics live on the server using that account's key: MRR, active subscriptions, revenue, and the daily revenue trend. The figure on a listing is pulled straight from RevenueCat, so there's nothing for a founder to inflate. Keys are encrypted at rest, used only server-side, and never exposed to the browser, logged, or returned in any response.
What “verified” does and doesn’t mean
Verified means the numbers are read from RevenueCat rather than claimed. It doesn’t mean an audit of a company’s books. Revenue earned outside RevenueCat isn’t captured, and figures show as the platform reports them. That’s an honest boundary, and it’s still a big step up from screenshots: for the money that runs through RevenueCat, the number is real. You can see it in practice on the highest-earning apps ranking.
Frequently asked questions
Does RevenueCat guess revenue from downloads?
No. Downloads say nothing about how many people paid. RevenueCat works from validated purchase receipts, so its revenue reflects real transactions rather than an estimate based on install counts.
Can a founder edit the revenue RevenueCat reports?
Not the underlying transactions. Purchases are confirmed with Apple and Google, so a founder can't invent a sale that didn't happen. That's what makes RevenueCat data stronger than a screenshot.
Does RevenueCat capture all of an app's revenue?
It captures the in-app purchases and subscriptions routed through it. Money earned elsewhere, like ads, sponsorships, or web sales on another billing stack, sits outside RevenueCat and isn't part of those numbers.
How does AppOrbit use this to show verified revenue?
Founders connect their RevenueCat account, and AppOrbit reads the metrics live from that account on the server. The MRR and revenue on a listing come straight from RevenueCat, so nothing is self-reported.
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