# Apify Store: where publishing ends and monetization begins (and the 14-day rule in between)


# Apify Store: where publishing ends and monetization begins (and the 14-day rule in between)

*Not legal, tax, or investment advice. Mechanics below come from docs.apify.com (Publish, Set up monetization, Monetize, Pay per event, Actors in Store) and the Store Publishing Terms, archived 2026-10-15 (Asia/Shanghai). Console behaviour changes, so re-open the pages before you change price. This article links none of our products or Actors.*

This article is not a Store publishing checklist. Related reading on pricing claims: [this guide](https://kendeepp.hashnode.dev/apify-actor-monetization-honesty). Here the only job is: the seam between publishing and monetization — the timing rules that decide **when** a price takes effect, and how they change how you should launch.

## 1) Lead answer

1. **Monetization sits inside the Publishing tab.** You complete Display information, **Monetization**, Sample output, Output schema, and Actor permissions, then press **Publish on Store** ([Publish](https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/publishing/publish)).
2. **Billing and payment details come first.** Set up monetization: “first complete your billing and payment details. Then, you can define the pricing” ([Set up monetization](https://docs.apify.com/actors/monetize/set-up-monetization)). **KYC is what payouts need**; it is not a step for publishing (Terms §10.1.2–10.1.3).
3. **Significant changes** (pricing-model change, price increase, new paid event) notify users and **take effect after 14 days**. During that window the old pricing applies. You **can’t cancel or modify** a submitted change (support only), you get **one per month per Actor**, and a **pending change blocks** new ones ([Set up monetization](https://docs.apify.com/actors/monetize/set-up-monetization); Terms §9.4).
4. **Exemption:** “if your Actor has **no paying users**, the waiting period doesn’t apply and the change takes effect immediately.”
5. **Non-significant changes are immediate:** price decreases, removing events, description edits, non-pricing settings.
6. **The “Pay per event + usage” toggle is asymmetric:** turning it **on** takes **14 days**; turning it **off** is immediate because it is “a positive change for users” ([PPE](https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/publishing/monetize/pay-per-event)).

## 2) Order of operations at the seam

| Step | Where | Why it matters at the boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Billing + payment details | Account | Required **before** defining pricing (set-up-monetization) |
| Actor pricing: synthetic `apify-actor-start` / `apify-default-dataset-item`, custom events, +usage, min max-cost-per-run | Publishing → Monetization | Defines what a user pays on the first run |
| Primary event | same | Defaults to dataset event / only event |
| Review → confirm | same | Pricing locked in as **current** pricing |
| Other Publishing sections → **Publish on Store** | Publishing | Actor becomes a public Store product (Publish) |
| KYC / Verified Creator | Account | Needed for **payouts** (§10.1.2); unpaid accruals withheld 12 months are forfeited (§10.1.6) |
| Agentic-payment eligibility | automatic | PPE only, no +usage, limited permissions, no Standby, **and KYC** (Monetize) |

Whether Console lets you publish with **no** monetization section completed (as opposed to choosing pay-per-usage) is **Not verified**.

## 3) Significant vs non-significant: the timing table

| Change | Class | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model switch (e.g. pay-per-usage → PPE) | Significant | +14 days, users notified |
| Raise an event price | Significant | +14 days |
| Add a new paid event | Significant | +14 days |
| Turn **on** PPE + usage | (PPE page) | +14 days |
| Any of the above with **zero paying users** | Exempt | Immediate |
| Lower a price | Non-significant | Immediate |
| Remove an event | Non-significant | Immediate |
| Turn **off** PPE + usage | Positive | Immediate |
| Edit event descriptions / non-pricing settings | Non-significant | Immediate |

**Worked calendar** (hypothetical): submit a price increase on **2026-10-15**, and it takes effect **2026-10-29**. You can’t submit another significant change while that one is pending. With “once per month per Actor,” plan the next one around mid-November. Whether “month” means a calendar month or a rolling 30 days is **Not verified**.

**Worked profit** (hypothetical PPE, 1,000 results, $0.50 platform cost; 80% − costs per Terms §10.2.1): $2/1k gives $1.10 profit and $3/1k gives $1.90. Until day 14 you earn at the old rate, so don’t book the higher number early.

## 4) Free → paid on an already-published Actor

The docs don’t say “free → paid” in those words. They do define it through the rules above:

- Moving from **pay-per-usage** (users pay only platform usage) to **PPE** is a **pricing-model change**, which makes it significant: users are notified and it takes effect after 14 days.
- **Adding a paid event** on top of existing PPE is also significant.
- If nobody pays yet, the change is **immediate**, so the cheapest moment to settle pricing is **before** paying users show up.
- **Free-plan users:** if you limit them, say so up front in the README and input schema, exit gracefully with a clear message, and never dress a policy limit up as a bug ([Monetize](https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/publishing/monetize)).
- Set-up-monetization warns against “high prices exclusively for users on a free plan.”
- **Announcement duty:** Apify notifies users of significant changes. The docs don’t say whether creators must post their own notice. Updating the README to match the **current** price (not the pending one) is the honest default. The exact notification channel is **Not verified**.
- **Rental:** since **2026-04-01** you can’t publish new rental Actors or change rental pricing; since **2026-10-01** rental is retired and remaining Actors moved to pay-per-usage ([Actors in Store](https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store)). Don’t plan a “rental → paid” path now.

## 5) Publish-side rules that bite monetized Actors

From the Store Publishing Terms:

- **§2.2.4.2:** no promoting off-platform products in the README or description, and no review incentives or self-reviews. You can’t route paid users to an external checkout from the Store page.
- **§3.2:** Apify may run promotional pricing, coupons, and discounts on your Actor. Don’t promise “price never changes.”
- **§7.1 / §10.2.2:** a Faulty Actor can be marked under maintenance and deprecated after **30 days**. **No payout accrues while it is Faulty.**
- **§8.1:** user Issues must be addressed within **14 days**, or the Actor can be declared Faulty.
- **§9.2:** profit and payout figures in the UI are **estimates**.

## 6) Seam self-check

1. Billing details done before opening Monetization?
2. Is the first public price the one you can live with? (Before paying users, changes are immediate; after, it’s 14 days and once a month.)
3. No pending significant change you might want to undo? (It can’t be cancelled.)
4. README/input schema state free-plan limits and the **current** price?
5. Not counting on PPE + usage as a temporary bump? (On takes 14 days, off is instant.)
6. KYC planned so earnings aren’t stuck (12-month forfeit)?
7. No off-platform checkout links on the Store page?

## 7) Not verified

- Calendar month vs rolling 30 days for “once per month.”
- The channel and wording of Apify’s user notification for significant changes.
- Publishing with no monetization section completed.
- Whether unpublish → republish resets the timing rules.
- Whether a price change made during an Apify-run promotion (§3.2) counts as significant.

## Sources (archived)

- [Publish your Actor](https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/publishing/publish)
- [Set up Actor monetization](https://docs.apify.com/actors/monetize/set-up-monetization)
- [Monetize Actors](https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/publishing/monetize)
- [Pay per event](https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/publishing/monetize/pay-per-event)
- [Actors in Store](https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store)
- [Apify Store Publishing Terms](https://docs.apify.com/legal/store-publishing-terms-and-conditions)