What's new in Unity IAP v5.4
Unity IAP v5 introduces Direct-to-Consumer payments and a hosted webshop storefront, along with improvements to catalog management and reporting.
Read time 4 minutesLast updated 22 days ago
Discover new features and improvements in the latest version of Unity In-App Purchasing (IAP). Unity IAP v5 introduces Direct-to-Consumer payment infrastructure, a hosted webshop storefront, AI-assisted migration tools, and improvements to catalog management and reporting. The following sections describe each new feature and link to more information.
For a full list of changes and updates in this version, refer to the Unity IAP changelog.
Note
From SDK v5.4, Unity IAP processes Developer Data as part of the Developer Data framework. As such, it is your responsibility to manage user consent using the UnityConsent module.
Direct-to-Consumer payments with third-party providers
Starting in IAP v5.4, you can integrate Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) payment providers to sell in-app products directly to players outside of the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Unity IAP supports Stripe and Coda as merchant-of-record payment providers, which means they handle tax compliance, fraud prevention, disputes, and customer support on your behalf.
This integration requires a Remote Catalog and the IAP v5.4 package. You can fulfill purchases through the SDK, a backend API, server-side validation, or a Cloud Code module, depending on your architecture.
Note
Apple and Google now support external web links and third-party payments in select regions. Eligibility, fees, and technical requirements vary by platform and region. You are responsible for adhering to the requirements of each platform and region.
For the full integration workflow, refer to Integrate D2C payment providers. To configure a specific provider, refer to Configure Stripe or Configure Coda.
Catalog management in the Unity Dashboard
Starting in IAP v5, you can manage your IAP catalog from the Unity Dashboard without modifying your game client. The Dashboard provides a central place to import an existing catalog, add and edit individual listings, and organize listings into categories.
From the Unity Dashboard, you can:
- Import an existing catalog from App Store Connect or Google Play using credentials stored in the Secret Manager.
- Add new listings and edit listing details, including localized content, pricing, and store-specific overrides.
- Assign listings to categories to organize your catalog.
When you deploy a Remote Catalog from the Unity Editor or the CLI, Unity adds those listings to the Dashboard automatically, so you can manage them alongside any catalogs you import.
To get started, refer to Manage catalogs in the Unity Dashboard. For an overview of catalogs and the methods you can use to define them, refer to Create an IAP catalog.
AI skill for IAP migration and integration
Starting in IAP v5.3.0, Unity IAP includes an AI skill that helps you migrate to and integrate IAP v5. The skill covers scenarios such as migrating a project from version 4 to version 5, adding IAP to a project that has no purchasing logic, converting a native or third-party billing integration, and working with Codeless IAP. For the full list of tasks and the limitations of each one, refer to IAP AI skill capabilities reference.
Each conversion generates a detailed report so you can review every change the skill makes to your project, including settings, code, events, and configuration files.
To install the skill and prompt it, refer to Install and use the IAP AI skill.
For a full list of the code changes required to migrate from version 4 to version 5, refer to Upgrade from IAP version 4 to version 5.
Hosted webshop storefront
A webshop is a hosted web storefront for your game's in-app purchases, created and managed from the Unity Dashboard. A webshop reads your project's existing IAP catalog and forwards purchases to your configured payment providers, so there's no separate catalog or payment setup required.
From the Unity Dashboard, you can:
- Create and publish a webshop with a public URL at .
shop.unity.com/{studio}/game/{slug} - Generate a themed storefront from your game's Apple App Store listing or your own screenshots using AI-assisted theme creation.
- Configure payment provider routing to offer different providers to different players using player tags, with a fallback provider for players who match no routing rule.
- Preview changes in draft before publishing, and promote non-production environment drafts to production.
Players can access the webshop from a deep link in your game, a Discord channel, your website, or any other surface. Catalog and pricing changes are reflected on the next page load without republishing.
To get started, refer to Create and publish your first webshop.
Revenue reporting in the Unity Dashboard
Starting in IAP v5.4.0, you can view revenue reporting for your in-app purchases in the Unity Dashboard. Revenue reporting provides a unified view of your app's IAP performance across providers and platforms, including metrics such as total revenue and conversion rates.
To collect reporting data, link your project to a Unity cloud project and publish a build that uses IAP SDK version 5.4.0 or higher. To also include session data and player metrics, enable Diagnostic Data in a supported Unity Editor version before you publish. You can view the aggregated data from Development > In-App Purchases > Revenue Performance in the Unity Dashboard, where you can choose metrics and filter by criteria such as date range or platform.
To get started, refer to Set up IAP performance reporting. For the available metrics, dimensions, and configuration options, refer to Revenue Performance reference.