Understand Paid Skills

Note: Sign in to the developer console to build or publish your skill.

With paid skills, you can build a custom skill that generates revenue by requiring customers to make an up-front purchase to access the skill. Customers can purchase your skill in the Alexa Skills Store or by asking Alexa to buy the skill. Customers pay for skills by using the payment options associated with their Amazon account. You can also offer a free trial so that customers can preview the skill content for a limited time before purchasing.

If you want to sell premium content in a free skill, see Understand In-Skill Purchasing.

Note: At this time, paid skills are available in the United States only. Child-directed skills aren't eligible to be paid skills.

What's a paid skill?

You can earn money from Alexa skills by charging customers to access the skill. You determine what part of your skill to provide for free and what part requires a purchase. You can offer access to your skill with an up-front purchase or a purchase after a free-trial period.

Paid skills support the following payment models:

One-time purchase – Unlock access to the skill itself or to premium-skill content. A one-time purchase doesn't expire.
Subscription – Offer access to your skill or premium-skill content for a period of time, charged on a recurring basis until the customer cancels the subscription. If you offer a free trial, after the trial period ends, access converts to a paid subscription.

You define the payment model and pricing information when you create your skill.

Note: Customers can purchase paid skills by using voice or tap on Alexa-enabled devices or in the Alexa Skills Store. Paid skills aren't available for purchase in the Alexa app or the Amazon Shopping app.

What does the voice purchase flow look like?

A customer can ask Alexa to buy the skill directly, or you can make a purchase suggestion when the customer invokes your skill. Your skill transfers control to Alexa to complete the purchase. Here, Alexa gives the pricing details and guides the customer through the purchase by using the payment options associated with the customer's Amazon account. After the purchase completes, Alexa transfers control back to your skill. Your skill doesn't take part in the price offered to the customer or the purchase details.

The following sample utterance shows the transfer from the paid skill to the Amazon purchase flow and back to the skill after the customer completes the purchase. For details about various purchase flows, see Design the Purchase and Cancel Flows.

User: Alexa, open Quick Trivia.

Quick Trivia: Welcome to Quick Trivia! This fun-filled game offers 10 trivia categories. You can choose between easy, medium, and hard questions. Want to learn more?
User: Yes

Alexa: Quick Trivia is a challenging trivia game for all levels. It costs one dollar and ninety-nine cents plus tax. Would you like to buy it?
User: Yes

Alexa: Great! I emailed the receipt to you.
Quick Trivia: Bring on the trivia! Choose the category you want to play. You can say a category or select a category on the screen.

Where can I offer paid skills?

You can offer paid skills in the following languages and locales:

Languages – English (US), Spanish (US)
Locales – en_US, es_US

You can offer paid skills in the following marketplaces.

Marketplace	Supported countries and regions	Default locale
amazon.com	US	en_US

How you create a paid skill

You can make your custom skill a paid skill when you create the skill. The following steps show the process to create and publish a paid skill. For details, see Steps to Build a Paid Skill.

Configure purchase details in the Alexa developer console.
Update your voice interaction model to include custom intents to support user requests to purchase your skill, cancel a subscription, and ask for a refund. If you plan to offer some skill content as free, update your voice interaction model to include custom intents to suggest paid access to premium content.
Implement the purchase and cancellation flows in your skill.
Test your skill.
Certify and publish your skill.

View skill metrics and earnings

After your skill is live, you can monitor the performance of your skill in the developer console. Use the Analytics page in the developer console to view skill metrics and generate reports. For details about the available metrics, see About Skill Metrics. For details about purchases, see Monetization metrics.

Use the Earnings and Payments tab in the developer console to view sales reporting and analytics that include information about purchases, conversions, retentions, refunds, cancellations, and more. For more details, see View Your Earnings and Payments.

Receive payment

When you publish your paid skill to the Alexa Skills Store, you get paid for skill purchases according to the terms and policies established by the Amazon Developer Services Agreement. For details about receiving payments, see Get Paid.

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Last updated: Mar 26, 2024