Chartboost Earnings for Utility App Apps

Typical ad setup for this category

These are the modelling defaults for the category, used in every table on this page.

Sessions per user per day

2.0

Typical session length

2 minutes

Retention day 1 / 7 / 30

25% / 10% / 5%

Typical iOS share

30%

Rewarded video

Off by default

Interstitial

1 per user / day

Banner

4 per session

Native

Not offered

App open

Not offered

Utility apps must earn without slowing the task

People open a scanner, torch, file manager, unit converter or VPN to do one job and then close it. Visits are brief and purposeful, and the user judges the app on how quickly it gets out of the way. There is no level to finish and no reward economy to lean on, which helps explain why utilities come in at 0.9 of the baseline in our model. The ad space is real, but much of the attention it captures is spent waiting for a file to save or a connection to start.

App open ads suit this category better than most, because a loading moment is already a pause the user expects. Native units sit comfortably inside lists of files, scan history or saved items. Rewarded video can unlock an occasional premium action, such as one extra high-resolution export or a short break from a usage limit, which feels fair to people who will never subscribe. Interstitials are the risky format. One that lands between the user and the result they came for, such as a finished scan or a converted file, reads as the app holding their work hostage.

Competition adds pressure. Most utilities have dozens of near-identical rivals one search away, so a review complaining about intrusive ads costs installs directly. Store rules also forbid ads that appear outside the app or imitate system notifications, and breaking them can get an app removed, which ends its income entirely. The formats overview sets out how each unit earns and how users tend to react to it.

Estimated monthly earnings by audience size

Monthly estimates for the typical setup above, balanced region split.

Where the money comes from

Split of the $1,379 estimate at 10,000 daily users (blended Android and iOS).

Interstitial carries 56% of the total, so its placement and frequency matter most for this category.

Region makes the biggest difference

The same app at 10,000 daily users with three audience splits:

Moving from an emerging-market audience to a Tier 1 audience multiplies the estimate by about 2.4.

Revenue per install

Using the category’s typical retention curve, one install produces about 3.5 active days in its first 30 days and 5.7 in 90 days.

Ad revenue per install, first 30 days

$0.02

Ad revenue per install, first 90 days

$0.03

Compare these figures with your cost per install before buying users. They exclude in-app purchases.

How Chartboost fits this category

For Interstitial, the Tier 1 eCPM in our Chartboost table is $7.20, about 11% below the middle of the eight mobile networks. For Banner, the Tier 1 eCPM in our Chartboost table is $0.70, about 15% below the middle of the eight mobile networks. Chartboost does not offer Native in our model. On networks that do, it carries about 30% of revenue for this category, so that share has to come from other formats here. Chartboost does not offer App open in our model. On networks that do, it carries about 19% of revenue for this category, so that share has to come from other formats here. Modelled fill is 78% for Chartboost against an average of 83% across the mobile networks, which trims a little from every format.

You create an account, add each app and receive an app ID and app signature for the SDK. Named ad locations identify each placement, and most developers connect Chartboost as an adapter inside their mediation platform rather than running it alone. Turn on test mode while you build, then publish the app-ads.txt entry Chartboost supplies before release. Payment and tax information is completed in the dashboard. Our guide to bidding vs waterfall explains where a network like this fits in a stack.

How Chartboost ranks for this category

All eight mobile networks, same category and audience (10,000 daily users, balanced).

Chartboost ranks 8 of 8 here, 191% behind AppLovin MAX.

Practical tips

• Show an app open ad on a cold start only, not every time the user switches back to the app.
• Never place a full-screen ad between the user and the output they asked for.
• Offer a rewarded unlock for occasional premium actions to earn from users who would never pay.

About Chartboost

Chartboost is a game-focused network that grew up on interstitials and rewarded video, and it also runs its own mediation product. In our tables it covers rewarded, interstitial and banner, at about $10.00, $7.20 and $0.70 respectively in Tier 1 on Android.

All figures come from our benchmark tables: Android eCPMs by tier, category or niche multipliers, modelled fill and the iOS multiplier. They are estimates for planning, not quotes.