Developers who used to earn via their paid Chrome extensions can no longer earn as Google has decided to discontinue paid Chrome extensions and remove them completely from the Chrome Web Store. Earlier this year, Google decided to temporarily disable paid extensions and the change has been made permanent today.
The web giant also announced that developers can no longer use the Chrome Web Store payments to charge for their extensions and need to migrate to other payments platforms in the future.
From December 1, developers will no longer be able to create paid extensions and free trails will also be disabled. Clicking on the “Try Now” option on the extension page for ree in-app trails will yield an error. Google also added that existing items and in-app purchases will not be available to charge money with Chrome Web Store payments starting from February 1 2021.
Google has also urged developers to move their license tracking somewhere else using which the developers used to keep track of in-app payments. For starters, the licensing API helps developers know if a user has the App license or not.
The web giant, in march, also suspended developers from submitting paid extensions due to the current COVID-19 crisis. Exploitation via in-app purchases has been increasing day-by-day which resulted in Google removing over 500 extensions from the web store.