AnkiDroidthe free and open source app for studying using flashcards with more 10 million installationsended up in the crosshairs of Google Play’s payment policies. Since August 28, Big G has started rejecting any updates to the app, used mainly in the medical field and for language learning. If the dispute is not resolved, the application will disappear from the Play Store globally (excluding India and Russia) starting September 11, 2026.
The problem is financing. AnkiDroid does not sell anything internally: the only source of support for development is a link to Open Collectivewhere the team collects donations via Open Source Collectivea US non-profit organization that acts as a fiscal host. The latter has a letter of determination from the IRS (the American Revenue Agency) certifying its status as a tax-exempt entity pursuant to the section 501(c)(6) of the federal tax code.
AnkiDroid at risk of ban on Play Store, waiting for an explanation that never arrives
For Google, however, that’s not enough. The Mountain View company’s payment policy prohibits diverting users to payment systems other than the one integrated into the Play Store, with an explicit exception for donations to “tax exempt” organizations. In an August 6 email, Google clarified that the exception applies only to an organization that has been validated as exempt, “for example, a 501(c)(3) entity in the United States or its local equivalent.” The following day, after receiving the IRS documentation, the development team asked for confirmation of its validity.
Google’s response, which arrived on August 7, left the developers dumbfounded: according to the company, AnkiDroid “allows users to donate to an organization that is not tax exempt”. No details on what makes an IRS 501(c)(6) determination insufficient, which also formally certifies the entity’s tax exemption, even if the donations collected are not deductible for those who pay them. The developers underline how Google’s official communications have, on several occasions, used the term “tax-exempt” without distinguishing between the different categories provided for by the IRC code.
However, on August 27 the team submitted version 2.25.0alpha3, receiving a formal rejection the following day for violation of the payment policy, followed by the ultimatum on removal. As reported in the public discussion open on GitHub, the developers have decided to remove “under protest” the donation links from the 2.24.X build intended for the Play Store, in order to continue to reach the majority of their users.
The project, it should be remembered, is independent from Anki, AnkiWeb, AnkiMobile and AnkiHub, and is maintained entirely by volunteers: the register of movements on Open Collective is public and can be consulted by anyone. In the appeal distributed online, the team asks Google for a formal clarification on what is missing from the documentation already provided, but above all invites those who work in the company and can intervene to make themselves heard internally, without contacting official support.
