Short answer: The median app worldwide gets about 83% of its installs organically, and the median Indian app startup about 62%. There is no single good number: compare yourself with your category and market, not the overall average.
What is organic install share?
Organic install share is the percentage of an app's installs that cannot be matched to a paid campaign or tracked link, so they are credited to app store search, browsing and word of mouth.
It is a ratio, so it moves for two reasons:
- More organic demand: better store ranking, referrals, press or brand searches.
- Less paid activity: pausing campaigns pushes the organic share up even if organic installs stay flat.
That is why a rising organic share is not always good news. Check the absolute trend in both lines before celebrating.
Why the average misleads
Across all installs in the global dataset, only about 56% are organic. The median app is far more organic than that, at about 83%. The gap exists because a few large apps that buy most of their installs drag the pooled total towards paid.
- If you are a single app, the median is your benchmark, not the pooled share.
- About half of apps get more than 80% of their installs organically.
- About one app in nine gets more than 80% of its installs from paid.
In India the picture is less organic. The median Indian app startup gets about 62% of installs organically, and organic makes up about 64% of all installs pooled together. See the India benchmarks and the global benchmarks side by side.
What is a good organic install share for my app?
A good organic share is one that sits within your category's typical range for your market. Above that range, check your tracking; below it, check that paid is paying back.
Indian app startups spread out across four bands:
| Profile | Organic share | Share of apps |
|---|---|---|
| Organic-led | 80% or more | about 33% |
| Organic-leaning | 50% to 80% | about 30% |
| Balanced | 20% to 50% | about 17% |
| Paid-led | under 20% | about 21% |
So roughly a fifth of Indian startups are paid-led, and a third barely use paid at all. Neither is wrong; they are different growth models.
Organic share by category
Category matters more than any overall figure. Median organic share for Indian app startups, from Linkrunner's published research:
- Food & beverage: about 84% (directional)
- Entertainment & content: about 76% (directional)
- Productivity & tools: about 68%
- E-commerce: about 67%
- Fintech: about 61%
- EdTech: about 60%
- Health & fitness: about 48%
- Astrology & spiritual: about 47% (directional)
- Social & community: about 46%
- Gaming: about 7% (directional)
The global dataset groups categories differently, and some land in very different places:
- Organic-native globally (over 70%): social, astrology, gaming, fintech, food, EdTech, health and fitness
- Balanced (about 40%): SMB and business apps
- Paid-dependent (under 40%): travel, e-commerce, kids' learning apps
Social and gaming apps look heavily organic globally but paid-dependent among Indian startups. That is a reminder to benchmark against the dataset that matches your market. See organic vs paid by category and app size for the full breakdown.
How to read your number
- Above your category's range: you may be under-investing in paid, or paid installs are being miscounted as organic.
- Within the range: normal for apps like yours. Focus on conversion and cost rather than the mix.
- Below the range: you are more paid-reliant than peers, so every attribution error costs you more.
- Changing fast: a sudden jump in organic share often follows a tracking change, not a growth change.
App size matters too. Smaller apps tend to be more organic, and the share shifts as paid spend scales up. See how organic share changes with app size.
The catch: organic is what is left over
An install counts as organic when it cannot be matched to a paid campaign. That makes organic a residual, and anything your tracking misses ends up inside it.
Common sources of hidden "organic":
- Broken or untagged links in emails, bios and partner pages.
- Influencer and creator traffic sent to a plain store link.
- QR codes and offline campaigns without a tracked link behind them.
- WhatsApp and SMS shares that go straight to the store.
- Missing SDK events, which stop installs being matched at all.
If your organic share looks too good, check your tracking before you cut paid budgets. An MMP such as Linkrunner, Tenjin or Kochava matches installs to the click or link that drove them, which shrinks the unexplained remainder.
Linkrunner attributes installs from ads, influencers, QR codes and WhatsApp links, so less of your growth hides in "organic".
FAQ
What percentage of app installs are organic? The median app worldwide gets about 83% of its installs organically, and the median Indian app startup about 62%. Pooled across all installs the shares are lower, because a few large, paid-heavy apps pull the total down.
Is a high organic install share good? It is good if it reflects real demand, such as store search and word of mouth. It is a warning sign if it comes from untracked links or paused campaigns, because then it hides where growth actually comes from.
Which app categories get the most organic installs? Among Indian startups, food and beverage, entertainment and productivity apps are the most organic, at about 68% or more. Globally, social, astrology and gaming apps are the most organic, which shows how much market and dataset matter.
Why is my organic share suddenly higher? The most common causes are paused paid campaigns, a broken tracking link or an SDK change. Check whether total paid installs fell at the same time before treating the jump as organic growth.
Should I compare my organic share with the global or Indian benchmark? Use the dataset that matches where most of your users are. Indian startups run noticeably less organic than the global median, so an Indian app compared with the global figure will usually look more paid-reliant than it is.