Can a paid app be tested in alpha/beta for free

Question

I've looked on SO at a lot of questions regarding this, and they all seem to say that if the app is a paid app, then Alpha and Beta testers will also have to pay to test it.

However, I'm naively hoping that as 99% of the answers I read are from mid 2013 when the Alpha/Beta testing feature first came out, that maybe Google have listened to people and changed this since then.

If not, what are my alternatives? I see them as the following

1. I presume I can refund people out of my own pocket but that means Google will keep their 30% so it'll cost me 30% of my app cost for each tester.
2. I could email them all the apk, but that way I'll have to do it for every update, rather than letting the play store do it for me. Also, if I have a lot of testers it could be annoying sending out multiple emails (unless I do one huge BCC of course)
3. Could I somehow set up two versions of the app in the store, one called free and one called paid. Only give the free version out to the testers, and then delete that app, and push the final apk to the paid app.

I think 3. is the best option, but more hassle than I'd expect from this presumably very common occurrence.

On a side note, who could I contact over this question, directly at Google? Someone at the play store team? How do you even find an address for that!?

UPDATE: When I do this now, I create promo codes and give them to my individual beta testers. It doesn't take more than 20secs per person, so for my number of people I'm good with that

Answer 1

I've had the same problem and contacted the google support, the result was: If you want to let your testers test the app for free, you have to create a free clone of the paid app.

You can find the full question and answer below.

Question:

Is it possible to offer a paid app for free to alpha/beta test users without creating a free clone of the app?

Answer:

Thanks for contacting Google Play Developer support about Beta Testing. Please note that once you've set the price of an application, you can change it at any time. However, once you’ve published an application for free, you cannot change it to be priced at a later time. Currently, this means Alpha and Beta versions will have to be at least $0.99 if you want to charge for the app when it goes to Production. Alpha/Beta testers will be charged for this amount. We do this to prevent users who download a free app from being charged during future updates or failing a licensing check when running the app.

If you'd like to sell an application that was previously published as free, you'll need to upload a new APK and add a price. While you will be unable to upload the same package name again, you will be able to upload a slight variation on the original package name. As an alternative, you may also implement in-app billing for your free app.

We hope this helps answer your question. If we can assist you further, please let us know.

Regards, ... Google Play Developer Support

Update: You can use promo codes to allow testers to access your paid app for free: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/6321495 https://developer.android.com/google/play/billing/billing_promotions.html