Selling in your mobile app (Coming Soon)

How to charge money in your App Store app — the rules differ by country, and getting your listing wording right keeps you out of trouble with App Review.

Coming Soon — App Store publishing is in early access. Contact support to join the waitlist.

If your app makes money, this article matters. Apple has specific rules about how apps can charge — and, importantly, those rules differ depending on the country your customer is in. Get this right and selling is straightforward. Get the wording wrong and Apple can reject your app.

The publish wizard asks you to pick how you sell so we can set things up correctly. Here's what each choice means in plain terms.

Physical goods and real-world services

If you sell physical products (merch, hardware, anything shipped) or real-world services (coaching in person, events, bookings), you're in the clear everywhere. Apple lets these apps take payment through your own checkout, right inside the app, in every country — no special hoops.

Digital goods — in the United States

If you sell digital content or access (courses, memberships, subscriptions, downloads), the US is the easy case. Your app can include a link out to your existing web checkout, and Apple takes no commission on those sales. Your customer taps through to your site, pays there, and comes back.

Digital goods — outside the United States

Outside the US, Apple's rules are stricter for digital goods. The safe, simple approach is: your mobile app doesn't show any purchase buttons or pricing at all. Instead —

Your content everywhere, purchases on your website.

Customers buy on the web (on your normal site, in their phone or laptop browser), then sign in on the mobile app to access what they bought. The app is where they use the product; your website is where they buy it. This pattern is fully allowed and widely used — it just means the app itself stays purchase-free in those regions.

The one rule people trip on: keep your listing clean

This is the single most common reason apps like this get rejected, so read it twice:

Your App Store listing — the app name, subtitle, description, and screenshots — must never mention or even hint at buying on the web. No subscribe on our site, no pricing, no upgrade for more, no arrows pointing off to a checkout.

Even an indirect nudge toward an outside purchase can get your app bounced by App Review. Describe what your app does and what it's for — not how or where to pay. We'll help you keep the wording safe, but the listing is ultimately yours, so it's worth knowing the rule.

A note on how this keeps evolving

Apple's payment rules have changed a lot recently and continue to shift — especially for digital goods and especially between countries. We keep this guidance current as the rules move, and the publish wizard reflects the latest safe approach. If you're not sure which path fits your app, reach out to support and we'll point you the right way.

What to read next

• Publish to the App Store — the full overview
• Prepare your Apple Developer account — get set up first
• Mobile app capabilities — what your app can do on a phone