Guideline 3.1.1 In-App Purchase, in plain English

What Guideline 3.1.1 means

The line Apple draws is what the money unlocks. Features or content used inside the app go through In-App Purchase. Physical goods and services used outside the app, like a delivered meal or a taxi ride, must not: Guideline 3.1.3(e) says those use other payment methods, such as card entry.

Apple adds a few rules around it. Credits or in-game currency bought through In-App Purchase may not expire. Tipping a developer or content creator is allowed with in-app purchase currencies. Digital gift cards and vouchers redeemable for digital goods can only be sold in the app with In-App Purchase. And apps that sell loot boxes or other random items must show the odds before the purchase.

Links to other ways to pay depend on the storefront. Apple's guidelines say apps on the United States storefront may include buttons, links or other calls to action to other purchase methods. In other storefronts an app needs one of Apple's entitlements for that, which are limited to specific regions, and without one it may not point people to buying elsewhere.

A non-subscription app can offer a free trial by setting up a free Non-Consumable item named in the form "14-day Trial". Before the trial starts, the app must say how long it lasts, what stops working when it ends and what the full version costs.

Why apps are turned down under Guideline 3.1.1

• The app unlocks paid content without In-App Purchase

  The app takes payment on a website, through its own card form or with an unlock code, for something used inside the app. Apple reads that as getting around In-App Purchase.

• The app points people to another way to pay

  A "Buy on our website" button or link to an outside checkout, in a storefront where that needs an entitlement the app doesn't have.

• There's no way to restore purchases

  A full-version unlock or a subscription can't be recovered on a new phone or after reinstalling, because the app has no Restore Purchases button.

How to fix it and resubmit

1. List what the app charges for and sort it: anything that unlocks features or content in the app is In-App Purchase; physical goods and real-world services are not.
2. Create each product in App Store Connect with the right type (consumable, non-consumable, auto-renewable or non-renewing subscription), a price, a display name and a review screenshot.
3. Replace any outside checkout or unlock code in the app with StoreKit purchases, and show the prices the App Store returns instead of prices typed into the app.
4. Add a Restore Purchases button wherever people buy, and test every purchase with a sandbox account before you upload.
5. Remove buttons and links to other ways to pay unless your storefront allows them or you hold Apple's entitlement, then add the products to the version, say in the review notes where to find them, and resubmit.

How Borel helps

When your Borel app sells something, Borel writes the purchase with StoreKit 2, Apple's own In-App Purchase framework. When you publish, Borel creates those products in App Store Connect before its Mac builds the app, so the app holds no prices of its own: the prices people see come from the App Store.

The ready-made paywall Borel writes into apps carries a Restore Purchases button and the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy links. The review notes Borel drafts list each product with its type and product ID, say where to buy and where Restore Purchases is, and tell the reviewer that nothing is sold outside In-App Purchase.

Questions people ask

Related guidelines

• Guideline 3.1.2Subscriptions
• Guideline 3.1.3Reader apps and other purchase methods
• Guideline 2.1(b)In-app purchases App Review can't find
• Guideline 2.1App Completeness