Guideline 3.1.3 reader apps and other purchase methods, in plain English

What Guideline 3.1.3 means

A reader app can let people sign in to content they bought or subscribed to elsewhere, can offer account creation for a free tier, and can offer account management for existing customers. To link from the app to your website to create or manage an account, you can apply for Apple's External Link Account Entitlement, which Apple says isn't needed for apps on the United States storefront.

The other exceptions: multiplatform services (b) may unlock what people bought on other platforms or your website, if those items are also sold in the app with In-App Purchase. Enterprise services (c) sold directly to organizations may let their members in, while sales to consumers, individuals or families must use In-App Purchase. Person-to-person services (d), like tutoring or a fitness session between two people in real time, may take other payments; one-to-few and one-to-many services must use In-App Purchase.

Goods and services used outside the app (e), like groceries or a ride, must be paid for with methods other than In-App Purchase, such as entering a card. Free stand-alone companions (f) to a paid web tool for VoIP, cloud storage, email or web hosting don't need In-App Purchase if there's no buying in the app and no call to action to buy outside it. Advertising management apps (g) have their own exception.

The general rule across 3.1.3: apps in these categories may not, inside the app, encourage people to use a purchase method other than In-App Purchase, except on the United States storefront and as Apple's entitlements allow. You can still write to your customers outside the app about other ways to buy.

Why apps are turned down under Guideline 3.1.3

• The app isn't a reader app but sells content outside In-App Purchase

  It sells something used in the app, like a course or premium features, and claims the reader exception, which only covers magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music and video.

• The app points people to buy on a website

  A "Subscribe on our site" button or link in a storefront where that needs an entitlement the app doesn't hold.

• Physical goods are sold through In-App Purchase

  Guideline 3.1.3(e) says goods and services used outside the app must use other payment methods, so selling them as in-app purchases is the wrong way round.

How to fix it and resubmit

1. Match the app to one exception in 3.1.3 exactly; if none fits, sell in the app with In-App Purchase as Guideline 3.1.1 asks.
2. For a reader app, keep sign-in, free-tier sign-up and account management, and remove buy and subscribe buttons unless your storefront allows them or you hold the External Link Account Entitlement.
3. For physical goods or real-world services, take payment with another method, not In-App Purchase.
4. For person-to-person services, check that each session is live and between two people; group sessions go through In-App Purchase.
5. Explain the business model and which exception applies in the review notes, then resubmit.

How Borel helps

The purchase kit Borel writes into apps is for digital things sold with Apple's In-App Purchase through StoreKit 2: subscriptions, one-time unlocks and consumables, with the products created in App Store Connect when you publish. Borel doesn't add a web checkout or an outside payment link to it.

If your app's business fits one of the 3.1.3 exceptions, say which one in the review notes before you submit: Borel drafts the notes from the app's code, and you can edit them in the publish flow.

Questions people ask

Related guidelines

• Guideline 3.1.1In-App Purchase
• Guideline 3.1.2Subscriptions
• Guideline 2.3Accurate Metadata