iOS App Store Setup

Setup your account

Before you can create your In-App Purchases, you are required by Apple to request and fill out their Paid Applications contract.

To do so, log into your App Store Connect account, and go to the Agreements, Tax, and Banking section. In this section, you will see the ability to request the Paid Applications contract towards the top of the page.

After this is complete, you will now be able to add your In-App Purchases.

  • Consumable - a one-off purchase which can be repeated and keeps no history

  • Non-Consumable - a product that can only be purchased once and keeps history in your apple account. If you try and buy a second time, it reports you have already purchased and offers a free download

  • Auto-Renewable Subscription

  • Non-Renewing Subscription

Create the item or subscription to purchase

Required role: You must have the Account Holder, Admin, App Manager, Developer, or Marketing role to add and edit in-app purchases. See Role permissions.

  1. From My Apps, select your app.

  2. In the sidebar under In-App Purchases, click Manage.

  3. To add an in-app purchase, go to In-App Purchases and click the Add button (+).

    App Details Menu

  4. Select Consumable, Non-Consumable, or Non-Renewing Subscriptions and click Create. For auto-renewable subscriptions, see Create an auto-renewable subscription.

  5. Add the reference name, product ID, and a localized display name.

  6. Click Save, or Submit for Review.

    You can enter all your metadata when you create your in-app purchases, or enter your in-app purchase information later.

All in-app purchase metadata can be edited, except the Product ID and in-app purchase type. If your in-app purchase has never been submitted to Apple for review, you can make changes to your metadata. If your in-app purchase has already been submitted, some changes require approval by App Review.

The difference between Consumable, Non-Consumable, or Non-Renewing Subscriptions, and auto-renewable Subscriptions.

Consumable

Products that are used one time, after which they become depleted and need to be purchased again, are usually implemented as consumables. For example, fish food in a fishing app could be implemented as a consumable product.

Non-Consumable

Non-consumable products are purchased once by users and do not expire or decrease with use. For example, new race tracks for a game could be implemented as non-consumable products.

Apple can host your non-consumable products for you.

Auto-Renewable Subscription

Auto-renewable subscriptions allow users to purchase dynamic content, such as magazine subscriptions, for a set duration of time. Subscriptions renew automatically unless the user opts out of the renewal. If the content you want offer doesn’t fit what’s outlined in the App Review Guidelines, consider offering the content through a non-renewing subscription.

Auto-renewable subscriptions can include an incentive to customers who share their contact information with you.

Free Subscription

Free subscriptions allow users to download dynamic content, such as magazine subscriptions, for a set duration of time. Free subscriptions are a way for developers to put free content in the Newsstand in the App Store. After a user signs up for a free subscription, the subscription content will be available on all devices associated with the user’s Apple ID. Note that free subscriptions do not expire and can be offered only in Newsstand-enabled apps.

Free subscriptions don’t offer a marketing opt-in incentive as do auto-renewable subscriptions, but users are prompted to share their information.

Free Subscriptions are not available for Mac apps.

Non-Renewing Subscription

Non-renewing subscriptions allow the sale of items with a limited duration. They are used for products that offer time-based access to static content.

If you use non-renewing subscriptions, your app is responsible for delivering the subscription to all devices associated with the user’s Apple ID.

Because a non-renewing subscription requires a user to renew each time the subscription ends, your app must contain code that recognizes when the subscription is due to expire and prompt the user to purchase a new subscription.

Source: Apple Official In-App Purchase Guide

Setup in-app purchase testers

You can test your app and in-app purchases without creating financial transactions by using sandbox, a test environment that uses the infrastructure of the App Store but doesn’t process actual payments. Instead, it returns transactions as if payments were processed successfully.

  1. From Users and Access, click Testers under Sandbox.

  2. Click the Add icon (+).

  3. Enter the tester information, then click Invite.

Account information cannot be edited once a Sandbox Apple ID is created.

Create an app password

Create an App Password: used to verify purchases

  1. Navigate to Appleid.apple.com from your web browser and sign in with your Apple ID and Password.

  2. Verify your identity with two-factor authentication.

  3. Under the Security section, select Generate Passwords.

    If you don't see the option to generate app-specific passwords, you'll need to enable two-factor authentication, which is different than two-step verification.

  4. Enter a label for the password. Be sure the name relates to the app for which you are generating the password, like "Outlook" or "Thunderbird."

  5. Select Create.

  6. Copy the app-specific password you generated and save it in a file on your local system such that you may reference it as needed while building your app.

Last updated

Change request #1203: