Guideline 3.1.2 Subscriptions: the EULA link, the billed amount, and what a subscription must offer

Any category may sell subscriptions. The guideline then sets three conditions, and a rejection message names the one you failed:

Payment method rules — using in-app purchase at all, and linking out to web checkout — sit in the neighbouring guideline, covered in our page on Guideline 3.1.1. This page is about the subscription itself.

What follows that sentence is a list, and it has two halves: what's missing "within the app" and what's missing from "App Store metadata". A version from August 2024 spells out the in-app half — the subscription's title, its length, its price "and price per unit if appropriate", and "functional links to the privacy policy and Terms of Use (EULA)" — then adds that the metadata needs the same two links.

If you build the paywall with StoreKit's SubscriptionStoreView, the subscriptionStorePolicyDestination modifier adds the Terms of Use and privacy links to the store view itself. Paywall tools such as RevenueCat and Superwall have their own footer components — check they're switched on in the template you used.

This is the paywall pattern that trips most subscription apps. Apple's example is an annual plan: you may show what it works out to per week or per month, or a percentage saving, but those "should be displayed in a subordinate position and size to the annual price".

For trials, Apple asks you to "clearly indicate how long the free trial lasts and the price billed once the free trial is over." Trials themselves are configured in App Store Connect as introductory offers — the guideline points there rather than letting you build your own.

Apple's examples of appropriate subscriptions are new game levels, episodic content, multiplayer support, apps with "consistent, substantive updates", large or continually updated media libraries, software as a service, and cloud support. The list is "not exhaustive", and in practice most productivity, health and AI apps qualify through ongoing service or sync. The rules that do get enforced are narrower:

• No chores to unlock what was paid for. Subscribers must get what they paid for "without performing additional tasks, such as posting on social media, uploading contacts, checking in to the app a certain number of times".
• Every device. If the app runs on iPhone and iPad, the subscription must work on both. Apple's guidance says to make subscriptions "available across all device types that your app supports."
• Don't take back what people bought. Moving a paid app to subscriptions, you "should not take away the primary functionality existing users have already paid for". Keep previous buyers unlocked.
• No bait-and-switch. Apps that trick users into subscribing "will be removed from the App Store", and the developer may be removed from the Developer Program.

If the honest answer is that your app does one fixed thing and won't change, a one-time purchase (a non-consumable) is the safer model. It's also the model some categories' users prefer: in our habit tracker snapshot, several of the top apps sell a lifetime unlock.

3.1.2(b) asks that users "should not be able to inadvertently subscribe to multiple variations of the same thing." StoreKit enforces this for you if your plans share one subscription group. Apple's guidance: "Since people can only buy one subscription within a group at a time, creating a single group is the best practice for most apps."

1. 01

   Split the message into its two lists

   Items under "within the app" need a new build. Items under "App Store metadata" are fixed in App Store Connect.

2. 02

   Fix the metadata first

   Add the Terms of Use link to the description (or the custom EULA under App Information) and fill in the Privacy Policy URL. If that's all the message lists, reply and resubmit the same build.

3. 03

   Fix the paywall

   Plan name, length, billed amount as the largest price, trial length and post-trial price, Restore, and both links on the same screen.

4. 04

   Test the purchase path the reviewer takes

   Fresh install, sandbox account, from onboarding to purchase to restore. A product that fails to load is a separate rejection under Guideline 2.1.

5. 05

   Tell the reviewer where the paywall is

   In the review notes, give the exact taps to reach it and say which links are on it.

Hello App Review team,

Thank you for the feedback on Guideline 3.1.2.

App Store metadata (updated, no new build needed for these):
- Added a Terms of Use (EULA) link to the end of the App Description:
  [URL]
- Privacy Policy URL is set under App Privacy: [URL]

In the app (build [number]):
- The paywall now shows each plan's name, length and the billed
  amount as the main price, e.g. "$49.99 per year".
- Terms of Use and Privacy Policy links sit under the purchase button.

To reach the paywall: launch the app > skip onboarding > tap [button].

Thank you,
[Name]