Guideline 3.1.1: “you must use in-app purchase” for digital features
Your app sells something digital, such as premium features, credits or a subscription, through a payment method other than Apple's, or it points people to pay somewhere else.
Apple's words
“you must use in-app purchase.”
“a restore mechanism for any restorable in-app purchases.”
“may not include buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms other than in-app purchase.”
What it means
Apple's own examples of what this covers are “subscriptions, in-game currencies, game levels, access to premium content”. For extras like these, used inside the app, a card form or a web checkout is what the rule catches.
Links and buttons that send people to pay elsewhere depend on the storefront. For the United States storefront, Apple says its entitlements “are not required for developers to include buttons, external links, or other calls to action”. Elsewhere, outside Apple's named programs, they are not allowed.
Some things must not use in-app purchase at all. Under 3.1.3(e), a physical item, or a service people use outside the app, “must use purchase methods other than in-app purchase”.
What caused it for us
We haven't had this rejection ourselves. This page follows Apple's current rules, checked 9 November 2026.
What to check first
- Write down what people pay for: something used in the app, or a physical item or outside service.
- Look for any way to pay for digital extras without Apple's purchase sheet, such as a card form or a web page.
- Find every button, link or line of text that sends people elsewhere to pay, and note which countries the app is sold in.
- Check that people can restore what they bought.
- If your flow already follows the rule for its storefront, plan to reply rather than rebuild.
Kept for the paid guide
These three parts are in the paid guide only:
- The exact App Store Connect clicks. How to set up the in-app purchase products and send a first one with a new app version, after Apple's July 2026 change.
- The prompt to paste into your AI builder. A prompt that has your builder map every payment path and say which rule and exception applies.
- The reply to Apple. A reply for each case: a rebuilt flow, a removed link, or a storefront where your flow is allowed.