Submitting an app to the Apple App Store requires an Apple Developer Program membership ($99 per year), a completed build uploaded through Xcode, and a set of metadata including screenshots, descriptions, and privacy disclosures. The full process, from enrollment to approval, typically takes a few days to a couple of weeks depending on how prepared you are and how quickly Apple reviews your submission.
Enroll in the Apple Developer Program
Before you can submit anything, you need an active Apple Developer Program membership. The cost is $99 per year, though nonprofits, accredited educational institutions, and government entities can request a fee waiver.
If you’re enrolling as an individual, you’ll need your legal name (which appears as the seller name on the App Store), an email address, phone number, and physical address. P.O. boxes aren’t accepted.
Enrolling as an organization adds several requirements. The person enrolling must have legal authority to bind the organization to contracts, meaning you need to be an owner, founder, executive, senior project lead, or someone with documented authority from a senior employee. Your organization also needs a publicly accessible website with real content (not just a parked domain or a social media page) and a D-U-N-S Number, which is a nine-digit business identifier assigned by Dun & Bradstreet. Apple does not accept DBAs, fictitious business names, or trade names for organizational accounts.
Set Up Your App in App Store Connect
App Store Connect is Apple’s web portal where you manage everything about your app’s listing. Once your developer account is active, log in and create a new app record. You’ll need to provide a few pieces of foundational information right away: your app’s name, primary language, bundle ID (the unique identifier you set in Xcode, like com.yourcompany.appname), and SKU (an internal reference string that won’t be visible to users).
From here, you’ll fill in the metadata that appears on your App Store listing. This includes a subtitle, a description (up to 4,000 characters), a promotional text field, keywords for search optimization (100 characters total), a support URL, and a marketing URL if you have one. Take the keywords seriously. You only get 100 characters, and they directly affect whether people find your app through search.
Prepare Screenshots and App Previews
Apple requires between one and ten screenshots per device size, in JPEG or PNG format. At minimum, you need screenshots for the largest iPhone and iPad screen sizes your app supports. Apple will scale those images down for smaller devices in most cases, but providing device-specific screenshots gives you more control over how your listing looks.
For the latest iPhones, the key resolutions are 1260 x 2736 pixels for the 6.9-inch display and 1179 x 2556 pixels (or 1206 x 2622) for the 6.3-inch display, both in portrait orientation. For iPads, the 13-inch display requires 2064 x 2752 pixels in portrait. Landscape orientations are also accepted if your app runs that way.
You can also upload app preview videos (up to 30 seconds) to show your app in action. These aren’t required, but they tend to increase downloads. Your app icon, which is a 1024 x 1024 pixel PNG, gets included in the build itself and pulled automatically into your listing.
Complete the Privacy Disclosure
Apple requires every app to display a privacy “nutrition label” on its App Store page, and you’re responsible for filling this out accurately in App Store Connect. You’ll categorize your app’s data practices into one of three levels: data not collected, data collected but not linked to the user’s identity, or data collected and linked to the user’s identity.
The categories you’ll be asked about cover a wide range: contact info, identifiers, purchase history, usage data, location, financial info, health and fitness data, user content like photos or audio, browsing history, search history, diagnostics, and sensitive information. For each data type your app collects, you also need to specify the purpose: whether it’s used for third-party advertising, your own marketing, analytics, product personalization, or core app functionality. If your app uses any third-party SDKs (for analytics, ads, or crash reporting, for example), their data collection counts too. Review what those SDKs collect before filling out your disclosure.
Build, Archive, and Upload in Xcode
With your App Store Connect record set up, the next step is getting your actual app binary uploaded. This happens through Xcode, Apple’s development environment.
First, make sure your app’s version number and build number are set correctly in your project settings. The version number is what users see (like 1.0 or 2.3.1), while the build number is an internal identifier that must be unique for each upload. Also confirm that your bundle ID matches what you entered in App Store Connect and that your signing certificate and provisioning profile are configured for distribution.
To create the uploadable binary, select “Any iOS Device” as your build destination in Xcode, then go to Product > Archive. This compiles your app into an archive optimized for distribution rather than debugging. When the archive completes, the Organizer window opens automatically. Select your archive and click “Distribute App,” then choose “App Store Connect” as the distribution method. Xcode will validate your build, check for common errors, and then upload it to Apple’s servers.
You can also upload builds using Transporter (a free macOS app from Apple) or the command-line tool altool, but Xcode is the most straightforward option for most developers. Note that Apple requires Xcode 14 or later for uploads.
After uploading, the build goes through automated processing on Apple’s side, which typically takes a few hours. You’ll get an email when processing finishes. If there are issues (missing icons, unsupported architectures, privacy manifest problems), you’ll get a notification detailing what needs to be fixed.
Submit for Review
Once your build finishes processing, it appears in App Store Connect under your app’s record. Select the processed build, attach it to the version you’re preparing, and make sure all your metadata, screenshots, and privacy disclosures are complete. App Store Connect will flag any missing required fields before you can submit.
A few items you might overlook: if your app requires a login, you need to provide a demo account (username and password) so the review team can test it. If your app uses background location, the camera, the microphone, or other sensitive permissions, you’ll need to explain why in the review notes. Apps with in-app purchases need those purchases submitted and approved alongside the app.
You also need to set your app’s content rating by answering a questionnaire about violence, language, mature themes, and similar factors. Apple uses your answers to assign an age rating automatically.
When everything is filled in, click “Submit for Review.” You’ll choose whether you want the app released immediately upon approval, on a specific date, or manually after you get the green light.
What Happens During Review
Apple reviews every app submission, both new apps and updates. Based on recent averages, apps spend roughly 9 hours waiting in the review queue and about 2 hours in active review, putting the typical turnaround at under 24 hours from submission to decision. That said, more complex apps or those that raise compliance questions can take longer.
The review team checks your app against the App Store Review Guidelines, which cover functionality (it must work as described and not crash), design (it should meet basic quality standards), legal compliance (proper privacy handling, no intellectual property violations), and business model rules (in-app purchases must use Apple’s payment system in most cases). If your app is rejected, you’ll receive a message in the Resolution Center within App Store Connect explaining which guidelines were violated. You can respond, ask for clarification, or fix the issues and resubmit.
If you have a critical bug fix or a time-sensitive launch tied to an event, Apple offers an expedited review request option through App Store Connect. These aren’t guaranteed, and Apple reserves them for genuine urgent situations rather than routine submissions.
After Approval
Once approved, your app goes live based on the release option you chose during submission. If you selected automatic release, it typically appears on the App Store within a few hours of approval. You can monitor downloads, crash reports, and user reviews through App Store Connect and the App Store Connect mobile app.
For future updates, the process is the same: increment your version or build number, archive in Xcode, upload, fill in any updated metadata or “What’s New” release notes, and submit for review again. Update reviews generally follow the same timeline as initial submissions.