About In-App Purchase Products

Read below to know how to choose among the different product types to offer your virtual content or service to customers.

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.

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.