App Store Description Character Limits and How to Write One
The App Store description character limit is 4,000 characters, and Google Play's full description allows the same. Around it, the App Store gives you a 30-character name, a 30-character subtitle, 170 characters of promotional text, and a 100-byte keywords field. Google Play gives you a 30-character name and an 80-character short description. Those limits come from Apple's App Store Connect reference and Google's store listing setup page, checked as of October 2026.
The limits are the easy part. The part that trips people up is that the fields do different jobs. Some decide whether you show up in search. Some decide whether a person who found you taps Get. Writing all six the same way, usually by pasting one paragraph into every box and trimming it until the counter stops going red, wastes the fields that matter most.
What each App Store field is for
Name, 30 characters. Apple searches it. Use your real brand name, plus a short descriptor if it fits naturally. Apple's own name rules say it must be at least two characters long.
Subtitle, 30 characters. It sits under your name everywhere the app appears, including search results. Apple's product page guidance says to use it for what the app does or how people use it, and to avoid generic claims like "world's best app." "Book and pay your groomer" beats "The ultimate pet app." Apple suggests changing it with each new version to test what works, so plan your subtitle as part of a release.
Keywords, 100 bytes. Nobody sees this field, and it is the one that does the most search work. Apple says keywords "help determine where your app displays in search results." Separate terms with commas and no spaces. Do not repeat words already in your name, do not add plurals of words you already have, and leave out the word "app" and your category name. Never put a competitor's name or someone else's trademark here. Apple lists improper keywords as a common reason for rejection.
Note that Apple counts this field in bytes, not characters. A plain English letter is one byte. Accented and non-Latin characters take two or more. If you localize your listing into Spanish, French or Japanese, the same 100-byte budget holds fewer letters than you expect, so check the counter in App Store Connect instead of trusting a character count from a text editor.
Promotional text, 170 characters. This sits above your description. You can edit it at any time without submitting a new build, which makes it the right home for anything with a date on it: a seasonal offer, a new feature, a holiday schedule. Apple says it does not affect search ranking, so do not fill it with keywords.
Description, 4,000 characters, plain text only. HTML is not supported. Apple's guidance is clear on where the effort should go: "The first sentence of your description is the most important — this is what users can read without having to tap to read more." Many visitors never tap. Write that sentence as if it is the only one they will read.
Apple also asks you to leave specific prices out of the description, since the store already shows them.
What each Google Play field is for
Google Play has no hidden keywords field. The title, the short description and the full description are the text you give it.
Title, 30 characters. Same limit as Apple. Google's metadata policy bans emoji, repeated special characters and ALL CAPS unless the caps are part of your brand name.
Short description, 80 characters. This shows on your listing before someone expands it. Treat it like Apple's first sentence: one clear statement of what the app does and for whom.
Full description, 4,000 characters. Write your main terms in naturally. Google's policy warns against "repetitive or unrelated keywords or references," and repetitive keywords in your name or description can get the listing suspended. Mention what the app does in plain words a couple of times and stop there.
Google also bans a few things that are common in small business listings: ranking or performance claims like "#1," "Best of Play" or "Popular," and "unattributed or anonymous user testimonials." A line like "Customers love it!" with no name or source behind it does not pass. If you quote a review, attribute it.
How to write the description itself
Here is the structure we use, and it matches what Apple recommends: one short paragraph, then a short list of features.
- One sentence that says what the app does and who it is for. Start with a verb. "Book a cleaning, track your visits and pay your invoice from your phone" tells a stranger more than "Welcome to Sparkle Clean's official app."
- Two or three sentences on the problem it removes. No adjectives that a competitor could also claim. "Fast" and "easy" mean nothing. "Rebook your last service in two taps" means something.
- A list of four to six features, each one a line long, each one named the way your customer would say it.
- One line at the end for anything that does not fit elsewhere: support contact, a note about who the app is not for, or an attributed award.
That is usually 800 to 1,500 characters. You do not have to use all 4,000. A shorter description that a person actually reads beats a long one stuffed with repeated phrases, on both stores.
Here is an illustrative scenario to show the difference. A local dog groomer writes "The best grooming app! #1 for pet lovers! Download now!" as their Google Play short description. That line breaks Google's rule on ranking claims, wastes the 80 characters, and tells nobody what the app does. Rewritten as "Book grooming, get reminders and pay your groomer in one app," it fits in 60 characters and answers the only question a visitor has.
The free tool that does the slicing for you
Our App Store Description Generator takes your app name, a one-line instruction for what it does, and up to six features. It writes all six fields at once: iOS subtitle, promotional text, description and keywords, plus the Google Play short and full descriptions, each held under its limit with a live counter.
It handles two details people miss. The keywords field drops the space after each comma to fit more terms, and it leaves out words already in your name or category. The Google Play copy puts the category and core benefit near the top, since Play has no separate keywords field to carry them.
It runs in your browser. Nothing you type is uploaded or stored. It is a first draft, not a finished listing. It cannot tell whether a claim is true or whether a word is someone else's trademark, so read every field before you paste it in.
If you want to know whether the terms you picked are worth chasing at all, run them through the ASO keyword checker next. Store copy is one line on the App Launch Checklist, next to screenshots, icons and the privacy policy. Our guide to App Store screenshot requirements covers the visual side of the same listing.
App Store description character limit FAQ
Do I have to use the full App Store description character limit?
No. The limit is 4,000 characters, but most good descriptions land between 800 and 1,500. Apple only shows the first sentence before a visitor taps to read more, so length past that point helps very few readers.
Does the App Store description help my app rank in search?
Apple's guidance points to the keywords field, alongside your app name, for search. It also asks you not to add unnecessary keywords to the description to improve search results, so write the description for people and put search terms in the keywords field.
Is the Google Play limit the same?
The full description is the same 4,000 characters. Google Play adds an 80-character short description and has no separate keywords field, as of October 2026.
Does Apple count characters or bytes?
Both, depending on the field. Apple states the description limit as 4,000 characters and the keywords limit as 100 bytes. That difference only matters when you localize into a language with accented or non-Latin characters, where each one uses more than a byte.
Where we are the wrong fit
If your app is built and you only need store copy, do not hire an agency for it. The free generator plus an hour of your own editing will get you a listing that passes review and reads well. You know your customers' words better than we do.
Where we help is when the copy will not come together because the app itself is not clear yet. If you cannot write a first sentence that says what the app does, that is usually a product decision still waiting to be made, not a writing problem. That is the conversation we have on a free intro call, and it is also the reason our app brief wizard starts with the one-line description before anything else.
Your app. In the stores. Done for you. US APP Team designs, builds, and launches your iOS and Android app for a fixed price. Start your app brief or book a free intro call — both are free.
Want to poke around first? Every tool in our free tool library runs in your browser with no signup: an app cost calculator, an app name generator, and a privacy policy generator.
