Terms of service for an app on the App Store
What your terms need to cover for the App Store, including the clauses Apple requires you to carry.
What terms are for
Terms are the agreement between you and the person using the app. They matter on the day something goes wrong, which is the day nobody reads them for the first time. Short and specific beats long and borrowed.
What Apple adds on top
Apple is the seller of record for in-app purchases, so your terms cannot promise refunds you are not able to give. They can describe what you will do when the store says no, which is the part users actually want to know.
- That Apple is not a party to the agreement.
- Where purchases are actually made, and who can refund them.
- What happens to purchased content if the app leaves the store.
What has to be in them
- Who is contracting: a person or a company, named, with an address.
- What the service is, and what it is not.
- How someone pays, what renews, and how they stop it.
- What you are liable for, capped in a way your local law actually permits.
- Which law governs the agreement and where a dispute goes.
- Apple's required clauses if you use your own EULA: Apple is not a party, Apple has no support obligation, and Apple is a third-party beneficiary.
Keeping it true after launch
A legal page stops being true the moment the product moves past it, usually by adding a payment provider, an analytics SDK or a sign-in. No store re-checks your pages against your build, so the drift is yours to notice.
- Re-read it whenever you add a dependency that sees user data.
- Re-open the Apple console after any change to what the app collects: the listing and the policy have to agree.
- Keep the URL stable. Changing where a policy lives breaks every listing that points at it.
Common questions
Do I need my own EULA on iOS?
No. Apple's standard licence applies by default and is fine for most apps. If you use your own, it has to carry Apple's required clauses.
Can I cap my liability at zero?
Not in most consumer jurisdictions. A cap that the law does not permit is unenforceable, which means you end up with no cap at all rather than a low one.
