How Many Screenshots for the App Store

App Store Connect accepts between 1 and 10 screenshots for each device size in each localization, and only the 6.9-inch iPhone set is mandatory for an iPhone app. That's the whole rule, but it isn't the whole answer, because the number you should upload depends on how many separate arguments your app can make and on the fact that search results show only the first three.

Google's own first page for this question is Apple's screenshot specifications page, a Reddit thread on sizes, and a run of ASO vendor guides from MobileAction, AppTweak, and Adapty that all repeat the "up to 10" line and then move on to pixel dimensions. None of them says what apps at the top of the charts actually do with those ten slots. We analyzed that, so this post covers the rule, the real-world distribution, and a way to settle on your own count.

The limits Apple sets

There are four separate numbers hiding in "how many," and it helps to keep them apart. The first is the per-slot range: each device size in each localization takes a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 10 screenshots. Next is the required slot: an iPhone app must have a 6.9-inch set, and Apple scales that set down for smaller iPhones unless you upload separate sets for older display classes. Previews are the third: up to 3 app preview videos sit alongside the screenshots and don't count against the 10. Localization is the fourth: every localized listing has its own screenshot slots, so a listing in eight languages can carry eight different sets of up to 10, or one set shared across all of them.

Two things follow from that. You can't exceed 10 by any trick, which is what one of the "People also ask" boxes on the results page is fishing for; the limit is enforced at upload. And you can't submit zero, because a version with an empty 6.9-inch slot won't pass the metadata check. Everything between 1 and 10 is your call, and Apple's review doesn't grade the count, only whether each image shows the real app at an accepted size. The requirements page covers those review checks, and the sizes page lists the exact pixel dimensions per device slot.

What the top charts actually upload

The vendor guides stop at the limit. The more useful number is where working listings land inside it, and here the common advice and the data disagree. You'll often read that five or six is the sweet spot. Counting the slides in the exemplar sets our August 2026 corpus library keeps for each category, the median set is 8 screenshots long, and just over a quarter of those apps use all 10 slots.

The categories pull in different directions. Health & Fitness and Photo & Video lean hardest on the full ten, which makes sense for apps with many distinct tools to show, while Shopping and Books run shorter sets because the pitch is simpler. Whatever the category, the chart says the apps that spend the most on their listings rarely stop at five. That doesn't prove ten converts better than six, since these are the apps with the biggest teams and the most features. It does mean "keep it short" is advice the leaders mostly ignore.

Why the first three carry more than the rest

The count matters less than the split inside it. On the results page for a search, Apple shows the first three portrait screenshots of each app and nothing after them; the rest only appear once a shopper taps through to the product page. So a ten-slide set is really a three-slide pitch followed by seven slides of supporting detail for people who are already interested. If your first three are weak, slide seven can't rescue them, and if they're strong, slides four through ten are cheap to add because the reader has already chosen to keep scrolling. The best App Store screenshots post goes into what those opening slides tend to show across categories.

Landscape screenshots change the math, because a landscape first slide fills the whole width by itself and the results page shows only one. Games use that deliberately. For a portrait app there's no reason to give up two of the three visible slots.

Picking your number

Start from arguments, not from slots. Write down every distinct reason someone should download the app, one per line, ranked by strength. Each line is a candidate slide, and a slide that can't be captioned with its own reason is padding. Most apps land between six and nine lines this way, which matches where the corpus sits. If you only have four real reasons, upload four good slides rather than four good slides plus three screens of settings pages; a thin slide at position five doesn't hurt search, but it does tell the product-page reader that you ran out of things to say.

Then check the costs that scale with the count. Each extra slide is another headline to write, another screen to keep current when the UI changes, and another image to translate for every localization you ship. A listing in six languages with ten slides is 60 images to maintain, and that upkeep is the honest reason many indie listings sit at five or six. The step-by-step in how to make App Store screenshots covers choosing and ordering the slides once you've settled on the number.

Finally, decide per localization only if you have a reason. Apple lets each locale carry a different count, but in practice one set with translated captions is what almost every app ships, and it's the only version that's cheap to keep in sync.

Screenies and the count

Screenies generates between 1 and 10 screenshots per set, so the count you settle on above is a setting, not a constraint, and each generated screenshot costs one credit. The plan it proposes assigns one argument per slide and orders them by strength, which is the same exercise as the list in the previous section, with your real screens placed in the frame in code. Reordering the set and editing a headline after generation don't spend credits, so trimming a nine-slide set to seven costs nothing beyond the initial run. Every set exports at the 6.9-inch iPhone sizes only for now, with iPad output not shipped yet; the credit packs and the subscription are listed on the pricing page.

Questions about the screenshot count

Do app preview videos count toward the 10?

No, each device size takes up to 3 app previews in addition to the 10 screenshots, and a preview displays ahead of the screenshots. If you upload one, it takes the first visible slot on the results page, so the screenshot you'd planned as the opener moves to second.

Can I upload a different number of screenshots for each language?

Yes, screenshot slots are per localization, so a German listing can carry six while the English one carries nine. Most apps don't do this, because every divergence is one more thing to update when the app changes, but nothing in App Store Connect prevents it.

Do I need 10 screenshots for iPad as well?

Only if your app runs on iPad, and then the iPad slot has the same 1 to 10 range as the iPhone slot. The count doesn't have to match across device sizes. iPad output isn't something Screenies ships yet, so an iPad set is a separate job for now.

Can I change the number of screenshots without submitting a new version?

No, screenshots are version-level metadata, so adding or removing one means submitting a new version for review. Promotional text can be edited at any time, but screenshots, the description, and keywords are locked to a version. Plan the count before you submit rather than adjusting it a week later.

Is there a minimum number Apple recommends?

Apple's documentation only sets the range of 1 to 10 and doesn't recommend a count. The practical floor is three, because that's how many the results page shows, and a listing with one or two screenshots leaves visible empty space next to competitors that fill all three.