How Many Screenshots for the App Store

App Store Connect accepts between 1 and 10 screenshots for each device size in each localization, and iPhone apps need a set for the 6.3-inch slot, which a 6.9-inch set can fill by scaling. Apps that also support iPad need a separate 13-inch iPad set. 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 can show the first one to three screenshots.

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 fill the 6.3-inch slot, either with a 6.3-inch set or with a 6.9-inch set that Apple scales into it, 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 an iPhone app needs at least one screenshot in the 6.3-inch slot, uploaded directly or scaled from a 6.9-inch set. Everything between 1 and 10 is your call, and screenshots must also meet Apple's format and content requirements. 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.

These are selected high-polish exemplars, not the full corpus. The full August 2026 screenshot report includes all 1,433 captured apps and finds a median of 7 screenshots, with 15.9% using all 10. The different selection rules explain the different figures.

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 one to three screenshots when no app preview is available, depending on screenshot orientation; the rest only appear once a shopper taps through to the product page. For a portrait set without a preview, plan the first three slides as a pitch and the remaining slides as supporting detail. Slides four through ten are only seen by shoppers who tap through, so they can't make up for a weak opening, and after a strong opening they add detail for a reader who is already interested. 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. The guide to App Store landscape screenshots covers which apps gain from a wide set and how to capture one.

Picking your number

Set the count from your reasons to download. 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.

Check your screenshot files to verify their dimensions before uploading the set.

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 phone slide costs one credit (iPhone, iPhone Duo outer, or Android phone) and each tablet-sized slide costs two credits (iPad, iPhone Duo inner, or Android tablet). 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 every slide built from your real screens. 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. Generate separate iPhone, iPad, iPhone Duo, Android phone, and Android tablet sets, in portrait or landscape. One-time credit packs are listed on the pricing page.