How Long Does App Store Review Take in 2026?

Most App Store reviews finish within 24 to 48 hours. Apple's App Review page says it typically reviews at least 50% of submissions in less than 24 hours and 90% in less than 48 hours. Live data from Runway's review time tracker, updated October 6, 2026, put the average at 7 hours 13 minutes in Waiting for Review plus 2 hours 4 minutes In Review, about 9 hours 17 minutes in total.

That is the typical case, not a promise. The queue gets longer when Apple opens submissions for a new operating system each September, around the December holidays, and for any app that needs documents, uses a sensitive entitlement or is new to the store. On those days a review can take several days, and a small number of developers report waits of two weeks or more. Apple publishes targets and an annual count of reviews, but it does not publish a live queue length, so every live number on this page comes from a third party that measures real submissions.

App Store review time is really three clocks running one after another. First your build is processed after upload. Then the submission sits in Waiting for Review until a reviewer picks it up. Then it is In Review while someone tests it. After approval there is a fourth, shorter step: the release, which can be immediate, held by you, or scheduled. Each section below covers one of those steps, with Apple's own wording for what the status means and what you are allowed to do while you wait.

People search for this in many ways: how long does Apple take to review an app, App Store Connect review time, Apple app review time, why is my App Store review taking so long. They all point at the same process, run by Apple's App Review team against the App Review Guidelines. This page does not cover customer reviews and star ratings, which are a separate system covered in our guide on how to get App Store reviews.

A first submission usually takes longer than an update, because there is more to check: the concept, the business model, the account flows, the privacy answers and every screen. Apple does not publish a separate figure for new apps. Its review status help gives the general rule that most submissions are reviewed within 48 hours and some need more time, and names two reasons: when App Review has to request and verify documents such as licenses, authorizations or partnership agreements, and when an app includes regulated content, new platform capabilities, entitlements or other sensitive features.

In practice, plan on two to five days for a first release in a normal week, and a week or more in September or late December. Those ranges are our planning estimate, built from Apple's targets, the tracker data above and the reports collected below, not an Apple number. Apps in medicine, finance, lending, crypto, gambling and other regulated fields should expect the longer end, because they almost always need documents.

Most of the delay on a first app is avoidable. Apple's page on providing information for a complete review asks for a description of the concept and business model, the purpose and audience, the devices and system versions you tested on, every outside service the app depends on, a demo account that works when the review starts, and any regional differences. It says plainly that incomplete submissions will be rejected, and that submitting everything up front makes review quicker and easier to predict. A rejection on a first submission costs far more time than the queue itself.

New developer accounts also go through Apple Developer Program enrollment before they can submit anything, which is a separate step from App Review and not covered by these timings. Once the account is active, the review clock starts when you press Submit for Review. If you are planning the whole launch, the app launch checklist puts the review window in the eight weeks before launch day.

Updates are usually the fastest submissions in the queue. Apple's review status help says that "updates with minor changes and bug fixes typically move through review quickly", while other submissions may take longer to verify. For an established app shipping a routine update, a same day approval is common, and the October 2026 average of about 9 hours from submission to decision is a fair expectation.

An update slows down when it changes something App Review has to look at closely: a new login method, new in app purchases or subscriptions, a new entitlement, new data collection, or content in a regulated area. Apple's guideline 2.3.1 asks for every new feature and product change to be described specifically in the Notes for Review field, and says generic descriptions will be rejected. A clear note that says what changed and where the reviewer can find it is the cheapest way to keep an update moving.

Since October 29, 2025, Apple has let developers send items to App Review separately from a submission already in the queue. You can submit an app version with a critical bug fix while custom product pages are still under review, or send In App Events on their own while a version is being reviewed. That means a stuck marketing item no longer has to block an urgent fix.

When an update is rejected for something that has no legal or safety angle, Apple may offer a Bug Fix Submission: the update is approved now and you fix the issue in the next version. Apple's Bug Fix Submissions page says the offer appears at the top of the rejection message, applies only to apps already approved, and cannot be used twice in a row for the same issue. To accept, you reply to the message rather than resubmitting, because a resubmission starts a new review.

TestFlight beta review is a lighter review that applies when you test with external testers. Apple's TestFlight overview says that when you add the first build of your app to an external group, it is sent to App Review, that review is required only for the first build, and that later builds may not require a full review. Internal testers, up to 100 people on your App Store Connect team, can test without that step. External testers can number up to 10,000, and each build stays testable for up to 90 days.

On timing, Runway showed an average of 13 hours 57 minutes waiting for beta review and 1 hour 23 minutes in beta review on October 6, 2026, about 15 hours 20 minutes in total, and build processing averaging 22 minutes. Beta review was slower than full App Review in that snapshot, which surprises many developers. If a public beta matters for your launch, add the first external build early so the review is done before you need it.

A rejected TestFlight build does not affect your live app. Apple's statuses page says that for TestFlight you must submit a new build for review before you can invite external testers again, so fix the issue in a new build rather than waiting on the rejected one.

Yes. Apple's expedited review help says App Review works around the clock, and the weekday table above shows Saturday and Sunday averages in the same range as the rest of the week: 9 hours 10 minutes waiting on Saturdays and 13 hours 41 minutes on Sundays in Runway's data. Submitting on a Friday evening does not mean waiting until Monday.

Holidays are different. For the 2022 season, Apple kept accepting submissions over the holidays, and 9to5Mac reported Apple's note that reviews may take a bit longer to complete from December 23 to 27. Any notice for the current season appears on Apple's developer news page, so check it before you plan a release for the last week of December.

Two other weeks behave like holidays. The days after Apple opens submissions for a new operating system each September bring a wave of updates, which is why September 2026 was the slowest month in the tracker data. And the weeks after a major App Review Guidelines update can bring more questions from reviewers while teams adjust. Neither is announced as a slowdown, so plan for both.

Waiting for Review means Apple has your submission and nobody has opened it yet. A wait of a day or two is normal. Past three days, it is worth checking a few things, because some delays are caused by the submission rather than the queue.

Apple names the reasons a review takes longer on its review status help page. The first is documentation: if App Review has to request and verify authorizations, licenses or partnership agreements, the clock stops until it has them. The second is complexity: regulated content, new platform capabilities, enabled entitlements or other sensitive features get more scrutiny. The third is investigation: App Review looks into reported or identified conduct outside the Developer Code of Conduct, such as misrepresented identity, manipulation of the App Store or low quality apps flagged by many customer reports, and Apple says an investigation can extend a submission's review.

Volume is the fourth reason, and the one you can do least about. Apple reviewed 9,100,620 submissions in 2025, according to its 2025 Transparency Report. That is about 175,000 a week, or roughly 24,900 a day (our division). Early in 2026, Apple told 9to5Mac it was handling over 200,000 submissions a week, as collected by Michael Tsai, whose post gathers reports from developers such as Marco Arment, Paulo Andrade and Craig Hockenberry describing Mac App Store reviews of five days or more in 2026, while iOS reviews moved faster. Apple's response in the same reporting was that 90% of submissions were processed within 48 hours and that the average review took 1.5 days.

There is also a reason that is easy to miss: the review may already be waiting on you. A message from App Review asking for information pauses everything until you reply, and it does not always arrive as a prominent email. Open the App Review section of App Store Connect and look for messages before you assume the queue is the problem.

An expedited review asks Apple to look at a submission ahead of the normal queue. Apple's expedited review help says requests should be reserved for matters of genuine urgency and lists two cases: fixing a critical bug, and releasing in time for an event the app is directly associated with. A launch date you picked yourself, a marketing campaign or an investor demo does not qualify.

The steps are short. First, submit the app for review in App Store Connect, because only submissions already sent to App Review can be expedited. Make sure the submission is complete, with the Notes field filled in and a demo account or demo mode for anything behind a login. Second, open the Request an Expedited App Review form on Apple's Contact Us pages, choose the app and platform, and submit. Third, wait: App Review evaluates the request and expedites the review as allowed by availability and demand.

What to write depends on the reason. For a critical bug, Apple asks you to put the steps to reproduce the bug on the current version in the Notes field when you submit. For an event, include the event, its date and how your app is associated with it, and schedule the release in App Store Connect ahead of time if you can. A good request reads like a bug report or an event listing, not a plea: what is broken or what is happening, who it affects, and the date that matters.

How long does an expedited review take? Apple does not say, and it does not guarantee that a request is granted. Its UK commitments to the CMA promise to maintain an expedited review mechanism for exigent circumstances, naming critical bug patches and apps tied to events such as game competitions or live streamed experiences, and to publish the number of expedited reviews each year for UK developers, according to section 5(c) and section 9 of Apple's commitments document. Apple does not publish a limit on how often you can ask, but treating it as a rare request keeps it credible.

More than the queue, usually. Apple rejected 2,093,244 of 9,100,620 submissions in 2025, a rejection rate of 23.0% by our division of the figures in the 2025 Transparency Report. Roughly one submission in four comes back at least once. Each round trip means reading the message, fixing the issue, and waiting again, so the real review time for an app that is rejected once is often two or three times the queue time.

How much time you lose depends on what you do next. If App Review only needs information, you reply to the message and the review continues without a new build. If the issue is in metadata or on your server, you fix it and reply, again without resubmitting. If the issue is in the build, you upload a new build and submit that version, and the review starts again. Apple's guidance on this is specific: do not resubmit until you have resolved every issue identified, because resubmitting with unresolved issues delays review and results in the same outcome.

Most rejections end in approval. The same report counts 387,087 submissions approved after rejection in 2025, which is 18.5% of rejected submissions by our division. If you disagree with the decision, you can reply first and then appeal to the App Review Board; Apple says resubmitting closes the appeal. The full list of rejection reasons, with Apple's numbers for each section of the guidelines and how to fix each one, is in our guide to App Store rejection reasons.

Partly. While a submission is in Waiting for Review, Apple's review status help says you can still edit certain information or remove items from the submission, but you cannot upload or edit screenshots and app previews. Text such as the description or promotional text can usually be changed; a new screenshot set means pulling the submission.

While it is In Review, you can cancel the submission to remove it from review. The version then shows Developer Rejected, and you resubmit the same build or a new one when ready. That restarts the review, so cancel only when you have found a real problem, such as a crash you can reproduce or a wrong build. Swapping a build to add a small change is rarely worth the lost place.

A common question is whether you can submit another version while one is waiting. You can only have one app version in review at a time, but other items such as In App Events, custom product pages or Game Center features can now be sent separately, and a critical bug fix version can be submitted separately from product pages that are still under review.

Approval and release are separate steps you control. Apple's release options page offers three choices for each version: release it manually, release it automatically as soon as it is approved, or release it automatically after App Review but no earlier than a date and time you set. The third option is the one to use when a launch date is fixed: submit early, let review finish whenever it finishes, and the version goes live on your date.

If you release manually, the version sits in Pending Developer Release until you press the button, and Apple sends an email reminder if it stays there for more than 30 days. Apple also says that after a manual release it may take up to 24 hours for the version to appear on the App Store. In practice it is often faster, but a 24 hour window is the honest planning number, especially across time zones.

For updates, you can also release in phases over 7 days. Apple's schedule sends the update to 1% of users with automatic updates on day one, then 2%, 5%, 10%, 20%, 50% and 100% on day seven, and lets you pause for up to 30 days in total. Anyone can still download the update manually from the App Store during the rollout. A phased release does not change review time, but it limits the damage if something slipped past review and testing.

Apple's 2025 Transparency Report is the best public count of the queue. It lists 9,100,620 app submissions reviewed and 2,093,244 rejected in 2025. Divided out, that is about 175,000 reviews a week, 24,900 a day and over 1,000 an hour, every hour of the year. The App Store page says nearly 500 dedicated experts around the world review over 130,000 apps every week, which works out to roughly 260 apps per reviewer per week if both figures describe the same work. The two weekly figures differ, and Apple does not explain the gap, so treat them as orders of magnitude rather than exact counts.

Volume has grown faster than the published targets suggest. The statistics we track on our App Store statistics page show submissions reviewed rising from about 6.1 million in 2022 to 9.1 million in 2025, an increase of 49.1%. Reporting collected by Michael Tsai links the 2026 surge partly to apps built quickly with AI coding tools, and cites Appfigures data showing App Store submissions up 24% in 2025 through November. Apple has not confirmed a cause.

Apple's language has also shifted. Its 2022 holiday notice, as reported by 9to5Mac, said 90% of submissions were reviewed in less than 24 hours. Its current App Review page says at least 50% in under 24 hours and 90% in under 48 hours. For UK developers, its March 2026 commitments go back to the stronger promise of a decision for 90% of submissions within 24 hours, and add yearly reporting of the share of reviews completed within 24 hours and within 4 days. The first of those reports covers 2026 and is due by 31 March 2027.

Apple does not publish review times by country, and nothing in its help pages says the queue is split by region. What does differ is the promise. In the UK, Apple's commitments to the Competition and Markets Authority, dated 30 March 2026 and in effect from 1 April 2026, say Apple will seek to provide a rejection or approval decision for 90% of app submissions within 24 hours, will give status updates on reasonable request, will explain every rejection against the guidelines, and will allow an appeal to the App Review Board as a matter of right.

The same document commits Apple to publish yearly metrics for UK based developers: submissions reviewed, rejections, approvals after rejection, appeals, the share of reviews done within 24 hours and within 4 days, the number of expedited reviews, and the share of appeals completed within 60 days. When the first report appears in 2027, it will be the first official review time data Apple has published for any market.

For developers in the EU and the US, Apple's general targets above are the only published figures. The UK report will still be useful everywhere, because Apple runs one App Review team against one set of guidelines, and a slow year in the UK numbers is unlikely to be a fast year elsewhere. That last point is our inference, not something Apple states.

Google gives a wider range than Apple. Its Play Console help on managed publishing says processing can take a few hours or up to seven days, or longer in exceptional cases, that the review clock counts from the last submitted change, and suggests leaving at least a week between submitting and going live. Its publishing help adds that certain developer accounts and certain apps get a more thorough review, which may mean review times of up to seven days or longer.

New personal developer accounts face an extra step before their first production release. Google's testing requirements page says personal accounts created after November 13, 2023 must run a closed test with at least 12 testers who stay opted in for at least 14 days, then apply for production access, which Google says usually takes seven days or less to review. For a first Android launch from a new personal account, that is three weeks or more before the app can go live, on top of the normal review.

Google Play also has its own version of a scheduled release. With managed publishing turned on, approved changes wait until you choose to publish them, so you can send an update for review early and release it on your date, the same way Apple's scheduled release option works.

Treat review as a window, not a moment. The safest plan for a dated launch is to have the build approved before the date and released by a schedule. In App Store Connect that means choosing to release automatically after App Review but no earlier than your launch date and time, then submitting early enough that review finishes in a bad week, not just a good one.

Count back from the launch. In a normal week, three business days of slack covers the typical queue plus one quick question from App Review. For a first release, a release in September or one in late December, allow one to two weeks, which covers a rejection and a second pass. Put TestFlight beta review earlier still, since the first external build of a version goes through its own review.

Line up everything that depends on the release date at the same time. Apple asks for at least two weeks of notice for featuring nominations, and our guide on how to get featured on the App Store explains why three weeks is the safer minimum. The release notes, social posts and press for launch day are easier to write while the build waits in the queue. Our app release notes examples and app update announcement examples cover what to say once the version is out. If there is no plan for the posts yet, start with how to promote an app on social media.

If the date is truly fixed by something outside your control, such as a sports event, a premiere or a live broadcast the app is part of, that is exactly what Apple's expedited review is for. Submit the build complete, note the event and date in the Notes field, set a scheduled release, and send the expedite request.

Many searches for App Store review time are about the other kind of review: a written customer review that has not appeared yet. Apple does not publish a time for that. Ratings and written reviews go through Apple's own checks before they show, and Apple's May 2026 fraud prevention report says it processed over 1.3 billion ratings and reviews in 2025 and blocked close to 195 million as fraudulent.

If your app's reviews seem missing, the usual reasons are that they were posted in another country's storefront, that the rating was left without written text, or that Apple's fraud checks held them. Our guide on how to get App Store reviews covers why reviews do not show up, how to ask for ratings within Apple's rules and how to reply to them.

Once a version clears review, the work most teams skip is telling people about it. Spreadcast watches your public App Store listing every day, sees the new version the moment it goes live, and turns it into a designed post with your own icon and screenshots in an iPhone frame, plus a caption written for each network. It publishes to Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and your other connected accounts on the schedule you set.

You approve with one tap or let it publish by itself. The same daily check turns a new 5 star review or a rating milestone into a post too, so the update that took a week to get through App Review does not go out in silence. Paste your App Store link on the start page to see the first post drafted from your listing, and see the plans for automatic publishing. For a one off launch post, the product launch post generator does the same from a link.