App Store screenshot sizes in pixels: what upload accepts

Start from the upload checks that actually reject files, then work backwards to the pixel sizes Apple lists for each iPhone and iPad slot, and the arithmetic that produces them.

Published: 27 August 2026 · Last reviewed: 1 November 2026

Four checks that reject a file at upload

Before anyone at Apple looks at your screenshots, the upload box applies a few mechanical tests. Most failed uploads trace back to one of these, so run through them first:

1. File type. Apple lists .jpeg, .jpg and .png. HEIC, WebP and TIFF are out.
2. Color space. Apple's page does not name one. Our own advice is to export standard RGB and avoid CMYK.
3. Transparency. Apple's wording is that images “can’t include alpha channels or transparencies”. A PNG may hold an alpha channel even when every pixel is fully opaque, and as written the rule still counts that as a violation.
4. Exact size. The width and height must match one of the sizes Apple lists for the slot. A file one pixel off does not appear on any list.

Pixels are the only unit that counts

People ask about “resolution” because the word comes from print, where it means dots per inch and only makes sense next to a physical size. A store listing has no physical size. A screenshot is a grid of pixels and nothing else.

Image files can still declare a density: a PNG can hold a pHYs chunk, a JPEG can hold JFIF density fields, and either may say 72, 144 or 300 DPI. Apple's specification page gives pixel dimensions and says nothing about DPI. We never uploaded files that differed only in their density tag, so we make no claim about how they are treated. Our practical rule: get the pixel grid right and do not touch the tag. An image that is 1179 × 2556 pixels stays exactly that whatever it declares.

The slots you have to fill, and the ones that fill themselves

Apple's section “Required device sizes”, last re-read on 1 November 2026, asks for two things: an iPhone set in the 6.3-inch class, and a 13-inch iPad set if the app supports iPadOS. Everything else can be derived. Apple's own phrase is that you “only need to provide screenshots for the highest required resolution”, and App Store Connect shrinks that set into the smaller slots.

One wrinkle: the 6.9-inch and 6.5-inch slots fill only from each other, never from the 6.3-inch set. Add a 6.9-inch set if you want the biggest phones covered properly.

Scaling works, with two costs worth knowing about:

• Softness. A shrunk copy loses fine type and hairlines. Give any screen where detail matters its own native set.
• Slightly different proportions. 1290 × 2796 is 1:2.167, whereas 1242 × 2688 is 1:2.164. The store absorbs that, but a layout glued tight to the edge can move by a pixel or two.

The table below runs from the slots in play today to the historical ones. The screenshot size calculator maps a device straight to its slot if you would rather not scan it.

Every size Apple lists, portrait

Sizes can be turned sideways for landscape: 2796 × 1290 is simply the portrait 1290 × 2796 rotated. Choosing landscape does not oblige you to also upload portrait.

Deriving a pixel size from a device

Every number above is a screen measured in points, multiplied by the screen's scale factor. The arithmetic never changes, even when Apple changes which slots it insists on. Worked through for phones, all at 3×:

• 440 × 956 pt gives 1320 × 2868, the 16 Pro Max, which Apple groups as 6.9-inch.
• 430 × 932 pt gives 1290 × 2796: 15 and 16 Plus, 14 and 15 Pro Max, nominally 6.7-inch.
• 428 × 926 pt gives 1284 × 2778: the 12 and 13 Pro Max, 6.5-inch.
• 414 × 896 pt gives 1242 × 2688: the 11 Pro Max and XS Max, also 6.5-inch.
• 402 × 874 pt gives 1206 × 2622: the 16 Pro, 6.3-inch.
• 393 × 852 pt gives 1179 × 2556: the 14 Pro, 15 and 16, 6.1-inch.
• 390 × 844 pt gives 1170 × 2532: the 12, 13 and 14, 6.1-inch.
• 414 × 736 pt gives 1242 × 2208: the 8 Plus, 5.5-inch.

Mind the difference between a handset and an upload slot. A phone with a 6.7-inch diagonal is uploaded into the 6.9-inch class, because Apple merged them. The device did not grow; the bucket did.

iPads use a 2× scale instead:

• 1032 × 1376 pt (13-inch iPad Pro) gives 2064 × 2752.
• 1024 × 1366 pt (12.9-inch iPad Pro) gives 2048 × 2732.
• 834 × 1194 pt (11-inch iPad Pro and Air) gives 1668 × 2388.
• 820 × 1180 pt (10.9-inch iPad) gives 1640 × 2360.
• 768 × 1024 pt (9.7-inch iPad) gives 1536 × 2048.

Mandatory sets move, so verify

Which slots App Store Connect demands has changed more than once, most recently in October 2026, when the required iPhone class became 6.3-inch. Read Apple's current page before you upload. Treat this article, like any third-party list, as a snapshot of how the requirement has behaved, not a forecast.

Count, order and localization

Each device class takes up to ten screenshots, shown in upload order. That order matters more than any pixel decision here. On a phone, most shoppers stop after two or three images, so frame one has to make the whole case alone.

A localization can have its own set at the same sizes; one without a set falls back on another. Settle early whether you will localize the images, because that is the gap between producing one set and producing twelve.

Getting exact pixels out of a design

Two habits remove most of the trouble. Design on a canvas that divides evenly into the target size, so export is a single multiplication and not a resample of a resample. And measure the finished file instead of trusting the exporter.

A tool that renders on the device itself avoids resizing altogether. Flexdger Wallet runs in your own phone's browser and you screenshot it there, so the image arrives at that phone's native size: 1179 × 2556 from a 393 pt screen at 3×, with nothing left to scale. Still measure it, because not every phone's native size is on Apple's list. A wallet screen composed this way is a prop, never proof of a balance, so label it as an illustration wherever a listing could read as a claim.

The error to avoid is blowing an exported screenshot up to fill a bigger slot. Upscaling creates no detail and blurs precisely what makes a screen believable: small type, hairlines, icon edges. For a larger set, export again from the source at the larger size, or build once at the biggest size and let the store shrink it.

Measure the file before you upload

macOS already has the tool:

sips -g pixelWidth -g pixelHeight -g hasAlpha screenshot.png

The answer should be a width and height from the table and hasAlpha: no. When alpha shows up, re-save as JPEG, a format that cannot hold the channel:

sips -s format jpeg -s formatOptions 95 in.png --out out.jpg

On a 1290 × 2796 Simulator PNG we got a 1290 × 2796 RGB JPEG with hasAlpha: no.

Condensed checklist

1. DPI is not part of the specification, so disregard it.
2. iPhone: produce 1206 × 2622 for the required 6.3-inch set. iPad, if you ship there: 2064 × 2752.
3. For the largest phones, add a 6.9-inch set at 1320 × 2868.
4. Save PNG or JPEG, RGB, no alpha, exact pixels.
5. Run sips before the upload, not after the rejection email.

For the per-class history of which sets were once mandatory, see App Store screenshot sizes for iPhone.