What are the App Store title, subtitle and keywords field character limits?

The app name takes 30 characters, the subtitle 30 and the keywords field 100, for a total of 160 indexed characters per localization. Applyra's free character counter enforces exactly those numbers and counts them the way App Store Connect does.

What are the Google Play title, short description and long description limits?

The title takes 30 characters, the short description 80 and the full description 4,000, per language. Google indexes all three, which is the main difference from the App Store, where the equivalent long field is not indexed at all.

Is the iOS keyword field 100 characters or 100 bytes?

100 characters. Apple's App Store Connect help page says 100 bytes and that wording is wrong: a 100-character Thai keyword string weighs 220 bytes in UTF-8 and App Store Connect accepts it. Both stores count UTF-16 code units, so an ordinary character costs 1 and an emoji costs 2.

Why does Applyra ask me for my iOS keywords field?

Because Apple publishes it to nobody. It is 100 indexed characters that no scrape, no API and no competitor can see, so Applyra cannot read yours or anyone else's. You can type it in, or connect App Store Connect and have it imported automatically.

Are metadata character limits per app or per language?

Per localization on the App Store and per language on Google Play. Every locale you add gives you the whole budget again, which on iOS means another 160 indexed characters: 30 for the name, 30 for the subtitle and 100 for the keywords field.

The metadata fields each store indexes, and their limits

Which App Store and Google Play fields count for search, their character limits, and how the stores really count them. Not bytes: UTF-16 code units.

Both stores index a small number of text fields and ignore the rest. On the App Store the indexed fields are the app name (30 characters), the subtitle (30) and the keywords field (100). On Google Play they are the title (30), the short description (80) and the full description (4,000). Everything else on your product page sells the app, but it does not rank it.

App Store

Field	Limit	Indexed	What it is for
App name	30	Yes	The heaviest ranking field you control.
Subtitle	30	Yes	Second heaviest. Not a tagline, a keyword slot.
Keywords	100	Yes	Hidden from users. Comma separated, no spaces after commas.
Promotional text	170	No	Editable without shipping a build.
Description	4000	No	Write it for humans. The first 3 lines are what people read.
What's New	4000	No	Shown on the product page and the Updates tab.

Google Play

Field	Limit	Indexed	What it is for
App name	30	Yes	The heaviest ranking field. Emoji and repeated symbols break policy here.
Short description	80	Yes	The first text users read on the listing.
Full description	4000	Yes	Unlike iOS, keywords in here count. Write them into real sentences.
What's new (release notes)	500	No	Per language, and every language is validated at once.

Those tables share their source with the public free character counter, so the number you read here is the number the counter enforces.

How the stores count characters

UTF-16 code units. Not bytes, not what your eye sees as a character.

Ordinary text costs 1 per character, whatever the script. Latin, Cyrillic, Arabic, Thai and CJK all count the same, which gives a Japanese localization several times more meaning per field than an English one.
Emoji cost 2, sometimes far more. A country flag is 4, a family emoji is 11.
A newline costs 1. Text pasted from Windows or Word carries a carriage return plus a line feed, which would be 2, but the stores normalize it back to one.

Apple's own App Store Connect help page says the keyword field takes "up to 100 bytes". That wording is wrong and it has misled a lot of people: a Thai keyword string of exactly 100 characters weighs 220 bytes in UTF-8 and the console accepts it. Apple's product page guidance gives the right number. The full evidence, on both stores, is in our character limits reference.

One more trap worth stating plainly: App Store Connect rejects any metadata field containing an emoji, in every field and every language, with "this field contains one or more invalid characters". App Review guideline 4.5.6 reads the other way, and the validator is what actually blocks your release. Google bans emoji in exactly three places, the app title, the icon and the developer name, and accepts them everywhere else.

Every field is per locale

Limits are per localization on iOS and per language on Google Play. Add a locale and you get the whole budget again. On iOS that is 160 fresh indexed characters each time: 30 for the name, 30 for the subtitle, 100 for the keywords field. It is the cheapest keyword expansion available, and it is why markets are the unit everything in Applyra is measured in. Working a fresh locale from the first keyword to the first measured position is covered in how to launch an app in a new market.

The keywords field nobody can see

Apple never publishes the iOS keywords field. Not in its API, not on the web page, not to you about a competitor and not to a competitor about you. That is a third of your indexed text sitting in the dark, so Applyra scores ASO Health on your title and subtitle alone until you supply it.

Two ways to fix that, both under the app's own page: type the field in by hand, or connect App Store Connect and let Applyra import it. Once it is in, the coverage axis reads all three fields, and the audit can tell you which entries are wasted.

Four things waste that field, and all four are common:

A word already in your title or subtitle. Apple combines its three indexed fields and permutes across them, so a repeat buys nothing at all.
A space after a comma. It counts against your 100 characters and Apple never indexes it. Commas only.
Phrases that repeat a word. Apple splits multi-word entries apart and recombines them itself, so photo editor,photo filter earns nothing that photo,editor,filter does not, and costs six characters more.
Words nobody searches. Uncontested is not the same as valuable. The traffic score is what separates the two.

Writing a field before you ship it

The Metadata Simulator scores a draft against the same audit your live listing gets, keywords field included, so you can see what a rewrite is worth before it goes to review. Which field to spend your effort on is not a matter of taste either: see how App Store and Google Play search work for the measured effect of each one.