App Store & Google Playcharacter limits
Every metadata limit on both stores, with a counter that counts the way the stores actually count. Emoji, CJK, Thai and pasted line breaks included. Free, no account.
Check your metadata
Paste a field and see what the store will count, not what your text editor thinks. The keyword field also gets a waste check for spaces after commas and repeated terms.
The heaviest ranking field you control.
Second heaviest. Not a tagline, a keyword slot.
Hidden from users. Comma separated, no spaces after commas.
Editable without shipping a build.
Write it for humans. The first 3 lines are what people read.
Shown on the product page and the Updates tab.
Counted the way the stores count: in UTF-16 code units. Latin, Cyrillic, Arabic, Thai and CJK characters cost 1 each. Emoji cost 2 or more, where the store accepts them at all. Nothing you type here leaves your browser.
App Store limits
Per localization. Every locale you add gives you a fresh budget on all of these fields, which is why localization is free keyword real estate.
| 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 limits
Per language. The metadata policy also applies to every translation, so a violation in one language can hold up the whole listing.
| 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. |
How the stores count
Both stores count UTF-16 code units. Every ordinary character costs 1, whatever the alphabet: Latin, Cyrillic, Arabic, Thai and Chinese all count once each. Emoji sit outside that basic range and get charged twice, so a country flag costs 4 and a family emoji costs 11 while looking like a single character. Spaces, commas and line breaks each cost 1.
Two widespread claims are wrong. The keyword field is 100 characters, not 100 bytes, so a Thai or Japanese keyword field holds a full 100 terms’ worth rather than a third of it. And CJK characters are not penalised: a Japanese word like 家計簿 costs 3, not 9.
Emoji are where most character counters get it wrong. One in your Google Play short description leaves 78 characters of 80, not 79, and a family emoji leaves 69. A counter that charges them once tells you that you fit when you do not.
Whether emoji are allowed is a separate question. App Store Connect rejects any metadata field containing one, with “this field contains one or more invalid characters”, in every field and every language. Typographic symbols are fine there: ©, ™, bullets, arrows and curly quotes all pass. Google Play bans emoji in your app name, your icon and your developer name, and accepts them in your descriptions.
The field-by-field breakdown and the sources are in the character limits reference. For what to actually put in those fields, read the complete ASO guide or check a term’s difficulty in the keyword tool.
Frequently asked questions
What is the App Store keyword field character limit?
100 characters, not 100 bytes, whatever Apple's help page says. That matters most in non-Latin scripts: a Thai or Japanese keyword field holds a full 100 characters, not a third of that. Commas and spaces count too, which is why you should never leave a space after a comma.
How many characters can an app name be?
Thirty on both stores. The App Store allows 30 characters for the name and 30 more for the subtitle, per localization. Google Play allows 30 for the app name, per language. Older iOS apps with longer names were grandfathered in and cannot be reproduced today.
Are emoji allowed in App Store and Google Play metadata?
Not on the App Store. App Store Connect rejects a metadata field containing an emoji with the error "this field contains one or more invalid characters", in every field and every language. Typographic symbols like the copyright and trademark signs, bullets and arrows do pass. On Google Play emoji are banned in the app name, the icon and the developer name, and accepted in the short and full descriptions.
Do emoji count as one character or two?
Two for most emoji, and more for flags and family sequences. Both stores count UTF-16 code units, so a single emoji costs 2, a country flag costs 4, and a family emoji costs 11 while looking like one character.
Do Chinese or Japanese characters count as more than one?
No. Google states the limits apply to both full-width and half-width characters, and Apple counts each character once regardless of script. A Japanese word like 家計簿 costs 3, even though it takes 9 bytes in UTF-8. That gives CJK localizations far more room per field than English.
Do line breaks and spaces count toward the limit?
Yes, both count as one character each. Text pasted from Windows or Word carries a carriage return plus a line feed per break, which would cost 2, but the stores normalize it to a single newline. This counter normalizes the same way and tells you when it happened.
What is the Google Play description character limit?
Four thousand characters for the full description and 80 for the short description, per language. Release notes are capped at 500 per language. Unlike iOS, the Google Play full description is indexed for search, so keywords belong there.
Fitting the limit is the easy part
The hard part is which words go in. Applyra tracks what your metadata actually ranks for on the App Store and Google Play, updated daily, on a permanent free plan.