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App preview videos: the specs, and the number that surprises everyone

Fifteen to thirty seconds, three per set, H.264 at 10-12 Mbps, and an accepted resolution that has nothing to do with your phone's screen.

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App previews run 15 to 30 seconds, up to three per set, in H.264 at 10-12 Mbps or ProRes 422 HQ, 30 fps maximum, 500 MB maximum, and for iPhone the accepted upload resolution is 886 x 1920 portrait, not the device's native screenshot size.

Crypto wallet portfolio screen composed in My Larp Wallet: a wallet named Ridge, a total balance above a list of 4 tokens showing each holding and its change over the day, in a dark theme with a lavender accent.
A mockup, not a wallet, composed in My Larp Wallet. It holds no funds and connects to no blockchain.

The resolution is not your screen size

This is the one that costs an afternoon. A screenshot for a 6.9-inch iPhone is uploaded at 1320 × 2868. An app preview for the same phone is uploaded at 886 × 1920 in portrait, or 1920 × 886 in landscape, and the same pair is accepted for the 6.5-inch and 6.3-inch classes too.

So the instinct to record at native resolution and upload the file as-is produces a rejection, not a preview. Record at whatever gives you a clean image, then export to the accepted size.

Length, count, and the frame people actually see

ConstraintValue
Minimum length15 seconds
Maximum length30 seconds
Previews per setup to 3
Maximum file size500 MB
Default poster frametaken at 5 seconds

The poster frame deserves more attention than it gets. Unless you set it yourself, the still that represents your video in the listing is whatever happens to be on screen five seconds in, which, in a preview that opens with a logo animation, is often the moment the logo is fading out. Set it deliberately, and set it to the frame you would have chosen as a screenshot.

Format and bitrate

Two formats are accepted: H.264 or ProRes 422 (HQ only).

Thirty frames per second is a ceiling, not a target. A 60 fps screen recording has to come down, and letting an export tool do it by dropping every other frame is how a smooth scroll turns into a stutter. Re-time it properly or record at 30 to begin with.

Audio, if you have any

Stereo, 256 kbps AAC, sampled at 44.1 or 48 kHz. Two arrangements are accepted: one track carrying two channels, left then right, or two tracks carrying one channel each, again left then right. Every track has to be enabled: a muted-but-present track is a common cause of a file that looks fine locally and fails on upload.

ProRes additionally accepts PCM at 16, 24 or 32 bits.

What a preview is for

The specifications are the easy half. The hard half is that a preview is watched with the sound off, in a list, by someone who has not decided to care yet. Fifteen seconds is the floor and it is usually the right answer: show the thing the app does, once, without a title card.

And whatever you record has to be true. A preview that demonstrates a feature the build does not have is the clearest possible version of a listing that does not match the app, which is the reason most rejections exist in the first place.

Source

Every figure above is from Apple's App Preview specifications page in the App Store Connect help, read on 31 August 2026 and checked again on 12 October 2026, when none of them had changed. It changes; check it before a submission that has a date attached to it.

Questions

How long can an App Store app preview be?

15 to 30 seconds, up to three per set.

What codec and bitrate does an app preview need?

H.264 at 10-12 Mbps or ProRes 422 HQ, 30 fps maximum, and 500 MB maximum.

Written by My Larp Wallet, a crypto wallet app simulator: a mockup that opens on your phone, never a real wallet. For your own app’s screenshots, shoot your build; where a wallet mockup fits, and where it does not.

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