First, log in to App Store Connect, which is Apple's central hub for managing your apps. This guide assumes you have an app already set up and are ready to add in-app purchases.

📘 Important: Complete Your Agreements First!

Before you can create or test any in-app purchases, you must have your business agreements in order.

1. Sign the Paid Applications Agreement: Navigate to the Agreements, Tax, and Banking section. Ensure the 'Paid Applications' agreement shows an 'Active' status. You will not be able to test purchases until the latest version is signed.
2. Complete Tax and Banking Info: In the same section, go through the "Tax" and "Banking" tabs. You must link a bank account and have its status be "Clear" before you can proceed.

Signing all agreements is required to continue.

Create an In-App Purchase

In App Store Connect, navigate to My Apps and select your application. In the sidebar, select Subscriptions under the "Features" section.

If you're creating a one-time purchase (like a non-consumable), select In-App Purchases instead. The steps are very similar.

1. Create a Subscription Group

Subscription Groups organize your products so users can easily switch between them (e.g., upgrading from a monthly to an annual plan). If you don't have one yet, you'll be prompted to create one.

Click the '+' symbol to create a Subscription Group. You’ll need to provide a Reference Name. This is not shown to users, so use something descriptive for your own reference (e.g., "Pro Tier Subscriptions").

2. Add a New Subscription Product

After creating your Subscription Group, click the '+' symbol next to its name to add a new subscription product.

You'll be asked to provide a Reference Name and a Product ID.

Reference Name: This is for your internal use in App Store Connect and reports. It won't be displayed to users. Use a human-readable name like "Pro Plan - Annual". Product ID: This is a crucial, unique identifier for your product. It can never be used again, even if you delete the product. We highly recommend a consistent naming scheme.

> 📘 Pro Tip: Product ID Naming Convention > A good format is "___". > For example, a $39.99/year subscription with a 1-week free trial could be: rc_3999_1y_1wfree. This makes it easy to identify products at a glance.

3. Set Subscription Duration and Price

Once the product is created, set the subscription Duration from the dropdown menu (e.g., '1 Year').

Next, in the Subscription Prices section, click the '+' icon to add a price. Choose your primary currency and price, and Apple will automatically calculate prices for all other regions.

At the last step, remember to Save your changes.

4. Add Introductory Offers (Optional)

To add a free trial or introductory price, click the Introductory Offers tab. Click the '+' icon to configure it. You can set the countries, duration, and type of offer (e.g., Free, Pay as you go). For a simple free trial, select Free and choose the duration.

At the last step, remember to Save your changes.

5. Add Localization and Reviewer Information

Finally, you need to provide the customer-facing details and information for Apple's review team.

Localization: Under App Store Information, add a localization. Provide a Subscription Display Name and Description. This is what users will see. Reviewer Information: You must upload a Screenshot of your paywall (a placeholder is fine during development) and can add optional Review Notes. Your app cannot be submitted for review without this screenshot.

> 📘 Pro Tip: For all products that unlock the same level of access (e.g., monthly and annual "Pro" plans), use the exact same Subscription Display Name. This creates a cleaner and less confusing experience for users in the App Store.

Once you’ve finished setting up your products on App Store Connect, you’re all set!

Next, set up your RevenueCat account. All you need is an email address.

Connecting the App Store to RevenueCat is simpler than Google Play and relies on an App-Specific Shared Secret. This secret allows RevenueCat to securely validate receipts with Apple's servers.

1. Generate an App-Specific Shared Secret (StoreKit 1 Only)

> 📘 Note: The app-specific shared secret is used with StoreKit 1 but is now deprecated by Apple. New apps are recommended to use StoreKit 2 and configure the in-app purchase key instead. This field is required to validate transactions if your app is targeting iOS 15 or below, or is configured to use StoreKit 1.

1. In App Store Connect, navigate to My Apps and select your app.
2. In the sidebar, go to App Information under the "General" section.
3. Scroll down to find the App-Specific Shared Secret and click Manage.
4. Click Generate to create a new secret. Copy it to your clipboard.

2. Create App Configs and Add the Secrets to RevenueCat

1. In your RevenueCat dashboard, go to your Apps & providers and select your iOS configuration under the "App configuration" section. If you haven't created anything about app configs for App Store, you should click the + Add app config on the right corder, and put your iOS app configurations.
2. Paste the App-Specific Shared Secret you just generated into the corresponding field. (StoreKit 1 Only)
3. Click Save Changes.

That's it! RevenueCat can now communicate with the App Store for your app.

Phew, Congrats! You made it through the tricky part 🎉

At this point, most of the complex setup is behind you. Now it’s time to get familiar with four essential concepts in RevenueCat that you'll need to understand before configuring your monetization strategy: Product, Offering, Package, and Entitlement.

Each of these plays a unique role in how you define, present, and manage your in-app purchases across platforms.

🧩 Product

A Product is an individual in-app purchase item created and managed directly in the store platforms such as the Google Play, Apple App Store, or on the web. This is the base unit of monetization—think monthly subscriptions, lifetime access, or one-time purchases. Each product has its own unique identifier, price, and duration settings defined by the store.

> Example: A monthly subscription product like rc_1499_1m configured in App Store Connect.

🎯 Offering

An Offering is a collection of products grouped together to be presented as a paywall experience in your app. Offerings are configured in the RevenueCat dashboard and give you flexibility in managing A/B testing, price experiments, and regional or user-segmented paywalls, all without requiring app updates.

> Example: An offering named default might contain several packages like a monthly, annual, and lifetime option shown to users.

📦 Package

A Package acts as a wrapper for equivalent products across different platforms (e.g., iOS, Android, Web). It allows you to present one pricing option (like a monthly subscription) consistently across platforms, while linking it to each store's specific product ID.

Each package has a unique identifier (e.g., monthly, annual) within an offering, and helps RevenueCat resolve the correct product based on the user’s platform.

> Example: A monthly package might map to com.app.pro_monthly_ios on iOS and com.app.pro_monthly_android on Android.

🏷️ Entitlement

An Entitlement defines what the user gains access to after a successful purchase. It represents the features or content unlocked, and abstracts away the underlying product or package identifiers. Entitlements allow you to manage user access logic (e.g., "has premium access") without hardcoding product IDs into your app.

They are also central to how RevenueCat tracks and restores purchases across devices and platforms.

> Example: An entitlement called premium might be granted to users who purchase any product associated with that access level, such as monthly or yearly subscriptions.

Cheat Sheet

Understanding how these four elements work together will make it easier to manage cross-platform subscriptions, experiment with pricing strategies, and deliver a seamless in-app purchase experience.

For easier understanding, you can refer to the visual diagram in the RevenueCat In-App Purchases Cheat Sheet below:

To get started, go to the RevenueCat dashboard, navigate to your project, and open the Products tab under Project Catelog.

Click the ➕ New button in the top right corner, then select Import Products from the dropdown menu. RevenueCat will automatically fetch and display a list of available in-app products from your connected store accounts (such as the App Store or Google Play).

Once your products have been imported, you'll see that the in-app purchase items have been successfully added to your RevenueCat project.

Now that you've imported or created products, it's time to set up entitlements. As you’ve learned, entitlements define what a user gains access to after a successful purchase.

Typically, you’ll want to create one or more entitlements based on your feature access tiers (e.g., "pro_access"). These entitlements let you control access to gated features or content within your app.

To create a new entitlement:

1. Go to the Product Catalog in the left menu of your project dashboard.
2. Click the Entitlements tab.
3. Select ➕ New Entitlement.

You'll be prompted to enter a unique identifier for your entitlement (e.g., "pro"), which you’ll later reference in your app to check a user’s access level.

Attaching Products to Entitlements

Now it’s time to attach products to entitlements. This ensures that when a user purchases a product, they are granted the corresponding entitlement.

To attach a product to an entitlement:

1. Open the Entitlements tab in the RevenueCat dashboard.
2. Click on the entitlement you want to configure.
3. Click the Attach button.
4. If you’ve already added your products, you’ll see them in a list—just select the one you want to link.

When a product attached to an entitlement is purchased, the entitlement becomes active for the duration of that product.

If you don't plan to implement Paywalls in your app, you can skip ahead to the Conclusion section. Otherwise, continue to the next step.

If you want to introduce Paywalls in your app, the first step is to create Offerings. An Offering represents a set of products that are presented to users on your paywall.

Adding Packages

A Package serves as a wrapper for equivalent products across different platforms. This provides a single source of truth for your products.

To create a package, navigate to your newly created Offering, then click the Edit button to configure the details, and then you can add packages by clicking the + New Package in the Packages section.

From there:

1. Choose an Identifier from the dropdown that best represents the package duration (e.g., monthly, annual).
2. Add a description to help clarify the purpose of the package.
3. Attach the relevant products that match the chosen duration (e.g., your annual iOS product).
4. Click Save to create the package.

Once you've added all the Packages to your Offering, you’ll see the results displayed as shown below:

Alright, time to create some awesome Paywalls!

A paywall is a screen that encourages users to purchase your products. RevenueCat’s paywall system is built on a server-driven UI, allowing you to update layouts instantly using the Paywall Editor without needing to release a new app version.

This allows your team to focus on A/B testing, refining offerings, and optimizing messaging to boost subscriptions, all without the delays of app updates.

Building Paywalls

To start building, go to the Paywalls page for your project and click ➕ New Paywall.

Next, choose a pre-built template as a starting point or begin from scratch.

In the editor, set a name for your paywall and select an identifier, which will automatically link the paywall to the corresponding Offering. Customize your content, colors, and images.

Once you’ve finished, click “Save to draft”. When you're ready, click “Publish changes” to make your paywall live.

🎉 Yay! You’ve completed all the configuration steps for setting up App Store products and the RevenueCat dashboard!

In this codelab, you’ve learned how to configure App Store Connect products, connect your account to the RevenueCat dashboard, and set up products, offerings, entitlements, and paywalls. With everything now configured, you're ready to integrate the RevenueCat SDK into your project!

You can also learn more about using the RevenueCat SDK with the resources below:

• Codelab: iOS In-App Purchases & Paywalls with SwiftUI — your next step toward a fully functional monetization flow for your iOS project.
• Product Tutorials: Video tutorials to help you get started and get the most out of RevenueCat.