TestFlight beta planner
Tester groups
You attach a build to a group, and everyone in it can install it. Internal testers are your own team holding the Account Holder, Admin, App Manager, Developer, Marketing role in App Store Connect; external testers are everyone else. Apple publishes no maximum number of groups, so nothing here counts them.
No groups yet. Apple requires an internal group before you can create an external one, so that is the place to start.
Build windowApple
Apple: a build is available to test for up to 90 days, starting from the day it is uploaded. After that testers can no longer open it. Each new build gets its own window, and Apple’s wording on ending one early is “When testing is complete, you have the option to expire a build to stop testing it.”
Counted in whole calendar days from the upload date. Apple does not publish the hour the window turns over, and App Store Connect shows the authoritative countdown under your app name — treat this as a planning figure.
Test informationApple
What App Store Connect asks for before a beta goes to external testers. Fields marked Required are the ones Apple’s own help calls required; the rest are asked for but not described as rules. Apple publishes no character limit for any of these fields, so the counters below are counts, not caps.
What the beta is. Testers see it in the invitation and in the TestFlight app. Apple’s help marks this field required.
The explanation of features to test that goes out with the build. Written per build, not once.
Where testers reach you from the TestFlight app, and the reply-to on every invitation.
Beta app review information — who App Review contacts about this build.
Beta app review information.
Beta app review information. Not necessarily the same address testers write to.
Beta app review information.
Credentials that work, if your beta has a sign-in screen. A reviewer who cannot get in cannot approve the build.
Anything a reviewer needs in order to reach the part of the app you changed. Optional.
What review gates
The most common surprise in a first beta is who has to wait for whom.
If you invite external testers, your beta build may require review. When you add the first build of your app to a group, the build gets sent to App Review to make sure it follows the App Review Guidelines. A review is required only for the first build. Subsequent builds may not require a full review. Testing can begin once a build is approved.
Apple states separately that the beta app description and beta app review information are required in order to share your beta with external testers, and that you can submit up to 6 builds for TestFlight App Review in any 24-hour period, with only one build of each version in review at a time. Those four sentences are the whole of what Apple publishes about the gate; this page adds nothing to them and cannot see your review queue.
30 devices per tester
100 builds shareable
Public-link testers are anonymous
A public link can be narrowed
Internal Only builds cannot go external
Creating an external group is role-gated
Purchases run in a sandbox
Managed Apple Accounts
Apple publishes no group maximum
Guideline 2.2, in Apple’s words
“Demos, betas, and trial versions of your app don’t belong on the App Store – use TestFlight instead. Any app submitted for beta distribution via TestFlight should be intended for public distribution and should comply with the App Review Guidelines. Note, however, that apps using TestFlight cannot be distributed to testers in exchange for compensation of any kind, including as a reward for crowd-sourced funding. Significant updates to your beta build should be submitted to TestFlight App Review before being distributed to your testers.”
Read the compensation sentence carefully before you offer testers anything. And if the idea of asking your beta group for App Store ratings has crossed your mind: trading or incentivising reviews is against the guidelines, and the mechanical position is that a TestFlight build runs in a sandbox rather than as an App Store purchase — Apple: “Apps downloaded from TestFlight will automatically operate in a sandbox environment.” Whether a TestFlight tester can leave an App Store review at all is not something Apple documents, so this page does not answer it.
How this works
Where these numbers come from
Every number on this page is Apple’s, fetched and read on 2026-09-01 rather than recalled — 100 internal testers and 10,000 external, 30 devices per tester, a 90-day testing window per build, 100 shareable builds, 6 review submissions per 24 hours, and a public-link tester limit between 1 and 10,000. Sources: TestFlight, TestFlight overview, Invite external testers, Provide test information, TestFlight tester information, Testing subscriptions and In-App Purchases and the App Review Guidelines.
What this page will not tell you
Where Apple documents nothing, nothing is shipped: there is no maximum group count here, no character cap on any test-information field, and no recommended number of testers. This page also makes no claim that running a beta improves your rating, your ranking or your launch — nobody publishes that, and it would be an invention. It cannot see your App Store Connect account either, so the ceilings above are the rules and not a live tally of what you have already used, and it has no view of tester counts, crashes or the feedback testers send you.
Where your plan is kept
Your plan is stored in this browser only. Nothing is uploaded, and this page makes no network requests of any kind.
About this tool
How do you plan a TestFlight beta against Apple’s real limits?
A beta is the only audience you have before the App Store gives you one — the people who hit the crash, read the onboarding cold and use the app on a phone that is not yours. TestFlight is how Apple lets you reach them, and almost every limit that shapes a beta is published: how many testers, of which kind, for how long a build stays installable, and what App Review gates.
This page lays a beta out as a worksheet. Plan your tester groups, check the totals against Apple’s ceilings, see when the build under test goes dark, and fill in the test information App Store Connect asks for before a beta can go to anyone outside your team. Every number on it was read from Apple’s own pages, and where Apple publishes nothing, nothing is shown.
How it works
- 1Add tester groups. Internal groups are members of your own team holding the Account Holder, Admin, App Manager, Developer or Marketing role in App Store Connect; external groups are everyone else. Apple requires an internal group to exist before you can create an external one.
- 2Enter how many distinct people each group is for. The totals are checked against Apple’s ceilings — 100 internal testers and 10,000 external testers per app. A tester can belong to more than one group, so if your groups share people the real headcount is lower.
- 3Mark any external group you intend to invite with a public link, and optionally cap it. App Store Connect accepts a link limit between 1 and 10,000, and public-link testers arrive anonymously — Apple states their name and email are not visible to you.
- 4Enter the date the build was uploaded. The countdown reads Apple’s 90-day window, which starts on the upload day, and names the date the build stops being installable.
- 5Fill in the test information. Fields marked required are the ones Apple’s own help calls required; the rest are asked for without being described as rules.
- 6Problems are split by who says so. Red is Apple’s — something App Store Connect will not accept as planned. Amber is ours, about practice rather than rules. Copy the plan as text or export the groups as CSV.
What it cannot tell you
- It cannot see your App Store Connect account. The ceilings here are the published rules, not a live tally of testers you have already invited or builds you have already submitted.
- Apple publishes no maximum number of beta groups, so this page does not validate one. It also publishes no character limit for the beta app description, what-to-test or beta app review contact fields — the counters are counts, not caps, and no cap was invented to fill the gap.
- There is no recommended tester count anywhere on the page. Apple documents a ceiling, not a target, and how many testers an app needs depends on the app.
- It makes no claim that running a beta improves your rating, your ranking or your launch. Nobody publishes evidence for that. What a beta demonstrably does is put the build in front of people before the store does.
- The build countdown is a planning figure. Apple does not publish the hour the window turns over, and App Store Connect shows the authoritative countdown under your app name.
- Nothing is uploaded. Nothing leaves your browser, and your plan stays there.
Questions
How many TestFlight testers can I have?
Apple documents up to 100 internal testers — members of your team holding the Account Holder, Admin, App Manager, Developer or Marketing role in App Store Connect — and up to 10,000 external testers per app. Each tester can install the beta on up to 30 of their own devices.
How long does a TestFlight build last?
Apple states a build is available to test for up to 90 days, starting from the day it is uploaded, and becomes unavailable to testers after that. Each new build gets its own 90-day window, and you can expire a build early from App Store Connect.
Does a TestFlight build need App Review?
Apple’s wording is that when you add the first build of your app to a group, the build gets sent to App Review, that a review is required only for the first build, and that subsequent builds may not require a full review. Apple also states that the beta app description and beta app review information are required in order to share your beta with external testers.
What is a TestFlight public link?
A link anyone can use to join an external testing group, created on the group in App Store Connect. You can cap how many testers join it — App Store Connect accepts a number between 1 and 10,000 — and deactivate it at any time. The trade is anonymity: Apple states that a tester who joins through a public link has their name and email hidden from you, so you cannot follow up with them individually.
Can I ask beta testers to leave an App Store review?
Trading or incentivising App Store reviews is against the App Store Review Guidelines. Guideline 2.2 also states that apps using TestFlight cannot be distributed to testers in exchange for compensation of any kind. Mechanically, Apple states that apps downloaded from TestFlight operate in a sandbox environment, so a beta install is not an App Store purchase.
Do in-app purchases cost money in a TestFlight beta?
Apple states that apps downloaded from TestFlight automatically operate in a sandbox environment, and that subscription renewals are accelerated — each subscription renews daily, up to 6 times within a 1-week period, regardless of its real duration. So a beta will exercise your purchase code, but it cannot tell you what people will actually pay.