How Long Does App Review Take? (2026 Data)

Apple states that 90% of App Store submissions are reviewed in less than 24 hours. In practice, tracked submissions across 2026 have averaged between roughly 6 and 15 hours waiting in the queue, plus about another one to two hours actually in review. Google Play publishes no target at all, and says some accounts may take up to seven days or longer. Below: what the real numbers look like, why they swing so widely, and what actually changes your wait.

Data verified October 2026. We re-check this page monthly — see the sources note at the end.

 

What Apple actually promises

Apple makes exactly one quantified commitment about review time: on average, 90% of submissions are reviewed in less than 24 hours. That is the whole of it. Apple does not publish an average in hours, does not publish a median, and does not publish separate figures for new apps versus updates.

This matters because almost every article on this topic quotes a precise hour figure and implies Apple is the source. None of those numbers come from Apple. They come from third-party trackers that measure submissions from their own customers — useful data, but not a vendor commitment, and not a representative sample of all developers.

The most-cited public dataset is Runway's App Store review-times tracker, which reports a truncated mean of review times encountered by teams using its product. As of its September 26, 2026 update, the current figures were roughly 7 hours 2 minutes waiting for review and about 2 hours 21 minutes actually in review.

The monthly spread is the interesting part, because it undercuts the whole idea of a single number. Across 2026 the waiting-for-review average moved like this:

Month (2026)	Average wait for review
February	14h 35m
March	10h 20m
April	8h 45m
May	13h 59m
June	6h 04m
July	12h 41m
August	10h 26m
September	7h 02m

That is more than a twofold swing between the fastest and slowest months of the same year — June at
6h 04m, May at 13h 59m. The tracker also restates past months as its data settles: June read 6h 08m
when we first published this page and 6h 04m now; July went the other way, from 9h 09m to 12h 41m;
and August came down from 14h 24m to 10h 26m. Any article quoting one figure as "the" review time is
describing a single month, on a single day, and calling it a rule.

February and March are from the tracker's July 24, 2026 snapshot; they have since rolled out of its reporting window. Later months reflect the tracker's September 26 figures, which restate earlier months as more submissions settle.

Treat these as a range, not a promise.

Two caveats worth stating plainly, because the sources of this data do not always state them. The sample is self-selected — it reflects teams using one release-management tool, which skews toward established developers shipping updates rather than first-time submitters. And the sample size is not disclosed. So read the numbers as a directional signal from experienced teams, not as your expected wait.

 

"Waiting for Review" and "In Review" are different things

If you are watching a status and wondering what is happening, this is the single most useful thing to understand: your submission passes through two separate states, and almost all of the elapsed time is the first one.

Phase	Typical duration (September 2026)	What is happening
Build processing	~22m	App Store Connect processes your uploaded build before you can submit it
Waiting for Review	~7h 02m	Queued. Nobody has looked at it yet
In Review	~2h 21m	Actually being reviewed
TestFlight: waiting for beta review	~8h 32m	First external-tester build queued for Beta App Review
TestFlight: in beta review	~1h 39m	Beta build being reviewed

Build processing has roughly halved since July (about 1h 06m then, about 29 minutes now), while the queue itself got longer — which is the pattern to expect: Apple's own processing is fast; the wait is the queue

So an app sitting in "Waiting for Review" for ten hours is not being scrutinised — it is in a queue. As of its September 26, 2026 update, the current figures were roughly 7 hours 2 minutes waiting for review and about 2 hours 21 minutes actually in review. This is also why "my app has been in review for three days" is a different and more concerning signal than "waiting for review for three days".

Note the TestFlight line if you plan external testing: your first build sent to an external group goes through Beta App Review, and that queue has been running longer than the App Store queue. Build that into your timeline rather than discovering it the day before a launch.

The same tracked data broken down by day of week shows a consistent and fairly large effect:

Day submitted	Average wait for review
Wednesday	6h 04m
Thursday	8h 29m
Saturday	9h 24m
Sunday	10h 01m
Friday	10h 54m
Monday	13h 56m
Tuesday	13h 59m

Fastest: Wednesday (unchanged). Slowest: Monday (was Sunday).

Wednesday is still the fastest day to submit, at 6h 42m. The slowest has changed: in July it was Sunday at more than 19 hours; in the current window Sunday is among the faster days and Monday is slowest at 13h 50m. The day-of-week effect is real but it moves — check the tracker in the week you submit rather than planning around a table that is a month old.

 

What makes your review slower or faster

The averages above are dominated by experienced teams shipping updates. Your own wait depends mostly on things you control.

Factor	Effect
Completeness of the submission	The biggest one. Apple states that if your submission is incomplete, review may be delayed or fail outright
New app vs update	A first submission from a new account is generally the slowest case; established accounts shipping updates are the fastest
Missing demo account	If your app is behind a login and you did not provide working credentials, the reviewer cannot proceed
Sensitive or regulated category	Health, finance, crypto and similar categories attract additional scrutiny
Submission volume	Not in your control, but real: app releases rose sharply through 2026, which is part of why queues feel worse than they used to
Platform	Mac App Store reviews have been reported as materially slower than iOS — several days rather than several hours

Apple names one cause above all: over 40% of unresolved issues relate to Guideline 2.1, App Completeness — crashes, placeholder content, broken links and missing information. Incompleteness is not just the main reason submissions fail, it is the main reason they take longer than expected.

The slowest review is the one you have to do twice. A day in the queue is nothing next to a rejection, a fix and a resubmission. Choicely's Publish Assistant checks your app against Apple's and Google's rules before you submit — crashes, privacy details, metadata, the completeness items above. Start free →

Expedited review — what genuinely qualifies

Apple offers expedited review, and it is real, but the bar is narrower than most people assume. Two situations qualify: a critical bug in a released app, where you must include steps to reproduce it on the current version; and an app tied to a specific event, where you must give the event name, its date, and your app's connection to it.

What does not qualify: a launch deadline, a marketing date, investor or press timing, or simply being new and in a hurry. Apple assesses each request individually and promises no timeframe. And expediting changes your place in the queue — it does not soften the review standards, so an incomplete app expedited is just an app that gets rejected sooner.

The reliable way to shorten your total time to launch is not expediting. It is not needing a second round: a complete submission with a working demo account, no placeholder content and accurate privacy details avoids the rejection round trip, which costs far more than any queue. Rejections are normal rather than fatal — in 2025 over 387,000 submissions were approved after an earlier rejection — but each one restarts the clock.

How long does Google Play review take?

Google publishes no target and no average. Its one quantified statement is that for certain developer accounts it will take longer to review thoroughly, which "may result in review times of up to seven days or longer in exceptional cases".

Plan for about a week on a first release rather than a day. Two Play-specific things also affect your real timeline more than the review itself: new personal accounts created after November 13, 2023 must first run a closed test with 12 testers for 14 continuous days before they can release to production — calendar time you cannot compress — and editing your store listing after submitting can restart the review. Waiting is the part you cannot control. The part you can is arriving at review with a complete, buildable app — start building yours in Choicely Studio and publish it to both stores from one place.

Why is my app stuck in "Waiting for Review"?

Usually nothing is wrong. "Waiting for Review" means queued, not under scrutiny — and the queue is where nearly all the elapsed time goes. Tracked averages in 2026 ranged from about 6 to 14 hours depending on the month, and the spread by day of week was just as wide — from about 6 hours on Wednesdays to about 14 on Mondays and Tuesdays. If it has been several days, check that your submission is complete and that any required demo account and review notes are filled in.

Does review take longer for a new app than an update?

Generally yes. Apple does not publish separate figures, but a first submission from a new account is the slowest case, and established accounts shipping updates are the fastest. Public tracked averages skew toward that second group, so treat them as a floor rather than an expectation for a first launch.

Can I get my app reviewed faster?

Apple offers expedited review for a critical bug in a released app or an app tied to a specific dated event. A launch or marketing deadline does not qualify, Apple decides case by case, and it promises no timeframe. Expediting moves your place in the queue but does not relax the review standards — so the more reliable speed-up is submitting something complete enough not to need a second round.

Is there a best day to submit?

On tracked 2026 data, yes: submissions made on Wednesday waited about 6h 04m on average, against about 13h 59m on Tuesday and 13h 56m on Monday. Midweek has stayed the faster window all year, but which day is slowest moves — it was Sunday earlier in 2026 and is now the start of the week. This is observed third-party data, not an Apple commitment, and it may change.

How long does TestFlight beta review take?

The first build you send to an external tester group goes through Beta App Review. As of the
tracker's September 26, 2026 update that queue averaged about 8h 32m waiting, plus about 1h 39m in review — now faster than the App Store queue, which it was not earlier in the year. Internal testing has no review, so use internal testers when you need a fast loop.

How long does Google Play review take?

Google publishes no target. It says review may take up to seven days or longer in exceptional cases for certain accounts. Plan for roughly a week on a first release. Note separately that new personal Play accounts must complete a 12-tester, 14-day closed test before releasing to production, which is calendar time on top of any review.

Waiting is easier when you know the submission was right the first time. Choicely builds real native iOS and Android apps free — 300 credits every month, no credit card — and the Publish Assistant checks your app against Apple's and Google's review rules before you submit, so you are not spending the queue wondering.

Sources & disclosure: Apple's official review-time statement and expedited-review criteria verified on Apple's developer documentation on October 1, 2026. Observed timing figures are from Runway's public App Store review-times tracker (data as of its September 26, 2026 update), which reports a truncated mean of submissions from teams using its product — a self-selected sample of undisclosed size, skewed toward established developers shipping updates. It is not Apple data and not a commitment. Choicely publishes this page and sells an app-publishing product, so we have a commercial interest in it. Because these numbers move, we re-verify this page monthly.