App Store Guideline 3.1.3(d): Person-to-Person Fitness Training

The guideline text#

Quoted verbatim from Apple's App Review Guidelines, which the page states were last updated June 8, 2026. We checked the text on October 3, 2026. Apple revises the guidelines and sometimes renumbers sub-items, so compare this against the live page before you cite it in a reply to App Review.

3.1.3(d) Person-to-Person Services: If your app enables the purchase of real-time person-to-person services between two individuals (for example tutoring students, medical consultations, real estate tours, or fitness training), you may use purchase methods other than in-app purchase to collect those payments. One-to-few and one-to-many real-time services must use in-app purchase.

Guideline 3.1.3(d) sits under 3.1.3, whose opening paragraph applies to every app in the section:

3.1.3 Other Purchase Methods: The following apps may use purchase methods other than in-app purchase. Apps in this section cannot, within the app, encourage users to use a purchasing method other than in-app purchase, except for apps on the United States storefront and as set forth in 3.1.1(a) and 3.1.3(a). Developers can send communications outside of the app to their user base about purchasing methods other than in-app purchase.

The rules next to it#

3.1.3(d) is an exception to the default in 3.1.1:

3.1.1 In-App Purchase:

If you want to unlock features or functionality within your app, (by way of example: subscriptions, in-game currencies, game levels, access to premium content, or unlocking a full version), you must use in-app purchase. Apps may not use their own mechanisms to unlock content or functionality, such as license keys, augmented reality markers, QR codes, cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency wallets, etc.

The next item, 3.1.3(e), covers things used away from the app:

3.1.3(e) Goods and Services Outside of the App: If your app enables people to purchase physical goods or services that will be consumed outside of the app, you must use purchase methods other than in-app purchase to collect those payments, such as Apple Pay or traditional credit card entry.

The two are worded differently. 3.1.3(d) says you may use other purchase methods for a live one-to-one service. 3.1.3(e) says you must use purchase methods other than in-app purchase.

What it means for a fitness app#

Apple's four examples in 3.1.3(d) include "fitness training". The wording sets three conditions:

1. Real-time. The service happens live. Recorded workouts aren't a real-time service.
2. Between two individuals. One trainer and one client. The guideline's last sentence sends one-to-few and one-to-many real-time services back to in-app purchase.
3. A purchase of the service. The exception covers collecting "those payments", meaning the payments for the person-to-person service, not everything else the app sells.

Here is how common fitness products line up against the text:

Apple's text gives no fitness example for 3.1.3(e). The in-person row is our reading of "services that will be consumed outside of the app", not an example Apple gives.

What typically triggers it in a fitness coaching app#

These come from the guideline text, not from a log of rejections.

• Small-group sessions billed as person-to-person. A live session with a trainer and three clients is one-to-few, and 3.1.3(d) says those must use in-app purchase.
• Live classes for an audience. A streamed class is one-to-many, which 3.1.3(d) also sends to in-app purchase.
• One charge that also unlocks in-app content. A payment collected outside in-app purchase for a live session that also unlocks recorded workouts or premium features. 3.1.3(d) covers payments for the real-time service; 3.1.1 says unlocking features or premium content uses in-app purchase.
• In-app prompts to pay elsewhere. Outside the United States storefront, the 3.1.3 opening paragraph says apps in this section can't encourage users within the app to use another purchasing method, except as 3.1.1(a) and 3.1.3(a) set out.

Coaching that isn't live. Plan reviews, chat check-ins and form videos a coach watches later aren't real-time, so 3.1.3(d)'s wording doesn't cover them. The guidelines don't say which rule does, and we couldn't find Apple text on it.

Checklist before you resubmit#

1. List each thing you sell and mark whether it happens live. Go through every paid item and note whether it is a real-time service. Guideline 3.1.3(d) covers only real-time person-to-person services, so anything recorded or self-serve falls outside it.
2. Count the people in each live session. A session between one trainer and one client is the two-individual case 3.1.3(d) describes. If a live session has a small group or a large audience, 3.1.3(d) says one-to-few and one-to-many real-time services must use in-app purchase.
3. Keep recorded content and app features on in-app purchase. Guideline 3.1.1 says unlocking features or functionality, including subscriptions and access to premium content, must use in-app purchase. A recorded workout library or a premium plan is not a real-time service.
4. Check in-person sessions against 3.1.3(e). If the app sells sessions that take place away from the app, 3.1.3(e) says services consumed outside the app must use purchase methods other than in-app purchase, such as Apple Pay or traditional credit card entry.
5. Review in-app wording about other payment methods. The opening paragraph of 3.1.3 says apps in this section cannot, within the app, encourage users to use a purchasing method other than in-app purchase, except on the United States storefront and as 3.1.1(a) and 3.1.3(a) set out. You can still contact your users outside the app.
6. Explain the payment model in your App Review notes. Say which items are live one-to-one sessions and how each is paid for. Apple's introduction to the Business section asks you to explain a business model that isn't obvious in the metadata and App Review notes.

Related#

• All of Apple's health-data rules are summarized in the App Store health data rules overview.
• For the product side of a coaching app, see how to build an AI fitness coaching app.
• Other App Review guidelines that workout apps run into: 2.5.4 background services and 2.5.11 SiriKit and Shortcuts.

A note on limits#

Everything on this page comes from the guideline text. The guidelines don't define one-to-few, and we couldn't find Apple text on where a session stops being between two individuals. Storefront rules and entitlements also differ by region. This page is general guidance, not legal advice.