If your app was rejected under Guideline 2.3.7 (Accurate Metadata) and nothing in the build changed, look for a price word in your metadata first. One of our apps was rejected twice in April 2026 over the single word "Free" in its subtitle. Deleting that one word was the whole fix.
What Apple says
The guideline itself is short on examples. The current text of 2.3.7 says not to pack metadata with "pricing information, or other irrelevant phrases just to game the system", and that "Metadata such as app names, subtitles, screenshots, and previews should not include prices, terms, or descriptions that are not specific to the metadata type."
So the strictest places are the name, subtitle, screenshots and previews. In our experience "free" counts as price information there, even when it is true.
Why it happens
- It reads as a selling point, not a price. "Free photo editor" feels like a description. To review, it is a claim about price in a field that is not for price.
- It hides in other languages. After those rejections, a slow read of the listing, one language at a time, turned up more 「免费」 that nobody had noticed. Apple enforces 2.3.7 in every language it accepts metadata in, so a clean English listing proves nothing about the Chinese one.
- Search by eye misses it. You read your own subtitle as a phrase, not word by word.
Which words count
These are the patterns worth looking for before you submit, learned from those rejections:
- A currency sign or code with a number: "$0.99", "9.99 USD".
- Discounts and sales: "50% off", "price drop", "on sale", "discounted".
- The word free on its own: "free trial", "free version", "free download" all count.
- Chinese: 免费, 折扣, 特价, 优惠, 促销, 降价.
These look similar but describe the app, not its price, so they can stay: "ad-free", "gluten-free", "stress-free", "free-form", and "free storage" or "free space" in the sense of how much room is left.
How to fix it
- Delete the word, do not rephrase it. "No cost", "0 dollars" or a synonym is the same claim.
- Check every localization, name and subtitle first, then screenshots and previews (text baked into images counts), then promotional text and description.
- Say what the app does with the freed space. A subtitle is 30 characters; a concrete feature is worth more than a price claim anyway.
- Resubmit and say what you removed in your reply, field by field.
If the app has paid features, describe them in the description instead. That has its own rule; see 2.3.2: paid features in the description.
One-minute check
Paste the name, subtitle, keywords, promotional text and description for each language into our App Store metadata checker. It runs in your browser and flags the patterns above, plus length limits. Then look at your screenshot captions yourself: text inside images is the one place a paste-in check cannot see.
More release checks for indie developers are on the toolkit page. Related: 2.3.8, when the store name and the home-screen name differ.
These notes are from Obelisk Club's own submissions. Apple's wording changes; check the current App Review Guidelines and your own message.