What does the keyword checker look at?
Your keyword field, word by word, against the rules in Apple's search guide and product page guide. Each keyword shows up green if it stays and struck through if it goes, with the reason.
It removes:
- Spaces after commas. Apple asks for keywords separated by commas, with no spaces. Each space costs a byte.
- A keyword twice. Only the first one stays.
- Words already in your name or subtitle. Your app is already searchable by its name, and the subtitle is searched too. A phrase stays unless every word in it is covered.
- Plurals of a word you already have. Apple treats plurals as duplicates.
- The word "app". Apple suggests leaving it out.
- Keywords of two characters or fewer. App Store Connect asks for keywords longer than two characters.
It flags, without removing:
- Category names. Apple says to leave out your category's name, since the app is already listed in it. The checker can't see which category you picked, so it asks.
- Special characters such as # or @. Apple says they carry no extra weight in search unless they're part of your brand.
It never adds a keyword and never rewrites one.
Why 100 bytes and not 100 characters?
App Store Connect Help says the field takes up to 100 bytes, while the search guide says 100 characters. For plain English letters they're the same. An accented letter like é is two bytes, most Chinese and Japanese characters are three, and many emoji are four. The checker counts bytes, so if your field fits here, it fits in App Store Connect.
A worked example
A made-up habit app called "Pebble: Daily Habit Tracker", with the subtitle "Build streaks you keep", has this keyword field:
habit tracker, habits, daily, routine, streak, streaks, app, planner
That's 68 bytes. The checker keeps routine,planner, 15 bytes. "habit tracker" and "daily" are in the name, "streaks" is in the subtitle, "habits" and "streak" are the plural and singular of words already there, and "app" goes on Apple's advice. That frees 85 bytes for words people might search that aren't on the page yet.
What can't it tell you?
- Which keywords people search. Apple doesn't publish search volume, and we won't guess.
- Trademarks and competitor names. Apple says not to use them, and improper keywords are a common reason for rejection. Only you can check those.
- Your other languages. Each App Store localization has its own keyword field, checked on its own.
The rules here come from Apple's App Store Connect Help, search guide and product page guide, checked October 16, 2026. To count every other field too, use the character counter.