App Icon Sizes & Requirements for iOS and Android (2026)

Your app icon is the first thing anyone sees — in search results, on the store listing, and on the home screen forever after. Get the size wrong and the upload gets rejected; get the design wrong and your download rate suffers before anyone reads a word of your description. This guide covers the exact app icon size and requirements for both the Apple App Store and Google Play in 2026, plus the format traps that quietly cause rejections.

Here's the direct answer: supply a 1024×1024 PNG with no transparency for iOS, and a 512×512 PNG for Google Play. Each store generates every smaller size from that one master file, so you don't hand-cut a dozen versions anymore. The rest of this post covers the rules around those numbers.

What size should an app icon be?

You only need to produce one high-resolution icon per store. Both platforms downscale it to every size the device needs.

Platform	Upload size	Format	Transparency	Where it's shown
Apple App Store	1024×1024	PNG	Not allowed	App Store listing, home screen, settings
Google Play	512×512	PNG (32-bit)	Allowed, but masked	Play Store listing, home screen

Design at 1024×1024 either way — it's the larger canvas, and exporting a 512×512 copy for Play from the same artwork keeps both icons identical. Working smaller and scaling up introduces blur, so always start big.

iOS app icon requirements

Apple keeps its icon rules strict, and the App Store will reject a build over any of them:

1024×1024 pixels, exactly square.
PNG format, RGB color space (not CMYK).
No transparency / no alpha channel. This is the single most common cause of a rejected or blank icon. The background must be fully opaque.
No rounded corners. Ship a flat square; iOS applies its own rounded-rectangle mask. Rounding the corners yourself leaves ugly gaps.
No drop shadow or added gloss — the system handles visual treatment.
Full-bleed artwork: fill the whole square, since iOS masks the edges anyway.

If you build with Adalo, this same 1024×1024 no-transparency PNG goes in App Settings, and it's baked into the build at compile time — see our Adalo publishing guide for where it slots into the flow.

Google Play (Android) app icon requirements

Google is a little more forgiving on format but stricter about safe zones:

512×512 pixels, square, 32-bit PNG.
Transparency is allowed, but Play displays the icon inside a masked shape (a circle, squircle, or rounded square depending on the device), so keep your logo and any text well inside the center.
Maximum file size of 1 MB.
No promotional badges, price tags, or "new" flags baked into the icon — Google rejects these.

Because Android device makers apply different mask shapes, the practical rule is: keep critical detail in the center ~66% of the canvas and treat the outer ring as expendable.

Google also supports adaptive icons on the device itself — a separate foreground and background layer that lets the launcher animate and mask the icon. For store purposes you still upload the single 512×512 PNG; adaptive layers are handled inside your app's build, not in the Play Console listing. Most no-code platforms generate the device icon from the same source artwork you supply, so you rarely touch adaptive layers by hand.

Do the two icons need to match?

They don't have to be pixel-identical, but they should be visually the same icon. A user who finds you on both stores, or switches phones, should recognize the same brand mark. Design one master artwork at 1024×1024, then export the 512×512 Play version from it — that keeps color, shape, and proportion consistent across platforms with zero extra design work.

Common app icon mistakes that get rejected

These are the snags that cost makers a rebuild cycle. Check each before you upload.

Mistake	Why it fails	Fix
Transparency on the iOS icon	Apple bans the alpha channel	Flatten onto a solid background, re-export as opaque PNG
Rounded corners baked in	OS adds its own mask, leaving gaps	Export a flat square
Icon uploaded after the build	Old builds don't include the new icon	Re-upload, then regenerate the build
Tiny detail or long text	Illegible at small sizes	Simplify to one strong shape or letterform
CMYK color	Renders wrong or gets rejected	Convert to RGB before export
Detail near Android edges	Cut off by the display mask	Center the artwork, pad the edges

Design principles for an icon that earns taps

Meeting the size spec gets you accepted; good design gets you downloaded. A few principles that consistently work at store-thumbnail scale:

One focal element. A single symbol, letterform, or shape reads far better at 40 pixels than a detailed scene. If you can't tell what it is squinting from arm's length, simplify.
Bold, high-contrast color. Icons compete on a crowded grid. A confident background color helps you stand out — just avoid the same generic gradients as everyone in your category.
No text, or one letter. Full words are unreadable at thumbnail size. Your app name already sits right beside the icon on the store.
Consistency with your screenshots. Your icon, your store screenshots, and your feature graphic should share a color palette and style so the listing feels like one product.
Test at real size. Shrink your icon to 60×60 and 40×40 and look at it on an actual phone. Most icons that look great in a design tool fall apart at that scale.
Avoid category clichés. If every app in your niche uses the same blue-checkmark or chat-bubble motif, copying it makes you invisible. A distinctive shape or color is worth more than a "professional-looking" but generic one.
Leave breathing room. Don't push your artwork to the very edge of the square. A little padding keeps the mark from feeling cramped once the OS applies its rounded mask.

How to create your app icon without a designer

If you don't have a designer, you have a few realistic options: design it yourself in a vector tool and export the two PNGs, commission a one-off icon, or generate one. Whatever route you take, the deliverable is the same — a flat, square, high-contrast PNG at 1024×1024 (iOS) and 512×512 (Play).

The icon lives in the same visual family as the rest of your store assets, which is why it's worth building it alongside your screenshots rather than in isolation. Adalo Studio's screenshot generator is built for exactly this kind of store-asset work — device frames, backgrounds, text, and shapes on a free-form canvas — so you can keep your icon, screenshots, and graphics visually consistent and export everything at the right sizes. For the complete set of store image dimensions in one place, bookmark the app store screenshot sizes reference, the pillar for all of our sizing guides.

Quick reference: app icon sizes

Apple App Store: 1024×1024 PNG, RGB, no transparency, no rounded corners, no shadow.
Google Play: 512×512 32-bit PNG, transparency allowed but center your artwork for the display mask, max 1 MB.
Design once at 1024×1024 and export a 512×512 copy for Play.
Upload before you build (for no-code platforms that bake the icon in), and re-upload if you change it.

Nail the size and format and the store accepts your icon on the first try; nail the design and it earns taps for the life of the app.

Frequently asked questions

What size should an app icon be?

For the Apple App Store, upload a 1024×1024 pixel PNG with no transparency. For Google Play, upload a 512×512 pixel PNG. Both stores generate all the smaller device sizes from that single high-resolution source, so you only supply one file per platform.

Can an app icon have transparency?

No for iOS — the App Store rejects icons with an alpha channel or transparency, so your 1024×1024 PNG must have a solid, fully opaque background. Google Play's 512×512 icon does allow transparency, but it displays inside a masked shape, so keep important detail away from the edges and corners.

What format should my app icon be?

Both stores require PNG. Use RGB color (not CMYK), a flat square with no rounded corners of your own, and no drop shadow — the operating system applies the rounded mask and any effects automatically. Design at the largest size, 1024×1024, and let the store downscale.

Tools mentioned in this guide: App Store Screenshot Generator, App Privacy Policy Generator.