Apple’s Media Services Terms and Conditions run 8,345 words as of 2026, a 34.8-minute read at a standard 240-words-per-minute pace, based on a direct word count of the agreement Apple currently publishes (Apple states the text was last updated September 15, 2025). That is roughly 1,000 words longer than Visual Capitalist measured in 2020.
The length has moved a lot over the years, and Apple is not consistent about which of its documents stays short. Below is the current word count, how it compares to other major tech platforms and to Apple’s own developer agreement, and how the length has changed since 2012.
How long is Apple’s terms and conditions right now?
Apple’s Media Services Terms and Conditions, the consumer-facing agreement covering the App Store, Apple Music, iCloud purchases, Apple Arcade, and other Apple services, runs 8,345 words as of July 2026. That figure comes from a direct word count of the document Apple currently publishes at its own legal terms page, which Apple states was last updated on September 15, 2025. At a 240-words-per-minute reading pace, the same pace Visual Capitalist used in its 2020 cross-company comparison, that works out to a 34.8-minute read.
This is the single agreement most iPhone, Mac, and Apple TV owners accept without a second document to sign. It covers payments, refunds, account rules, content licensing, and liability, all inside one 8,345-word document that almost nobody scrolls to the bottom of.
Figure 1: Terms of service length across major tech companies. Source: Visual Capitalist, “Visualizing the Length of the Fine Print, for 14 Popular Apps,” 2020 data.
Apple’s 2020 figure of 7,314 words already put it in the middle of that pack. Six years later, the document is longer still.
How has the length of Apple’s terms and conditions changed since 2012?
Apple’s terms and conditions have not moved in one direction. A 2012 Metro analysis measured Apple’s iTunes terms and conditions at 19,972 words, longer than Shakespeare’s Macbeth at 18,110 words in the same comparison, and noted that Apple’s separate iCloud terms added another 10,724 words on top. By 2015, the document had grown further, to 20,669 words, according to The Guardian’s 2017 profile of artist Robert Sikoryak, who adapted the full text word-for-word into a graphic novel.
Apple then cut the document sharply. Visual Capitalist’s 2020 measurement put the same agreement at 7,314 words, a reduction of roughly 65% from the 2015 figure. Since then it has grown back, reaching 8,345 words as of 2026, a gain of about 1,031 words, or 14.1%, over the 2020 measurement.
Figure 2: Length of Apple’s Media Services / iTunes terms and conditions over time. Sources: Metro (2012), The Guardian (2017, citing 2015 text), Visual Capitalist (2020), direct word count (2026).
The document is currently trending longer again, not shorter, which matters if you are trying to predict where it lands next year rather than just where it sits today.
How does Apple’s terms and conditions compare to other tech companies?
Apple’s 8,345-word 2026 document does not have a same-year peer group to sit inside, since the fullest available cross-company comparison is Visual Capitalist’s 2020 dataset. Using that 2020 snapshot, Apple’s terms and conditions ranked 5th-longest of the 21 agreements measured, behind Microsoft, Spotify, Niantic, and TikTok, and ahead of Zoom, Tinder, Slack, Uber, Twitter, and Instagram. For the fuller ranked list spanning both individual companies and industry averages, see our roundup of the longest terms and conditions.
| Company | Word count | Reading time (240 wpm) | Data year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft | 15,260 | 63.5 min | 2020 |
| Spotify | 8,600 | 35.8 min | 2020 |
| Niantic (Pokemon GO) | 8,466 | 35.2 min | 2020 |
| Apple (Media Services) | 8,345 | 34.8 min | 2026 |
| TikTok | 7,459 | 31.4 min | 2020 |
| 2,451 | 9.7 min | 2020 |
Source: Visual Capitalist, 2020 data, with Apple’s 2026 figure added from a direct word count for comparison; treat the mixed years as directional, not a same-year ranking.
Slotted directly into the 2020 comparison for scale, Apple’s current 8,345-word document would sit between Niantic and Spotify, ahead of where it ranked in 2020. That placement is approximate, since the other companies’ documents may also have changed since 2020 and have not been remeasured here.
How long is Apple’s Developer Program License Agreement?
Apple’s consumer terms are not its longest document. The Apple Developer Program License Agreement, the contract every developer signs to publish apps on the App Store, runs about 76,000 words with 133 defined terms, according to a 2025 legal analysis by the UK law firm Freeths. That is roughly 9.1 times the length of the 8,345-word Media Services Terms and Conditions that consumers accept.
| Document | Audience | Word count | Reading time (240 wpm) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Developer Program License Agreement | App developers | ~76,000 | ~5.3 hours |
| Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions | Consumers | 8,345 | 34.8 min |
Sources: Freeths (2025); direct word count (2026).
The gap makes sense given the audience. A document consumers accept once, in exchange for buying songs and apps, gets a fraction of the legal detail given to a contract that governs how a company can distribute software to hundreds of millions of devices.
Figure 3: Which Apple agreement governs a given use case. Sources: Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions (2026); Freeths, Apple Developer Program License Agreement analysis (2025).
If you only ever buy from the App Store, you are bound by the shorter of the two documents. Anyone shipping an app answers to the much longer one.
Does anyone actually read a document this long?
Almost no one, based on the closest available survey data. Pew Research Center’s 2019 survey of 4,272 US adults found only 9% say they always read a privacy policy or terms and conditions before agreeing, with 36% saying they never do. That survey was not run against Apple’s document specifically, but it is the best available measure of how people treat agreements of this kind generally, and our full breakdown of terms and conditions reading habits covers the behavioral data in more depth.
Figure 4: Self-reported reading frequency among US adults. Source: Pew Research Center, 2019, n=4,272.
Separate observed-behavior research by Obar and Oeldorf-Hirsch (2020, n=543) found participants spent an average of just 51 seconds on a fictitious social network’s terms of service, regardless of how long the document actually was. That study did not measure Apple’s document either, but if the same pattern holds generally, most people spend under 3% of the 34.8 minutes Apple’s current terms require.
Figure 5: Milestones in measuring the length of Apple’s legal agreements. Sources: Metro (2012), The Guardian (2017), Visual Capitalist (2020), Freeths (2025), direct word count (2026).
The reading gap is not unique to Apple, but Apple’s document is long enough, at 34.8 minutes, that even a motivated reader would need to set aside real time to get through it.
The Bottom Line
The number worth remembering is 8,345. That is how many words Apple’s Media Services Terms and Conditions run as of 2026, a 34.8-minute document that governs how hundreds of millions of people buy apps, music, and subscriptions. The length has not moved in one direction: it fell from over 20,000 words in 2015 to 7,314 in 2020, then grew back by about 1,000 words since. If you are drafting terms and conditions for your own product, Apple’s history is a useful reminder that document length is a choice you can revisit, not a one-time decision. A terms and conditions generator that keeps your clauses organized makes it easier to trim or update your own document as your service changes, rather than letting it grow the way Apple’s has.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many words are in Apple’s terms and conditions? Apple’s Media Services Terms and Conditions run 8,345 words as of 2026, based on a direct word count of the agreement Apple currently publishes, last updated by Apple on September 15, 2025. At a 240-words-per-minute reading pace, that is a 34.8-minute read.
How long does it take to read Apple’s terms and conditions? About 34.8 minutes at a 240-words-per-minute reading pace, based on the 8,345-word 2026 document. Visual Capitalist measured the same document at 7,314 words in 2020, a 30.5-minute read, so the document has grown by roughly 1,000 words in six years.
Is Apple’s Developer Program License Agreement longer than its terms and conditions? Yes, by a wide margin. The Apple Developer Program License Agreement runs about 76,000 words with 133 defined terms, according to a 2025 Freeths legal analysis, roughly 9.1 times longer than the 8,345-word consumer Media Services agreement.
Has Apple’s terms and conditions gotten shorter over time? Yes, sharply, at least once. A 2012 Metro analysis measured Apple’s iTunes terms and conditions at 19,972 words, longer than Shakespeare’s Macbeth at 18,110 words. By 2020, Visual Capitalist measured the same document at 7,314 words, a cut of roughly 65%, and it has grown back to 8,345 words as of 2026.
Sources and References
- Apple. Media Services Terms and Conditions, as published, stated last updated September 15, 2025. Word count of 8,345 conducted directly against the live document by TermsAndConditionsTemplate, captured July 2026.
- Visual Capitalist. (2020). “Visualizing the Length of the Fine Print, for 14 Popular Apps.” Data drawn from Dima Yarovinsky’s “I Agree” project, 21 agreements measured.
- Metro (UK). (2012). “Terms and conditions on websites can be longer than a Shakespeare play.”
- The Guardian. (2017). “Terms and Conditions: iTunes’ T&Cs turned into a graphic novel.” Cites the 20,669-word iTunes terms published in 2015.
- Freeths. (2025). “Decoding the Apple Developer Program License Agreement: One More Thing… and 76,000 Words.”
- Pew Research Center. (2019). “Americans’ Attitudes and Experiences with Privacy Policies and Laws.” American Trends Panel survey, n=4,272 US adults.
Note: All figures verified as of July 2026. The 8,345-word Apple figure reflects a direct measurement of the live document and will change whenever Apple next revises the text, so it is scheduled for a refresh at least twice a year alongside the other headline figures in this article.
