App icon sizes for iOS and Android
Design once at 1024 × 1024 and derive everything else. Below: the store sizes, the adaptive icon safe zone, and the six rules that decide whether the icon still works at notification size.
1024²
App Store marketing icon
512²
Google Play listing icon
264²
Android safe zone, centred
iOS — App Store and device sizes
| Slot | Pixels | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| App Store marketing icon | 1024 × 1024 | PNG, no alpha, no rounded corners. Apple applies the mask. |
| iPhone app icon | 180 × 180 | 60 pt at @3x. Generated from the asset catalogue in modern Xcode. |
| iPad Pro app icon | 167 × 167 | 83.5 pt at @2x. |
| iPad app icon | 152 × 152 | 76 pt at @2x. |
| Settings | 87 × 87 | 29 pt at @3x. Where an icon with fine detail visibly falls apart. |
| Spotlight | 120 × 120 | 40 pt at @3x. |
| Notification | 60 × 60 | 20 pt at @3x. The real legibility test. |
Android — Play Store and adaptive icons
| Slot | Pixels | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Play Store listing icon | 512 × 512 | 32-bit PNG with alpha. Play applies its own mask and shadow. |
| Adaptive icon layers | 432 × 432 | Foreground and background layers, each full-bleed. |
| Adaptive icon safe zone | 264 × 264 centred | Everything outside this circle can be masked away by the launcher. |
| Legacy launcher icon | 192 × 192 | xxxhdpi. Only needed for very old API levels. |
| Notification icon | 96 × 96 | Monochrome silhouette with transparency, not the full-colour icon. |
Six rules that matter more than the sizes
Getting the dimensions right takes a minute. Getting an icon that survives at 40 px takes judgement.
Design at 1024, judge at 40
The icon you approve on a monitor at full size is not the icon anyone sees. Shrink it to 40 px and look again. If the shape is unreadable, no amount of gradient work will save it.
One idea, not three
A letterform, a silhouette, or an abstract mark. Icons that try to depict the whole product become mush at small sizes. If you cannot describe it in three words, it is too busy.
Never put your app name in the icon
The name already sits directly under the icon in every surface it appears in. Text inside the icon competes with itself and is illegible at notification size.
Respect the Android safe zone
Launchers mask adaptive icons into circles, squircles, rounded squares and teardrops depending on the device. Anything outside the centred 264 px circle of a 432 px canvas may simply be cut off.
No pre-baked corners or shadows on iOS
Supply a square 1024 × 1024 with no transparency, no rounded corners and no drop shadow. Apple rounds and shadows it. Baking them in produces a visible double corner.
Contrast against both wallpapers
Check the icon on a white home screen and a dark one. A dark mark on a transparent-looking background disappears on half of all devices.
Icon questions
What size should an app icon be?+
1024 × 1024 px for the App Store and 512 × 512 px for Google Play. Design once at 1024 and export down — every in-device size is derived from the same artwork, generated by Xcode's asset catalogue on iOS and by the adaptive icon layers on Android.
Can an iOS app icon have transparency?+
No. The 1024 × 1024 marketing icon must be a flattened, opaque PNG with square corners. Apple applies the rounded mask itself. Uploading an icon with an alpha channel is rejected.
What is the Android adaptive icon safe zone?+
On a 432 × 432 layer, only the centred 264 × 264 circle is guaranteed to be visible. Launchers apply their own mask shape, so any logo detail outside that circle can be cropped on some devices and not others.
Does the icon affect App Store ranking?+
Not directly — it is not indexed text. It affects tap-through from search results, which affects installs, which is a ranking input. In practice the icon and the first screenshot are the two assets doing the most work in a search result.
Does this tool generate app icons?+
No. App Mockup Generator AI produces store screenshot artwork — device-framed listing graphics — rather than icons. This page is here because an icon and a gallery are usually decided in the same afternoon.
The other half of a store listing — the gallery itself — is covered in screenshot sizes & safe zones and the screenshot ASO guide.