AppForShare File Size and Upload Limits
By Nimrah Bilal · · 5 min read
AppForShare limits the size of each build you upload by plan: 50 MB without an account, 150 MB on the Free plan, 2 GB on Pro and 4 GB on Team. Accounts also have a storage total, and every plan has a monthly allowance for downloads. This page lists the exact numbers, what counts toward each one, and what to do when a build is too big.
Maximum file size per build
| Plan | Max file per build | Storage | Downloads (bandwidth) | Link life |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guest (no account) | 50 MB | Not applicable | 20 installs per link, 4 per day | 3 days |
| Free | 150 MB | 2 GB | 10 GB per month, up to 100 installs | 7 days |
| Pro ($12 a month) | 2 GB | 25 GB | 40 GB per month | While subscribed |
| Team ($39 a month) | 4 GB | 150 GB | 150 GB per month | While subscribed |
The limit applies to the file you upload. A build over the limit of your plan is refused with a message that gives your plan's limit and the next plan up. Current prices and the full feature list are on the pricing page.
Which files you can upload
AppForShare shares mobile app builds for testing. It is not a general file sharing service, so the upload box takes app builds only:
- .ipa for iOS. Link installs only work for builds signed Ad Hoc, Development or Enterprise; App Store and TestFlight builds cannot be installed from a link.
- A .zip with one .app for iOS. It becomes an .ipa on our side, and the plan's file limit applies to the .zip.
- .apk for Android.
- .aab for Android, with an account (Free and up, not guests). It is turned into one universal APK that testers install, and the .aab itself is not kept.
Storage and downloads are separate limits
Storage is the total size of the builds kept in your account: 2 GB on Free, 25 GB on Pro and 150 GB on Team. Deleting builds you no longer need frees that space once their files are removed: a deleted build can be restored for 7 days, then its file is removed for good.
Bandwidth is what your testers download, not what you upload. Uploading is free. A 50 MB build installed 20 times is about 1 GB. Bandwidth resets on the 1st of each month (UTC), also on yearly plans. On Free, at most one fifth of the monthly allowance can be used in one day. Free also has a cap of 100 installs per month, separate from bandwidth. When an account goes over its allowance, install links tell testers the owner needs more bandwidth; nothing is billed automatically. Pro and Team can add 50 GB for $10, up to 4 times a month.
Uploading big builds with the CLI
A build of several hundred megabytes or more takes a while to upload, and a dropped connection in the middle is more likely. For big builds, the AppForShare CLI is the more reliable route. It sends the file in 32 MB parts and picks up where it stopped after a dropped connection, so a 1 GB build does not start again from zero.
npx appforshare upload build/MyApp.ipa --notes "Fixes the login crash"The CLI uses an API token from Dashboard, Settings, which is part of Pro and Team. That matches the size limits: a build over 150 MB needs Pro anyway. The same upload runs from CI through the GitHub Action and the Fastlane plugin; see CI uploads.
If you use the Diawi compatible upload API on Pro or Team, note that one request there can carry at most 100 MB. Bigger builds go through the CLI, up to your plan's file limit.
For a closer look at why test builds grow and how other services handle large files, see Sharing an IPA or APK over 200 MB with testers.
When a build is too big
You have two options: make the build smaller, or move to a plan with a higher limit. AppForShare does not sell a file size add-on; the higher limit comes with Pro (2 GB) or Team (4 GB).
Ways to make a test build smaller without changing how it behaves:
- Leave debug symbols out of the package. Keep dSYM files and Android native debug symbols for your crash tool, not inside the build you share.
- Remove assets the app no longer uses. Old images, fonts and sample data add up over many releases.
- Android: ship only the CPU architectures your testers need. A universal APK carries native libraries for every architecture. An APK per architecture, such as arm64-v8a only, is often much smaller.
- Do not zip the file again. An .ipa, .apk and .aab are already compressed archives, so compressing them a second time saves almost nothing.
Each upload is a new build with its own link, so a smaller build means a faster download for every tester as well as a faster upload for you. The "what changed" view on account builds shows the size difference against the previous build of the same app.
Frequently asked questions
What is the largest file I can upload to AppForShare?
50 MB without an account, 150 MB on the Free plan, 2 GB on Pro and 4 GB on Team. The limit applies to each build you upload.
Do uploads count toward my monthly bandwidth?
No. Uploading is free. Bandwidth counts what testers download when they install your builds, and it resets on the 1st of each month (UTC).
How do I upload a build of 1 GB or more?
Use Pro (up to 2 GB) or Team (up to 4 GB) and upload with the CLI, which sends the file in parts and resumes after a dropped connection.
Can I buy a higher file size limit on the Free plan?
No. There is no file size add-on. The limit goes up with the plan: 2 GB on Pro and 4 GB on Team.
Which file types does AppForShare accept?
App builds only: .ipa or a zipped .app for iOS, and .apk or .aab for Android. An .aab needs an account and is turned into one universal APK for testers.
