Offer codes will replace In-App Purchase promo codes in App Store Connect (cutoff: March 26, 2026)

Original announcement (source): Apple Developer News - “Enhancements to help you submit and market your apps and games” (October 29, 2025)

• https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=gf6mgrs6

What’s changing

Apple is expanding offer codes (and positioning them as the long-term replacement for “promo codes for In-App Purchases”).

The operational part that matters for teams today:

• Starting March 26, 2026, you won’t be able to create new promo codes for In-App Purchases in App Store Connect.
• Existing IAP promo codes you already created can still be redeemed until they expire.
• Apple notes you can still use promo codes for free app downloads (this change is about IAP promo codes).

In other words: if you have any workflows that rely on “generate IAP promo codes on demand”, you need to migrate them.

Why Apple wants you on offer codes

Apple’s framing is that offer codes:

• support all In-App Purchase types (not only subscriptions), and
• give you better configuration and eligibility control than legacy promo codes.

(Practically, this is Apple tightening the “discounts and freebies” tooling into one modern system that can be audited and extended.)

What to do next (store ops checklist)

1. Inventory your use-cases:

   • Support refunds/appeasement
   • Influencer/partner campaigns
   • PR / review codes
   • Win-back offers

2. Decide which use-cases should become offer codes vs which should become something else:

   • If it’s an IAP incentive, default to offer codes.
   • If it’s “access without purchase”, you might need a backend entitlement plan as well.

3. Write one rule for who can generate what, and where it gets stored:

   • “Support can generate offer codes for product X, max Y per week, logged in Zendesk/CRM.”

4. Run a dry test (end-to-end):

   • Create offer code → redeem → validate entitlement → cancel/refund path → support view.

Tiny win

If you have any human process that still says “generate an IAP promo code”, replace that sentence today with:

• the exact offer-code flow,
• the owner (Support, Growth, Partnerships), and
• a link to the internal playbook.

That one doc edit tends to prevent the first “we can’t generate codes anymore” launch-week fire.