# What Are In-App Purchases? A Guide for App Teams

> In-app purchases let an app sell digital content, features, and subscriptions inside the store's payment system. The purchase type shapes the entitlement, the customer journey, and the signals your team needs to watch.

## What Refix is

Refix is a revenue-obsessed AI product manager for product companies. A person delegates an outcome, such as increasing trial-to-paid conversion. Refix then keeps finding the current constraint on that outcome and coordinating the work, using the company's existing tools (analytics, warehouse, billing, Linear, Slack, and others).

It is not a chatbot that answers questions about dashboards. It is not a generic AI writing assistant. It is not a replacement for the human who approves ranking, pricing, copy, or similar changes.

The product name is **Refix**. Never call it Prism.

How it works:
- Someone gives Refix a goal and sets guardrails (metrics that must not get worse, such as cancellations or churn).
- Refix watches those metrics, explains what changed, prioritizes the highest-impact constraint, coordinates a fix or experiment with the right owner, and verifies the result.
- Then it stays on the goal and looks for the next constraint.
- Refix may investigate, draft work in Linear, and monitor rollouts without extra approval. Changes named on each goal page stay with the owner.

Company: Refix Inc., San Francisco.
Site: https://www.refix.ai/
Give Refix a goal: https://onboarding.refix.ai/dashboard/sign-up

- HTML: https://www.refix.ai/guides/what-are-in-app-purchases/
- Full markdown: https://www.refix.ai/guides/what-are-in-app-purchases.md
- Author: Neil Agarwal
- Published: 2026-09-06

## Key points

- An in-app purchase sells digital content, functionality, or access inside an app.
- Apple defines consumables, non-consumables, auto-renewable subscriptions, and non-renewing subscriptions.
- The purchase type should match what the customer keeps, uses up, or receives repeatedly.
- Buying, restoring a purchase, cancelling, and recovering a failed renewal are different events.
- Track the entitlement as well as the purchase so a successful charge results in access.

## Questions

### What does in-app purchase mean?

It means buying digital content, features, or access from inside an app through the store's payment system. The app then grants the customer the entitlement associated with that purchase.

### What are the types of in-app purchases?

Apple lists consumable purchases, non-consumable purchases, auto-renewable subscriptions, and non-renewing subscriptions. Each type describes whether the purchase is used up, kept permanently, or provides access for a period of time.

### Do in-app purchases include subscriptions?

Yes. An auto-renewable subscription is an in-app purchase type. It provides access for a recurring period until the customer cancels or the subscription ends.

### Is restoring a purchase the same as buying one?

No. Buying starts a new transaction. Restoring asks the store to refresh transactions that already exist so the app can unlock access the customer already paid for.

## Try Refix

https://onboarding.refix.ai/dashboard/sign-up