Microsoft Store listing limits for descriptions, keywords and screenshots
Every limit on a Microsoft Store listing for an MSIX app, in one place. Keep it open while you write or translate your listing.
These are the limits you'll run into most. Every one of them applies per language.
- Description: up to 10,000 characters of plain text, and the only text field you must fill in.
- What's new in this version: up to 1,500 characters.
- Keywords: up to 7, each up to 40 characters, 21 words in total.
- Product features: up to 20, each up to 200 characters.
- Screenshots: PNG, up to 50 MB, at least 1366 x 768 on desktop, up to 10 of them.
Text fields
| Field | Limit | Required |
|---|---|---|
| Description | 10,000 characters, plain text | Yes |
| What's new in this version | 1,500 characters | No, and leave it empty on a first submission |
| Product features | Up to 20 features, 200 characters each | No |
| Short description | 1,000 characters, but some views show only the first 270 | No, but recommended |
| Keywords | Up to 7 keywords, 40 characters each, 21 words in total | No |
| Additional license terms | 10,000 characters | No |
| Minimum and recommended hardware | Up to 11 items each, 200 characters per item | No |
If you leave the short description empty, the Store uses the first paragraph of your description, up to 500 characters. Microsoft recommends writing a separate one so the page doesn't repeat itself. Keep it under 270 characters, since some views cut it off there.
Keywords used to be called search terms. Customers don't see them, and the Store policies say they have to be relevant to your app. MSI and EXE apps go through a different submission API with its own rules.
Screenshots and images
| Image | Limit |
|---|---|
| Screenshots | PNG, up to 50 MB each, landscape or portrait |
| Desktop screenshot size | 1366 x 768 or larger, up to 4K (3840 x 2160) |
| How many screenshots | At least 1 in total. Up to 10 desktop, up to 8 for other device families |
| Screenshot caption | Up to 200 characters |
| 1:1 app tile icon | 300 x 300. Recommended, and it wins over the icon in your package |
| Trailers | Up to 15, 1920 x 1080, no larger than 2 GB, with a 1920 x 1080 PNG thumbnail |
Microsoft suggests at least four screenshots per device family and asks you to keep anything important in the top two thirds, because text can be laid over the bottom third. Screenshots belong to a language, so with ten languages you upload them ten times, even when they're the same images. Trailers you've uploaded once can be picked again for another language.
Staying under the limits
- Write the English What's new well under 1,500 characters. German and French often come out longer than English, so leave room.
- Count characters, not words or bytes, and check each language on its own.
- Partner Center's CSV import keeps nothing until every error in the file is fixed, so fix over-limit fields before you import.
- Pick keywords people in each country actually search for, not a word-for-word translation.
How StoreFast keeps you under them
When you publish an update with StoreFast, What's new is counted in English and in every translation, right next to the text. A language that runs over is flagged, and StoreFast won't send notes over the limit to Microsoft, so a long German translation gets caught in the dialog instead of by Partner Center. You write the English once, and Translate all fills in every listing language in your app's own style.
The Store listing page checks descriptions, features and search terms against these same limits as you type, and you upload screenshots once for every language.
Questions
- How long can What's new be on the Microsoft Store?
- 1,500 characters in each language. Microsoft used to call the field release notes, and the submission API still calls it releaseNotes.
- How many keywords can a Microsoft Store listing have?
- Up to 7 keywords, each up to 40 characters, with no more than 21 separate words across all of them.
- Do the limits apply per language?
- Yes. A listing in eight languages has eight descriptions, each with its own 10,000 characters, and eight sets of release notes, each with its own 1,500.
- Does StoreFast check these limits?
- Yes. It checks What's new in every language before you submit, and the Store listing page checks the description, features, search terms and screenshots as you type.
Let StoreFast count the characters
Publish your next update with What's new in every language, each one checked against the limit. Try it free for 7 days, no card needed.
Sources
Facts about Microsoft's tools were checked against these pages on October 2, 2026.