Many of your favourite free and paid-for apps and games offer in-app purchases, which are optional transactions that change an app’s functionality or unlock digital goods, content or services. You can find out if an app offers in-app purchases by visiting its product page on the App Store. Just look for the In-App Purchases message near the Get or Price button.

There are four types of in-app purchases:

1. Consumable purchases (items are used once, are depleted and can be purchased again, such as lives or gems in a game)
2. Non-consumable purchases (premium features that are purchased once and don’t expire, such as additional game levels or photo filters)
3. Auto-renewing subscriptions (access to content or services for which you are charged on a recurring basis, such as ongoing access to video content streaming or cloud storage)
4. Non-renewing subscriptions (access to content or services for a limited time which doesn’t renew automatically, such as a season pass for streaming content)

You must enter a password or use Touch ID to make an in-app purchase. If you use a password, you can set your preferences so that a password is required for every transaction or every 15 minutes. Setting your preferences to require a password every 15 minutes lets you make additional in-app purchases for 15 minutes without re-entering your password.