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If I purchase an app for my iPhone can I download it for free on my iPad?

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3 Answers

up vote 15 down vote accepted

Yes. Purchases are tied to your iTunes Account, not to the device.

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8  
To contribute: It may be worth the money to purchase iPad specific apps (usually termed HD) or look for Universal apps so that you don't have to fuss with the scaling up of iPod/iPhone apps on your iPad. – Ryan Wersal Jan 1 '11 at 16:39

Yes, the app will be available for both if compatible. However, note that:

  • classic iPhone apps don't look very well on the iPad
  • "plus" applications look well on both the iPad and the iPhone
  • HD applications only work on the iPad

So basically:

  • some vendors are nice and provide "plus" apps that look good on both platforms (e.g. Smurfs' village)
  • some other vendors are not so nice and force you to buy both the iPhone and iPad version (e.g. Angry Birds)
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iTunes purchases are tied to your account. The current policy (January 2011) is that you can download apps for free once you've downloaded them the first time. Music and movies do not have this courtesy.

That said, if you purchase an app with your iTunes account on your iPod, you can log into that account on your computer, iPhone, or iPad and download it again.

Good luck!

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You can download music and movies multiple times. support.apple.com/kb/HT2519?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US – rwr Sep 18 '12 at 11:47

protected by bmike Apr 8 at 1:47

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