Organize your iPhone apps into handy, space-saving collections using folders. Put all music apps together or all social networking apps in the same place and they’re easier to find when you need them. But putting apps into folders leads to a question: how many apps and folders can you have an iPhone at one time?

The answer depends on what version of the iOS you’re running and what model you have.

Maximum Number of Folder, Pages, and Apps on the iPhone

The total number of folders and apps an iPhone can have depends on the model, its screen size, and the version of the iOS it’s running. Here’s an easy to understand breakdown.

Technically, it’s possible to install more apps than can be displayed on your iPhone, but with modern iPhones showing up to almost 50,000 apps, that scenario is pretty unlikely. Read on for more detail about why these are the limits.

The Total Number of Folders on an iPhone

On iOS 7 and newer versions, the upper limit on the numbers of apps and folders is much higher than on earlier versions. They’re so high that it seems like there are no limits. But according to some users, there are.

The total number of folders you can have on your iPhone depends on the size of your iPhone’s screen. Not surprisingly, an iPhone with a 5.5-inch screen like the iPhone 6S Plus can show more folders on a single screen than the 3.5-inch iPhone 4S.

Models with 3.5-inch screens can display up to 16 folders per page. Four-inch screens like on the iPhone 5 can have 20 folders on a home screen page. Despite having different screen sizes, the iPhone 6/6S or the 6/6S Plus both accommodate 24 folders. 

If you take the maximum number of pages of folders for each model and multiply that by the number of folders each device can support, you get the following totals:

  • 3.5-inch iPhone: 176 folders (11 pages x 16 folders per page)4-inch iPhone: 300 folders (15 pages x 20 folders per page)4.7-inch, 5.5-inch, 5.8-inch, 6.1-inch, & 6.5-inch iPhone: 360 folders (15 pages x 24 folders per page).

Since the dock on every iPhone can also hold up to 4 folders, add 4 to each number above to get the true total.

The Total Number of Apps on an iPhone

Folders on iOS 7 and up allow you to add apps to “pages,” or new screens, the same way you do with home screens. When you add a 10th app to a folder, a second page is created — nine apps on the first page, one on the second. After that, new apps are added to the second page, then the third when there are 19 apps, etc. 

Folders are limited to 15 pages on iOS 7 and up (according to some users; Apple hasn’t made an official statement about this) and to 11 pages on earlier versions. Since you can put 9 apps on a page, and you can have 15 pages in a folder, the upper limit in iOS 7 and up is 135 apps in a single folder (15 pages x 9 apps per page).

Earlier versions of the iOS can hold fewer apps per folder, as shown in the table above.

Finding out how many apps an iPhone can hold is simple math, with different screen sizes leading to different limits:

  • 3.5-inch iPhone: 2,112 apps (176 folders x 12 apps per folder)4-inch iPhone w/iOS 6: 3,520 apps (220 folders x 16 apps per folder)4-inch iPhone w/iOS 7: 40,500 apps (300 folders x 135 apps per folder)4.7-inch, 5.5-inch, 5.8-inch, 6.1-inch, & 6.5-inch iPhone: 48,600 apps (360 folders x 135 apps per folder).

But wait! There’s one more place you can store folders: the dock at the bottom of the screen also includes 4 slots for folders, which adds more possible apps.

So, the absolute total number of apps that an iPhone can hold is:

  • 3.5-inch iPhone: 2,160 apps4-inch iPhone w/iOS 6: 3,584 apps 4-inch iPhone w/iOS 7: 41,040 apps 4.7-inch, 5.5-inch, 5.8-inch, 6.1-inch, & 6.5-inch iPhone: 49,140 apps.

If you’ve got an iPad running iOS 9, the number is actually higher still. Because iOS 9 lets you store an extra 105 apps per folder, for a total of 240 apps per folder.

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