# Update mobile app content from a Google Sheet Shipping a build to fix a typo is painful, and an app-store review makes it slow. PasteSheet turns a Google Sheet into a live, cached content API your app reads on launch, so onboarding copy, home banners, promo cards, and config values all come from cells — edit one and the change reaches users without a new release. *Last updated: 2026-07-11 · Source: * ## Key facts - Every app launch that fetches content is one request, so size the plan to your installs: **2,000 requests a month on Free**, 50,000 on Starter ($9/mo), 300,000 on Pro ($19/mo) and 1,000,000 on Agency ($49/mo). - Rate limits are per plan too: **60 requests a minute on Free**, 300 on Starter, 1,000 on Pro and 5,000 on Agency. - A cached endpoint reads the sheet **once per TTL**, not once per request — so 10,000 visitors become one upstream read, and Google's quota stops being your problem. - The endpoint is **read-only by design**, so the URL is safe to ship inside a client app — a user can read your copy and config but can never write to the sheet. ## Why keep app content in a Sheet Most of what changes in a mobile app between releases is not code — it is copy. Onboarding strings, a home-screen banner, a seasonal promo, the URL a button opens, a config number you want to tune. Baking those into the binary means a build and a review every time marketing changes their mind. Move them to a Google Sheet and PasteSheet serves the whole thing as clean, typed JSON over a fast, cached endpoint. Your app fetches content on launch and renders it; non-technical teammates edit cells. It is the same idea as a [headless CMS](https://pastesheet.com/use-cases/google-sheets-cms), sized for an app instead of a website. ## What you can drive from the sheet One tab per surface, a column per field. Common things teams ship this way: - Onboarding and UI copy — pair it with [localized strings](https://pastesheet.com/use-cases/google-sheets-translations) for i18n. - Home banners, promo cards, and announcement bars with a start and end date. - Config values — support URLs, minimum version, tunable numbers. - Per-platform content, filtered with `?platform=ios` so each build sees its own rows. ## Fetch content as JSON Point your app at the endpoint and read the active items. Filter, sort, and paginate with URL parameters — no query language to learn: ```bash curl "https://pastesheet.com/your-endpoint/Content?platform=ios&active=true" { "data": [ { "key": "home_banner", "title": "Summer sale", "body": "Up to 40% off, this week only.", "cta": "Shop now", "active": true } ] } ``` ## Read-only, so it is safe to ship in the app Because the endpoint is **read-only by design**, it is safe to expose publicly or hand to a teammate: consumers can read and query the data but can never change the sheet. And there is **no Google Cloud project, OAuth screen, or service account** to set up — you paste a share URL and get a live API. ## What it costs **Free — $0/month.** For side projects and trying things out. - Endpoints: 3 - Requests: 2,000 / month - Rows per endpoint: 500 - Tabs per endpoint: 1 - Rate limit: 60 / minute **Start free.** The Free plan runs 3 live endpoints with a 5-minute cache — enough to drive an app's content. Paid plans add a custom cache TTL for faster propagation, plus private endpoints and keys when content should not be public. ## Frequently asked questions ### Do content edits skip the app store? Yes. Because your app fetches copy and config at runtime, changing a cell updates what users see without a new build or a review — as long as you are not shipping new code paths, only content. ### How do I schedule a banner? Add start and end date columns and filter or compare against them client-side, or just flip an active column. The banner appears and disappears when you edit the sheet, with no release. ### Can users edit the content through the API? No. PasteSheet is read-only by design. The endpoint only serves your content — there is no write path — so it is safe to ship the URL inside a client app. ### How do I keep iOS and Android content separate? Add a platform column and filter with ?platform=ios or ?platform=android. Each build requests only its own rows, so you can tune content per platform from one sheet. ## Sources - [Usage limits — Google Sheets API](https://developers.google.com/workspace/sheets/api/limits) — Google ## Related use cases - [Google Sheets Feature Flags & Remote Config](https://pastesheet.com/use-cases/google-sheets-feature-flags) — Ship feature flags from a Google Sheet. Toggles are served as a live, read-only JSON API your app reads on launch — no deploy, no app-store review, no backend. - [Google Sheets Translations & i18n Strings](https://pastesheet.com/use-cases/google-sheets-translations) — Manage localization from a Google Sheet with a column per locale. PasteSheet serves your i18n strings as a live, read-only JSON API — no deploy to translate. - [A No-Code Backend From a Google Sheet](https://pastesheet.com/use-cases/google-sheets-app-backend) — Skip the server. PasteSheet turns a Google Sheet into a live, read-only JSON API your web or mobile app reads from — no database, no backend, no Google setup. - [Use Google Sheets as a Free Headless CMS](https://pastesheet.com/use-cases/google-sheets-cms) — Run your website's content from a Google Sheet. PasteSheet publishes it as a live, read-only JSON API — no database, no backend, no Google Cloud setup. --- [PasteSheet](https://pastesheet.com) turns any Google Sheet into a live REST API and MCP server for AI agents — no backend, no code. Canonical HTML version of this page: