App Store's hottest free apps right now: August 21, 2026
ChatGPT is still the #1 free iPhone app on August 21, 2026, the same rank as August 20. 7 Brew Coffee is the mover: it climbs from #3 to #2 during the chain's August 20-26 "Sip Your Way to 100K Points" promo, nine days after the August 12 app launch that USA Today said unlocked 60-plus secret-menu drinks. Trends MCP stored 10 apps at 08:01 UTC. New versus yesterday: Depop at #6 and Netflix Game Controller at #9.
Top trending free apps on the App Store: August 21
The August 21 free chart is AI assistants, a coffee-chain launch week, resale marketplaces and school comms. These 10 ranks come from the Trends MCP snapshot. get_growth was skipped because App Store rows are app names, not Android bundle IDs.
ChatGPT: OpenAI's assistant holds #1 for a second day. Polymarket commentary on the August 21 #2 slot treated ChatGPT as the stable productivity leader while 7 Brew and TikTok Pro traded around it.
7 Brew Coffee: The Arkansas drive-thru chain's first app, launched August 12, rises one rank. USA Today said 7 Brew had more than 800 stands in 38 states and a points event through August 26 with a 100,000-point prize.
TikTok Pro - Events: TikTok's events client slips from #2 to #3. Coverage of the June 2026 launch still describes it as a dedicated events surface, not the main TikTok app. The App Store Top Free API page documents this chart.
Vinted: Pre-loved marketplace: The resale app holds #4, unchanged from August 20. No separate August 21 product news was found; it remains a back-to-school clothes query.
ParentSquare: The K-12 family communications app stays at #5 as U.S. school years restart. No new version note dated August 21 was identified.
Depop - Buy & Sell Clothes: Etsy's Gen-Z resale app enters at #6, sitting two ranks below Vinted. The pair is a clothes-resale cluster rather than a single store launch.
VibeShort: AI Short Dramas: The AI drama client holds #7, unchanged. No widely reported trigger identified for August 21.
Threads: Meta's text app rises from #9 to #8. Yesterday's #8, X, drops off the published cut.
Netflix Game Controller: Netflix's phone-as-controller app for TV and browser games enters at #9 after version 3.13, which the Australian App Store page dated about two days before August 21.
Google Gemini: Gemini falls from #6 to #10. No separate August 21 feature drop was found; the move is a rank slide, not a new listing.
The live ranked board beyond today's top 10 is available via the Trends MCP API. Get your free API key
What changed on the App Store since yesterday
Eight names overlap. 7 Brew and TikTok Pro swap 2 and 3. Gemini loses four ranks. X and Microsoft Authenticator leave.
| Change | Details |
|---|---|
| New entrants | Depop - Buy & Sell Clothes (#6); Netflix Game Controller (#9) |
| Big movers (5+ ranks) | None (Gemini #6 to #10 is a 4-rank drop) |
| Drop-offs from August 20 top 10 | X (#8); Microsoft Authenticator (#10) |
What today's App Store free chart reveals
Launch-week utilities are still beating social incumbents for the slots under ChatGPT. 7 Brew at #2 is a nine-day-old app in a points contest. ParentSquare at #5 is calendar-driven school traffic. Depop joining Vinted at #4 and #6 is a resale pairing, not a viral game.
AI clients are splitting. ChatGPT stays #1 while Gemini slides to #10, a 4-rank loss in 24 hours. Threads gaining one rank as X leaves the top 10 is a small Meta/X shuffle, not a platform story on its own.
Track these trends in real time with Trends MCP
These ranks came from the Trends MCP get_top_trends API on August 21, 2026. The type string is App Store Top Free. Chart methodology sits on the App Store Top Free API page.
{
"type": "App Store Top Free",
"limit": 10
}