Most iPad apps are iPhone apps too, and some run on the Mac as well. Your icon has to hold up on every one of those screens. I design one that does.
iPad doesn't get its own icon design. In Icon Composer, the iOS design covers both iPhone and iPad, on the same 1024 × 1024 pixel canvas. So a universal app ships one icon, and that's the one I design and test.
Apple also asks for an icon that looks the same on every platform your app supports, so people never mistake it for two different apps. One design used everywhere does exactly that.
Like iPhone, iPadOS takes square layers and applies the rounded mask itself, so highlights and edges stay crisp.
iPad apps can offer extra icons people pick in settings. Apple requires dark, clear and tinted versions of each one.
With Mac Catalyst your iPad app becomes a Mac app. Apple suggests a macOS version of the icon, and the same .icon file can hold it.
If the iPad version is moving to the Mac, read Mac app icons for the macOS shape rules. For the iPhone side, see iPhone app icons. Need the exact pixel sizes? They're all in app icon sizes.
iPadOS lets people switch their Home Screen icons to light, dark, clear or tinted. This is one of my icons in each, exported from Icon Composer.
Light
Dark
Clear
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You already have an app, a rough logo, a sketch, or a clear concept.
$199 one-time
You're starting from just an app idea or description.
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No. A universal app uses one icon on iPhone and iPad. Icon Composer has no separate iPad setting, so the same design and the same .icon file cover both.
The same as on iPhone: one 1024 × 1024 pixel square. Xcode makes the smaller sizes from it, and iPadOS rounds the corners for you.
Yes, iPadOS supports alternate icons that people choose in your app's settings. Each alternate icon needs its own dark, clear and tinted versions, and each one I design is a separate order.
Apple recommends a macOS version of the icon for apps built with Mac Catalyst. One .icon file can hold the iOS and the macOS version side by side, so you still add a single file to Xcode.
More answers in the main FAQ.