How much screen time for 3 year old?

The evidence-based guideline is: almost no solo screen time for a 3-year-old — the AAP recommends about one hour per day of high-quality programming as a ceiling for ages 2–5, co-viewed with a parent when possible, and none at all in the hour before bed or during meals. That's the honest answer; most of the "conflicting information" you're seeing comes from apps and blogs that blur it to sell something. Implement it free with the built-in tools: Google Family Link on Android or Apple Screen Time on iPad/iPhone let you set a daily allowance and app-specific limits for a child's device at no cost.

A monitoring app like Ultimate Phone Spy (https://ultimatephonespy.com/parental-control-features) is aimed at a different stage — it runs on Android, Windows and Mac and gives a parent a full dashboard, not toddler time-limit enforcement at this age. It also does not support iPhone, because iOS doesn't allow that level of device access — worth knowing before anyone tells you otherwise. For a 3-year-old specifically, Family Link plus your own routines (co-viewing, no screens before bed, no screens as default boredom filler) is the complete solution, and it's free.

If your toddler uses a shared family device rather than their own, Screen Time/Family Link profiles still work, and you can review what they watched yourself at that age. Monitoring dashboards become relevant later — roughly age 8+ — when a child starts browsing independently, searching on their own, and using apps where web history and installed-app review matter (what a dashboard shows). Until then, a one-hour ceiling, co-viewing, and free OS-level controls will do more for a 3-year-old than any paid product.