Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) is permitted to enter a maximum of six competitors, three per gender.
All other NOCs may earn a maximum of one quota place per gender for the individual events.
[1] Six places are reserved for Brazil as the host nation, and a further six will be decided by the Tripartite Commission.
To be eligible to participate in the Olympic Games after the NOC has obtained a quota place, all archers must have achieved the following minimum qualification score (MQS): The MQS must have been achieved between 26 July 2015 (starting at the 2015 World Archery Championships) and 11 July 2016 at a registered World Archery event.
Those spots taken by Indonesia and Malaysia later won team places in the team recurve at the Antalya leg of the Archery World Cup, releasing two further individual quota places to be awarded in the same meet.