Subscription apps

Subscriptions include policy configurations and subscription contracts.

You can create purchase options using the sellingPlanGroupCreate mutation.

A subscription includes delivery, pricing, and billing policies. This enables you to build more flexible and extensible apps that support various ways to sell and buy products.

The deliveryPolicy field defines when the order should be fulfilled, from the time that the order is created to the time that it leaves the merchant's possession. Merchants can specify the delivery interval (interval) and the interval count (intervalCount).

The pricingPolicies field defines pricing changes on a given product variant, including any shipping costs, taxes, duties, or discounts. Pricing policies enable merchants to adjust prices on subscription orders by setting adjustmentType and adjustmentValue. Pricing policies work in conjunction with price lists.

Pricing policies include the following types:

• fixed pricing policy: A single pricing policy. For example, all billing cycles can have a flat 15% discount. An initial pricing policy is applied until a defined recurring policy kicks in.

• recurring pricing policy: A follow-up pricing policy that applies if the initial pricing policy expires. For example, the first billing cycle has a 20% discount, and the subsequent recurring cycles have a 15% discount.

The billingPolicy field defines the intervals of time between the placement of an order, its fulfillment, and payment collection. Merchants can specify the billing interval (interval) and the interval count (intervalCount).

A subscription contract is the agreement between a customer and a merchant over a specific term for recurring purchases over a set or undefined period of time. Learn more about subscription contracts.

The category field represents the purchase option category that's used to filter orders by purchase option on the order page. The category field supports the following approved categories:

• SUBSCRIPTION
• PRE_ORDER
• TRY_BEFORE_YOU_BUY

If you want to offer a purchase option that isn't listed above, then set the category field to OTHER for further review by our app team.

Shopify provides the following APIs to help you build and manage subscriptions in your app:

• Selling plan APIs: Create and manage various ways to sell and buy products.

• Subscription contract APIs: Create and manage subscription agreements between a customer and merchant.

• Customer payment method APIs: Store payment methods that can be used to pay for future orders without requiring the customer to manually go through checkout.

If you already have a subscription app and need to migrate to use Subscription APIs, then refer to the Subscription API migration guide.

If your existing subscription app uses Stripe to process subscription payments, then you can import pay-as-you-go contracts directly into Shopify without the need to migrate credit cards. For more information, refer to Migrating existing subscription contracts to Shopify.

The following are known limitations for all purchase options:

• Customers can't use accelerated checkouts or local payment methods for purchase options.
• Purchase options don't support local delivery or local pickup options.
• Merchants can't use purchase options through Shopify POS.
• Merchants can't use purchase options on draft orders.
• Purchase options don't support "Buy X get Y" discounts.
• name in SellingPlan doesn't support translations for multi-language storefronts.

The following are known limitations for subscriptions:

• Customers can only use Shop Pay on some stores.
• To use subscriptions, merchants need to use the following payment gateways:
  • Shopify Payments
  • Stripe
  • PayPal Express
  • Authorize.net
• Scripts that discount subscription price or shipping rates apply to the first payment only.
• Gift cards used to pay for subscriptions only apply to the first payment.
• The Order Edits API doesn't support subscriptions.
• Apple Pay support for subscriptions is only available in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand for Visa and Mastercard.

Some subscription features are in development and will be released later this year. Below you’ll find the features on our roadmap and our estimated launch dates. These dates might change but represent our current best estimates.

Any existing installs can continue to use your app at this time. All new installs, apps, and opportunities should use the new Subscription APIs. We'll continue to release more features and support for subscriptions over the coming months, as outlined above and going forward.

For more information on subscriptions, refer to our Partner Blog post, where we give some background information on why we built this feature.

We are always looking for feedback on our APIs. If you have any specific questions, concerns, or feedback on the Subscription APIs, then visit our Subscriptions API forums.

• Learn about modeling subscription apps