About Shopify APIs

Shopify offers a suite of APIs that allow developers to extend the platform’s built-in features. These APIs allow partners to read and write merchant data, interoperate with other systems and platforms, and add new functionality to Shopify.

Requirements for using Shopify APIs

Scopes and permissions

  • Some API features are only available to merchants on premium plans
  • Depending on the app type you’re creating, you may need to request certain permissions or access scopes when merchants install your app
  • With a few APIs, you’ll need to request access from Shopify and be approved before you can start making calls

Available APIs

Admin API

The Admin API is Shopify’s most-used API. It’s used to read and write data about merchant stores, products, orders, and more. It’s also used when building apps to add new features to the Shopify admin, the store management interface that merchants use to run their Shopify stores.

The Admin API is accessible in both GraphQL and REST. You’ll sometimes see people refer to Shopify’s “Products API” or “Order API”, but be aware that those resources are all accessed through the Admin API.

Learn more about the Admin API

Storefront API

The Storefront API is used to extend Shopify buying experiences beyond Shopify’s built-in sales channels (such as online stores or POS). It allows developers to read product data, as well as create orders and customer records. Sometimes you’ll see this concept referred to as “headless commerce.”

The Storefront API is accessible in GraphQL. Shopify stores don’t have Storefront API access open by default, so it has to be requested during the app install process.

Learn more about the Storefront API

Liquid

The Liquid templating language is used to build Shopify themes. Liquid is an open-source language, used by thousands of other projects to mix static HTML with dynamic Liquid tags. Liquid is based on the syntax of Ruby.

In addition to the standard templating functionality available in the open source version of Liquid, Shopify stores have access to an additional set of Liquid objects that function as an API for shop data; Shopify Liquid allows you to access a variety of dynamic Shopify-specific data, such as product collections, discount codes, shipping methods, and more within a theme.

Learn more about Liquid

Ajax API

The Ajax API is used with Shopify themes to add interactions that don’t require reloading the web page. Examples include getting basic product information, adding a product to a shopping cart, or clearing the cart contents.

Learn more about the Ajax API

Analytics API

The Analytics API is accessed through the Admin API. It allows you to use a query language called ShopifyQL to get detailed metrics about a merchant’s store. It’s available only for merchants on the Advanced Shopify plan and up.

Learn more about the Analytics API

Deprecated APIs

Deprecated APIs may remain available but are unsupported and may stop working at any time. Developers should migrate to supported alternatives as soon as possible.

Legacy Checkout API

The Checkout API is deprecated and cannot be used for new apps. Use Storefront API instead.

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