Billing cycles and thresholds
Your billing cycle determines the frequency of your billing and the length of time between each scheduled bill that you receive from Shopify.
This page contains information about Shopify's billing cycles and billing thresholds, to help you confirm that you're charged correctly on your bills.
Billing cycles
You can change the time interval for how often you're charged for your Shopify subscription plan, but you can't choose a specific date to receive your bills. Bills are issued using the UTC time zone.
Shopify has the following billing cycles. Monthly subscription plans operate on a 30-day billing cycle, so you might receive two bills during a month that has 31 days.
| Billing cycle name | Billing cycle duration |
|---|---|
| Subscription billing cycle | 30 days or 1 year |
| App billing cycle | 30 days |
Changing your billing cycle
You need to be the store owner or a staff member with the Manage plan permission to change the billing cycle for your store's Shopify subscription plan to be longer or shorter. You can't choose which date you receive your bills on.
Considerations for changing your billing cycle
Review the following considerations for changing your billing cycle:
- Longer billing cycle: If the option is available for your plan, then you can get a discount by changing to a longer billing cycle for your Shopify subscription. However, you can't choose which day of the month you receive your bill on.
- Shorter billing cycle: If you choose to switch from annual billing to monthly billing for your Shopify subscription, then you lose any features or benefits that are included with your annual plan. To switch from annual billing to monthly billing, contact Shopify Support.
- Non-refundable subscription charges: Charges for Shopify subscription plans are non-refundable. This means that you can't receive any refunds for your subscription plan charges. For more information, review Shopify's terms of service, section 5.10.
Change your billing cycle
You can change your billing cycle from monthly payments to annual payment in your Shopify admin.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Plan.
In the Plan details section, click Pay yearly and save.
Confirm your payment method and the subscription plan details.
Click Subscribe
Billing thresholds
In addition to monthly subscription plan billing, Shopify also issues bills at other intervals according to your plan-based billing threshold. Billing thresholds are monetary values that trigger a new bill whenever the cost of your account activity exceeds the threshold amount.
For example, you receive a bill before your regular subscription billing whenever the total of your third-party transaction fees, recurring app charges, and other outstanding charges or fees exceeds your account's billing threshold. Monthly subscription fees are included in your running total, but they're not included in threshold bills.
If you have any third-party transaction fees, recurring app charges, or other charges or fees that are incurred during a billing cycle, then your store's billing threshold is displayed in the Current billing cycle section of the Billing page in your Shopify admin. If you have no transaction fees or other charges, then your store's billing threshold doesn't display.
If the total of your third-party transaction fees, recurring app charges, and other outstanding charges remains below your account's billing threshold during a monthly billing cycle, then you receive a bill only on your regular subscription billing date.
Billing thresholds and buying shipping labels
If you reach your billing threshold and you're issued with a bill, then you can continue to buy shipping labels until the total reaches 110% of your threshold amount, and then no further purchases can be made until you pay the issued bill. For example, if your billing threshold is $400 USD, and your account's activity reaches $400 USD during a billing cycle, then you receive a bill. You can still buy shipping labels until your account activity reaches $440 USD (110% of $400 USD), but you can't make any more shipping label purchases after that until you pay your bill of $400 USD.