What are “Subscription rules” and “Automatic charges”?
Subscription rules
Subscription rules define where and how the “Subscribe & save” option appears on your products, plus the billing cadence (e.g., every month).
Automatic charges
Automatic charges mean the shopper is charged automatically on each renewal, no invoice link required. This is the standard “auto-billing” experience for subscriptions.
⚠️ Gateway requirement: To display auto-charging widgets and charge customers automatically, your Shopify payment gateway must meet Shopify’s subscription requirements. If your gateway isn’t eligible yet, use Recurring invoicesinstead (invoice is sent before each order). You can switch to automatic charges later without recreating products.
Create an automatic-charges rule
Step 1: Choose Automatic charges
Open RecurrinGO! → go to Subscription rules.
Click Create subscription rule.
In Select subscription type, choose Automatic charges.
If you see a yellow notice about Shopify requirements, you can still continue, but auto-charge widgets won’t render until your gateway is compliant.
Step 2: Name the rule and choose what it applies to
Enter rule name
Enter a clear name (e.g., “Monthly coffee subscription”).
Choose where the rules applies to
Choose what the rule covers:
All products — apply to the entire catalog.
Specific collections — click Browse collections and pick one or more.
Specific products — click Browse products and select items.
Optionally, you can allow purchase as a subscription only for applied items (all products/specific collections/specific products).
For this, tick a box:
This option will hide one-time purchase options for items you selected by this rule.
You can use separate rules if different products need different cadences or discounts.
Step 3: Set the subscription frequency (billing cadence)
You can choose one of the two subscription types:
Pay-per-delivery - where the customer pays just for the next recurring delivery.
Prepaid - where the customer pays in advance for more than one delivery.
Each rule can contain one or multiple frequencies (e.g., every 1 month, every 2 weeks). For each frequency, pick a Subscription type and cadence.
A) Pay-per-delivery (charge each time you deliver)
Pay-per-delivery: subscription where the customer pays just for the next recurring delivery.
Use this when you want to bill on every shipment.
Subscription type: Pay-per-delivery
Frequency label: Shopper-facing text (e.g., “1 month”).
Set up Deliver and charge every field: e.g., 1 Month. This is how often you want to deliver products to your customers.
Configure the Charge every field. This is the time you charge customer on this day of month.
When the initial order was made (anchors to purchase date), or choose a fixed day (1–31).
Example:
Let’s say we have the following conditions:
Deliver every: 1 Month
Charge every: 6 Deliveries
Product price: $36
Discount: 10%
Under the given conditions, the customer will be charged semi-annually and get the product delivered every month. Payment for all 6 deliveries will be charged upfront with a 10% discount: ($36 x 6) - 10% = $194.40
In the subscription widget, you can see the total amount for all deliveries and the amount of one delivery under it.
Here are optional controls you can set:
Offer discount for subscribing — add a % or a fixed amount off.
Minimum number of payments — customers can cancel or pause subscription only after completing the minimum number of successful payments
Maximum number of payments — subscription ends automatically after the maximum number of successful payments
Notes for customer — short help text shown with the plan (e.g., “You can edit or cancel anytime.”). Use this field to describe subscription policy, benefits, discounts, etc. The notes are displayed on the subscription widget when the frequency is selected.
Click the eye icon if you want to hide the frequency information on the widget:
B) Prepaid (charge upfront for multiple deliveries)
Prepaid: subscription where the customer pays in advance for more than one delivery. The billing cycle renews automatically.
Use this for “prepay for X deliveries” plans.
Subscription type: Prepaid
Frequency label: e.g., “1 month”.
Deliver every: e.g., 1 Month.
Charge every: pick number of deliveries charged upfront (e.g., 2 deliveries means the customer pays now for two upcoming shipments).
Here are optional controls you can set:
Offer discount for subscribing — add a % or a fixed amount off.
Minimum number of payments — customers can cancel or pause subscription only after completing the minimum number of successful payments. Use Minimum number of payments for commitment plans (e.g., “Cancel after 3 payments”).
Maximum number of payments — subscription ends automatically after the maximum number of successful payments. Use Maximum number of payments to auto-end after a set count (perfect for fixed-length bundles).
Notes for customer — short help text shown with the plan (e.g., “You can edit or cancel anytime.”). Use this field to describe subscription policy, benefits, discounts, etc. The notes are displayed on the subscription widget when the frequency is selected.
Adding multiple frequencies
You can add multiple frequencies. For example, if you sell dog food, you can offer subscribing to the product delivery for:
every 1 week
every 2 weeks
every 1 month
To set this up, click Add new frequency and repeat the configuration for each interval:
Click the eye icon if you want to hide the frequency information on the widget:
Step 4: Save, test and go live
Make sure you visit a products, collections that are covered by the rule to verify the Subscribe option and cadence appear correctly.
Next steps:
Set customer permissions (i.e., let your customers change their order / invoice frequency)
Need Help?
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