App Events API repeatedly returns HTTP 503 for metered plan marked free on development stores

Shopify App Store
1

I am testing usage billing through Shopify App Pricing and the App Events API.

The plan has a fixed usage meter priced at $0.005 USD per unit for normal, non-development stores. The plan option that makes it free for development or partner stores is enabled. A development store is successfully subscribed to this plan.

Authentication through the client-credentials flow succeeds, and the token has the required write_global_api_app_events scope. However, every attempt to submit a billing event returns HTTP 503 with an empty body.

The identifiers and event handle below have been replaced for privacy, but the request structure and value are unchanged (only omitted for safety):
{
"shop_id": "gid://shopify/Shop/123412341234",
"event_handle": "document_processed",
"timestamp": "2026-07-22T11:47:18.412Z",
"idempotency_key": "abcdefghijk",
"attributes": {
"value": 1
}
}

The response is:
HTTP 503 Service Unavailable
[empty response body]

I retried the same idempotent request four times at approximately five-minute intervals. Every attempt returned the same empty 503 response. The event handle exactly matches the meter configured on the subscribed plan, and the timestamp falls within the current billing period.

I did not retain Shopify’s x-request-id for these original attempts.

The July 2026 App Pricing update also states that plans can be marked free for testing by partners and developers.

Questions:

  1. Should App Events still accept meter events for a plan marked free on a development or partner store?
  2. Is there another required plan or subscription state for no-charge testing?
  3. Is this a known issue with App Events on free development-store subscriptions?
  4. Is there anything incorrect in the request above that could result in a 503 rather than a documented 400, 403, or asynchronous billing-validation failure?

I am not sure but for me this new App Events API and also the App Pricing is just very unstable right now, even though Shopify says you should go ahead and use it now for production.

Greatly appreciate any response here and guidance.

2

Not sure this is anything to do with the plans, I’ve been getting 503s for usage events intermittently for the last sixteen hours (since around midnight UTC), so think it might be an issue on Shopify’s end in general?

I get the following in the error response:

Error: Usage event request failed with 503: {"success":false,"error":"Service unavailable"}

Seems fairly intermittent, some have succeeded and some have failed:

image
image1052×184 5.35 KB

Maybe everyone has left the building for the DotDev event? :rofl:

3

Seems resolved now, haven’t had any errors for a while.