Clarifications on Plan Switching, Pro-Rata Charges, and Subscription Interval Handling for Shopify App Subscriptions

Partner Discussions
1

Hello,

We are using shopify Managed billing services, currently we have 3 public plans. Let’s say, Free, Starter and Pro.

We went through this documentation: About subscription billing

From the documentation:

  1. Shopify won’t allow customers to switch from a paid plan to a free plan (Downgrade)

  2. Does the subscription period change during plan switch?

  3. During app uninstallation / some problem during the payment collection. How do app has to respond?

Now, i will explain each of these questions:

We tried all three scenarios, what we observed is different what is explained in the documentation. Might be we understood it wrong. We need help.

  1. Customer A is in Pro plan, able to switch to Free plan (i.e defeats the first point)

  2. We tried switching plans between, Free, Starter and Pro. Every time we are seeing the subscription period has been reset, and starting from the current time.

/admin/api/2025-01/graphql.json

{
    "data": {
        "appInstallation": {
            "activeSubscriptions": [
                {
                    "name": "Pro",
                    "status": "ACTIVE",
                    "trialDays": 0,
                    "currentPeriodEnd": "2025-02-21T13:37:38Z",
                    "createdAt": "2025-01-22T13:37:35Z",
                    "lineItems": [
                        {
                            "id": "gid://shopify/AppSubscriptionLineItem/26547388603?v=1&index=0",
                            "plan": {
                                "pricingDetails": {
                                    "price": {
                                        "amount": "500.0",
                                        "currencyCode": "USD"
                                    },
                                    "interval": "EVERY_30_DAYS"
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    ]
                }
            ]
        }
    },
    "extensions": {
        "cost": {
            "requestedQueryCost": 14,
            "actualQueryCost": 14,
            "throttleStatus": {
                "maximumAvailable": 2000.0,
                "currentlyAvailable": 1986,
                "restoreRate": 100.0
            }
        }
    }
}
  1. And also in the documentation, if the customer is in the mid of the subscription period if they uninstall the app. Shopify will collect the payment for the current period. Is it true?. If yes, what app has to do incase of payment failures, or the shop if frozen.

Thank you, i feel some other early app beginners also have a similar doubts. Please help.

2

Hey Bharathi,

Where exactly do our docs indicate that " Shopify won’t allow customers to switch from a paid plan to a free plan (Downgrade)"?

Does the subscription period change during plan switch?

It should be replaced by a completely new subscription:

If a merchant changes their subscription while their current plan is active, then they need to accept a new recurring app charge. The existing subscription is canceled and replaced by the new subscription after the merchant approves it. Charges and credits can be prorated, and charges can be deferred, when merchants move to a new plan depending on the subscription change.

3

Hello Liam, in the case of downgrade from a paid plan to a free plan I noticed (atleast on the test charges) that the paid plan is cancelled immediately and the currentPeriodEnd is null, but Shopify says that the change would be effective at the next billing cycle. How do I, a developer, check for this condition? The active subscription would be the free one but he still paid for a month of the premium plan so it’s correct that he would use the plan for the reimander of the time until the next billing cycle.