Noticed that managed billing isn’t showing test charges anymore for dev stores, previously this would automatically surface test charges and allow plan changes for testing, but now it just displays a regular charge which we can’t proceed as there is no billing enabled on the dev store.
Hey @Min_Liu and @muchisx - thanks for flagging this.
Hidden
It looks like this may be clearing up now based on the related managed pricing thread here (a similar issue, but not quite the same): Managed Billing down for some stores - #11 by Alan_G
I want to double-check before calling it resolved though, since dev-store test charges are important for testing plan flows. If you’re still seeing regular charges instead of test subscriptions on development stores, could you share the app ID/app URL, dev store domain or shop ID, and the plan you’re trying to select?
If this is working again on your end now, a quick confirmation here would be super helpful too. Let me know if I can set up a DM if you’d rather not share those details publicly.
EDIT: Hiding my original post here since it has some incorrect info (mixed up this issue with another and shared some out of date info - see second reply for correct up-to-date comment, thanks!) Keeping for posterity though 
Hey @Alex_Moser - thanks for flagging this, you’re right here. I mixed this up with the separate blank managed pricing page issue, which was happening around the same time but is a different issue - sorry for the confusion!
For this specific dev-store test charge flow, the current Shopify App Pricing docs note that test subscriptions on development stores have changed, and the expected path now is to use the $0 private test plan instead: Shopify App Pricing
So if someone selects a paid plan on a development store and sees a regular charge that the store can’t proceed with, that lines up with the new flow rather than the temporary managed pricing outage I referenced earlier.
For testing, create/use a $0 private test plan and add the relevant development store under the plan’s store access list. If the $0 private test plan isn’t available for an app, or if an added dev store still can’t see/select it, share the app ID/app URL, dev store domain, and plan name/handle and I can dig further on our end.
Hope this helps!
Hi @Alan_G thank you for the insights.
I understand the new approach, however, we don’t have development time allocation to this breaking change right now.
I would like to voice my concern here and request that we revert this change and make it opt-in-when-ready with ample time to migrate.
Thanks @muchisx - I definitely get where you’re coming from. I can’t guarantee anything, but I will get in touch with folks internally here to share your concerns with them and loop back if I have any new info to share. Really appreciate your understanding on this.
@Alan_G I have serious concerns over how this is being handled, especially now that Shopify has considered the Billing API to be legacy…
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Does Shopify expect partners to manually apply a hidden free plan to each and every development store that wants to test an app? What if the app received hundreds of dev store installs every day? Is there any way to offer a partner-friendly app at scale?
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What happens if/when the dev store is transferred to a paid plan? Are partners expected to keep track of every store’s plan and manually remove the free plan from each shop that is no longer eligible?
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Why wasn’t this change documented and announced ahead of time?
Hi @Alan_G ,
Adding to @Kyle_W questions, how can we test plan-gated features if dev stores can only install the $0 private test plan? This process “just worked” on managed pricing because of test charges for dev stores. Now with Shopify App Pricing there is no way to test feature gating with plan upgrade/downgrade? This is pretty important for most apps with more than one plan.
Thanks for your help!
Aaron
Hey again folks - I hear the concerns here. The current flow does make things harder at scale for apps with lots of development-store installs. I’m going to get in touch with some folks internally and share the concerns raised here.
I don’t have a product change or timeline to share right now, but I’ll loop back if I get more concrete guidance. Thanks for flagging all of these questions. I’ll do my best to advocate and share any info I can.
We offer a free plan for development stores, creating a custom plan for every single one makes this unworkable unfortunately.
I encountered the same issue this morning with managed pricing.
For context, my app originally only had paid plans (monthly and yearly), and test charges had always worked correctly on development stores before.
Recently, I decided to add a free plan with some feature limitations. I created the free plan in the Shopify Partner Dashboard and updated my app logic accordingly.
After that, when testing the upgrade flow from the free plan to a paid plan, I could no longer approve the charge — exactly the same behavior described by @muchisx.
At first, I assumed the issue was caused by my own code changes, so I spent several hours debugging the app and billing logic. Eventually, I gave up and searched the community for help, which led me to this thread.
So it definitely seems related to the recent managed pricing changes rather than an app-specific bug.
Hey folks - thanks again for sharing these examples and concerns here.
I followed up on this internally, and the feedback around the current flow has been shared with the team. I don’t have a product change or timeline to announce right now, but they’re aware of the gaps being raised here, especially around apps with a high volume of development-store installs, testing plan-gated features, and upgrade/downgrade flows.
For the moment, the current documented path is still to use a $0 private test plan for development-store testing. I definitely understand that this doesn’t cover every workflow cleanly, especially at scale, and I’ve passed that feedback along as well.
If anyone is seeing the $0 private test plan not appear after adding a development store to the plan’s store access list, please share the app ID/app URL, development store domain, and plan name/handle and I can help look into that specific case further.
I’ll loop back here if I get more concrete guidance to share.
Hey @Alan_G thanks for getting back with more insights.
I think the urgent detail being missed here is that apps that were using Managed pricing have been moved to Shopify App Pricing without consent, and that causes breaking changes.
I understand the new flow, but please I would like to stress to the team to revert to the original Managed Pricing and allow us to opt in to Shopify App Pricing when we and it is ready.
We already have a lot of support issues with this and internally we’re unable to test our plans system, this is quite urgent.
The only way now is to create a private plan and give your own dev stores access. I believe Shopify did this to prevent devs from freely getting access to/installing competitor apps. Now the only stores that can get that old “test” charge are Shopify employees
Hi @Omar_Winwin, if I understand correctly, you’re using the Billing API.
App founders that were using Managed Pricing (NOT Billing API !!), are experiencing breaking changes in our test charges in subscription workflows.
Please stay in context with what’s been said in the thread so Shopify is aware of the issues we’re dealing with and we don’t mislead them saying there is no breaking change when there is indeed one. 
I’m not using Billing API.
Currently using Managed Pricing which as per my understanding does not have anything broken with the auto-upgrade to the new Shopify App Pricing.
The only thing that has changed is for new dev store installs you need to use whitelisted private plan for testing. Anything existing in your codebase should still work (including pay-gating/plan-gating as both legacy and new plan handles are still functional).
What specifically is broken in your app? The only code changes that would need to be done is adding in your private plan (testing plan) handles as the equivalent of paid plans with access to the same features
what’s broken is that dev stores now need manual intervention to get a free plan, rather than it being automatic.
for us, we relied on a test charge being created as well so we can target specific features based on the plan the developer has selected as well.
the overall behaviour of managed pricing for dev stores is thus broken, and therefore is a breaking change.
My understanding is that this is a feature not a bug considering the current climate of app development and AI. Developers are installing competitor apps and getting a full free ride to test as long as they have a dev store.
Smart developers code in manual blockers to prevent test stores from accessing their apps and resources.
With the new system only your whitelisted stores will have access to your app and you can configure the plans as you need. I supposed if you’re testing paygating features you will need to make some code updates but they are minor in terms of just having your private app handles in the list of handles that get access to x features
feature or bug regardless, a change is a change, and a breaking change is a breaking change.
app owners have different requirements, you may want to stop other developers from installing your app, however not all do.