Additional subscription use cases
To tailor your app subscriptions to support more complex pricing models, use usage-based billing. For example, if your app has a default subscription and you want to enable merchants to purchase an optional, add-on subscription for a different product line, you can do the following:
Modify each subscription to reflect the additional modules that are available.
Track module billing in your application.
Use usage charges to bill the merchant for the desired amount at the desired time.
This guide shows how flexible usage-based billing is, and how app developers can leverage it to bill merchants for more complex pricing models. This is especially beneficial for larger app subscribers. The guide uses add-on modules as an example. You can also refer to an example mutation.
Requirements
Anchor link to section titled "Requirements"Your app can make authenticated requests to the GraphQL Admin API.
Your app has the
applications_billingaccess scope.Learn how to configure your access scopes using Shopify CLI.
Step 1: Account for additional spend in a subscription
Anchor link to section titled "Step 1: Account for additional spend in a subscription"Create a subscription for a usage-based pricing plan. You should set the capped amount to cover all the costs that you expect to charge merchants in the 30-day billing interval. For example, to charge the merchant $60 every 30 days for a base subscription, $0.10 per email as a usage-based charge, and an additional $30/day for an add-on module, your usage cap should be $30 and a reasonable average for email usage costs over a 30-day period.
Step 2: Keep track of billing intervals and usage
Anchor link to section titled "Step 2: Keep track of billing intervals and usage"In your app, keep track of the billing cycles and/or usage that's associated with any additional charges. For example, if you want to bill biweekly, then you can create a recurring job that creates a usage charge for the desired amount every two weeks.