A Beginner's Guide to Subscription Contracts

Every time a customer checks out with a subscription option, Shopify creates a subscription contract for them. That is Shopify's name for one customer's subscription, and you will see the word "contract" on some buttons and pages. In the app, all of them are listed under Subscriptions. From a subscription's page you can see its upcoming renewals, orders, billing and shipping details and full history, and you can reschedule, pause, cancel or edit it.


When to Use This Guide

Use this guide to:


  • Understand the details of an individual customer's subscription
  • Change renewal dates, products, shipping or the payment method
  • Troubleshoot failed payments or questions about charges
  • Pause, cancel, or reactivate subscriptions


🔍 To access this page, go to Supr Bundles & Subscriptions > Subscriptions and click any subscription.


What Is a Subscription Contract?


A subscription contract is created automatically when a customer completes checkout with a subscription option. You do not need to create one yourself for subscriptions to work. The subscription option sets the general rules (frequency, discount, duration), and the contract stores the customer's own copy of those rules, plus their products, shipping, payment method, billing history and upcoming renewals. Changes you make to an offer later do not change existing subscriptions.


You can also create a subscription for an existing customer yourself, see A Beginner's Guide to Creating a Subscription Contract.


Table of Contents



Finding subscriptions in the list


The Subscriptions page lists every subscription in your store. Use the search box to find one by subscription number, customer name, email, or phone, or click Filter to narrow the list down by:


  • Status: active, paused, cancelled, completed, or failed
  • Last payment error: payment, customer, inventory, or other
  • Payment method status: expires soon, expired, revoked, or inactive
  • Inventory level: out of stock, or partially out of stock
  • Channel: online store, or Shopify admin
  • Customer
  • Next billing date and Created date: a preset range such as the next 7 days, or your own start and end dates
  • Subscription: the subscription option the customer bought
  • Product
  • Delivery type: shipping, pickup from store, or local delivery
  • Discount: percentage off, amount off, or fixed price, within a range you set
  • Shipping price: either Free shipping, which shows every subscription that is not being charged for delivery, or Amount range, where you set a minimum, a maximum, or both


Filters combine, so you can ask for something as specific as active subscriptions of one product billing in the next 7 days that ship for free. Once the list shows what you want, you can:


  • Save it as a view, so it is one click away next time
  • Sort it (by subscription number, date created, status or last updated), and choose which columns to show
  • Tick subscriptions and run a bulk action on them
  • Click Export to download them as a CSV, see Exporting Subscription Contracts


A Completed subscription is one that reached its maximum number of renewals and ended on its own.


Bulk actions


Tick subscriptions on the list (or tick the box at the top, then Select all in store to include every subscription that matches your current filters and search) to see the bulk actions:


  • Change status: Activate subscription, Pause subscription, or Cancel subscription
  • Edit product: Add product, Swap product, or Remove product
  • Reschedule, Renew immediately, Change subscription (move them to another subscription option), Update payment method, Update shipping price, Sync prices, and Edit note


Which email each bulk action sends, and how to turn it off, is covered in Managing a customer's subscription on their behalf.


Editing contract terms


Click Edit at the top right of a subscription's page (bottom center on mobile) to change:


  • Products, variants, quantities, prices and per-product discounts
  • Shipping rate and cost
  • Contract duration limits (minimum and maximum number of renewals)
  • Delivery frequency, billing mode (pay per order or prepaid) and the subscription option it follows
  • The subscription discount and discount codes


When you are done, check the Summary card on the right and click Update contract. The full walkthrough is in Editing a Subscription Contract.


If every product on a subscription shows the same price after you add a new item, the contract is using a Fixed price discount, which sets one price for every product. Click Edit discount in the Payment card of the edit page to change it. See How subscription discounts work.


Analytics


The card at the top of the page shows two numbers for this subscription:


  • Amount spent: the total value of all orders in this subscription.
  • Renewals: how many times the customer was successfully billed. The first order at checkout is not counted.


Use this to judge the lifetime value of this customer's subscription.


Order overview


The card below it shows the subscription's status badge (and a stock or payment warning if there is one), then everything included in each renewal:


  • Products and variants, with stock status
  • Quantity and price per product
  • Discounts and shipping
  • Total per renewal


How to pause, cancel, or reactivate a subscription


The buttons at the bottom of this card are:


  • Pause subscription: stops renewals and billing until you or the customer reactivates it. Shown on active and failed subscriptions.
  • Activate subscription: resumes a paused subscription, or restarts a failed one. If its next billing date has already passed, the customer is charged within the hour.
  • Cancel subscription: ends the subscription permanently. The customer is not billed again and no new orders are created. Shown on active and paused subscriptions.


As a merchant you can pause or cancel even when the customer has not reached a minimum commitment. That limit only applies to what customers can do in the customer portal.


📧 Customers are emailed about these changes automatically, unless you have turned the matching customer notification off.


Prepaid Schedule

Only visible for prepaid subscriptions.


If the customer prepaid for several deliveries, this card lists each planned delivery date that has already been paid for. Click Reschedule on an upcoming delivery to move it. By default the deliveries after it move too; see Prepaid Subscriptions.


Upcoming Renewals


Shown on active and paused subscriptions. It lists the next renewals with their dates and status (for example Scheduled or Failed to renew). Use the arrows to page further ahead.


  • Edit schedule moves the next renewal. Choose Set specific date to pick a day and time, or Shift by relative amount to move it forward or backward by a number of days, weeks, months or renewal cycles. All later renewals follow the new date. The Send a notification to the customer box (ticked by default) sends the Next billing date changed email.
  • Renew immediately (active subscriptions only) charges the customer now and creates the renewal order. Check the orders on the page first: if the order for this renewal already exists, renewing again charges the customer twice.


There is no separate Skip button for merchants. To skip one delivery, click Edit schedule, choose Shift by relative amount, then Move forward, 1, Renewal cycles. Customers can skip a delivery themselves in the portal if you turn on Skip next order. More detail is in Changing the next billing or charge date.


Order History


Lists every order this subscription created, starting with the Initial order, then each renewal:


  • A link to the Shopify order
  • Amount charged
  • Payment and fulfillment status (for example Paid, Refunded or Cancelled)


Use this to confirm charges, investigate fulfillment problems, or reconcile with your payment reports.


Summary


Shows the key terms of this subscription:


  • Order frequency: how often an order is created
  • Subscription discount: the recurring discount, if any
  • Renewal billing: pay per order, or prepaid
  • Duration limit: the minimum number of renewals before the customer can pause or cancel in the customer portal, and the maximum number of renewals after which the subscription ends on its own (it then shows as Completed)


These come from the subscription option at the time of purchase, unless someone has edited the subscription since.


Notes


Shows the note saved on the subscription, for example one the customer left at checkout. Click the pencil icon to add or change it. To change the note on many subscriptions at once, use the Edit note bulk action.


Loyalty flow

If the subscription has a loyalty flow, a Loyalty flow card shows its rewards and which one applies next. See Loyalty programs.


Customer


The Customer card shows:


  • The customer's name (opens their Shopify customer page)
  • How many subscriptions they have (click it to list them all)
  • Contact details: email and phone
  • Shipping address: click the pencil icon to change where future orders ship. Pickup and local delivery subscriptions show a badge instead.


Payment method


The Payment method card shows the card or wallet used for renewals. Card details are held by Shopify and your payment provider, so nobody can type in a card number for the customer. Instead, click the icon on the card:


  • Change payment method switches the subscription to another card the customer has already saved (only offered when they have more than one).
  • Send payment update email emails the customer a secure Shopify link to add a new card.


Full steps: How to update a subscription payment method.


If a renewal failed, a Billing error banner at the top of the page says what went wrong and offers the next step, such as Update payment method, Renew immediately or Activate subscription. See Understanding billing attempt failures.


Timeline


Every event on this subscription is logged here, including:


  • New orders and renewals
  • Payment successes and failures, with the reason
  • Changes such as rescheduling, pausing, cancelling (with the cancellation reason, if one was given), edits and reactivation
  • Whether you or the customer made the change


Use it to see what a customer changed in the portal, or to troubleshoot a charge.


Common questions


Do I need to create a subscription contract for subscriptions to work?
No. A contract is created automatically when a customer checks out with a subscription option. Creating one yourself is only for enrolling an existing customer without checkout, for example when migrating.


Can I reactivate a cancelled subscription?
No, cancelling is permanent. Activate subscription only works on paused or failed subscriptions. The customer can subscribe again, you can send them a quick subscribe link, or you can create a new contract for them if they have a saved payment method.


How do I skip a customer's next order?
Click Edit schedule in Upcoming renewals, choose Shift by relative amount, and move it forward by 1 Renewal cycles.


Why is there no Cancel button on a failed subscription?
A failed subscription offers Pause subscription and Activate subscription. Pause it first and Cancel subscription appears, or select it on the list and use the bulk Cancel subscription action.


Why can't I see Upcoming renewals?
That card only shows on active and paused subscriptions. Cancelled, completed and failed subscriptions have no scheduled renewals.


Where do I see what the customer changed in the portal?
In the subscription's Timeline, which shows every change and who made it.



Updated on: 09/25/2026

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