Recharge Product Subscription Plans provide increased flexibility and control over the subscription creation and management experience. Offer percentage-based subscription discounts for each order interval or frequency, set default frequencies, filter products, and more. 

This guide covers how to configure, manage, and utilize subscription plans as well as an overview of the products page. 

How it works

Product Subscription Plans allow you flexibility and control when creating and managing the subscription experience. With Product Subscription Plans you can:

• Offer flexible subscription management to customers with different subscription offerings for both products and variants
• Encourage customers to subscribe with dynamic pricing options that allow for discounts based on the subscription frequency or order type
• Provide customers with prepaid subscriptions, allowing them to pay for several orders in advance

When you add a product in Shopify, Recharge automatically displays it in your merchant portal. Each product requires manual subscription rule setup, creating a new plan ID. While you can't add multiple products at one time, existing plans can be copied and replaced in bulk.

Product Subscription Plans are automatically enabled for all merchants who signed up after August 2023, or you can convert to this method at any time. See How to convert to Product Subscription Plans for more information.

Create a Product Subscription Plan

You can add plans to individual products directly in the merchant portal. To create a Product Subscription Plan: 

1. Click Products in the Recharge merchant portal and select Products from the dropdown.
   • By default, Recharge enables a filter that hides one-time products from the Product list. To access all available products, click the X on the Plan types: Prepaid, Subscription filter.
     
2. Select the product you want to make a plan for and click Create plans at the bottom of the product page. 
   
3. Click Add another plan. 
4. Select the plan type, then update the frequency and plan name. The plan name is displayed to customers when they view the widget on your storefront. 
    
5. Enter a discount amount if you wish to offer customers a discount when they purchase a subscription product. 
6. Optionally, select the Advanced settings dropdown to add a cut-off schedule and configure channel settings. Refer to Advanced settings for more information. 
7. Select Done when you're finishing configuring the plan. 
   
8. After the first plan is created, you can choose to Duplicate the plan or follow steps 2-5 to Add another plan. Once you are finished making changes, confirm by selecting Save plans. 
   

Drag and drop your plans to set the display order for customers interacting with the widget on your storefront product page.

Advanced settings

Advanced settings when using Product Subscription Plans allow you to configure a charge and cut-off schedule as well as choose where plans are available for purchase with channel settings. 

Charge and cut-off schedule

Apply settings to charge customers on a specific day of the month. 

By default, the product is sent on the same day the initial checkout occurred. For example, if the customer checks out on the 14th for a monthly subscription product, all subsequent orders are processed on the 14th. Alternatively, you can select a specific day of the month from the charge on this day of the month dropdown to charge customers on a specific day for their recurring orders. See Charging on a specific day of the month for more information. 

Channel settings

Manage where plans are available for purchase by selecting the toggle next to the channels you'd like to display a specific plan. 

Offer product as a one-time purchase

Product Subscription Plans allow you to offer products as one-time purchases only. Additionally, you can add a discount to the one-time product while offering it on the customer and merchant portals. 

To offer a product as a one-time purchase:

1. Navigate to the Products page in your merchant portal and select Products from the dropdown.
2. Select the specific product to update and you will be directed to the product details page.
3. Click the toggle to enable the Available as a one-time product setting.
4. Click the pencil icon to edit the one-time product details. 
5. Select the checkbox if you'd like to offer a discount on the one-time product and enter amount for discount.
   
6. Click Update to save your changes. 

This will allow your customers to purchase the product from their customer portal. 

View product details

After creating a plan, you can view the product details in the Recharge merchant portal by selecting Products and clicking into a specific product. The product details page displays your product, product variants, one-time settings, and subscription plans on one page.

If you have more than one Product Subscription Plan, you will see each one listed separately in the Subscription plans section. The first plan listed is considered the default plan, and the discount associated with the first plan in the hierarchy will be the discount displayed on your customer portal.

Import existing plans

You can import existing plans by selecting Import existing plans on the product details page. Once you've selected the plans to import, click Import plans. 

Manage existing plans

You can edit or duplicate existing plans, and manage them by clicking on the  Manage plans link on the merchant portal product details page. 

When editing and managing plans, you can update order intervals or frequencies, plan names, discounts, and other advanced settings. You can also add additional plans or remove plans from this page.

Considerations

Consider the following when using Product Subscription Plans: