There may be instances where you want to offer a free subscription to a family member or as part of an arrangement with an influencer. This guide outlines how you can accomplish this. 

Before you start

• This article is only applicable to merchants that use the Shopify Checkout Integration. For merchants using the Recharge Checkout on Shopify, refer to Offering a free order to customers.  
• To ensure that subscription charges are processed successfully on a regular cadence, a valid credit card must be associated with the subscription.
• You may decide to update the price of the specific subscription to $0.00 and add your own credit card to ensure that the charge is marked as a success when processed. This is a valid workaround that we often recommend as it does not require any manual updating or maintenance on your end. 
• Merchants using the Shopify Checkout Integration can also create discounts in both Shopify and Recharge, or check out with their own credit card using the customer’s information. The instructions below guide you through each of these options. 

Part 1: Create a discount code in Recharge

1. Select Discounts in the merchant portal and click Discounts to create a discount in Recharge.
2. Click Create discount code and add the free subscription details. For example, a percentage type discount with a value of 100% off can be used for a free subscription.
3. Choose if the discount should apply to all subscription products, or click the dropdown to apply it to a specific product or collection. 
4. If the free subscription is for one customer, select Limit number of times this discount can be applied in total and enter 1.
5. If it is meant for a single order, set the number of times the discount can be used to one charge only. Otherwise, set the number of charges or choose all charges. Click Save.
   

Part 2: Create a discount code in Shopify

1. Click Discounts in your Shopify admin to create a discount code in Shopify.

2. Click Create discount and then choose Discount code.

3. Add the same parameters as the Recharge discount. For example, if using a percentage type discount for 100% off in Recharge, the same discount type should be created in Shopify.
   
4. Choose Subscription as the purchase type, and then specify if the discount applies to all subscription products, subscription products in a specific collection, or specific subscription products.
5. If the free subscription is for one customer, select Limit number of times this discount can be used in total and enter 1.
6. If it is meant for a single order, choose Limit discount to the first payment. Otherwise, specify the number of recurring payments it should apply to, or apply it to all recurring payments. Click Save.
   

Part 3: Check out with the subscription product using the discount code

Option 1 - Provide the discount code to the customer

Share the discount code with the customer and direct them to check out using their own credit card information.

Option 2 - Go through the checkout with your own credit card

If you do not want the customer to have to go through the checkout with their own credit card, you can do this on their behalf using your own credit card. 

1. Collect the customer’s information, including their name, email address, shipping information, and billing information.
2. Go through the checkout with the customer’s information and use your own credit card.