Creating discount codes

Relevant to:

Use discount codes to offer percentage-off, fixed-amount, or free shipping promotions to your customers. This guide walks you through creating a discount code in Recharge.

This guide provides instructions for creating discount codes in Recharge.

Before you begin

Discount behavior depends on your checkout integration:
- Shopify Checkout Integration: Recharge supports all Shopify discount types at checkout. Some discount types are supported for recurring orders.
- BigCommerce Checkout Integration: Checkout discounts must be created in BigCommerce. Discounts for recurring orders are created in Recharge and can only be used in the Recharge customer portal.
Discount codes must be unique. You can’t create duplicate codes.

Step 1 - Create a new discount code

In your merchant portal, go to Discounts and select Discounts.
Click Create discount code.
Enter your discount code name. Discount names are not case-sensitive.

Step 2 - Choose the discount type

Select one of the following and enter the discount value after selecting the type.

Fixed amount: Provides a specific dollar amount off the order.
- Example: $10 off.
Percentage: Provides a percentage off the order total. Percentage discounts are calculated per line item to ensure taxes and product eligibility are handled correctly.
- Example: 20% off.
Shipping: Free shipping on the entire order. Shipping discounts can’t be limited to specific products or collections.

Discount configuration menu showing available discount types—Fixed amount, Percentage, and Shipping—with Fixed amount currently selected.

Step 3 - Set the minimum purchase requirements (optional)

To require a minimum cart subtotal:

Select Require a minimum purchase amount.
Enter the required subtotal amount.

The minimum purchase amount applies to the order subtotal before taxes and shipping.

Minimum purchase requirements can be combined with product or collection restrictions.

Discount settings showing a required minimum purchase amount of $25.00 USD, with a note explaining that the minimum purchase requirement applies only to recurring subscription charges.

Step 4 - Apply the discount to a specific product or collection (optional)

Note: Discounts applied to specific collections are only available to merchants on Shopify's platform. Merchants on BigCommerce can still apply discounts to particular products.

If you want the discount to apply only to certain products or a collection:

Under Applies to, select a specific product or collection.
Choose the product or collection.

If the discount should apply to all products, skip this step.

Discount eligibility settings showing the option to apply a discount to all products, a specific product, or a specific Shopify collection, with A specific product selected and a prompt to choose a product.

Note: You can only select one product. To apply the discount to multiple products, create a collection and select the collection instead.

Step 5 - Select the product type

If you did not set a minimum purchase requirement, choose which product types the discount applies to:

All products
One-time products
Subscription products

This is useful if you want to apply a discount only to add-on items or only to subscription purchases.

Discount eligibility settings showing options to apply a discount to all product types, one-time products, or subscription products, with All product types selected.

Step 6 - Select channel permissions (optional)

If your discount does not include a minimum purchase requirement, you can control where the discount code can be used:

Merchant portal
Customer portal
API

If a discount includes a minimum purchase amount, it is automatically restricted to checkout only.

Enable the API channel if the discount will be applied through integrations or the Unity customer portal.

Channel controls settings showing the discount enabled for the Merchant portal, Customer portal, and API channels.

Step 7 - Add application limits (optional)

Application limits control how often the discount can be used.

Limit total redemptions

Limits the number of times the discount can be used across all customers.

Example: If set to 100, the discount can be used 100 times total.

Limit to one subscription per customer

Restricts the discount to one subscription per customer, based on email address.

This option is not available for shipping discounts.

Limit to first-time subscribers only

Restricts the discount to customers who have not previously purchased a subscription product.

This setting applies to checkout and the customer portal.

Set discount duration

Choose how long the discount applies to a subscription:

One charge only
All charges
A specific number of charges

Example: If set to one charge only, the discount applies once and then expires.

Application limits settings showing options to limit total discount usage or one use per customer, with the discount configured to apply to one charge only before expiring.

Step 8 - Set a start and end date (optional)

To control when the discount is active:

Select a Start date if you want the discount to begin on a specific day.
Select Set an expiration date for new customers to prevent new redemptions after a certain date.

The expiration date applies only to new redemptions. Existing subscriptions that already have the discount will continue to receive it based on the selected duration.

Active dates settings showing a discount start date of June 9, 2026, with an option to set an expiration date for new customers and a note explaining when discounts become active and expire.

Step 9 - Review and save

Review your discount settings carefully, then click Create discount.

Bulk upload discount codes

You can bulk manage your discount codes directly in the merchant portal. For more information, see Managing discount codes in bulk.

Bulk import discounts from Shopify to Recharge

With the Shopify Discount Import feature, you can import up to 100,000 supported discount codes from Shopify to Recharge. See Using the Shopify Discount Import feature for more information.

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