Prepaid and Pay as You Go Subscriptions Explained (Essential Subscriptions app)

Every subscription option in a campaign uses one of two billing types. You pick it in the campaign, on the Purchase options tab, inside a plan, under Billing policy.

Pay as you go

The customer pays for one delivery at a time.

• Deliver every sets how often an order is created.
• The customer is charged once per delivery. Each charge creates an order.

Use it for the normal case: monthly coffee, refills every 8 weeks.

Prepaid

The customer pays for several deliveries at once.

• Deliver every sets how often a delivery goes out.
• Charge for sets how many deliveries one payment covers. It must be 2 or more.

Example: deliver every 1 month, charge for 3 deliveries. The customer pays once for three monthly deliveries.

There is one charge and one order per term. The deliveries in that term are attached to the order. As each delivery date comes, it becomes ready to fulfil and you ship it. No new charge each month.

Prepaid renews

When a term ends, the customer is charged for the next term. This repeats until the customer cancels.

To stop it after a set number of terms, tick Subscription expires automatically after and enter the number of payments. Enter 1 to sell a single prepaid term that does not renew.

A prepaid option set up before 9 November 2026 keeps ending after 1 payment only until its campaign is saved again. When you open it, Subscription expires automatically after shows unticked, and the next save makes it renew. To keep it ending after one term, tick the box and enter 1 before you save.

Settings both types have

Prepaid also has Show price in the widget: Total price (the whole term) or Per delivery.

On a prepaid plan, every number above counts payments, not deliveries. One payment is one term.

Hover the (i) next to a field to see what it does. The blue box at the bottom of Billing policy sums up the setup, for example "Customers pay for 3 deliveries at once, every 3 months. Renews until they cancel."

Monthly and yearly options in one campaign

Set Deliver every to 1 month on the yearly option, not 1 year. Prepaid multiplies the delivery frequency by the number of deliveries. Deliver every 1 year and charge for 12 means one payment for twelve years.

The yearly option renews every 12 months until the customer cancels. Tick Subscription expires automatically after and enter 1 if you want it to end after one year.

What prepaid customers get by email

There is no new order each month, so there is no monthly order confirmation. Each new term is one new order. The customer also gets a shipping notice for each delivery, if you have those on, and the upcoming charge reminder before each charge.

Editing a prepaid subscription

The customer has paid for deliveries they have not had yet. So on a prepaid subscription:

• the Edit button in the delivery and billing box is not shown, if the customer bought it through the widget
• the Edit button on the main card is greyed out

You can still pause, resume, skip and cancel it.

A prepaid subscription you created by hand is different. Its page shows Billing policy Pay as you go and an Edit button in the delivery and billing box. Do not save that window. Saving it turns the subscription into pay as you go, charged for each delivery.

Changing frequency in the cancel and pause surveys

The Change frequency retention offer also shows on renewing prepaid subscriptions. The customer picks a pay as you go frequency from the same campaign. It does not show on a prepaid option that ends after 1 payment.

Installments are not subscriptions

Splitting one product into four monthly payments is not possible. Each subscription charge creates an order and asks you to ship. For payment plans on one item, use a Shopify buy now, pay later option.