Prepaid Subscriptions

Prepaid subscriptions let a customer pay once for several upcoming deliveries, instead of being charged before each one. They're ideal for "pay for 3 months up front and save" style offers and for gift subscriptions. This guide explains how prepaid is set up, exactly how the price is calculated, and how prepaid behaves when you also renew on specific dates.

Table of contents

• What prepaid changes (and what it doesn't)
• Setting up a prepaid bar
• One-off prepaid, with no auto-renew
• How the prepaid price is calculated
• Discounts on prepaid
• The prepaid schedule on a contract
• Combining prepaid with specific renewal dates
• Notes and limitations
• Related guides

What prepaid changes (and what it doesn't)

Prepaid changes how often the customer is billed, not how often they receive a delivery.

• The delivery schedule stays the same (e.g., a delivery every month).
• The billing schedule is less frequent: the customer pays once for a set number of deliveries, then pays again when that batch runs out.

So a "monthly delivery, prepaid 3" subscription still ships every month, but the customer is charged once every three months.

Setting up a prepaid bar

1. Open the subscription bar and find the Renewals and billing card.
2. Switch the billing mode from Pay per order to Prepaid.
3. Set Repeat order every, the delivery cadence (e.g., every 1 month).
4. Set Orders covered with each payment, how many deliveries one payment covers (minimum 2).

That's it: the billing interval is calculated for you as the delivery cadence multiplied by the number of orders per payment.

One-off prepaid, with no auto-renew

By default a prepaid subscription renews: when the paid batch of deliveries runs out, the customer is charged again for the next batch. A one-off prepaid does not. The customer pays once, receives every delivery in the batch, and the subscription then ends on its own with nothing further to cancel. This is what you want for gift subscriptions, seasonal boxes, and fixed-length courses or programmes.

To set one up, open the subscription bar, choose Show advanced settings, turn on Prepaid subscription, set Orders covered with each payment, and tick One-off (single prepaid, no auto-renew).

The widget adjusts to match. A renewing prepaid shows the billing cadence next to the price, for example $60.00 / 3 months, because that is what the customer will be charged again and again. A one-off has no cadence to show, so the widget prints the price on its own ($60.00), and the prepaid subtitle reads billed as $60.00 rather than billed as $60.00 / 3 months. Shoppers see a single, honest price instead of a repeat charge that is never going to happen.

How the prepaid price is calculated

The amount charged at each payment is simply the price of one delivery multiplied by the number of deliveries in the batch:

Prepaid payment = (price per delivery) × (orders covered with each payment)

Shipping works the same way: each delivery in the batch is shipped, and the shipping for all of those deliveries is collected in the single upfront payment.

Worked example

• Product price: $20
• Delivery cadence: every 1 month
• Orders covered with each payment: 3

The customer is charged $60 (3 × $20) and receives a delivery every month. After the third delivery, they're charged $60 again for the next three months, and so on. If the bar is set to one-off, the subscription simply finishes after the third delivery and no second payment is taken.

Discounts on prepaid

A percentage discount is the cleanest choice for prepaid: it scales the whole payment. For example, 10% off on the example above makes each payment $54 (3 × $20 = $60, less 10%).

The prepaid schedule on a contract

Open any prepaid subscription in Subscriptions and you'll see a Prepaid schedule card listing the planned delivery dates in the paid batch. Each one is a shipment the customer has already paid for. You can reschedule an individual prepaid delivery from there if a customer needs a date moved.

Combining prepaid with specific renewal dates

You can pin prepaid subscriptions to specific dates using Renew subscriptions on specific dates in the Subscription renewal dates card. When you do, the anchor date applies to both the delivery dates and the re-billing date:

• Deliveries land on your chosen day at the delivery cadence (e.g., the 1st of each month).
• Re-billing happens on that same anchor day once the prepaid batch is used up.

Example: monthly delivery, prepaid 3, anchored to the 1st of the month:

• The customer's deliveries are scheduled for the 1st of each month (e.g., 1 Jan, 1 Feb, 1 Mar).
• The next payment is taken on 1 April, covering 1 Apr, 1 May, and 1 Jun, and the cycle repeats.

How the very first batch lines up with the anchor is governed by Initial orders are fulfilled immediately and the cutoff window, exactly as for pay-per-order subscriptions. For the full set of worked first-order examples, see A Beginner's Guide to Subscription Offers.

Notes and limitations

• Orders covered with each payment must be at least 2 (1 would just be a normal pay-per-order subscription).
• For multi-month offers you can choose the day of renewal but not specific calendar months. Renewals are calculated from the purchase/anchor date. Yearly offers can set a specific day and month.
• Prepaid supports a one-off variant that expires after a single prepaid batch, perfect for gift subscriptions. See One-off prepaid, with no auto-renew and Can I offer gift subscriptions.

Related guides

• A Beginner's Guide to Subscription Offers
• When customers are charged vs when orders are fulfilled
• Changing the next billing or charge date
• Can I offer gift subscriptions

Updated on: 08/03/2026