The short version
Give store credit to one customer from their profile in the Shopify admin: in the Store credit section click Edit, select Credit, enter the amount, click Review changes and confirm, or choose store credit as the refund method when you refund an order or a POS return.
Store credit works only with new customer accounts, and customers see it at checkout when they sign in through customer accounts or use Shop Pay.
Customers can't select a partial amount of their balance, and a single customer account can receive less than $15,000 USD.
To credit many customers at once, use the Admin API, Flow's Send Admin API request action or a store credit app.
Which Route Issues the Credit
Find your situation; the sections below explain each route.
| Your situation | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Goodwill credit for one customer | Customers › profile › Store credit › Edit › Credit | Staff need the Store credit and Edit store credit permissions |
| A refund or return you would rather not pay out in cash | Choose Store credit as the refund method on the order | Original payment, store credit or both, with an optional expiry |
| A return at the register | Turn on Allow orders to be refunded to store credit in POS settings | The order needs a customer profile attached |
| Credit for a whole customer list | Admin API, Flow's Send Admin API request, or an app | The Help Center describes issuing from one customer's profile |
| A wholesale (B2B) buyer | Customers › Companies › the location › Edit icon | Less than $10,000 USD per location; individual B2B customers can't receive it |
Store credit on Shopify is a balance you put on a customer's account. The customer spends it as a payment method in your online store, on Shopify POS or on Shop, and you can issue it as a goodwill gesture, as a refund, or as part of a returns policy that keeps the money in your store.
It is not a gift card: store credit attaches to one customer account rather than to a code. Which of the two to offer, and how each sits on your books, is answered in our comparison of gift cards, store credit and discount codes; this guide covers how to issue, refund and spend the credit itself.
What You Need Before Issuing Store Credit
Key takeaway
Store credit runs on new customer accounts. Shopify's store credit page states that it isn't available for legacy customer accounts, so a store still on the legacy version has to switch first; our customer accounts migration guide walks through that move.
Every store credit task has its own staff permission, so check the roles of the people who will issue, refund or audit credit. How roles work in general is covered in our guide to staff access and permissions.
Store credit tasks and the permission each needs
| Task | Staff permission needed |
|---|---|
| Issue store credit or decrease a balance | Store credit and Edit store credit |
| Issue or debit store credit on a B2B company location | Edit store credit (Company permissions) |
| See the details of a customer's store credit transactions | Store credit and View store credit transactions |
| Refund orders to store credit | Store owner, or Refund to store credit (Orders) |
| Over-refund an order already refunded to store credit (orders processed through Shopify Payments) | Over-refund orders previously refunded to store credit |
| Turn the store credit payment method on or off | Store credit |
| Update a customer's balance by hand on Shopify POS | Manage a customer's store credit (POS); the POS permissions page lists it as Manage store credit |
| Apply store credit to a cart on Shopify POS | Redeem store credit set to Allowed (POS) |
Shopify Help Center pages on store credit, B2B store credit, refunding orders, redeeming store credit on POS, managing it on POS and POS role permissions, read November 4, 2026.
Shopify's store credit help pages, read on November 4, 2026, name no plan requirement for issuing credit to a customer account. Where they do name a plan, it is the Shopify POS Pro subscription, for exchanges using store credit and for POS roles.
On the online store the payment method needs no setup: store credit is activated on your store by default. You manage it in Settings › Customer accounts, with the Store credit toggle in the Customer accounts section:
- Settings
- Customer accounts
If you sell in person, there is a separate step. Per Shopify's POS payment methods page, you need to activate store credit before you can take payment with it on Shopify POS: go to Sales channels › Point of Sale, click Edit for POS app in the Customize the in-store experience section, click Checkout, click the View icon next to Store credit and click Save.
- Sales channels
- Point of Sale
- POS app
You can also manage store credit per POS device, but it can't be active on Shopify POS without also being active on your online store.
How Do You Issue Store Credit to a Customer?
Key takeaway
Issuing by hand happens on a single customer's profile. Shopify's Help Center gives these steps:
- From your Shopify admin, go to Customers and click the customer profile you want to issue store credit for.
- In the Store credit section, click Edit.
- In the Adjustment section, select Credit.
- If your store accepts multiple currencies, select the currency in the Currency drop-down menu. Issue the credit in the currency the customer shops in: only the balance in the checkout currency shows at their checkout.
- In the Amount field, enter the value of credit you want to issue.
- In the Expiration date section, select No expiry date, or select Set expiry date and pick a date from the calendar.
- Click Review changes.
- If you want to email the customer, select Notify customer.
- Click Credit {Amount} to issue the store credit.
- Customers
- Customer
After you issue store credit, the customer's balance increases in the Store credit section of their profile, and the credit displays as an event in the customer timeline.
- Customers
- Customer
If your admin shows something different from the steps above, see what our development store showed.
Setting an Expiration Date
Key takeaway
Every issue carries its own expiration choice. Shopify spells it out on its store credit page:
Unlike gift cards, store credit doesn't have a store-wide default expiry setting, and there's no built-in automation that applies a standard expiry to all store credit.
Four more rules sit alongside it:
- Check local laws first. Shopify asks you to verify the laws for store credit expiration dates in your country before you set any.
- Your store's timezone decides. Credit expires at the end of the day in your store's timezone, regardless of where the customer is located.
- The earliest date is spent first. When a customer holds several credits with different expiration dates, Shopify uses the credit that expires first.
- Refunds can expire too. When you refund an order to store credit, setting an expiration date for it is optional.
The Email the Customer Receives
Key takeaway
The email uses a template you can customize. In Settings › Notifications › Customer notifications it is called Store credit issued:
- Settings
- Notifications
- Customer notifications
Credit issued through Shopify POS takes a different path: those customers don't receive a Store credit issued email but an Order refund notification. If most of your credit is issued at the register, that is the template to review.
How Do You Refund an Order to Store Credit?
Key takeaway
Refunding to store credit needs no separate step: the choice sits on the refund screen of the order. According to Shopify's refunding orders page, you can refund to the original payment method, store credit, or both, and optionally set an expiration date for the credit.
- Orders
- Order
- Refund
Store credit is offered as a refund method in four kinds of refund transaction:
- Refunding an entire order
- Refunding a partial order
- Refunding a returned item
- Refunding a canceled order
The rest of the refund screen, from picking items to the restock box, is covered in our FAQ on issuing a refund from the Shopify admin.
Over-refunding an order doesn't automatically remove the store credit already issued on it. If you don't want the customer to keep both, debit the balance by the amount you refund to the original payment method.
Once a store credit refund has been issued on an order, the original payment method is locked on its refund screen, limiting the refundable amount (for example, to shipping costs only). To refund to the original payment method after that, allow over-refunding the order; you need the Over-refund orders previously refunded to store credit permission, and over-refunding is available for orders processed through Shopify Payments.
On newer stores the credit also has a cost: if your store was created on or after May 12, 2025, the part of a later order paid with this credit carries third-party transaction fees, though Shopify's fee page says transaction fees don't apply for POS orders. See the fee on orders paid with store credit.
Refunding to Store Credit at the Register
Key takeaway
At the register the option needs switching on first. Per Shopify's POS store credit returns page, you must turn on Allow orders to be refunded to store credit in the Point of Sale sales channel settings in your Shopify admin:
- Point of Sale
- Settings
Four more points apply:
- A customer on the order. A customer profile must be associated with the order to process a refund or exchange using store credit.
- A different email. The customer receives an Order refund notification, not Store credit issued.
- Exchanges need POS Pro. Exchanging with store credit is available only for locations on the Shopify POS Pro subscription.
- Balances by hand need a permission. POS staff can update a customer's balance manually only with the Manage a customer's store credit permission, and POS roles are available only for locations on the Shopify POS Pro subscription.
Whether a POS return should go to store credit or to a gift card the customer can pass on is a separate choice, answered in our FAQ on choosing a gift card or store credit refund at POS.
Can You Give Store Credit to Many Customers at Once?
Key takeaway
The manual route ends at one profile per issue. For a list of customers there are three routes, each with its own requirement:
Three routes for crediting a customer list
| Route | How it works | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Admin API | The storeCreditAccountCredit mutation, with the write_store_credit_account_transactions access scope | A developer or a custom app |
| Shopify Flow | The Send Admin API request action, which can use most GraphQL Admin API mutations; Shopify's action page doesn't name storeCreditAccountCredit | Stores already running Flow; test on one customer first |
| App Store app | Uploads a customer list into Shopify's native store credit, for example from a CSV file | Merchants without a developer |
Shopify Developer Docs (storeCreditAccountCredit), Shopify Help Center (Send Admin API request) and Shopify App Store listings, read November 4, 2026.
For developers, the storeCreditAccountCredit mutation takes a customer or company location ID and automatically creates a store credit account if one doesn't exist for the specified currency. Through the API, the customer gets the store credit issued email only if you set the notify parameter to true.
Flow has a general-purpose action for Admin API calls: Send Admin API request can use most mutations in the GraphQL Admin API, including mutations not yet available as actions in Flow. The Send Admin API request page doesn't name storeCreditAccountCredit, so check that it appears in the action's list of mutations and try it on one customer first. Our guide to building and testing Flow workflows covers the test-first habit worth keeping before you run it on a segment.
As listed on the Shopify App Store on November 4, 2026, two apps market bulk issuing into Shopify's own store credit:
Two bulk store credit apps on the Shopify App Store
Credits a customer list from a CSV file into Shopify's own store credit.
- Listing says
- Upload a CSV and credit thousands of customers in seconds using Shopify's native store credit system.
Issues native store credit from a CSV file, with a preview before you commit.
- Listing says
- Upload a CSV, check every row in a preview, then issue native store credit that customers spend at checkout.
Listing titles and descriptions read on the Shopify App Store on November 4, 2026; a snapshot, not a complete list. Check each listing for its current plans.
Issuing one credit at a time needs no app: the App Store's built-in features page for store credit lists “Issue store credit from your Shopify admin” as included with Shopify. What an app adds is volume.
Apps can refund to store credit too. Since May 20, 2025, apps are permitted to complete refunds to store credit even when store credit was not the original payment method; such a refund needs an order associated with a customer and new customer accounts enabled in the store.
For wholesale, the Admin API lets credit belong to a company location: as of API version 2025-10, store credit accounts support CompanyLocation as owners, which gives B2B merchants location-specific credit management.
What Customers See at Checkout
Key takeaway
On the customer's side there is nothing to install. A customer can view their balance in their account details while logged into their customer account, and the credit appears as a payment method in your online store when they are signed in through customer accounts or using Shop Pay. At checkout the value of their credit displays in a Store credit section, and they select Apply store credit to use it.
Does a shopper have to sign in? Not if they use Shop Pay. Shopify's store credit page, read on November 4, 2026, says customers can use store credit only when signed in through customer accounts or using Shop Pay. A changelog post of May 21, 2025 says credit is surfaced in the Shop App and at checkout with Shop Pay authentication, regardless of the customer's logged-in status.
Without Shop Pay, the store credit page requires signing in through customer accounts, so ask customers to sign in before they pay.
Two rules shape what the customer sees on the payment step. The first is that customers can't choose how much credit to apply:
Only the full store credit amount can be applied as a payment method. Customers can't select a partial amount of their store credit to pay for an order.
The second is currency. If a customer holds credit in several currencies, only the balance that matches the currency of your checkout is displayed, so issue credit in the currency that customer shops in.
On Shopify POS, customers can't choose how much credit to apply either: they always have the maximum possible amount applied. Per Shopify's POS store credit page, a customer buying $30 USD of items with $50 USD in credit must redeem the full $30 USD.
Where Store Credit Won't Work
Key takeaway
The Help Center names two caps on how much store credit you can issue. Shopify lets you issue less than $15,000 USD on a single customer account.
B2B balances sit on the company location instead, and Shopify caps each one at less than $10,000 USD on a company location account.
Shopify's developer docs add that store credit accounts have a limit which can differ depending on the currency of the account, and that crediting an amount above it returns an error.
Where store credit stops
| Limit | What Shopify says | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| One customer account | You can issue less than $15,000 USD on a single customer account | Keep each customer's credit under the cap |
| One B2B company location | Less than $10,000 USD on a company location account; not to individual B2B customers | Issue B2B credit on the company location |
| Customer-profile credit in a B2B store | Usable only in a D2C online store, not in a B2B online store | Use company location credit for wholesale buyers |
| Sales channels | A payment method only on your online store, Point of Sale and Shop | Settle orders from other channels another way |
| Draft orders and edited orders | Store credit can't be used as a payment method on them | For a draft order, send the customer a checkout link |
| Subscriptions | Allowed on the initial purchase, not on recurring subscription bills | Tell subscribers credit covers the first order only |
| B2B deposits and transfers | Can't be used towards a deposit; a location's balance can't move to another location | Plan B2B deposits with another payment method |
Shopify Help Center pages on store credit and B2B store credit, read November 4, 2026.
Wholesale credit is issued on the location's own page. Per Shopify's B2B store credit page, go to Customers › Companies, click the company, click the location in the Locations section, and click the Edit icon in its Store credit section. In the Adjustment section select Credit, select a currency if your store accepts several, enter the Amount, set the Expiration date and click Confirm.
- Customers
- Companies
- Company
- Location
To debit a location, click the same Edit icon, select Debit, enter the amount, click Review changes and then Debit. The balance is shared among all authorized B2B customers of that location. How company locations fit into a wholesale setup is covered in our B2B wholesale guide.
Balances, Reports and Fees
Key takeaway
After issuing, three jobs remain: correcting balances, tracking what is still outstanding, and knowing what an order paid with credit costs you.
Take Credit Back or Correct a Balance
Key takeaway
Shopify lets you decrease a customer account's balance from their profile. Its store credit page gives these steps:
- From your Shopify admin, go to Customers and click the customer profile you want to debit store credit from.
- In the Store credit section, click Edit.
- In the Edit balance dialog, in the Adjustment section, select Debit.
- If the customer has store credit in multiple currencies, select the currency in the Currency drop-down menu.
- In the Amount field, enter the amount you want to debit.
- Click Review changes, then click Debit to decrease the balance.
After you debit, the customer's balance decreases in the Store credit section of their profile, and the debit displays as an event in the customer timeline. Use a debit to correct a mistaken credit, or after an over-refund if you don't want the customer to keep both the credit and the refund.
- Customers
- Customer
Track History and the Outstanding Balance
Key takeaway
Click the customer's balance in the Store credit section to open the transaction history. Click any transaction row to see when it happened, which event started it, which staff member or app created it, and the amount; Expirable amounts shows only credit with an expiry date. Staff need the Store credit and View store credit transactions permissions to open those details.
For the whole store, go to Analytics › Reports, click Categories and select Finances. Shopify provides two reports in the Finances category for store credit activity, transactions and balances:
- Store credit transactions
- Outstanding store credit balance
- Analytics
- Reports
Customer segments can also group customers by store credit balance, upcoming expiration dates and last credit date, which is how you find balances about to expire before they do.
The Fee on Orders Paid With Store Credit
Key takeaway
Paying with store credit can carry a fee. For Shopify stores created on or after May 12, 2025, orders that include store credit are charged third-party transaction fees on the amount paid with credit, while stores created before that date are outside the rule. Shopify's fee page also says transaction fees don't apply for POS orders.
Only the credit portion counts: in Shopify's own example for a store using Shopify Payments, a customer who pays with a credit card and store credit triggers the fee on the store credit part alone. The rate for your plan is in our FAQ on the fee on each Shopify plan.
What Our Development Store Showed
Key takeaway
We issued and then debited a test credit on a Shopify development store on November 4, 2026, using Shopify's test customer data and with Notify customer unticked, so no email went out; your admin may differ.
The steps in this guide follow Shopify's Help Center, read the same day. Our admin named and ordered them differently; this is where the two differed, and where they matched:
Help Center steps against our development store
| Help Center says (read November 4, 2026) | What our development store showed | If your admin shows the same |
|---|---|---|
| Debits happen in an Edit balance dialog | One dialog, Adjust store credit, for issuing and debiting, opened with the pencil on the Store credit card | Click the pencil on the customer's Store credit card |
| Choose Adjustment: Credit or Debit | No Adjustment field for a customer who never had credit; Credit or Debit appeared once a balance existed | On a first credit, just enter the amount |
| Expiration: No expiry date or Set expiry date | A date button reading Doesn't expire, with the note Store credit expiration laws can vary by country | Use that button for an expiry; our test didn't cover choosing a date |
| Review changes, then a Credit {Amount} or Debit button | No review step: Issue credit on a first credit; later the dialog showed Current balance and New balance and the button read Adjust credit | Check the amount before you click; that click saved the credit |
| Notify customer is offered after Review changes | A Notify customer checkbox in the same dialog, empty when the dialog opened | Tick it if the customer should get an email |
| The balance shows on the profile, with an event in the timeline | The balance on the Store credit card and a timeline line: You credited this customer … in store credit; after a debit, both lines stayed in the timeline | Check the timeline to confirm the credit went through |
| On a company location: Adjustment, Currency, Amount, Expiration date, then Confirm | The same Adjust store credit dialog, opened with the icon on the Store credit card: Currency, Amount, Doesn't expire and Issue credit, with no Notify customer box; we issued nothing there | Follow the dialog |
| The POS editor opens from Sales channels › Point of Sale, with Edit for POS app | It opened from Point of Sale › Settings › Customization; under Checkout, Store credit sat beside a crossed-out eye icon | Use that path |
One test on a Shopify development store, November 4, 2026; Shopify Help Center store credit, B2B store credit and POS payment methods pages read the same day.
- Customers
- Customer
- Adjust store credit
- Customers
- Customer
- Adjust store credit
- Customers
- Companies
- Company
- Location
- Adjust store credit
The test didn't cover choosing an expiration date, issuing in a second currency, crediting a B2B company location (we only opened its dialog), the customer email, or how credit looks at the customer's checkout.
Store Credit Not Showing? Check These Causes
Key takeaway
The credit was issued but the customer says it isn't there, or the option never appeared on the profile in the first place. The table collects the causes Shopify's Help Center pages document, in the order you meet them: issuing first, then spending.
Store credit symptoms, causes and fixes
| What you see | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| No store credit option on the customer's profile | The store uses legacy customer accounts, where store credit isn't available | Move to new customer accounts |
| A staff member can't issue or debit credit | Their role lacks Store credit or Edit store credit | Ask the store owner to add both permissions |
| No Refund method choice on the refund screen | The staff member doesn't have both the Refund to original payment and Refund to store credit permissions | Ask the store owner to add the missing permission |
| Store credit missing as a refund option on Shopify POS | Allow orders to be refunded to store credit is off | Turn the setting on; if the order has no customer profile, POS prompts you to create one |
| The customer doesn't see credit at checkout | Not signed in through customer accounts and not using Shop Pay, or the Store credit switch is off | Ask them to sign in or use Shop Pay; check Settings › Customer accounts |
| The balance shown is lower than what you issued | Credit sits in several currencies and only the checkout currency's balance displays | Issue credit in the currency the customer shops in |
| A wholesale buyer can't use credit | Customer-profile credit works only in a D2C online store | Issue credit on their company location |
| No store credit on an order you created in the admin | Draft and edited orders don't accept store credit | For a draft order, send the customer a checkout link |
| Store credit missing as a payment option on Shopify POS | It isn't activated in the POS editor or on that device, it isn't active on the online store, the cart has a gift card product, or POS is offline | Activate it in the POS editor; remove the gift card product or go back online |
Shopify Help Center pages on store credit, B2B store credit, POS payment methods, redeeming store credit on POS, POS store credit returns and processing returns, read November 4, 2026.
One more symptom shows up during customer cleanup rather than at checkout: Shopify won't merge two customer profiles when either of them has a store credit account. Our FAQ on merging customers in Shopify covers what else blocks a merge.
Store Credit Setup Checklist
Key takeaway
Steps one to five are one-off settings; step six applies each time you issue credit, step seven is a one-time test and step eight is a monthly habit.
Store credit on Shopify: setup checklistTick each step as you finish it; your progress stays in this browser.
Store credit on Shopify: setup checklist
Tick each step as you finish it; your progress stays in this browser.
Check that your store uses new customer accounts, since store credit isn't available for legacy ones.
Before you tick this off
- Settings › Customer accounts shows new customer accounts in use
- Any move off legacy accounts is planned before you promise credit
Give each role the store credit permissions it needs to issue, view, refund or debit credit.
Before you tick this off
- Staff who issue credit have Store credit and Edit store credit
- Staff who refund to credit have Refund to store credit
- Staff who read history have Store credit and View store credit transactions
Confirm the Store credit toggle is on in Settings › Customer accounts.
Before you tick this off
- The Store credit toggle is on
- Whoever changes it has the Store credit permission
If you sell in person, activate store credit in the POS editor and switch on Allow orders to be refunded to store credit in the Point of Sale channel settings.
Before you tick this off
- Store credit is activated as a payment method in the POS editor
- Allow orders to be refunded to store credit is on in the Point of Sale channel settings
- Staff know a POS store credit refund needs a customer profile on the order
Read and adjust the template in Settings › Notifications › Customer notifications.
Before you tick this off
- The email names your store and how to spend the credit
- POS staff know customers get an Order refund email instead
Choose whether credit expires, and check your country's expiration laws before setting any date.
Before you tick this off
- Local rules on store credit expiry checked
- Staff know the date is set each time credit is issued
Credit one test customer, check the balance and timeline, then debit the same amount.
Before you tick this off
- Used a test customer profile, with Notify customer not selected
- The balance appeared in the customer's Store credit section
- The debit brought the balance back
Open the Store credit transactions and Outstanding store credit balance reports in Analytics › Reports.
Before you tick this off
- Both reports found under Finances
- Balances close to expiry reviewed through a customer segment
The Bottom Line
Key takeaway
The setup is short. Most of the work is in the details customers notice: whether they are signed in or using Shop Pay, the currency they shop in, and an email that tells them the credit exists.
Frequently Asked Questions
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