Shopify 6 Months for $1/Month: How to Find & Claim It

Is the Shopify $1 for 6 Months Deal Real — and What's the Catch?

Yes — the offer is genuine, but four caveats decide who actually benefits:

• New Shopify accounts only — existing, cancelled, or paused stores don't qualify.
• Standard plans only — Basic, Grow, and Advanced; Shopify Plus and the Starter plan are excluded.
• Only the subscription is discounted — the 2.9% + 30¢ transaction fee is unchanged.
• Generic affiliate links don't unlock a longer term — Shopify sets the length itself, per visitor; the confirmed 6-month version comes through specific programs, not a random referral link.

Current Offer Status (Checked Monthly)

Because Shopify assigns the promotional length per visitor, a flat "yes or no" is misleading — the term is a moving target. Most merchants are shown the standard 3-month deal; see our full guide to the $1 for 3 months offer, while this page covers the rarer 6-month variant. Below is exactly what each channel showed on our latest check — written so you can lift a single line and act on it.

Not to be confused with the "6 months of POS Pro" banner that can appear alongside these offers — that is a promotion for a different product (Shopify POS Pro, for in-person retail), not the online store trial.

What Is the Shopify $1/Month for 6 Months Deal?

You may have seen the standard Shopify offer — Shopify's $1 for 3 months offer. In some cases, that low-cost window runs for $1/month for 6 full months instead — doubling your runway to ~183 days.

Shopify controls this promotion directly — the terms shown at signup on shopify.com/free-trial are the terms you get. But it is not a seasonal banner: across 18 months of archived snapshots — including Black Friday and New Year 2025–2026 — the public page consistently showed the 3-month version. On our checks the signup page states the $1/€1/£1 price without stating a number of months, so the length is filled in per visitor rather than swapped on a calendar.

That does not mean the number is unpublished. Shopify's pricing page does spell it out in plain text: on our August 8, 2026 check it read three days free, then the promotional $1/€1/£1 rate for 3 months, repeated on every plan card. But that figure is per-visitor too — it is the term assigned to whoever loaded the page, not a rule Shopify commits to.

Shopify's own code gives the mechanism a name. The live pricing page ships an array called banditAssignments, a useBanditRewardId module and treatment keys such as pricingBanditTreatment — the vocabulary of a bandit test, where each visitor is dealt one variant of an offer. The promotional copy is a template rather than a fixed sentence, and the number of months is one of its variables.

So the variation runs downward as well as up: a shorter promo is as real a possibility as a longer one, which is another reason not to gamble on being shown six months. None of this is new, either — an archived copy of the pricing page from September 6, 2025 already carried the same placeholders, so the term has been assigned per visitor at least since then. Shopify doesn't publish the rules, but your region and account history appear to play a role.

The one channel with a firmly confirmed 6-month term is the 1MBB program — Shopify's partnership with Operation HOPE, the "1 Million Black Businesses" initiative. It offers the Basic plan at $1/month for the first 6 months, and it is built for Black entrepreneurs in the US and Canada: you register with the nonprofit Operation HOPE rather than signing up through the generic free-trial page. It is not a loophole for everyone else — Shopify's own offer terms state that stores not meeting the program's criteria lose eligibility and "are subject to closure without notice." If the program isn't meant for you, the 6-month version isn't something you can reliably summon on demand — which is exactly why reading the term shown to you matters more than hunting for a magic link.

Source: Shopify Free Trial Page (terms vary by visitor and region)

Shopify is deliberately vague about how it decides who gets which term. Its Help Center confirms only that the length can change and may depend on where your store is based, without naming the mechanism behind it:

Because pricing follows your store location, the promotion isn't always shown in dollars: in the eurozone it appears as €1/month and in the UK as £1/month instead of $1. It's the same offer — the currency is set by Shopify at signup based on where your store is registered, and availability varies by region.

Where the 6-Month Number Actually Comes From

If "6 months" feels like something you have definitely seen on Shopify's own site, you have. On our August 8, 2026 review the phrase turns up in four separate places — and not one of them is the duration of the public signup offer. That mismatch is the most likely source of the myth.

• The 1MBB program — "Try Shopify's Basic plan for just $1/month for the first 6 months." The one case where six months really is a plan term, and it is gated: US and Canada only, through Operation HOPE.
• A POS Pro promotion — the pricing page carries a line offering "6 months of POS Pro" at a discounted monthly rate. We were not served it (it targets retail sellers), but the string is live in the page's own code. POS Pro is in-person retail software, not your online plan.
• The sales-credit window — "Valid for your first 6 months or until you reach the max." Six months is how long you can earn credits, not how long you pay $1.
• The release cadence — "Every six months, Shopify rolls out hundreds of features." That is the product release calendar, and it has nothing to do with billing.

Read those four lines quickly, in any order, and "Shopify gives you 6 months for $1" is an easy conclusion to reach — which is why so many third-party guides repeat it. The phrase is genuinely on Shopify's site; it is just attached to a gated program, a different product, a credit window and a release calendar rather than to your promotional pricing.

Sales Credits: Earn Up to $10,000 as You Sell

Alongside the $1/month pricing, Shopify now advertises a separate rewards promo on shopify.com/free-trial: subscription credits — 1% back on all sales made through Shopify Payments (0.5% on other gateways), accrued during your first 6 months or until you reach your plan's cap. In the US render the headline reads "earn up to $10,000 in credits as you sell" — but the banner number is templated per visitor, just like the trial length: in the same July week we observed the identical page showing $8,000 to some visitors, and the per-plan cap badges shifting between three different sets.

The binding numbers live in the fine print, not the banner. Per Shopify's official rewards promotion terms (verified July 22, 2026), the caps are:

Per-plan credit caps in USD — at the 1% rate they correspond to $500k/$750k/$1M in sales. Source: Shopify Rewards Promotion Terms (Basic/Grow/Advanced) and Shopify Help Center (Plus), verified July 22, 2026

These are credits toward your future Shopify subscription, not cash — you earn them as you sell, capped at your plan's limit, and the currency follows your store region ($1/€1/£1). Treat the credit as a bonus on top of the $1/month runway, not as a reason to overspend chasing it.

6 Months vs 3 Months: What's Actually Different?

Let's be clear about what the 6-month deal changes — and what it doesn't. Understanding this prevents unrealistic expectations:

The only real difference between Shopify's 3-month and 6-month $1 deals is duration: $3 total vs $6 total in subscription fees, saving $114 vs $228 against Basic's full price — features, transaction fees and app access are identical.

The extra 3 months matter more than you might think. With the standard 3-month deal, most merchants are still in the "setup and first sales" phase when the promotion ends. The 6-month deal gives you a genuine optimization window — months 4–6 are where you can refine your marketing, test new products, and build repeat customer relationships before committing to full pricing.

How Do I Get Shopify for 6 Months Instead of 3?

The 6-month offer isn't hidden behind a secret referral link — Shopify decides the term and displays it right on the official free trial page. Because that term is assigned per visitor, the only reliable way to know your offer is to check the page yourself. Here's how:

Who Is Eligible for the 6-Month Deal?

The eligibility requirements for the 6-month deal are the same as the standard 3-month promotional offer. Shopify tracks billing details to prevent repeat usage of promotional offers:

What's Included in the 6-Month Promotional Period

The $1/month price applies exclusively to the platform subscription. Every feature of your chosen plan is fully unlocked — no restrictions, no limitations, no "lite" version. Here's what you can access during the 6-month promotional period:

For a full walkthrough of all Shopify features and how they work together, see our How Shopify Store Works guide.

True Cost Over 6 Months: What You'll Actually Spend

The $1/month subscription is only one line item. Being transparent about the real costs helps you budget properly and avoid surprises. For a detailed breakdown of all Shopify costs, see our Shopify Pricing Explained guide.

Over 6 months, a realistic Shopify budget runs about $210 for a lean launch, $1,120 for a moderate one, and $4,120 for an aggressive push — the $1/month subscription is a tiny fraction of the real cost.

Transaction fees estimated at 2.9% + 30¢ per sale (Basic plan, Shopify Payments). Source: Shopify Pricing

Transaction fees estimated at 2.9% + 30¢ per sale (Basic plan). Source: Shopify Pricing

The 6-Month Action Plan: How to Maximize Your Extended Runway

The 6-month deal gives you a structured runway that naturally divides into three phases. Here's how to use each phase effectively:

Phase 1: Build & Launch (Months 1–2)

Phase 2: Learn & Optimize (Months 3–4)

Phase 3: Scale & Decide (Months 5–6)

Common Mistakes to Avoid During the 6-Month Period

Having 6 months can paradoxically work against you if you're not disciplined. Here are the most common mistakes merchants make with extended promotional periods — based on patterns from the Shopify Community:

What Happens After the 6-Month Period Ends

When your 6-month promotional period ends, Shopify automatically transitions your account to standard plan pricing. Your options are identical to those at the end of the 3-month deal:

After the promo, a Shopify Basic store pays $39/month, or $29/month on annual billing (25% off); other options are upgrading to Grow at $105/month, pausing at $9/month, or cancelling.

For a data-driven guide to choosing your post-trial plan, see our How to Choose the Right Shopify Plan article. If you're doing over $33,000/month in revenue, upgrading to Grow pays for itself through lower transaction fees — see the breakeven analysis in our pricing guide.

Estimate Your Post-Trial Costs

Use the calculator below to see what Shopify will cost after the $1/month period ends, based on your expected revenue and order volume:

Bottom Line: Is the 6-Month Deal Worth Waiting For?

The 6-month deal is a bonus, not a necessity. Whether you have 3 months or 6, the formula is the same: launch quickly, drive traffic, and let the numbers tell you what to do next.

Frequently Asked Questions