Does Shopify pre-check the email marketing checkbox at checkout?

Is the email checkbox pre-checked by default?

Whether the box starts checked, and where, is your setting. Shopify's Collecting customer contact information page says: "You can configure whether the checkbox is preselected by default, and in which regions."

When you turn on the email opt-in, the Regions you choose consent setting is active by default, and "by default, no regions are selected." With no regions, the checkbox is never preselected and all customers in all regions must manually opt in. You can switch to Regions recommended by Shopify and back at any time.

In Shopify adminOpen in your store

1. Settings
2. Checkout

Zoom

Consent is captured when a customer selects the checkbox and proceeds by clicking Pay now on one-page checkout or Continue to shipping on three-page checkout. For where the opt-in sits in your settings, see how Shopify collects email and SMS consent natively.

How do you choose where the box is preselected?

Shopify's contact-information help page names two consent settings, and the first has two states:

Shopify Help Center, Collecting customer contact information, read on October 17, 2026.

To pick regions yourself, go to Settings > Checkout and, in the Marketing opt-in section, set Email to show the checkbox. Shopify's help then has you click Regions you choose and Edit; in the admin we checked on October 17, 2026, the Preselect checkbox in certain regions row opened an Edit regions dialog with both options. Select regions on the All tab or by search and confirm with Done; Shopify's help ends the steps with Save.

For the automatic option, pick Regions recommended by Shopify instead. Wherever the box is preselected, customers can still deselect it. With SMS and WhatsApp opt-ins both on, a separate setting with the same two option names decides which regions see the WhatsApp box instead of the SMS one.

In Shopify adminOpen in your store

1. Settings
2. Checkout
3. Edit regions

Zoom

The setting reaches past the online store. A Shopify changelog post of March 12, 2025 says the change applies to both online and POS checkout, with POS customization starting from version 9.22.

No Shopify page we have found lists the countries in Regions recommended by Shopify — as of October 2026, its contact-information, subscriber-list and checkout-settings help pages name none. The Edit regions dialog has a Recommended tab, so check it in your own admin: in the one store we checked on October 17, 2026, only the United States carried that badge. What the help page does say is that this setting "keeps your store's compliance in sync with the local jurisdiction laws of the customer's country at the time of shopping."

Is a pre-checked box valid marketing consent?

For EU law, the GDPR is direct. Recital 32 says: "Silence, pre-ticked boxes or inactivity should not therefore constitute consent." That sentence speaks to what counts as consent under the GDPR; it is not a Shopify setting.

Even the automatic option leaves the legal call with you. Shopify's help page says:

The same caution asks you to regularly review and update your settings and content, and to consult a lawyer when necessary.

If your store is located in Germany, the Email marketing section of the Notifications settings page has an extra Require customers to confirm their subscription checkbox. Where a German store's setup requires confirmation messages, customers must respond to them to be included in your marketing. Shopify says activating double opt-in "can help you meet GDPR compliance requirements, and create a list of engaged subscribers."

What is the "Preselect the sign-up option" setting?

Shopify's Collecting customer contact information help page — and the March 12, 2025 changelog post — describe region-based preselection. The Shopify Messaging subscriber-list help page describes a different control: an optional Preselect the sign-up option checkbox. It preselects the box for customers without an account and for account holders on the Email subscribers list, but not for account holders who opted out of email marketing and aren't on that list.

None of the three pages we read on October 17, 2026 says one control replaced the other. Both help pages start from Settings > Checkout and its Marketing opt-in section, so set whichever control your admin shows there. For the checkbox wording, Shopify's help sends you to Customize labels in the same section; in the admin we checked on October 17, 2026, that text sat in a field beside each channel's dropdown. Changing the checkbox wording covers the other route, the theme language editor. A checkbox of your own is a separate question: whether you can add one to checkout.