- Short answer
- For a free shipping rate on shipping profiles, give those products their own profile with a paid rate; a free shipping discount needs another fix.
- Mixed cart
- Both profiles' rates are combined into one checkout rate; Shopify's example: $3 + $5 = $8.
- Free shipping discount
- No Shopify page we read (November 2026) offers a product or collection field; its built-in exclusion goes by rate price.
- Shipping options by market
- Meeting an option's free threshold makes the whole option free, including the matching rate within it.
- Hiding the free option
- An App Store app with a delivery customization function (any plan) or Checkout Blocks (Plus only).
How do you keep products out of a free shipping rate?
Shopify gives free shipping two ways: a rate with Offer free shipping and a minimum order amount, set in Settings > Shipping and delivery, or a free shipping discount, created in Discounts. The shipping rates page we read on November 4, 2026 describes the exception only the other way round: “To offer free shipping on only certain products, you need to create a custom shipping profile and include the relevant products, and then create a flat rate that offers free shipping.”
Excluding products is the same mechanism inverted. The general profile applies to all products, and a product that isn't in a custom profile uses the general rates, so a custom profile with a paid rate takes the bulky products out of your free one.
- Settings
- Shipping and delivery
- In the Shipping profiles section, click Add custom profile.
- Under Products, add the bulky products. Each leaves the general profile: a product sits in one profile at a time.
- Create zones for the places you ship them to.
- In each zone, click Add shipping option and enter an amount in Price. Leave Offer free shipping unselected; an empty Price or 0 also makes the rate free.
- Click Save.
- Settings
- Shipping and delivery
- Add custom profile
- Settings
- Shipping and delivery
- Add shipping option
Shopify's troubleshooting page uses the same split, with profiles called Heavy and Fragile. Not sure a group earns its own profile? See when a second profile is worth it.
Shopify's video below shows how a profile is created, not the exception itself.
What does a mixed cart pay?
A cart with a bulky and a regular product draws on two profiles, and Shopify says their rates “are combined and a single shipping rate is displayed to your customer at checkout.” In the example on Shopify's combined rates page, a $3 profile for a shirt and a $5 profile for pants give a customer who orders both a rate of $8.
“Shipping rates with the same name are added together and displayed to your customer at checkout, even those in different shipping profiles.” With all names different, the cheapest options are added under the name Shipping.
The bulky product leaves the general profile but can still count toward its price tiers: “Price-based shipping rates apply to the total price of the cart.” The combined rates page speaks of price-based rates, not the Offer free shipping minimum itself, so place a test order with both kinds of product before you rely on the threshold.
Can a free shipping discount leave products out?
No Shopify page we read in November 2026 gives a step or a field for choosing products or collections for one: not the free shipping discount page, the other Discounts pages in the Help Center or Shopify's changelog feeds. Shopify's API reference does describe free shipping discounts that apply to specific products or collections, but its inputs for creating one have no such field.
The discount can be limited to customers in specific markets, and “All products that are in a customer's cart count towards the minimum purchase amount” for free shipping discounts.
The one built-in exclusion goes by rate, not by product: Exclude shipping rates over a certain amount keeps free shipping off any rate above the amount you enter, and “This discount applies to shipping rates only, and is unrelated to order amounts.”
- Discounts
- Create discount
- Free shipping
To hide a free option from bulky products at checkout, use a public App Store app with a delivery customization function, which any plan can use, or a Checkout Blocks delivery method customization, available only on Shopify Plus.
Leaving products out of a product discount works differently: how to exclude products from a discount on Shopify.
What changes on shipping options by market?
Shopify's help page, read on November 9, 2026, says “Shipping options by market is in early access and is available only to certain stores,” while its developer changelog says “all merchants will be on it by July 1, 2027.” When a store is upgraded, “Rates that share the same shipping option name are consolidated into one shipping option automatically.” Not sure which system you use? Check which shipping system your store is on.
On shipping options by market, a rate applies to all products available in the market or to specific collections. Within one shipping option the highest matching rate is charged, and the shipping options page adds: “If a cart meets the free shipping threshold for a shipping option, then the price of that option, including the matching rate within it, becomes free.”
When a cart matches more than one shipping option, Shopify adds their prices together. Our reading of those rules, not a step Shopify spells out: give the bulky collection's rate its own shipping option, with Offer free shipping over a minimum order amount off.
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