Can the App owner Extend trial for a particular client

Shopify Apps

Topic summary

A Shopify app owner asks whether they can extend the trial period for a specific client and requests step-by-step guidance.

Initial Response (Older Information):

  • Shopify Support initially confirmed that extending existing free trials was not possible through the REST Admin API
  • Suggested workarounds included:
    • Canceling the current charge and creating a new one with a fresh trial
    • Having merchants uninstall and reinstall the app to reset trials
  • The GraphQL Admin API documentation at that time also didn’t indicate trial extensions were supported

Recent Update:

Current Status: The capability now exists, making the previous workarounds unnecessary for apps using the updated GraphQL API.

Summarized with AI on November 11. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

Hey,

Can I as the owner of the app extend the trial period for a particular client. If yes, can you please help me with the steps to how to do so?

Thanks.

2

Hi, @Manish_G !

Julie here from Shopify Support.

As a Shopify Partner, you can use either the REST Admin API or GraphQL Admin API to bill merchants for your app.

In the REST Admin API help documentation, there is a section on extending free trials. There, you’ll see that it’s not possible to extend an existing free trial. Instead, you can cancel the charge that the trial is associated with and issue a new charge.

We also have help documentation for billing with the GraphQL Admin API. While you’ll find some information on free trials there, it doesn’t indicate whether trial extensions are possible. I got in touch with our Partners team for more information and they confirmed that like the REST Admin API, it is not possible to extend trials.

Our Partners team suggests canceling the charge and recreating it. You can also choose to reset free trials if merchants uninstall and reinstall your app, which may be another workaround worth considering. You can learn how to do this here.

I hope this helps! What kind of app do you have?

1 Like
3

According to the new GraphQL Admin API documentation, now it is possible to extend an existing free trial: https://shopify.dev/docs/api/admin-graphql/2024-01/mutations/appSubscriptionTrialExtend