How can I calculate remaining trial days in a Remix app with GraphQL?

Shopify Apps

Topic summary

A developer is building a Shopify app using CLI 3.0 Remix and needs to calculate remaining trial days for subscriptions.

Current Approach:

  • Querying currentAppInstallation via GraphQL to retrieve activeSubscriptions data
  • Getting fields: trialDays, currentPeriodEnd, and createdAt
  • Attempting to calculate remaining days by finding the difference between createdAt and currentPeriodEnd

Issue:
The calculation shows 2 days between the dates, but the subscription only has 1 trial day configured, creating confusion about the correct method.

Key Finding:
The developer discovered that trial periods end based on the RecurringApplicationCharge activation time (available via REST API, not GraphQL), but cannot use this approach since they’re working with GraphQL.

Proposed Solution:
A helper function CalculateTrialStatus was shared that:

  • Calculates elapsed time since subscription creation
  • Subtracts elapsed days from total trialDays
  • Rounds to nearest whole number and ensures non-negative values
  • Returns appropriate messages (“Upgrade Now” when trial expires or remaining days count)

The discussion remains focused on finding the most accurate method for trial day calculation within the GraphQL/Remix framework constraints.

Summarized with AI on November 10. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
2 
export const CalculateTrialStatus = (currentAppInstallation: any): string => {
  if (
    !currentAppInstallation ||
    !currentAppInstallation.activeSubscriptions ||
    currentAppInstallation.activeSubscriptions.length === 0
  ) {
    return "No active subscriptions";
  }

  const subscription = currentAppInstallation.activeSubscriptions[0];
  const currentPeriodEnd = new Date(subscription.currentPeriodEnd);
  const createdAt = new Date(subscription.createdAt);
  const trialDays = subscription.trialDays;

  // Calculate the remaining trial days
  const now = new Date();
  const elapsedMilliseconds = now.getTime() - createdAt.getTime();
  const elapsedDays = elapsedMilliseconds / (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24);
  let remainingTrialDays = trialDays - elapsedDays;

  // Adjust remaining trial days if past the current period end
  if (now > currentPeriodEnd) {
    remainingTrialDays = 0;
  }

  // Ensure remaining trial days is not negative
  remainingTrialDays = Math.max(0, remainingTrialDays);

  // Round remaining trial days to the nearest whole number
  remainingTrialDays = Math.round(remainingTrialDays);

  // Return appropriate message based on remaining trial days
  if (remainingTrialDays === 0) {
    return "Upgrade Now";
  } else {
    return `${remainingTrialDays} days trial`;
  }
};
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