Is there a fee to access checkout.liquid for Google Tag installation?

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Topic summary

Concern about needing to pay $2000 to edit checkout.liquid for installing a Google tag for conversion tracking.

  • On standard Shopify (non‑Plus), checkout.liquid isn’t accessible; it’s a Shopify Plus feature. However, you do not need it to track Google Ads conversions.
  • To track purchase completions, place the Google Ads conversion code in Settings > Checkout > Additional Scripts (order status page). Limitation: this won’t track intermediate checkout steps.
  • Google Tag Manager (GTM) cannot be installed to cover the checkout on non‑Plus stores, though you can add GTM to theme.liquid for storefront pages.
  • To track micro‑conversions and checkout events, use Shopify Customer Events (Web Pixel/custom pixels). These can capture events like begin checkout, payment info submission, and checkout complete. Some apps offer tooling and planned GA4 (Google Analytics 4) integrations.

Outcome: Paying for Plus solely to access checkout.liquid isn’t necessary for Google Ads conversion tracking. Recommended paths are Additional Scripts for purchases and Customer Events for checkout-related events. The discussion appears resolved with actionable steps.

Summarized with AI on January 27. AI used: gpt-5.
1

Hi all,

I am needing to install my Google tag in order to track conversions through Ad Words.

It seems I need to pay $2000 to get access to my checkout.liquid file, surely this can’t be right. Am I missing something here?

Any help would be appreciated

2

Hi,

With regular Shopify stores, you can track conversions i.e. order completions by putting your pixel code in Settings > Checkout > Additional Scripts. Check the Shopify Docs for details. The only limitation you have with this is you won’t be able to track the Checkout steps but only the purchase completion (order status) step.

I hope this helps.

3

Please help me to fix it up

4

GTM cannot be installed in the additional scripts section of non-Plus stores. It is an exclusive Plus feature. More details about this.

To your issue though, you don’t need access to the checkout.liquid to setup Google Ads tracking. Here’s how to set it up yourself with various features like enhanced conversions and cart data.

If you wanted to track micro conversions like began checkout, or added to cart, the best way to do that at the end of 2022 is using customer events (Shopify custom pixels).

1 Like
5

Hi @Josh_Uebergang I will look through the above. When you say access the checkout.liquid this is hypothetical right as I am unable to access it as Shopify lock it down until I pay the Dollar?

6

I said you don’t need access to checkout.liquid anymore for tracking.

7

Hey @DarmeY , you don’t have to pay $2000 now. You can use shopify customer events(Shopify web pixel) to get checkout start, checkout complete, payment info submission. We have tracked them successfully with this new feature.

  1. If you want to track checkout process and find how which campaigns drive the checkout, you may consider Attribuly

  2. If you want to track them with GA4, we plan to integrate GA4 with our app, so you don’t need to do any code job. DM me so we can inform you when our beta released.

Thanks.

8

Hi DarmeY,

You can have access to checkout.liquid only if you have shopify plus plan. I don’t think you need to pay anything for it. You should be able to add Google tag code snippets into your theme.liquid file which will be free of cost.

9

You don’t need to pay anything.

Just do these following 2 things and you’re done.

  1. Add conversion tracking code in checkout additional scripts under settings > checkout.

  2. Add google tag manager script code in your theme liquid.

Thanks

Ashish