Why is the shipping rates API not pulling through the 'Local delivery' rate?

Technical Q&A
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Topic summary

Main issue: The Shopify AJAX API endpoint cart/shipping_rates.json no longer returns the “Local delivery” rate. The response now comes back as an empty array, though the store’s third‑party “Better Shipping” rates are still functioning. The endpoint worked before 20 July, and no shipping or store config changes were made.

Context and terms:

  • AJAX API: client‑side endpoints used in themes; cart/shipping_rates.json should return available shipping options for the current cart and address.
  • Local delivery: Shopify’s built‑in local delivery shipping method.

Recent developments: The poster linked two similar community reports of shipping rate issues and asked for confirmation of an ongoing problem from Shopify.

Support guidance: Shopify staff did not confirm an incident. They repeatedly directed the user to report the bug via the Help Centre (live chat or email) so it can be escalated to the technical team. No public troubleshooting steps or updates were provided in‑thread.

Outcome/status:

  • No resolution or official acknowledgement in the thread.
  • Action item: Submit a bug report through the Help Centre for escalation.
  • Discussion remains open with unanswered questions about the cause and scope.
Summarized with AI on January 22. AI used: gpt-5.
1

We’re having an issue with the cart/shipping_rates.json endpoint in the AJAX API, which is no longer pulling through the “Local delivery” rate. The other rates, which are handled by the third-party app “Better Shipping”, are still working fine.

It successfully returns an empty array of rates, without ‘Local Delivery’. The endpoint was working correctly before 20th July and there haven’t been any recent changes in the store’s config or shipping settings.

I wondered if it could be related to these other issues?

Can someone at Shopify confirm if there’s still an ongoing issue here?
Thanks

2 Likes
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Hi there, @ExtremeMarcus !

If you’d like to report a bug or broken API call (as opposed to asking how to use the API) you can reach out via our Help Centre here.

There we’ll be able to escalate your report to our technical team by gathering some more info from you there.

For general queries on how to use the Shopify API, our API forums here would be the place to post.

3

Hi @Don ,

It’s not clear from the link you shared how exactly you’d report a bug (there’s actually a whole topic here which is unanswered).

Is there no way you can help here given that your support team replied to this incredibly similar bug on the same API and provided an update which I referenced in my post? Private responses also won’t help other users who may be experiencing the same issue

Thanks in advance

4

Hi again, @ExtremeMarcus !

If you wish to report a bug or broken API call then you can access support as normal via our Help Centre.

You can start a live chat or email there so share any info you have on this, and our team can gather any other info necessary to escalate this to our technical team for further investigation.

All the best!