Pay as you go vs pay in advance subscriptions on Shopify

Updated November 1, 2026 · SMART Subscriptions (E-TRADE PARTNER)

In SMART Subscriptions, choose Pay as you go to charge on every delivery, or Pay in advance to charge once for several deliveries. With pay in advance, Payment every must be a multiple of Delivery every in the same unit, for example delivery every 1 month and payment every 3 months.

A skincare brand ships a serum every month. Finance wants cash up front for a three-month commitment. Ops still wants monthly fulfillment so bottles stay fresh. That is not two different apps. It is one subscription option with pay in advance: deliver every month, charge every three months.

Pay as you go is simpler when each shipment and each charge should line up. Pay in advance is better when you want prepaid cash while still delivering on a shorter cadence. For how selling plans sit in Shopify overall, see how Shopify subscriptions work.

Why the billing model matters

• Pay as you go keeps charge and delivery aligned, which is easier for customers to understand.
• Pay in advance improves cash flow when payment covers multiple upcoming deliveries.
• The wrong model creates support tickets: customers expect a monthly charge and get a quarterly invoice, or the reverse.
• The models also look different in Shopify Orders. Pay as you go creates a new order per charge. Pay in advance creates one order per prepaid period, and each delivery shows as Scheduled until its date.
• Discount and frequency still matter, but billing style decides when money is collected.

What Shopify can and cannot do natively

Shopify subscription contracts carry a delivery policy and a billing policy. Building those policies by hand is not something most merchants want to do. SMART Subscriptions sets both from the plans editor: Pay as you go, or Pay in advance with a payment interval that is a multiple of the delivery interval.

Setup steps in SMART Subscriptions

1. Open SMART Subscriptions and create or edit a plan in Plans.
2. Add a subscription option. Its Label is the name customers see in the widget.
3. Set Delivery every from 1 to 99 days, weeks, months, or years.
4. Choose Pay as you go if payment should match each delivery.
5. Or choose Pay in advance and set Payment every in the same unit. It must be a multiple of Delivery every (for example, Delivery every 1 month, Payment every 3 months).
6. Optional: apply a discount (Percentage, Amount off, or Fixed amount, which sets a fixed price) and change it after X payments. Set a minimum or maximum number of payments if you need them.
7. Add more options to the same plan if you want several choices, and put them in the order you want.
8. Assign products or variants, add the Subscriptions Widget to the product template, and place a test checkout.
9. Confirm the first order total and the contract’s next billing date match the model you chose.

Worked example: monthly delivery, quarterly payment

A vitamin brand delivers every 1 month and wants payment every 3 months with 15% off versus one-time price.

1. Create a subscription option with Delivery every 1 month.
2. Select Pay in advance and set Payment every 3 months.
3. Apply a 15% Percentage discount.
4. Assign the vitamin products and set the option Label to “Deliver monthly, pay every 3 months”. The widget adds the SAVE 15% badge from the plan.
5. Test checkout. Open the contract in Subscriptions and confirm the next billing date is three months out while delivery stays monthly.
6. In Shopify Orders, the first order covers all three deliveries. The later ones show as Scheduled until their date.

The customer gets monthly shipments and a quarterly charge pattern that matches what the product page promised.

Practical tips

• Write the payment cadence into the option Label when pay in advance is not obvious.
• Use pay as you go for classic subscribe & save replenishment unless you have a clear prepaid reason.
• Combine billing style with the right discount setup and delivery frequencies.
• Confirm your gateway supports subscriptions before launch: payment gateways.
• In admin, upcoming orders on prepaid contracts cannot be skipped. Skip and unskip there work on pay as you go contracts.
• After go-live, check how orders appear for each model: where subscription orders appear.

Frequently asked questions