AI-powered, Human-reviewed.
“Six months of Shopify for a dollar a month” is easier to find in blog posts than on Shopify’s site. The offer is real, but it does not sit on the path most merchants take, and the term you are shown at signup is the one you get, it cannot be swapped later.
For a store built on recurring orders the timing matters more than the discount, because your second and third renewals often land after the promotional rate has expired. The useful question before you create the account is not how to get six months, but which route you qualify for and what the invoices look like in months one, four and seven.
What Shopify publishes today
Shopify’s pricing page, rendered in US dollars on September 21, 2026, advertises one offer: “Try 3 days free, then $1/month for 3 months.” Three months, not six. Elsewhere the same promotion renders in local currency, so the headline figure changes with the store’s region.
The conditions live on the Help Center page about free trials, where three sentences do most of the work:
● “The length of your free trial can vary based on different factors.”
● “The duration of trials and any promotional pricing is determined by when you create your Shopify account and start your free trial.”
● “Trial length and pricing are subject to change and might vary by store location.”
Shopify does not publish the rules behind those factors. Its offers page says only that it “might offer promotional pricing on monthly plans for new merchants,” and the free-trial page adds that “promotional pricing is only available to eligible merchants on eligible plans.” Nowhere does Shopify define who counts as a new merchant, or say what happens if you have owned a store before. That gap is worth naming rather than filling with guesswork.
Which routes actually run longer than three months
Six months is a published term, just not on the public signup path. Here are the routes Shopify documents as of September 21, 2026:
| Route | What it gives | Who qualifies | Source |
| Public signup | 3 days free, then $1/month for 3 months | New stores on eligible plans | shopify.com/pricing |
| 1MBB program | Basic at the $1/month rate for the first 6 months | Merchants in the US and Canada, via Operation HOPE | shopify.com/1mbb |
| Student offer | 4 months free, then $1/month for 3 months | Students at participating US and Canadian institutions | shopify.com/students |
| AI-tool build | A free trial, “currently 4 months” | Stores created with an AI tool or a vibe code partner | Help Center |
| Transferred store | No trial, no promotion | Stores handed over as client transfer stores | Help Center |
The 1MBB page is the six-month row, and it is gated: “Offer valid for merchants in the US and Canada only,” with terms warning that stores not meeting the criteria “are subject to closure without notice.” It is a discounted paid plan, not a free trial, and you register through Operation HOPE. If a six-month term surfaces anywhere else, our guide to the six-month $1/month offer re-reads the public signup path and the program pages monthly and records what each one showed on the date it was checked.
Two conditions quietly disqualify a store. A client transfer store is the first: if an agency builds your store inside its own organization and hands it over, “after transfer to the client, the store isn’t eligible for promotions or free trials.” Ask for collaborator access to a store you created instead. The second is sign-up links: Shopify publishes no guarantee that any link sets trial length, so a link promising six months promises something undocumented. Offer by offer, with the official source behind each one, the rest sits in our catalogue of Shopify’s merchant offers and who qualifies.
What the first bills look like
Bill one arrives later and fuller than expected
Nothing is charged during the free trial. Pick a plan early and the Help Center is explicit: “If you decide to upgrade to a paid plan within your free trial period, then charges will only start after the free trial period ends.” Upgrading mid-trial buys no extra days either, “it won’t change the length of the trial and charges begin when the trial ends.”
The surprise is the second line on that invoice. Apps installed during the trial are not free in hindsight: “If you install apps during the trial period, then any app subscription or usage charges are included on your first invoice after the trial ends.” A store that trialled three or four apps opens a $1 invoice that is not a $1 invoice.
What the promotional rate never covers
The discount applies to the plan subscription and nothing else. The types of charges page lists subscription, apps, shipping and transaction fees as what lands on a bill, and separates card processing out: “Shopify Payments credit card processing fees aren’t included in these charge types, because they’re deducted from your payouts rather than billed on your Shopify bill.”
● Card processing. US online rates on Basic are 2.9% + 30¢ USD per transaction, during the promotion and after it. You meet them as smaller payouts, not as an invoice line.
● Third-party gateways. “You’re charged transaction fees if your store doesn’t have Shopify Payments activated” the pricing page prints 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced.
● Apps. Recurring charges run on “an independent, 30-day billing cycle” that is “charged for at the same time as the Shopify subscription,” while one-time app charges “are displayed on separate invoices.”
● Credits. The Shopify Rewards Promotion offsets subscription bills, 1% back on Shopify Payments sales, 0.5% otherwise, capped at $5,000 on Basic, but only for invited merchants, and not until the store reaches $1,000 USD in sales.
The date the rate ends
Your admin shows it: when an offer is active, “the plan details will display the promotional rate and the date when standard pricing begins.” Put that date in the calendar, because “after your promotional pricing period ends, you need to select a standard-rate plan to continue using Shopify,” and if you do not, “your store might be frozen until you choose one.” Shopify also “doesn’t extend or reset free trials or promotional pricing.”
In US pricing the step is from $1 to $39 a month on Basic billed monthly, or $29 billed yearly; Grow is $105 and Advanced $399. Leaving early is not a refund route: deactivate during a promotional period and “you aren’t entitled to a refund for any charges incurred during this period.”
Four checks before you choose a plan
- Read the term you are shown. Shopify tells you to visit shopify.com/free-trial, enter your email and click Start free trial to see the current length and offer. That screen is your term.
- Screenshot Settings > Plan once the promotion is active, so the rate and the date standard pricing begins exist in writing.
- Count the apps installed during the trial and expect them on the first invoice after it ends.
- Choose monthly or yearly before the end date, not on it, on Basic, US pricing makes yearly $10 a month cheaper, for a year’s commitment.
Final Thoughts
For a subscription business the promotional rate is runway, not savings. The $3 or $6 in subscription fees is noise next to processing fees, the app stack and ad spend, which arrive on schedule from day one, and the real test is the first full-price month, when recurring revenue has to cover a $39 plan instead of a $1 one.
Take the term you are shown, mark its end date the day you get it, and model your unit economics against the standard rate. If the numbers work at $39, the dollar months are a bonus. If they only work at $1, the offer was never the problem.
