Edit the shipping rate in a subscription

Use this article when one subscriber is paying the wrong amount for shipping, or you want to charge one subscriber a special rate or delivery fee. Each subscription saves its own shipping method and price, and every renewal bills that saved price. Changing your shipping rates in Shopify doesn't change existing subscriptions, so you edit the rate on the subscription itself. To change many subscriptions at once, use a bulk update instead. See Bulk update shipping rates. For the full picture of when a rate changes, see How a subscription's shipping rate is set and when it changes.

Before you begin

Your staff role needs the Edit shipping rate permission, under Subscription management. See Staff permissions.
Know the subscription's delivery method: shipping, local delivery, or pickup. Some options below work only for shipping.
The rates you can pick from come from your Shopify shipping profiles, for the subscription's address and products. If the list is empty, see No shipping rates for subscription products.

1. Edit the shipping rate

In Awtomic, open the subscription.
In the shipping row, open the menu and select Edit shipping rate.
Choose one option:
- A rate from the list. These are the options Shopify offers for this address today: its cheapest shipping rate (one per shipping profile), plus local delivery if you offer it. More expensive rates, and the subscription's current rate if it isn't the cheapest, are not listed.
- Custom shipping rate. Enter any amount of 0 or more. Use this to charge a price that isn't your cheapest rate.
If you choose a local delivery rate, enter a Phone number. You can also add Delivery instructions (optional).
Select Save.

The shipping price and the subscription's recurring total update straight away. The next renewal bills the new price.

Option	What is saved on the subscription	What happens later
A rate from the list	The rate's name, code, and today's price	Awtomic may ask Shopify for this rate's price again after later product edits. See section 3.
Custom shipping rate	Your amount, under the name Custom Rate	Kept through edits and renewals. Awtomic never asks Shopify to replace a custom rate on an edit. A bulk refresh does replace it, see section 3.

If your store uses membership shipping discounts, a membership benefit applies on top of a custom rate saved from October 2026 on. For an older custom rate, save it again with Edit shipping rate.

2. Why Edit shipping rate is unavailable

The Edit shipping rate menu item is greyed out in these cases:

The subscription is...	Why	What to do
Prepaid (most prepaid subscriptions; some older prepaid subscriptions keep the menu)	Prepaid subscriptions show $0 shipping between prepaid orders. Awtomic asks Shopify for the rate again after the last one.	Wait until the prepaid term ends, or contact support
Expired	Expired subscriptions don't renew	Nothing to change
Billing right now	A billing attempt is in progress	Wait a few minutes and reload the page
Queued for payment	The renewal is queued for payment processing. The page shows "Subscription in queue".	Wait for the order to process, then reload the page
On local delivery or pickup	These rates can't be edited from this menu	Change the address or delivery method. See section 4.

If the menu item is greyed out on a shipping subscription that is none of the above, check your staff permission.

On pickup subscriptions Edit shipping rate is greyed out, so you can't edit the rate there. Pickup prices aren't looked up again. To move a pickup subscriber to shipping, use Edit on the Pickup address card and choose Ship. See section 4.

3. Will the new rate stick?

Sometimes Awtomic asks Shopify for the subscription's rate again and saves the new price. This table shows when.

Event	Rate from the list	Custom shipping rate
Next renewal	Bills the saved price	Bills the saved price
Customer edits products in the portal	Updated to today's price, unless you turned this off	Kept
You edit products in Awtomic	Updated to today's price, unless you turned this off	Kept
One-time items drop off after a renewal	Updated to today's price	Kept
You change the address	You confirm a new rate	You confirm a new rate
Bulk Refresh latest rate	Updated to today's cheapest rate	Replaced, see below

When Awtomic asks again, Shopify returns only its cheapest shipping rate for the address. If the subscription is on that rate (matched by its rate code, a short ID Shopify gives each rate), Awtomic keeps it at today's Shopify price. If not, the subscription moves to the cheapest rate, so a more expensive rate you picked doesn't stick. Use a custom rate to keep a price that isn't the cheapest. Pickup and local delivery prices are not looked up again on product edits.

To stop these updates on edits, go to Settings → Logistics and operations in Awtomic. Under Disable shipping rate updates, turn on one or both:

Do not recalculate shipping rate when the shopper updates subscription on the customer portal
Do not recalculate shipping rate when the administrator updates subscription from the Shopify app

The first setting does more than its name says. It also stops the update after a renewal, and customers can't choose a different rate in the portal. See How a subscription's shipping rate is set and when it changes.

A bulk refresh replaces a custom rate with the cheapest rate Shopify returns for that address. Leave subscriptions with custom rates out of the bulk update filter if you want to keep them.

4. Change the address

On the subscription page, find the Shipping address card (it reads Pickup address for pickup subscribers) and select Edit.
If asked, choose Ship or Pick up under Choose delivery method, then select Continue.
For Ship, pick a saved address or add a new one in Select delivery address, then select Continue. For Pick up, choose a location in Select pickup location.
For Ship, check the rate in Confirm shipping rate.
Select Confirm.

See Changing shipping address.

To charge a price other than the one Shopify offers, confirm the address first, then set a custom rate with Edit shipping rate (section 1).

If Confirm shipping rate shows no Shopify rate for the address (only Custom shipping rate, or "No delivery options available for this address"), Shopify has no rate for that address and those products. Check the profile's zones and locations. See No shipping rates for subscription products.

Changing the delivery method this way is also how you move a pickup subscriber to shipping. There is no local delivery choice in Choose delivery method.

To move a local delivery subscriber to shipping, open the address card's Edit and look for Ship. If it isn't offered, contact support. Customers can change their own delivery method in the customer portal. There is no bulk tool for this. Contact support if you need to change many subscriptions. See Local pickup and local delivery for subscriptions.

5. Add a recurring delivery fee for one subscriber

Awtomic has no automatic rule that charges existing subscribers a fee by ZIP code. Use one of these:

Option	How	Good to know
Custom shipping rate	Follow section 1 and enter the fee as the custom rate	Kept on every renewal. Shows as shipping on the order.
A delivery fee product	Create a "Delivery fee" product in Shopify and add it to that one subscription	Shows as a line item, not as shipping. Add it to the subscription, not to the plan, or every subscriber pays it. See Changing the products in a subscription.

For ZIP-based rates on new checkouts, see Shipping apps and delivery customizations.

6. Change the rate automatically with Shopify Flow

You can also change a subscription's rate automatically with Shopify Flow (Shopify's free automation tool). It makes real changes to subscriptions. Test on one subscription first.

Tool	What it does
Shopify Flow action Update shipping rate	Sets Shipping Rate, or turns on Use Shopify's shipping rate. Shipping Method Title, Shipping Method Customer-Facing Title, and Shipping Method Code rename the method.

About the Flow action:

Use Shopify's shipping rate asks Shopify for the rate again. Shopify returns only its cheapest rate for the address, so the subscription keeps its current rate at today's price only if that is the cheapest rate. Otherwise it moves to the cheapest rate. It works for shipping only, not local delivery or pickup.
A rate you type into Shipping Rate doesn't get membership shipping discounts.

See Shopify Flow integration and Shopify's guide to create a workflow.

Troubleshooting

What you see	What to check
"An error occurred updating shipping rate"	Try again after reloading. If it keeps failing, send support the subscription ID.
Edit shipping rate is greyed out	See section 2.
Only Custom shipping rate in the list	Shopify has no rate for this address and these products. See No shipping rates for subscription products.
The subscription's current rate isn't in the list	Shopify lists only its cheapest rate. To keep a higher price, use Custom shipping rate. See Why subscriptions use the cheapest shipping rate.
The rate changed after an edit	A product edit moved it to Shopify's cheapest rate at today's price. See section 3.
Orders show Subscription Shipping or Custom Rate as the method name	See Wrong shipping method name on subscription orders.