Shipping apps, delivery customizations, and other apps that affect subscription rates

Customers can't check out with a subscription because no shipping rates appear, or subscribers suddenly pay for shipping that used to be free, while one-time purchases work fine. If you use a shipping app (live carrier rates, ZIP-code rates, pickup points, delivery dates, checkout customization) or a second subscription app, that app is often the cause. Shopify works out rates at checkout from your shipping profiles and your apps. Awtomic doesn't calculate rates. See How a subscription's shipping rate is set and when it changes.

Symptoms

• Checkout shows "Shipping not available. Your order cannot be shipped to the selected address." (a Shopify message meaning no rate matched the cart and address) for subscription items, but a one-time purchase of the same product works.
• "Subscription items get no shipping rates, one-time works."
• "Carts with a subscription and a one-time item show no shipping rates." Carts with only one kind of item work.
• "Free shipping disappears when an add-on is in the cart."
• "Subscriptions suddenly started charging shipping, and nothing changed."
• "Do my ZIP-code rates (or live carrier rates) carry over to renewals?"
• "Will subscription shipping work with ShipHero (or another fulfillment app)?"
• "The renewal order's address or tags changed after the order was created."

Quick checks

1. On your storefront, add the product to the cart as a one-time purchase and go to checkout with a test address. Then do the same with the subscription option selected. Do you see rates for the one-time purchase? If one-time purchases also show no rates, the problem isn't subscription-specific. Go to No shipping rates for subscription products.
2. In Shopify admin, go to Settings → Shipping and delivery → Delivery customizations. Is any customization listed as active? If yes, go to A delivery customization hides or changes rates.
3. Open each shipping profile the cart uses. In Shopify admin, Settings → Shipping and delivery lists General and any product profiles. The Awtomic Subscription Shipping profile isn't listed there: open it from Awtomic's Settings → Logistics and operations → Manage rates. Does any zone show a carrier or app rate (a rate an app calculates live) instead of a flat rate you typed in? If yes, go to A rate app returns no rates for subscription items.
4. In Awtomic, go to Subscription plans, open the plan, and look at Enable subscription shipping in the Shipping section. Is it off when you didn't turn it off? If yes, go to Another subscription app changed your profile or plan.
5. Has an agency or developer added code to your theme or checkout that hides shipping rates based on product tags or cart contents? If yes, go to Custom code hides rates.
6. Is the problem only on renewals, while new checkouts look right? Go to Live or ZIP-code rates and renewals.

📘

Note

Test subscription checkouts from the product page, with the subscription option selected.
Shopify's cart permalinks (/cart/VARIANT_ID:1) don't support selling plans, so they add a one-time item (create cart permalinks).

Causes and fixes

A delivery customization hides or changes rates

Why it happens: A delivery customization is a small program that an app adds to your checkout. Pickup-point apps, delivery-date apps, and checkout customization apps often add one. It can hide, sort, or rename the rates Shopify offers. Some don't handle carts that contain subscription items, and hide every rate. This is the most common cause when carts with both subscription and one-time items show no rates. See Shopify's guide to add a delivery customization. On Shopify Plus, you may also hide, rename, or reorder delivery options with Checkout Blocks, which has a "Cart has selling plan" rule that can hide rates for subscription carts.

How to confirm:

1. In Shopify admin, go to Settings → Shipping and delivery → Delivery customizations.
2. Deactivate one customization.
3. Retry the same cart, with the same address.
4. If rates come back, you've found the cause. If not, reactivate it and try the next one.

How to fix: Leave that customization off, or change its settings in the app that installed it. If you need the customization, contact the app's developer. Send them a cart that fails and tell them it contains a subscription item.

What to expect afterwards: New checkouts get rates straight away. Existing subscriptions don't change, because renewals bill the shipping price stored on each subscription. Shopify's developer documentation also says recurring billing attempts skip delivery customizations.

Delivery customizations don't run when Awtomic asks Shopify for a subscription's rates (Shopify's developer documentation). So the customer portal and the Awtomic rate picker can show rates that a customization hides at checkout. Turning customizations off doesn't change what the portal or the rate picker shows. The test above applies to checkout only.

A rate app returns no rates for subscription items

Why it happens: Live carrier rates and rate apps (ZIP-code rates, delivery-slot apps) work the same way: at checkout, Shopify asks the app for rates and shows whatever the app sends back. Shopify calls this a carrier service. If the app sends back nothing for subscription items, Shopify has nothing to show. Shopify doesn't retry an app that fails or is too slow. It shows your backup rates instead, if you set any. See third-party carrier-calculated shipping and set up carrier or app calculated rates.

How to confirm:

1. Open the shipping profile that covers the subscription item. If you use subscription-specific rates, that's Awtomic Subscription Shipping. Otherwise it's the product's own profile, usually General.
2. Look at the zone for the customer's address. Is the rate a carrier or app rate instead of a flat rate?
3. Compare a one-time checkout and a subscription checkout for the same product and address. If only the subscription checkout fails, the app isn't returning rates for subscription items.

How to fix: Pick one:

• Give your subscription plans their own flat or price-based rates in the Awtomic Subscription Shipping profile. Then Shopify doesn't ask the rate app about subscription items at all. Each zone you add there must also exist in your General profile, or Shopify returns no rate for subscription items to that address. See Shipping settings.
• Ask the app's developer whether it supports subscription items (Shopify calls them selling plans) and how to turn that on.

What to expect afterwards: New checkouts use the new rates. Existing subscriptions keep their stored rate until you run a bulk update. See Bulk update shipping rates.

Live or ZIP-code rates and renewals

Why it happens: Your rate app sets the price at checkout. The subscription saves that price, and every renewal bills it.

As far as we know, Shopify doesn't ask your rate app for a new price at each renewal. Awtomic asks Shopify for the rate again only at certain times, for example after a customer or admin edits the subscription's products, or when you run a bulk refresh. Shopify then asks your app, as it does at checkout. See How a subscription's shipping rate is set and when it changes.

When Awtomic asks again, Shopify returns only one shipping rate per shipping profile: the cheapest rate for the address. Awtomic looks for the subscriber's current rate among the options by its rate code (a short ID the app gives each rate). If the current rate is that cheapest rate, the subscriber keeps it at today's price. If the current rate is more expensive, or your app has changed its rate codes, Awtomic can't find it and moves the subscriber to the cheapest rate. This is one reason Shopify asks rate apps to keep their codes stable.

How to confirm: Open the subscription in Awtomic and look at the shipping row and the timeline. A timeline entry for a shipping rate change shows the old and new rate.

How to fix:

• To move existing subscribers to your app's current rates, run a bulk refresh on a small test group first. See Bulk update shipping rates.
• To keep existing subscribers on their current rates, don't run a refresh. In Awtomic, go to Settings → Logistics and operations and turn on both checkboxes under Disable shipping rate updates.
• To charge one subscriber a specific amount, set a custom rate. See Edit the shipping rate in a subscription.

Another subscription app changed your profile or plan

Why it happens: Every app on your store shares the same shipping profiles. Another subscription app (for example one you are trialing or moving away from) can edit the same profile, or remove your plan from it. When the plan is no longer attached, Shopify charges your normal rates to subscription items. The profile itself can still look correct. Shopify covers this in troubleshoot third-party app shipping profiles.

How to confirm:

1. In Awtomic, go to Subscription plans and open the plan. Check that Enable subscription shipping is on.
2. In Awtomic, go to Settings → Logistics and operations and select Manage rates to open Awtomic Subscription Shipping. Check that the plan's products appear in its Products list, and that the zone for the customer's address has a rate.
3. In Shopify admin, go to Settings → Apps and sales channels and look for other subscription apps.

How to fix: Turn Enable subscription shipping back on for each affected plan and select Save. If you no longer use the other subscription app, uninstall it. If you see "Cannot enable subscription shipping" (Awtomic couldn't attach the plan to the profile), see Shipping settings.

What to expect afterwards: New checkouts get the subscription rate. Subscriptions created while the plan was detached keep the rate they were charged. Fix them with a bulk refresh. See Subscriber charged your regular shipping rate.

Custom code hides rates

Why it happens: Some stores use custom checkout code that hides rates based on product tags or cart contents. A mix of products it didn't expect can make it hide every rate.

How to confirm: Ask whoever built the code (often your agency) to turn it off on a test checkout, and retry the same cart.

How to fix: Replace the code with separate shipping profiles, one for each group of products that needs different rates. See set up and manage shipping profiles.

Fulfillment, 3PL, and pickup-point apps

Why it happens: Awtomic uses normal Shopify shipping profiles and creates normal Shopify orders. It doesn't connect to fulfillment apps such as ShipHero, and it doesn't change an order after Shopify creates it. If a renewal order's address, shipping method, or tags change after it is created, another app made that change.

How to confirm: Open the order in Shopify admin and read its timeline. Look for changes made by an app after the order was created.

How to fix: Contact the app that made the change. If your fulfillment app or ERP matches shipping methods by name, match them by rate code or price instead. See Wrong shipping method name on subscription orders.

What Shopify controls

Starting with Shopify's October 2026 API version (2026-10), a newly installed or reinstalled rate app may not add its rates to your General profile on its own (Shopify changelog). If a new rate app shows no rates, open the profile and check that the app's rates are added to the zone.

🚧

Important

If your store has moved to shipping options by market, your rates are managed under Markets instead of Shipping and delivery.
Awtomic creates its own Awtomic Subscription Shipping profile, which Shopify treats as an app's profile.
On migrated stores, Shopify says rates provided by apps appear in each market's shipping options, and you can turn them on or off there but not edit them (how shipping options by market work).
Shopify doesn't move stores that use an app until it confirms the app is compatible.
If you can't change your subscription rates after a move, contact Awtomic support.

If you use an AI agent

Ask your agent to look, never change. In plain words: list my delivery customizations and whether each is on, list my rate apps, and tell me which zones in each shipping profile use app rates. The Shopify queries it can use are:

• delivery customizations: deliveryCustomizations { nodes { functionId enabled title } }
• rate apps: carrierServices { nodes { name active callbackUrl } }
• zones that use app or carrier rates: the DeliveryParticipant rate provider on each profile's method definitions

Then turn customizations off yourself, one at a time. See Debug subscription shipping with your AI agent.

Still stuck? Send support this

• Shop domain (your-store.myshopify.com)
• Subscription IDs or order numbers that show the problem
• Exact error text, copied word for word
• A cart link or customer address (country, state, ZIP) that reproduces it
• Bulk process ID, if you ran a bulk update
• Screenshots of the plan's Enable subscription shipping checkbox and the profile's zones and locations
• Your delivery customizations and rate apps, and what happened when you turned each one off
• Any other subscription app installed on your store
• What you already checked

Related

• Subscription shipping troubleshooting
• Shipping settings
• How a subscription's shipping rate is set and when it changes
• No shipping rates for subscription products
• Mixed carts: subscription and one-time items
• Bulk update shipping rates
• Debug subscription shipping with your AI agent