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Gift cards considerations and overview

You can activate gift cards on your store to sell gift card products and create gift cards directly from your Shopify admin at no cost to the recipient. You can sell gift cards online and in person with Shopify POS.

You can create gift cards in the following ways:

When you fulfill an order with a gift card product, the customer or gift card recipient receives a digital gift card with a unique code. This code can be used at checkout to redeem the gift card's value.

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Requirements for using gift cards

  • By using gift cards, you agree to Shopify's gift cards Terms of Service.
  • To create local currency gift cards, you must have markets and catalogs configured with the appropriate currency price list before creating the gift card product.

Considerations for using gift cards

  • Gift cards are available on all Shopify subscription plans.
  • For Shopify stores created on or after May 12, 2025, orders that include gift cards as a payment method are charged third-party transaction fees on the order amount paid for using a gift card. If your store is on the Shopify Plus plan with Shopify Payments activated, then this fee is waived.
  • A gift card purchased from your store has been prepaid for the equivalent value by a customer. Gift cards that you create from your Shopify admin don't require any payment by the customer or recipient.
  • You can create gift card products in your store currency or in specific currencies that you sell to. Store currency gift cards can be redeemed in any currency. Local currency gift cards can be redeemed only when the checkout currency matches the gift card currency. Learn more about gift card currencies.
  • Local currency gift cards aren't published to any catalogs by default. Fixed prices are automatically set across all catalogs with a matching currency when you create the gift card product. You must explicitly publish local currency gift cards to the appropriate catalog for them to be available to customers.
  • Laws and regulations about gift cards vary based on region. To determine any regulations that apply to you, such as whether to charge tax or for how long a gift card must stay valid, consult a local tax or legal expert.
  • Gift cards are considered currency, so only the customer or recipient can access the full gift card code. You can view only the last four characters of the gift card code.
  • The value of a gift card and the gift card redemption code can't be customized from your theme.
  • The Compare-at price field shouldn't be used to discount gift cards. Instead, use discount codes or automatic discounts to reduce the price of gift card products.

Considerations for gift card value limits

Certain regulatory obligations and risks require limitations on the maximum values of gift cards. Different ways of providing gift cards come with different levels of fraud and regulatory risk. Shopify's goal is to provide you with the maximum possible flexibility within legal constraints, and help to reduce the risk of fraud.

Review the following gift card values considerations:

  • The value of a gift card is always set to a monetary amount.
  • A gift card must have an initial value greater than zero.
  • Gift card products have preset values known as denominations. A customer can't input a custom amount for a gift card product denomination from your online storefront.
  • Gift card values have the following limits:
    • The value of a gift card product denomination can be set to any amount greater than 0, up to a maximum of $10,000 USD or equivalent in the gift card's currency.
    • The value of a gift card you create from the Shopify admin can be set to any amount greater than 0, up to a maximum of $2000 USD or equivalent in the gift card's currency.

Gift card compatible sales channels

Customers can redeem their gift cards on any of your sales channels that use Shopify checkout:

  • Online store
  • Buy Button
  • Facebook Shop
  • Messenger
  • Shopify POS
  • Shop app

Point of Sale gift cards

If you use the Point of Sale (POS) channel to sell in person, then you can create gift cards and sell gift card products in the POS app.

Gift cards and gift card products that you create in your Shopify admin and in the POS app are interchangeable. For example, a customer can purchase a gift card in person, and then redeem its value towards a purchase on your online storefront. You can find all your gift cards in Products > Gift cards of your Shopify admin.

Learn more about using gift cards on Shopify POS.

Gift card notifications

When you fulfill an order with a gift card, the customer or gift card recipient receives an email that contains a digital gift card with a unique code that they can use at checkout to redeem its value.

The following gift card notifications are available:

  • New gift card: Sent to the customer or recipient when the gift card product in an order is fulfilled, or when you send a created gift card.
  • Gift card receipt: Sent to the recipient when your theme supports adding a gift card recipient, and your customer adds a recipient to a gift card product purchase.

Gift card analytics

You can use the gift cards finance reports to help track your gift card product sales and to account for gift card payments on orders.

Troubleshooting

No gift card is created after you fulfill an order

A gift card is created automatically only when the order contains a gift card product. If the order contains a regular product that's named like a gift card but isn't set up as a gift card product, then fulfilling the order doesn't create a gift card.

To resolve this, create a gift card directly from your Shopify admin for the order amount, and notify the customer of the code. Gift cards created from the Shopify admin have a maximum value of $2,000 USD or equivalent. For orders above this limit, contact Shopify Support to issue the gift card. To avoid this in the future, set up the item as a gift card product, which supports values up to $10,000 USD, instead of a regular product.

Online orders don't link to a specific physical gift card

Online orders aren't automatically linked to the QR code or barcode of a pre-printed physical gift card. To issue a pre-printed physical card, scan it in Shopify POS.