Create unpaid orders from subscription billing attempts
Shopify developer change
MerchantDiff detected this entry in Shopify's official developer changelog on April 01, 2026.
This Shopify update is categorized as API, New, Admin GraphQL API, 2026-04.
What changed
In the API 2026-04 release candidate version, you can now include a new field called paymentProcessingPolicy when creating a billing attempt using the subscriptionBillingAttemptCreate mutation. A billing attempt is an action to charge a customer based on their subscription. The paymentProcessingPolicy field determines how the billing attempt is handled depending on the validity of the payment method: If you don't provide the paymentProcessingPolicy field, or if you set it to FAIL_UNLESS_VALID_PAYMENT_METHOD, a valid payment method is necessary to create an order successfully. Alternatively, if you set the value to SKIP_PAYMENT_AND_CREATE_UNPAID_ORDER, the system will create an unpaid order even if there isn't a valid payment method available on the subscription contract. For detailed implementation instructions, please refer to our documentation on building a subscription contract.
Who is affected
Apps using the affected Shopify GraphQL API surface should review this change.
What action may be needed
Review whether the new capability is relevant to your app. If you plan to use it, test the affected API or workflow before adopting it in production.
Use the official Shopify entry below as the source of truth for technical implementation details, affected APIs, migration instructions and deadlines.
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