New paymentInstrumentSendAddEmail mutation emails customers a link to add a payment method for a subscription, order, or draft order
Shopify developer change
MerchantDiff detected this entry in Shopify's official developer changelog on September 03, 2026.
This Shopify update is categorized as API, New, Admin GraphQL API, 2026-10.
What changed
Before this change, the GraphQL Admin API could only ask a customer to update an existing payment method: customerPaymentMethodSendUpdateEmail requires a customerPaymentMethodId, so there was no way to request payment details for a subscription contract, order, or draft order that has no payment method on file. Merchants and apps had to collect the payment method themselves before setting up the resource. The paymentInstrumentSendAddEmail mutation closes that gap. It is available in the GraphQL Admin API as of version 2026-10. It emails the customer associated with a resource a link to add a payment method, and returns the Customer the email was sent to.
Who is affected
This change applies to apps calling the GraphQL Admin API on version 2026-10 or later. The mutation doesn't exist in 2026-07 or earlier, so apps pinned to those versions are unaffected and see no change in behavior. To call paymentInstrumentSendAddEmail, your app needs the write_customers access scope.
What action may be needed
No action is required. This release adds a mutation and doesn't change, deprecate, or remove any existing field, mutation, or behavior, so apps on 2026-07 and earlier continue to work unchanged. To start using the mutation: Check whether your app already requests the write_customers access scope. If it doesn't, adding it requires merchants to approve the updated scope before your app can call the mutation.
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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