8. Plans, Pricing & Billing FAQ
Core and Professional plan pricing, included credits, the per-gift fee, how Multi-Gift orders are billed, the Shopify spend cap, and your free first month.
Written By Giftnote Team
Last updated About 1 hour ago
This article covers everything about Giftnote's plans, pricing, per-gift fees, and how billing works through Shopify — including how to prevent the spend cap from freezing your account during peak season.
Your first month is free when you first subscribe. Usage charges still apply. If you need time to finish setup, chat with us using the chat button in the help centre or in the app and we can work with you on timing.
If you don't choose a plan, your store is on Giftnote's free tier. If you are a developer looking for a free sandbox account for a development store, please email support@giftnote.com.
Legacy and custom plans stay as they are. You don't need to switch, but Professional features (such as Multi Gift and the Giftnote API) need the Professional plan.
Quick reference
Full details
Core plan — $19/month + $1 per gift message
The Core plan is designed for direct-to-consumer merchants who want to add gift messaging, digital gift cards, and recipient capture to their store. It includes 20 credits, then $1 per gift message or gift card.
What's included:
- Gift message widget on your product pages, cart drawer, and checkout (checkout extension requires Shopify Plus)
- Digital gift cards with direct-to-recipient delivery
- Store credit issuance
- Recipient notification by email at the moment of delivery, with customisable email and SMS templates
- Klaviyo integration
- Merchant dashboard
- Order status page widget (confirms the gift message to the buyer after checkout)
What's not included:
- Multi-Gift corporate gifting portal (requires Professional)
- Shipping/tax calculations and API access (require Professional)
- Removing the "Powered by Giftnote" branding (requires Professional)
Professional plan — $99/month + $1 per gift message
The Professional plan includes everything in Core, plus the Multi-Gift corporate gifting portal for merchants whose customers purchase gifts in bulk — employee gifts, client appreciation, event gifting. It includes 20 credits, then $1 per gift message or gift card, and Multi Gift usage is billed at the rate shown on Settings → Subscription. Removing the "Powered by Giftnote" branding is also available on the Professional plan.
What the Multi-Gift portal adds:
- Branded corporate gifting portal on a free giftnote.shop address or your own domain
- CSV upload for multiple recipients per order
- Per-recipient personalised gift messages
- Address validation
- Live shipping rate calculation
Multi Gift is included on the Professional plan only. Once you're on Professional, you manage your storefronts in Settings → Multi Gifts. If you'd like help setting it up, chat with us using the chat button in the help centre or in the app, and we'll send a Shopify collaborator request.
How the per-gift fee works
- Gift messages and gift cards — Core and Professional each include 20 credits. After that, it's $1 per gift message or gift card sent, on top of your monthly plan fee. One order with a gift message is one $1 fee, regardless of how many items are in the cart. The fee is per gift message or gift card, not per notification channel.
- Multi-Gift orders are billed separately — Multi Gift is on Professional only, and its rate is shown on Settings → Subscription. A large corporate order adds to your usage, so check your spend limit before a big campaign.
You only pay for what you use.
Your first month is free when you first subscribe. Usage charges (per-gift fees) still apply during that month. If you need more time to complete setup before going live, chat with us using the chat button in the help centre or in the app.
How billing works through Shopify
Giftnote is billed entirely through Shopify. You'll see charges on your regular Shopify invoice — there's no separate payment method or billing portal to manage.
Your Giftnote charges have two components:
- Plan fee — $19/month (Core) or $99/month (Professional), charged at the start of each billing cycle
- Usage fees — $1 per gift message/gift card after your 20 included credits (plus Multi Gift usage on Professional, at the rate shown on Settings → Subscription), charged at the end of each billing cycle based on actual usage
You can view your current Giftnote charges at any time via Shopify admin → Settings → Billing → View all subscriptions → Giftnote.
Inside Giftnote, Settings → Subscription shows your current plan, the credits you have used, your per-gift order and per-gift card rates, and your spend limit. It is also where you change plan or cancel your subscription.
The spend cap — and why you need to increase it before peak season
This is the single most important billing detail for growing stores.
Giftnote's usage charges in Shopify have a spend cap. Your current limit is shown as Spend limit in Settings → Subscription. If your usage fees reach the cap in a billing cycle, Giftnote stops processing new gift messages until the next cycle begins. That means during your busiest sales period — Black Friday, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day — your gift messaging could silently stop working if you haven't raised this cap.
At $1 per gift message, every gift after your included credits counts towards the cap. For context, a brand doing well during the holiday season can process hundreds of gift messages per week.
See Increase Your Shopify Billing Spend Cap for the steps and how to size the right amount. The cap is raised in your Shopify billing settings. You're not committing to spend that amount — you're raising the ceiling so Giftnote can keep processing gift messages if volume is high. You still only pay for the gift messages you actually send.
We strongly recommend reviewing your spend cap at least 8 weeks before any major gifting season (Black Friday/Cyber Monday, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Christmas). Don't wait until gift messages stop sending to find out your cap was too low.
What happens when you uninstall Giftnote
- Charges stop when you cancel. Uninstalling cancels your Giftnote subscription. Giftnote is month-to-month with no contracts.
- Your gift card codes remain active. Giftnote gift cards are standard Shopify gift cards — recipients can still redeem them after you uninstall the app.
If you see a charge after uninstalling, that's almost always a Shopify billing cycle timing issue — the charge covers usage from before you uninstalled. If you think you were charged by mistake, email support@giftnote.com and we'll review it.
Important: Disabling the Giftnote app embed in your theme is not the same as uninstalling the app. To cancel, go to Settings → Subscription in the Giftnote app and select Cancel Subscription, or uninstall Giftnote from Shopify Admin → Settings → Apps and sales channels → Giftnote → Uninstall. Charges stop when you cancel.
Billing per store, not per account
Giftnote billing applies per Shopify store. If you run multiple Shopify stores (for example, separate stores for different regions), each store has its own Giftnote subscription and usage charges. This is a Shopify billing infrastructure constraint — there's no way to consolidate multiple stores under one subscription.
Can I charge my customers for the gift message?
Yes. Many merchants pass the cost of the gift message through to their customers — some at break-even ($1), others at a margin ($2–$5). Here's how the economics work:
On Shopify Plus: a native checkout surcharge is available — no developer needed. Select the surcharge product variant in Settings → Gift Orders → Advanced settings → Surcharge & visibility. The current Gift Message checkout block adds one marked surcharge line when a gift message is present and removes it when the message is removed. See Upselling and Charging for Giftnote at Checkout on Shopify Plus.
On other Shopify plans: a developer-required implementation using JavaScript events is needed. See Charging Customers for Giftnote (Developer Setup).
Fewer than 10% of Giftnote merchants currently charge for gift messages — but those who do report customers add them without hesitation.
Notes
- Billing is usage-based. If you have zero gift orders in a month, you pay only the plan fee ($19 or $99). No minimum usage commitment. Core and Professional each include 20 credits before the $1 fee applies.
- One gift message per order. Whether a customer orders one item or ten, if they add a gift message, that's one gift message and one $1 fee.
- Multi-Gift billing is not per recipient. Your Multi Gift rate is shown on Settings → Subscription. Don't quote customers or forecast spend using a per-recipient rate.
- Your first month is free. This applies when you first subscribe. Usage charges still apply, so budget for per-gift fees from the day you choose a plan.
- The spend cap is changed in Shopify, not in Giftnote. We cannot increase it for you — only the store owner can change it in Shopify billing settings. Check your current limit in Settings → Subscription.
- Publishing a new Shopify theme drops your widget settings. If you switch themes during a billing period, you'll need to re-enable the Giftnote app embed in the new theme. This doesn't affect your billing — just your widget visibility.