Shopify Subscription Pricing Structured Data

The Subscription Price Gap Problem

Most Shopify stores with subscription products (via Recharge, Stay AI, Seal Subscriptions, or native Shopify Subscriptions) have a pricing display gap in their structured data. The pattern looks like this:

ChatGPT Shopping and Perplexity Shopping both aggregate prices from structured data and compare them across stores. A store selling protein powder at "$26.99" in JSON-LD appears more expensive than a competitor with a "$23.99" one-time price, even when your subscribe-and-save rate is $22.99 — the cheapest option in the category.

schema.org Properties for Subscription Pricing

UnitPriceSpecification with billingDuration

The most accurate schema.org encoding for a recurring subscription price uses priceSpecification on the Offer, typed as UnitPriceSpecification:

{
  "@type": "Offer",
  "name": "Subscribe and save — monthly",
  "price": "22.99",
  "priceCurrency": "USD",
  "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock",
  "priceSpecification": {
    "@type": "UnitPriceSpecification",
    "price": "22.99",
    "priceCurrency": "USD",
    "billingDuration": "P1M",
    "billingStart": 0,
    "description": "Recurring monthly subscription. Cancel anytime."
  },
  "description": "Monthly subscription — 15% off vs. one-time price."
}

ISO 8601 duration values for common billing periods:

Dual Offer pattern: one-time + subscription

The full pattern adds both offer types to the offers array. This gives AI agents both price points and lets them select the appropriate one for the query context ("cheapest protein powder" vs. "protein powder subscription"):

{%- assign one_time_price = product.price | money_without_currency -%}
{%- comment -%}
  Store subscription price in a metafield: product.metafields.subscriptions.monthly_price
  e.g., "22.99" — set by your subscription app or manually
{%- endcomment -%}
{%- assign sub_price = product.metafields.subscriptions.monthly_price -%}

"offers": [
  {
    "@type": "Offer",
    "name": "One-time purchase",
    "price": {{ one_time_price | json }},
    "priceCurrency": {{ cart.currency.iso_code | json }},
    "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock",
    "priceValidUntil": "{{ 'now' | date: '%s' | plus: 2592000 | date: '%Y-%m-%d' }}"
  }
  {%- if sub_price != blank -%}
  ,{
    "@type": "Offer",
    "name": "Subscribe and save",
    "price": {{ sub_price | json }},
    "priceCurrency": {{ cart.currency.iso_code | json }},
    "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock",
    "priceSpecification": {
      "@type": "UnitPriceSpecification",
      "price": {{ sub_price | json }},
      "priceCurrency": {{ cart.currency.iso_code | json }},
      "billingDuration": "P1M"
    },
    "description": "Monthly subscription. Cancel anytime."
  }
  {%- endif -%}
]

Trial Periods and Delayed Billing

For subscriptions with a free trial or a discounted first period, use billingStart to indicate when full billing begins:

{
  "@type": "Offer",
  "name": "First month free, then subscribe",
  "price": "0.00",
  "priceCurrency": "USD",
  "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock",
  "priceSpecification": {
    "@type": "UnitPriceSpecification",
    "price": "0.00",
    "priceCurrency": "USD",
    "billingDuration": "P1M",
    "billingStart": 1,
    "description": "First month free, then $22.99/month."
  }
}

The billingStart: 1 value tells agents that billing begins after period 1 (i.e., the first month is free). Some AI shopping agents will surface "first month free" framing in recommendations when this is present.

Recharge and Stay AI Integration Notes

Reading native Shopify selling plans in Liquid

{%- for allocation in product.selling_plan_allocations -%}
  {%- if allocation.selling_plan.billing_policy.recurring -%}
    {%- assign sub_price = allocation.per_delivery_price | money_without_currency -%}
    {%- assign sub_interval = allocation.selling_plan.billing_policy.interval -%}
    {%- comment -%} interval values: day, week, month, year {%- endcomment -%}
    {%- break -%}
  {%- endif -%}
{%- endfor -%}

Map allocation.selling_plan.billing_policy.interval to ISO 8601: month → P1M, week → P7D, year → P1Y. Multiply by interval_count for every-N periods.

Subscription Structured Data Checklist

Related Resources

• Shopify Subscription Products for AI Agents — broader guide to subscription product catalog signals beyond pricing structured data.
• Shopify Subscription Box Structured Data — JSON-LD patterns for curated subscription box products with rotating contents.
• Shopify Schema Markup Guide — full Offer block reference including priceSpecification types.
• AI Shopping Agent Product Ranking Factors — how pricing accuracy in structured data affects recommendation frequency.

Frequently Asked Questions

Find Subscription Pricing Gaps in Your Catalog

CatalogScan detects products where subscription prices exist in the UI but are missing from JSON-LD Offer blocks — including Recharge, Stay AI, and native Shopify Subscriptions setups.