Plans, Billing & Usage Limits

This is the single source of truth for ReturnMate plans, limits and billing behaviour. Other articles link here rather than repeating prices.

Plans and pricing

All prices are in USD and billed monthly through Shopify. There is no trial period — the Free plan replaces it: start free with real customers and upgrade whenever you're ready. Annual pricing for Ops and Scale is available on request.

Add-ons (paid plans)

You are never forced to change plan just to add a colleague or a location. Free has no add-ons (its only usage charge is US$2/RMA, capped at US$50); add-ons start on Starter:

• Additional staff user — US$8/user/month (Starter, Growth, Ops; Scale/Enterprise include unlimited staff)
• Additional return location — US$49/month (Starter and above)
• Advanced Analytics — US$249/month (Growth and Ops; included in Scale and Enterprise)

Add-ons are billed as usage on your Shopify invoice: added instantly with a pro-rated charge for the rest of the current billing period, then the full monthly price at the start of each period; remove them any time from Settings → Billing → Add-ons. Because Shopify allows one recurring charge per app subscription, subscriptions created before add-ons existed need a one-time billing update (same plan, same price) before add-ons can be charged — the Billing page prompts for it. When your plan plus add-ons costs more than the next plan up, the Billing page says so.

Enterprise is arranged manually with our team (the Contact sales button emails support) and is not self-service.

Usage billing on Free and Starter

Free and Starter include a monthly RMA allowance and then bill US$2 per additional RMA as Shopify usage on your existing invoice:

• Free: 5 RMAs included, then US$2 each up to a hard maximum of 30 RMAs per billing period (US$50 in usage).
• Starter: 50 RMAs included, then US$2 each up to US$200 per billing period (150 RMAs) — so a Starter bill can never exceed US$249.

When you subscribe, Shopify asks you to approve the usage cap once. ReturnMate can never charge past it. Settings → Billing shows exactly where you are: included RMAs used, additional RMAs so far, the estimated bill, and when the period resets. Usage periods follow your Shopify billing period (30 days from approval), not the calendar month.

At the usage cap the billing page tells you plainly ("You've outgrown Free" / "You've reached your Starter usage limit") with a one-click upgrade — you are prompted to upgrade rather than charged more.

What happens at the RMA limit

• Merchant-created RMAs (admin, Create Return, counter swaps, API): blocked at the limit with an upgrade prompt. Location and staff limits offer a paid add-on instead of blocking outright.
• Customer-submitted RMAs (returns portal, trade portal, third-party repair portal): never blocked. Your customers can always submit; over the cap the RMA is accepted and put on hold — it appears in your RMA list with an On hold — upgrade to process badge and is read-only until you upgrade. Store admins get an email (at most once a day) when returns are on hold. As soon as your plan changes, held RMAs are released automatically; nothing has to be resubmitted.

Settings → Billing shows a "This month's usage" card with usage bars for RMAs, locations and staff users. Location and staff limits block adding (or re-activating) locations and users past the plan cap; a new staff member who opens the app past the cap is recorded but inactive until an admin frees a seat or upgrades.

Read-only mode

If your subscription lapses, is cancelled, or was never activated, your store enters read-only mode. A banner appears — "Your subscription is inactive" — with a Reactivate Subscription action:

• You can view existing RMAs, analytics and settings.
• You cannot create RMAs or make changes. Customer portal submissions are still accepted and put on hold (see above).

Reactivating through Settings → Billing restores full access immediately and releases any held RMAs.

Plan-gated features

Analytics by tier (see the Analytics guide):

• Free — the Overview tab only (return counts).
• Starter and above — core reports: Returns, Warehouse Mistakes, Warranty & Repairs (core), Inventory (core), Stale RMAs, Product Report.
• Growth and above — adds Process (time-to-resolution by stage / SLA trends) and Inspections.
• Advanced Analytics (Scale/Enterprise, or the US$249 add-on on Growth/Ops) — Products incl. failure analytics, Shipping Costs, Staff Performance, Staff Activity, plus the repair-cost, cost-recovery, labour and fault-intelligence sections. On plans without it these show an "Add Advanced Analytics / upgrade" prompt instead of data.

Scale and Enterprise only:

• The REST API & webhooks (including the TradeMate integration) — see the API reference.
• The MCP connector for Claude and other AI assistants (Settings → Claude & AI assistants).

Fault codes can be logged on every plan — Advanced Analytics is where you get the analytics on them.

Cancelling and uninstalling

• Cancelling the subscription in Shopify moves the store to read-only mode; your data is retained and you can resubscribe.
• Uninstalling the app deactivates the store, cancels the subscription, and later triggers permanent data deletion via Shopify's privacy webhooks. See Installing ReturnMate & Your Data before uninstalling.

Troubleshooting

• "Plan required" or forced to the billing page — new installs choose a plan before setup begins; pick Free to start at no charge.
• Paid in Shopify but still read-only — reopen ReturnMate; activation syncs when the app loads with status=activated. If it persists, contact support@returnmate.io.
• RMAs showing "On hold" — you're over your plan's RMA cap; upgrade in Settings → Billing and they release automatically.
• Need more than 1,000 RMAs/month — contact sales about Enterprise.

Related Articles

• Installing ReturnMate & Your Data
• Users, Roles & Access
• Analytics Guide