How to Refund an Order on Shopify: Full, Partial, Shipping
To refund an order on Shopify, open it from Orders, click Refund, choose the quantities, decide whether to restock and refund shipping, pick the refund method and click Refund. The same screen handles full refunds, partial refunds, shipping refunds and refunds to store credit. Two rules are worth knowing before the first click: a refund can’t be reversed once issued, and if the customer is sending items back, the return should be created first.
Everything below follows Shopify’s Help Center page on refunding orders, read on October 23, 2026.
Before you refund
Three checks save trouble later:
- If items are coming back, create the return first. Choose a Return reason on the return, then refund. A refund without a return records no return reason, you can’t create a return for items already refunded, and reports such as Top returned products with reasons use only reasons from returns. The Reason for refund text is an internal note, not a return reason.
- You need the right permission. Store owners can refund; staff need the matching Orders permission for the refund method: original payment method, store credit, or over-refunds after store credit.
- A refund is final. You can’t cancel or reverse a refund from the admin. If you refund by mistake, Shopify’s route is to create a draft order and collect the payment again.
Most fees don’t come back with the refund. With Shopify Payments, card fees aren’t refunded. With a third-party gateway in a country where Shopify Payments is available, transaction fees aren’t refunded either; where Shopify Payments isn’t available, the transaction fee is credited in proportion to the amount you refund.
Refund types
| Refund | When | What to set on the Refund screen |
|---|---|---|
| Full | The whole order is returned or canceled | All quantities; shipping if you refund it |
| Partial | Some items, or part of an item’s price | Quantities of the refunded items, or a discount on an item |
| Shipping only | A late or damaged delivery you compensate | Refund shipping > Shipping and the amount |
| Store credit | The customer agrees to credit instead of money | Refund method set to store credit, optional expiry date |
| Mixed payment | The order was paid with a gift card and a card | Check the suggested split between payment methods |
The steps, common to all of them:
- Go to Orders, open the order and click Refund.
- Enter the quantity to refund for each item; items left at 0 aren’t refunded.
- To refund part of an item’s price instead, click the item price, choose a Discount type, enter the value and click Save. The discount note is shown to the customer.
- Leave Restock items selected or clear it (see below).
- Under Refund shipping, select Shipping and enter the amount, up to what the customer paid for shipping.
- If the order has duties and import taxes, choose whether to refund Duties and import taxes on refunded items and Additional fees: Customs clearance.
- In Summary, pick the Refund method and check the Refund amount. If you created a return first, return fees set in your return rules (restocking and return shipping) appear on the return; for a refund without a return, lower the amount by hand to deduct a fee.
- Keep or clear Send a notification to the customer, then click Refund.
Three details apply to partial refunds. A discount added on the refund page applies to the full quantity of that line, whatever quantity you refund: discount a line of two units and both are discounted. The discount is saved on the order when you click Save, even if you don’t finish the refund, and the order then shows a refund owed. And you can keep issuing partial refunds until you reach the original order total; the order status becomes Partially refunded.
Shipping has its own limits. You can’t refund more shipping than was charged, and you can’t refund shipping on an order that had an order-level free shipping discount.
When an order was paid partly with a gift card, Shopify suggests refunding the gift card first. You can change the split by hand, up to the amount available on each payment method.
Restock or not
Restock items is selected by default whenever you track inventory for the items. Leave it on when the product comes back sellable; clear it when the item is damaged, used, or hasn’t come back yet, and restock later by hand once you’ve inspected it. If there’s no payment to refund on an order, you can restock items without a return or a refund.
A refund on an unfulfilled item removes that item from the order, so it can no longer be fulfilled. That’s the right result for a canceled line, and the wrong one if you only meant to compensate the customer; use a partial refund by discount in that case.
Store credit, over-refunds and chargebacks
Refunding to store credit keeps the money in your store, and you can set an expiry date. Shopify notes that store credit expiry laws differ by country, so check yours before setting one.
The trap comes when a customer later asks for the money instead. You can refund to the original payment method after store credit, but this doesn’t reverse the credit already issued, so the order is over-refunded. Over-refunding is available only for orders processed through Shopify Payments, and the screen asks you to confirm with Allow for over-refunding and needs a specific permission. If you don’t want the customer to keep both, lower their store credit balance by the amount you refund.
Partial refunds carry one more risk. The customer can still open a chargeback for the full order value, and you’re debited the full amount despite the partial refund. Dispute it with evidence of the refund: the order link, the disputed amount and date, the refunded amount and date, the Acquirer Reference Number (ARN) of the refund, and any messages confirming it. The evidence can’t be changed after you submit it, and the customer’s bank makes the final decision.
Two payment-method limits: some methods can’t be refunded to the original payment, such as OXXO through Shopify Payments, and if the customer no longer has the card, they claim the money from their bank.
Return windows, fees and final-sale items are set in Shopify return rules; the return process itself is in Shopify returns. The shipping and returns hub has the rest.
FAQ
Can I undo a refund on Shopify? A refund can’t be canceled or reversed once you issue it from the admin. If it was a mistake, create a draft order and collect the payment again.
How do I give a partial refund on Shopify? On the order’s Refund screen, refund only some quantities, or click an item’s price and add a discount for the amount you want to give back. You can issue several partial refunds up to the order total.
Do I get Shopify Payments fees back when I refund? Card fees on orders processed through Shopify Payments aren’t refunded, whether the order was fulfilled or not.
Should I refund to store credit or the original payment? That’s your policy choice, within your country’s law. If you start with store credit and later refund to the card too, the order is over-refunded unless you lower the store credit balance.