Schedule sale prices and pricing rules on Shopify using the Price Rules and Discounts API

This API has logged drift

In-depth guide

Steps

1. Create a price rule via POST /admin/api/2024-01/price_rules.json with value_type (percentage or fixed_amount), value (negative number for discount), target_type (line_item or shipping_line), allocation_method, and starts_at/ends_at datetime strings for the sale window
2. Optionally scope the price rule to specific products, variants, or collections using entitled_product_ids, entitled_variant_ids, or entitled_collection_ids arrays
3. Create a discount code under the price rule via POST /admin/api/2024-01/price_rules/{price_rule_id}/discount_codes.json with a code string; this code is what customers enter at checkout
4. For automatic discounts (no code required), use the GraphQL discountAutomaticBasicCreate mutation instead, specifying startsAt, endsAt, and minimumRequirement
5. To run a time-limited sale on specific variant prices without discount codes, use the compare_at_price field on variants and update variant prices directly for the sale period, reverting them after ends_at
6. Monitor active price rules via GET /admin/api/2024-01/price_rules.json?starts_at_min=...&ends_at_max=... to audit overlapping promotions that could stack unintentionally