You unfreeze a Shopify store by logging in as the store owner and paying every outstanding invoice, because the freeze is a billing lock and nothing else. Shopify retries a failed subscription charge for up to 28 days while the store keeps selling. If the invoice is still open after that window, the store freezes. You lose the Shopify admin and customers see no storefront. The balance you pay includes app charges, transaction fees and shipping label charges that built up before the freeze. If the fees stay unpaid for 60 days after the suspension, Section 5.4 of the Shopify Terms of Service lets Shopify terminate the account. Billing problems get billing answers. The one question that decides your next move is how close the store sits to the 28 day and 60 day marks.

What a Frozen Shopify Store Is

Shopify’s help page on frozen stores after missed bill payments states the rule plainly. If you missed paying your Shopify subscription bill, or if a payment fails multiple times, your store is frozen until you settle your bill with Shopify. The store does not freeze until the bill’s due date. Once frozen, you cannot access your Shopify admin and customers cannot view your store.

The Shopify Terms of Service, in the version last updated October 20, 2026, describe the same state in contract language. Section 5.4 states that if Shopify cannot process payment of fees using an authorized payment method within 28 days of its initial attempt, it may suspend and revoke access to your account and the services. The account is reactivated when you pay the outstanding fees plus the fees for your next billing cycle, and you may not be able to access your account or storefront during the suspension. The plain language summary at the top of Section 5 uses the word freeze for this step. In practice, a frozen store and a store suspended for unpaid fees are the same thing.

How a freeze differs from other Shopify actions

A frozen store is easy to confuse with other states, and each one has a different fix.

State	Cause	How it ends
Frozen	Unpaid Shopify bill	Pay all outstanding invoices
Restricted access	Suspected breach of the Terms of Service or Acceptable Use Policy	Appeal from the admin with explanations and supporting documents
Paused	Pause and Build plan, now closed to new subscriptions	Pick a new plan under Settings, then Plan
Deactivated	The owner cancelled the subscription	Reactivate later, since Shopify keeps store information for 2 years
Terminated	Fees unpaid 60 days after suspension, or a policy closure	Termination under Section 14, with the final invoice due

Shopify’s store termination help page says billing is paused while a store is in restricted access, so a store in that state is not piling up unpaid bills. If your admin shows an appeal form instead of a billing prompt, read our guides on a Shopify store closed under the Acceptable Use Policy or a Shopify compliance review lock. If the admin offers billing history and a payment option, you are frozen for billing.

The bill behind the freeze

Section 5 of the Terms explains what you are billed for. Section 5.1 defines transaction fees, which apply to sales processed through payment providers other than Shopify Payments. Additional fees cover apps, themes, domains, shipping labels and third party services. Section 5.2 requires a valid payment method on file and lets Shopify charge any authorized payment method you approve. Section 5.3 says subscription fees are paid in advance and billed in 30 day intervals. It also places the invoice on the Account page of your admin and gives you approximately two weeks to raise and settle issues with subscription fee billing.

A bill that suddenly carries apps or plan changes nobody on your team approved can point to account access you did not grant. In that case work through securing a compromised Shopify store account first, and read payouts held after a hacked Shopify account if Shopify Payments money is also stuck.

Missed or Failed Subscription Payments

Shopify lists the common reasons a bill payment fails.

The credit card on file has expired.
The account has no payment method on file.
The payment method has insufficient funds.
The card is not a valid Mastercard, Visa or American Express.
The card does not allow recurring payments in USD.

Shopify’s page on payment methods for bills adds detail. Mastercard, Visa, American Express, Diners Club and Discover credit cards work if they allow recurring payments, though stores in Australia and Singapore cannot use Diners Club or Discover. Prepaid and virtual cards are not accepted. Debit cards work only if they are co-branded with Mastercard, Visa or American Express, have international capability and are set up for recurring transactions. You can add multiple payment methods, and Shopify uses your primary method to pay bills. Section 5.4 of the Terms states that if a charge fails, Shopify may make further attempts using any authorized payment method on the account.

What happens during the retry window

Shopify’s billing extensions and payment policies page describes the sequence. Shopify does not manually change an invoice due date or grant billing extensions. If a subscription payment fails, Shopify retries the charge periodically. Your store remains fully active and keeps accepting orders during this time. If the invoice is still unpaid after 28 days from the first failed attempt, the store becomes frozen. Shopify describes the 28 day retry window as a built-in period to update your payment method or add funds, and points merchants to Settings, then Billing, to update the payment method before the store is affected.

Those 28 days cost nothing to use. Once you have to unfreeze the store the fix is identical, but every day of it now costs you orders.

The billing setups behind most frozen Shopify stores next to the setup that keeps bills paying. Compare each row against your Settings, then Billing.

If you are reading this while the store is still active and you have just received a failed payment notice, our guide to a Shopify failed payment before the freeze covers the steps for that stage.

Business models that run into this most often

Stores with an expired card on file. The most common cause by far. The card expires, the bank issues a new one, and no one updates Shopify. To run it compliantly, put card expiry dates in your calendar a month ahead, add a second payment method, and check Settings, then Billing, whenever your bank replaces a card.

Stores with heavy app subscriptions. App charges, transaction fees and shipping labels can push a bill above a card’s limit or trigger the bank’s fraud controls on a large recurring charge. To run it compliantly, review app charges every month, uninstall apps you do not use, and use a payment method with enough limit for your highest month. Shopify notes that Support cannot change or cancel third-party app subscription tiers. You manage those in the app or with the developer.

Seasonal stores. An owner stops paying in the off season, intending to come back. The store freezes, and if it stays unpaid long enough, the account can be terminated. Shopify’s page on pausing your store now says the Pause and Build plan is no longer available to new subscriptions, so a store on a paid plan cannot switch to it. A store already on Pause and Build can stay there. Everyone else gets one clean option from Shopify, which is to deactivate the store and reactivate it when ready to sell again. Shopify keeps deactivated store information for 2 years, and the deactivation takes effect at the end of the current billing cycle once outstanding amounts are paid.

When the failed charge traces back to a disputed app fee or a bank block you cannot clear alone, our Shopify suspension desk sorts the billing record with you before the freeze date.

The 28 Day and 60 Day Timeline

The billing timeline is one of the few Shopify processes with published numbers. These are the steps, in order.

Billing date. Subscription fees are billed in 30 day intervals, and an invoice appears in the admin.
First failed attempt. The store stays fully active.
28 days after the first failed attempt. If the invoice is still unpaid, the store freezes. Under Section 5.4, Shopify may suspend and revoke access when it cannot collect within 28 days of its initial attempt.
During the freeze. No admin access and no storefront. Paying the outstanding fees, plus the fees for the next billing cycle, reactivates the account.
60 days after suspension. Section 5.4 states that if the outstanding fees remain unpaid for 60 days following the date of suspension, Shopify reserves the right to terminate your account in accordance with Section 14. Shopify’s billing extensions page repeats this under the consequences of not resolving outstanding fees.

A worked example of the dates

Take a store whose subscription is billed on March 1. The card on file expired in February, so the charge fails on March 1. Shopify retries over the following weeks, and the store keeps selling the whole time. The owner does not see the emails because they go to an old address. March 29 closes the retry window with the March invoice still open, and that morning the storefront goes dark. From March 29 the storefront is gone and the admin shows only the billing prompt. Sixty days after the suspension date lands on May 28. From that point Shopify reserves the right to terminate the account under Section 14. If the owner pays on April 15 to unfreeze the store, it reactivates, and because more than 30 days have passed since the March 1 bill was issued, the owner also picks a plan and pays for the upcoming cycle. If the owner waits until June, the store may already be gone.

The example turns on two facts. Before March 29 the owner had lost nothing, so a card update would have closed the matter in minutes. The billing email address carried the only warning, and nobody read that inbox.

How to read your own position

Before you unfreeze anything, find the date of the first failed charge in your billing history or in the failed payment email. Add 28 days for the freeze date. Add 60 days to the freeze date for the date after which termination becomes possible. Termination is a right Shopify reserves, so it is not automatic on that day, and you should not plan on any time beyond it. Shopify Support states it cannot provide extensions or grace periods on overdue bills.

First freeze compared with repeat freezes

Shopify publishes no count of how many freezes it tolerates. The billing timeline applies the same way each time, and paying reactivates the store each time. What changes with repeats is the cost, in lost sales during each freeze, broken customer links, ad spend sent to a dead storefront, and the risk that one freeze runs past the 60 day mark. A store that freezes twice has a billing process problem to fix. Our guide on Shopify termination 60 days after an unpaid bill suspension covers what happens at the end of the timeline.

Regional differences

The timeline comes from the Shopify Terms of Service and applies to stores everywhere. What differs by region is how bills can be paid and what notice rules sit on top of termination.

European Union. EU merchants may have to pass a 3D Secure check when adding a credit card, and your bank, not Shopify, decides whether an invoice payment needs extra authentication. An unfinished check leaves the bill unpaid. Stores in Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland on a non-Plus plan with EUR billing can pay by SEPA Direct Debit without a card. Revolut Pay covers eligible merchants in listed European countries billed in EUR, DKK or PLN.
France. A credit card or deferred debit card is required for the Shopify subscription.
Brazil. An international Visa or Mastercard labeled Internacional is required, and a national card fails.
India. PayPal cannot be used for Shopify bills, under the Reserve Bank of India’s guidelines on recurring online payments. UPI billing in rupees is available.
United States. Eligible stores can add a verified ACH bank account as the primary payment method.
EU and UK termination notice. Shopify’s supplementary terms for EU and UK merchants, last updated February 14, 2022, name fees outstanding for longer than 60 days under Section 5.4 as a ground to restrict, suspend or terminate an account. The Platform-to-Business Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2019/1150, has applied since 12 July 2020 under Article 19. Article 4 requires a statement of reasons on a durable medium at least 30 days before a provider ends its whole service to a business user. Article 4(4) removes that notice period for a legal or regulatory obligation, an imperative reason under the law, or repeated breach of the terms. The UK kept the rule as retained law, with wording in Article 4(4) amended from 31 December 2020 by S.I. 2020/796. Article 11 requires a complaint-handling system that is free of charge for business users, and Shopify’s supplementary terms confirm its system is free and name ICDR and CEDR as mediators.

Outside those rules, the relationship is a contract. The Terms of Service set the fees, the retry window and the remedies, and general contract law governs how they apply. The EU and UK notice rules sit on top of that contract. Merchants elsewhere plan around the dates in Section 5.4.

What You Lose While Frozen

Every day frozen costs more than the bill. Know the full cost so you can decide quickly.

Sales. Customers cannot view your store, so every visitor from ads, email and search lands on nothing.
Admin access. You cannot access the Shopify admin, so you cannot fulfill from it, edit products, export data or transfer a domain until you reactivate.
Ad spend. Campaigns keep running and spending unless you pause them on the ad platforms.
Order status pages. Shopify automatically upgrades Thank you and Order status pages 30 days after a store freezes, if you have not already upgraded them, so customers can keep viewing their order details.
Time to termination. The 60 day clock runs from the date of suspension.

What you keep

You can view your billing history without reactivating. When the store owner, or a staff member with the View billing and receive billing emails permission, tries to log in, Shopify shows a message about the store’s status and an option to view past bills. You can download them by exporting your billing history. App charges generated before the freeze can still appear on bills you owe, but Shopify states that all billing attempts stop while the store is frozen until you reactivate.

If you do not want the store back

Shopify states that if your store is already frozen and you do not want to reactivate it, no action is required. If your store is active and you do not want to keep it, cancel your subscription, and the store deactivates at the end of the current billing cycle after outstanding amounts are paid. Termination under Section 14 is harsher. Section 14.4 takes the store offline, ends access to the account and makes any outstanding balance through the termination date due in full, with no refunds pro rata or otherwise. Section 14.5 stops automatic renewal of domains, and Section 14.6 sends one final invoice by email. If you may want the store later, pay the balance and deactivate on your own terms instead of letting it lapse into termination.

How to Unfreeze a Shopify Store by Paying the Balance

Reactivation is a payment, and Shopify’s frozen store page sets out the order of steps.

Log in to your store as the store owner. If you cannot log in directly, go to admin.shopify.com and enter your store URL or email address. A frozen store shows a status message and lets you open billing history without full admin access.
Pay the outstanding balance. That includes the missed bill and any other charges incurred between the missed payment and the freeze, such as app charges, transaction fees and shipping charges.
If you have more than one unpaid bill, pay each invoice separately and in full. Shopify prompts you to pay them in sequence.
If you are reactivating more than 30 days after your last bill was issued, pick a plan and pay for the upcoming subscription cycle.
Wait for processing. If the store is still frozen after a few minutes, refresh. If it is still frozen after 30 minutes, contact Shopify Support with proof of payment.

The billing errors that stop a frozen Shopify store from reactivating. Open each one to see what Shopify needs and how we clear it.

Billing failure troubleshooting

Card declined. Confirm the card has not expired, the billing address matches what your card provider has on file, and the card allows recurring international payments in USD. Try a different payment method under Settings, then Billing, and ask your bank whether it is blocking the charge.
Debit card refused. Prepaid and virtual cards are not accepted.
EU authentication. Complete the 3D Secure check your bank requests when you pay.
Insufficient funds. To unfreeze with a low balance card, add funds or switch to a payment method with enough limit for the full outstanding balance.
Cannot log in. Go to admin.shopify.com and enter your store URL or email. If you still cannot get in, contact Shopify Support.
Paid but still frozen. Wait a few minutes and refresh. After 30 minutes, contact Support with proof of payment.
Several bills outstanding. Pay each invoice in full in the order Shopify prompts.
Disputed charge on the bill. Contact Shopify Support about the specific charge. Section 5.10 of the Terms says Shopify does not provide refunds, yet Shopify’s billing page says a proven billing error can be reviewed with Support.

Decide in the first hour

When you discover the freeze, make three decisions in order before you unfreeze the account. First, whether you want the store back. If you do not, no action is required, though any balance owed remains owed. Second, whether you agree with every line on the outstanding invoices. Pay what you agree with and raise anything else with Support the same day. Third, whether the store should come back on its current plan, a lower plan or Pause and Build. Reactivation requires paying the balance in any case, and once you are back in the admin you can change the plan to fit the season. Pause your ad campaigns on the ad platforms while you work through this, so you are not paying for traffic to a store customers cannot see.

Before you contact Support

Shopify lists what to gather, including your store URL and account email, invoice numbers for outstanding bills, the date the store froze, your payment method type and last four digits and whether the attempt failed, screenshots of any error messages, proof of payment if you believe you already paid, and the troubleshooting steps you have tried. Never share full card numbers in a support conversation.

When a disputed charge is blocking payment

Sometimes the owner does not want to pay because a charge on the bill looks wrong, usually an app charge or a plan change. Separate the two problems. Pay what you agree you owe and raise the disputed item with Support immediately with the invoice number and the reason. Section 5.3 of the Terms gives approximately two weeks to raise billing issues on subscription fees, and Shopify’s billing page says to contact Support immediately if you notice discrepancies. Refusing to unfreeze the whole store over one disputed line moves you toward the 60 day mark for no benefit. For third-party app charges, deal with the app or its developer, since Support cannot change those tiers.

Billing Control Routine

The failure reasons Shopify lists come down to one card and one unread inbox. Two payment methods and two people watching billing email end most of them. The routine runs on a calendar so nobody has to remember it.

Set up once

Add a primary payment method that supports recurring USD charges, and at least one backup. Shopify lets you store multiple methods.
Confirm the store owner email is monitored daily. Billing notices go there.
Give a trusted staff member the permission to view billing and receive billing emails, so a second person sees failures.
Put every card expiry date in a shared calendar one month ahead.
Write down the bill date and set a reminder three days before it.

Every month

Open the invoice in the admin and check each line, especially app charges, within the window the Terms give you to raise issues.
Uninstall apps you no longer use.
Confirm the payment went through, so you never have to unfreeze the store after a silent decline.

Every quarter

Review your plan against your sales. Downgrade if you are paying for features you do not use.
Check that the backup payment method is still valid.

In slow seasons

Plan the quiet months before income drops. For a store still on Pause and Build, the plan keeps your admin, shows products to customers and deactivates checkout across all sales channels. All apps remain active on it, so cancel or uninstall each one that bills monthly. A store on a paid plan cannot move to Pause and Build anymore. Its choice is to keep paying, downgrade, or pay the balance and deactivate, knowing Shopify holds the store information for 2 years. Reopening a paused store means picking a new plan under Settings, then Plan, because the previous plan is no longer valid.

For neighboring situations, see our guides on a terminated Shopify store and a Shopify store closed for deceptive practices.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is my Shopify store frozen?

Your store is frozen because a Shopify subscription bill was missed or its payment failed repeatedly. The freeze never comes before the bill’s due date. Shopify retries a failed charge while the store stays active, and freezes the store if the invoice is still unpaid 28 days after the first failed attempt. Common causes are an expired card, no payment method on file, insufficient funds or a card that does not allow recurring USD charges.

How do I unfreeze my Shopify store?

Pay all outstanding invoices. Log in as the store owner, pay each unpaid bill in full, including app charges, transaction fees and shipping charges, and pick a plan if more than 30 days have passed since your last bill. Contact Support with proof of payment if the store is still frozen after 30 minutes.

When does Shopify suspend for unpaid bills?

Shopify can suspend if payment is not collected within 28 days of its first attempt. Section 5.4 of the Terms of Service allows Shopify to suspend and revoke access when it cannot collect within 28 days of its initial attempt, and Shopify’s billing page describes this as the store becoming frozen.

When does Shopify terminate for unpaid bills?

Shopify can terminate 60 days after suspension. Section 5.4 states that if outstanding fees remain unpaid for 60 days following the date of suspension, Shopify reserves the right to terminate the account under Section 14.

Can I access my admin while frozen?

No, there is no admin access and the storefront is unavailable. You can still view and export your billing history from the login screen as the store owner or as staff with billing permission, and you can pay to reactivate.

Get Help With a Frozen Shopify Store

Most owners unfreeze their stores in minutes by paying the balance. Where we help is the harder case, where a disputed charge is blocking payment, the store has multiple outstanding bills, or the 60 day mark is close and the owner needs the store back without losing data. We sort the billing record, separate disputed items from what is owed and get the store active quickly.

Bring it to our Shopify suspension and reinstatement service, submit your case for an assessment, or book a consultation.

Running stores on more than one channel? Our marketplace account defense desks cover the other platforms too.

How to Unfreeze a Shopify Store After an Unpaid Bill