You want to refund a return as credit so the customer spends it again. In the Shopify admin you immediately hit a fork: store credit, or a gift card?

They look almost identical. Both are balances. Both get issued from the admin. Both work at checkout. But read the documentation and they turn out to be separate features, on separate data models, with separate ceilings — and most of what one can do, the other cannot.

Two of those ceilings are barely discussed anywhere. Store credit is capped below $15,000 USD per customer account, and below $10,000 USD per B2B company location.

Below: the exact limits, the conditions where store credit silently doesn't apply, the expiry gap Shopify documents against itself, and how three apps in this space meter on completely different units. Research date: September 1, 2026.

The short version

Refunding returns? Store credit is the native answer. You can refund directly to it from the refund screen.

Someone needs to gift it, or you sell it in-store? Gift card, and only a gift card. Store credit is bound to an owner that, per the API docs, "cannot be transferred."

Want a blanket rule like "return credit expires in 180 days"? Not possible natively. Store credit has no store-wide default expiry and no automation to apply one. Shopify states this explicitly, and explicitly contrasts it with gift cards.

High guest checkout rate? Store credit won't work. It requires a login through new customer accounts, or Shop Pay. Legacy customer accounts are excluded entirely.

Syncing balances to an ERP? Plan on polling. There is no webhook topic for store credit or gift cards in the Admin GraphQL API.

The store credit cap is two-tiered

The Shopify Help Center says:

You can only issue store credit amounting to less than $15,000 USD on a single customer account.

Note "less than," not "up to." That figure gets quoted often. What doesn't get quoted is the B2B one:

You can only issue store credit amounting to less than $10,000 USD on a company location account.

So: below $15,000 USD for D2C customer accounts, below $10,000 USD for B2B company locations. And the two don't talk to each other. Credit issued on a customer profile is for the D2C online store only — the same human buying through your B2B storefront can't touch it.

Currency matters too. Store credit accounts are currency-specific, and one owner can hold several. But at checkout, only the balance matching the checkout currency is shown. There is no cross-currency redemption mechanism the way gift cards have one.

The storeCreditAccountCredit mutation docs note that "store credit accounts have a limit which can differ depending on the currency of the account," and show the over-limit error string. The actual non-USD limits are not published.

Where store credit quietly doesn't apply

The usage conditions bite before the ceiling does. All of these are documented.

Three sales channels only. Online store, Shopify POS, and the Shop app. The docs add: "It isn't accepted on other sales channels."

Login required. New customer accounts, or Shop Pay. And: "Store credit isn't available for legacy customer accounts." If you haven't migrated, customers can't even see a balance — we covered that migration in our piece on upgrading from legacy customer accounts.

No draft orders, no edited orders. Rough if phone orders or manual quotes are your main channel. Shopify documents a workaround — create the draft, hit Send invoice, and let the customer log in and apply credit on the hosted checkout.

All-or-nothing. "Only the full store credit amount can be applied." A customer cannot choose to spend $30 of a $200 balance. If there's a balance, the whole thing goes on.

Subscriptions: first charge only. "Customers can use store credit towards the initial purchase of a subscription, but not towards recurring subscription bills."

POS can't stand alone. "It can't be active as a payment method on Shopify POS without it also being active on your online store." Turn it off online and POS goes with it.

Expiry is where the native gap is widest

Store credit expiry is set per issuance. Amounts expiring soonest are consumed first, and expiry lands at end of day in the store's timezone. That part is fine.

The problem is what comes next. Shopify writes this as a direct comparison against its own other feature:

No store-wide default expiry: Store credit expiration is set per issuance... Unlike gift cards, store credit doesn't have a store-wide default expiry setting, and there's no built-in automation that applies a standard expiry to all store credit.

If your policy is "all return credit expires in 180 days," you are typing that date by hand, every single time. As reasons to reach for an app go, this is about as unambiguous as it gets.

Gift cards, by contrast, have Settings > Payments > Default expiration. The default is no expiry, and the stated reason is that "it's illegal in some countries for gift cards to expire." Turn expiry on and the initial value is five years, adjustable.

Shopify repeats a warning here worth passing along: "Depending on your region's laws surrounding gift cards, you might not be allowed to add an expiry date or to limit the way in which the gift card is used."

The two features, on one axis

	Store credit	Gift card
Attached to	An owner (Customer / CompanyLocation)	A code. Customer link optional
Transferable	No — "cannot be transferred"	Yes — "considered currency"
To use it	Login via new customer accounts, or Shop Pay	Enter a code. No login
Sellable as a product	No	Yes
Cap	D2C under $15,000 USD / B2B under $10,000 USD	$10,000 USD denomination / $2,000 USD admin-created
Partial application	No — full amount only	Yes; balance carries across orders
Multiple per order	Not documented	Multiple gift cards allowed
Stacks with discount codes	Not documented	Documented as allowed
Store-wide default expiry	None — manual, per issuance	Yes (five years by default)
Channels	Online store / POS / Shop only	Every channel using Shopify checkout
Draft orders	No	No restriction documented
How customers check balance	Inside their account (login)	Link in the gift card email / Apple Wallet
Editable balance in admin	Yes (credit / debit)	No
Deletion	Debit it down	Cannot delete; deactivation is irreversible
Portable to another store	Not documented	No — full codes can't be exported

Three things fall out of that table.

A gift card is currency; store credit is an account. After creation you can never retrieve a full gift card code — the admin shows the last four characters, because "gift cards are considered currency, so only the customer or recipient can access the full gift card code." Which means gift cards cannot come with you during a store migration or consolidation. You reissue.

Store credit is correctable, gift cards are not. You can credit and debit a store credit balance from the admin. A gift card balance changes only through redemption, a refund, or the API. Fat-finger a gift card amount and your options are narrow.

The path to the balance is different. A gift card balance is reachable from an email link with no login. Store credit is reachable only after logging in. If you've ever issued credit that nobody spent, this asymmetry is usually why.

Three places Shopify tells you what to use

Easy to miss, but the docs give direct instructions.

Refunds tied to a deactivated gift card → send them to store credit. "If you deactivated cards and don't want a related refund to go back onto them, then you can refund to store credit instead."

Don't create promotional gift cards — use a discount code. The phrasing is unusually firm:

Instead of creating promotional gift cards, you can create a discount code for a currency amount. Creating a discount allows you to control the amount, use restrictions, and expiry date of the promotion.

The stated reason is control over amount, restrictions, and expiry — which is Shopify telling you gift cards don't give you those. The same page adds that "gift cards can create a liability to provide future sales."

Threshold-based auto-issuance → Shopify Flow. "To issue gift cards automatically, such as when an order over a threshold is paid, use Shopify Flow with an order trigger and an action that issues a gift card. This is the recommended way." Worth exhausting before you shop for an app.

The cost line people miss

For Shopify stores created on or after May 12, 2025, orders that include store credit as a payment method are charged third-party transaction fees on the order amount paid for using store credit. If your store is on the Shopify Plus plan with Shopify Payments activated, then this fee is waived.

On stores created May 12, 2025 or later, credit-paid amounts carry third-party transaction fees. Same rule for gift cards. The only waiver is Plus plus Shopify Payments. The more of your volume you push through balances, the more this matters — model it before you build the program.

There is no webhook for balance changes

If external integration is on the table, this is the decision point.

Going through every topic listed in WebhookSubscriptionTopic on the 2026-07 Admin GraphQL API, there is no topic beginning with STORE_CREDIT_ and no topic beginning with GIFT_CARDS_.

There is no official GraphQL webhook that tells an outside system a balance moved. Syncing to an ERP or a membership platform means polling storeCreditAccount.transactions on a schedule. That is a clean technical boundary where an app or custom build starts being required.

Seven conditions where native runs out

If any one of these is true, start evaluating apps or custom work.

1. A single customer needs $15,000 USD or more in credit (B2B: $10,000 USD or more)
2. Draft orders or phone orders dominate, and the invoice-link workaround doesn't fit operations
3. Customers need to spend part of a balance
4. Guest checkout is a large share of orders, or you're still on legacy customer accounts
5. Credit needs to cover recurring subscription charges
6. You want a blanket expiry rule applied automatically
7. Balances have to sync to an external system in near real time

Three apps, three different meters

The billing units here are not comparable at a glance, which is exactly why they decide the outcome.

	Rise Gift Cards & Store Credit	Return Prime:Return & Exchange	GiftKart: Cashback Rewards
App Store URL	/gift-card-loyalty-program	/return-prime	/giftkart
Rating / reviews	4.7 / 705	4.8 / 723	4.9 / 104
Built for Shopify	No	No	No
Billing unit	Total store orders	Return requests	None (free)
Entry price	$19.99/mo	$0 (free tier)	$0
Overage	$0.10–$0.20 per order	$0.49–$0.79 per request	None
Free plan	No (7-day trial)	Yes (5/month)	Yes (single plan)
Native store credit API	Not stated	Not stated	Stated explicitly
Languages listed	English only	English only	English only

(Pulled from the Shopify App Store on September 1, 2026.)

None of the three carries a Built for Shopify badge. Badges did render for other apps in the "More apps like this" section on the same pages, so this isn't a rendering artifact.

Rise Gift Cards & Store Credit

A naming correction first: "Rise.ai: Gift Cards & Loyalty" is not the current name. It is Rise Gift Cards & Store Credit, and the old apps.shopify.com/rise-ai URL 301-redirects to /gift-card-loyalty-program rather than 404ing. A lot of comparison posts still use the old name.

It covers gift card issuance, manual store credit, referrals, and a balance-check page in one app.

The billing unit is the thing to look at. What each plan includes is a monthly store order allowance — not gift cards issued, not a percentage of value issued. The upper two plans read "Monthly Total Store Orders Included" (Starter drops the "Total" and reads "100 Monthly Store Orders Included"). Starter is $19.99 for 100 orders/month with $0.20 per order over. Small-Business is $59.99 for 400 orders with $0.15 over. Pro is $199.99 for 2,000 orders with $0.10 over.

Sell zero gift cards in a month and your bill still rises with total store orders. One-star reviews return to this repeatedly: "$19.99 advertised, charged $500–$800 a month" (August 25, 2025, BUR BUR, US, 9 months on the app), and a note that billing follows platform revenue even in months with no gift card purchases (September 16, 2025, PlayYard, Singapore, ~5 years on the app). A comparison that prints "from $19.99" and stops there is materially misleading.

No non-English UI. A December 18, 2025 review (Thermal Decor, Bulgaria, ~22 hours on the app) says the app can't be translated and suits English-language stores only. The developer replied on December 24 saying a fix was weeks out; as of September 1, 2026 the listing still shows English only.

Return Prime:Return & Exchange

Store credit handled inside a returns and exchanges flow. If credit is something you issue because of a return, this shape fits better.

Billing meters on return requests. Start is free to install with 5 requests and $0.49 each beyond. Grow is $19.99 for 60/month. Thrive AI is $79.99 for 180/month with $0.79 overage. Scale is $149.99 for 450+.

One boundary to know: Refund to Store Credit is not in the free tier. It unlocks at Grow ($19.99). Free covers a branded returns portal, variant exchanges, unlimited return reasons, a multi-language customer portal, and an EU right-of-withdrawal button.

The listing shows English only for languages, but the feature tags include Multi-language for the customer-facing portal — English admin, localized customer view.

One-star reviews cite unanswered support during an active setup (May 18, 2026, ST. CLAIR, UK, ~2 months) and per-item return label billing with no way to combine items onto one label (April 22, 2026, EzyDog Australia, Australia, 5 months). The developer replied to both within days.

GiftKart: Cashback Rewards

The only one of the three that says in its listing that it runs on Shopify's own store credit:

All of this is done using Shopify's Native Store Credits, which makes the experience of receiving and redeeming cashback seamless!

Not points — a flat or percentage cashback on order value, deposited as a native store credit balance. "No points, No coupons, No loyalty math," as the listing puts it. Pricing is a single Free plan, with no paid tier and no overage listed.

The tradeoff of riding the native rails is that you inherit every native constraint: the sub-$15,000 ceiling, all-or-nothing application, mandatory new-customer-accounts login, no draft orders. Everything in the first half of this article applies unchanged.

104 reviews with zero 1- and 2-star entries, but that's a small base. Recent reviews center on support quality rather than long-run operational evidence.

Picking by situation

You just want to refund returns as credit

Native is enough. Refund directly to store credit from the refund screen. All you need is the Refund to store credit permission, at no extra cost — other than third-party transaction fees on stores created May 12, 2025 or later.

One trap: if you later refund to the original payment method instead, the over-refund flow works, but "this doesn't reverse the store credit refund that was already issued." The credit stays issued. You have to debit it separately or you've refunded twice.

More than 60 returns a month, and you need a portal

Return Prime:Return & Exchange. Metering on return requests means quiet months cost less. Budget for Grow ($19.99) since that's where store credit refunds start.

Cashback, on native credit, with no app bill

GiftKart: Cashback Rewards is the only candidate. Free, native rails. The question is whether the native constraints are acceptable.

Gift card sales, balance-check page, and referrals in one app

Rise Gift Cards & Store Credit. Model your own monthly order count first — the bill tracks total store orders, entirely independent of gift card revenue.

Bulk-issuing hundreds of gift cards

Try Shopify Flow first; Shopify calls it "the recommended way." Past that, it's the giftCardCreate API. No admin bulk-create feature is documented in the Help Center.

Pre-purchase checklist

1. Does your maximum issuance stay below $15,000 USD (B2B: $10,000 USD)?
2. Have customers migrated to new customer accounts? (Legacy is a hard no)
3. What share of orders are guest checkouts? (Login is required)
4. What share are draft or phone orders?
5. Do you need one blanket expiry rule? (Native won't do it)
6. Was the store created on or after May 12, 2025? (Third-party fees apply)
7. Do balances need to reach an external system? (No webhook exists)
8. Is the app's meter orders, return requests, or nothing?
9. In multi-currency, will checkout currency reliably match the balance currency?
10. Can the staff who configure it read the admin UI language?

Wrapping up

Four decisions, in order.

1. Decide on transferability first. Someone else gifts it or you sell it in-store, it's a gift card. Bound to one customer, it's store credit — and that owner can never change.

2. Confirm you can live with mandatory login. Store credit needs new customer accounts or Shop Pay. Still on legacy accounts? That migration comes first.

3. Let the expiry requirement decide whether you need an app. No store-wide default, no automation — Shopify documents this as a difference from gift cards, in those words.

4. Compare apps on the meter, not the headline price. Rise bills on total store orders, Return Prime on return requests, GiftKart on nothing. At identical revenue, the invoices are nothing alike.

Pricing, features, and review counts change. Re-check each app's Shopify App Store listing before you commit.

References

• Store credit — Shopify Help Center
• Store credit for B2B — Shopify Help Center
• Gift cards overview — Shopify Help Center
• Issue a gift card — Shopify Help Center
• Redeem a gift card — Shopify Help Center
• StoreCreditAccount — Shopify.dev
• storeCreditAccountCredit — Shopify.dev
• WebhookSubscriptionTopic — Shopify.dev