--- title: "Sale items and subscription items" description: "Exclude sale or subscription items from a product discount, or take a percentage off sale items' compare-at price." url: https://docs.onecodediscounts.com/en/articles/7-sale-items-and-subscription-items collection: "Discount types" updated: 2026-11-06 language: en --- # Sale items and subscription items Exclude sale or subscription items from a product discount, or take a percentage off sale items' compare-at price. **In short:** On a product discount, click **Add sale item rule** to choose how sale items are discounted: from their sale price (the default), from their compare-at price, or not at all. To leave out subscription items, click **Add exclusions** and tick **Exclude subscription items**. A sale item is any item whose compare-at price is higher than its price. ## Choose how sale items are discounted 1. Open the product discount type and click **Add sale item rule**. 2. Choose one: - **Discount the sale price (default):** the discount comes off the current price, the same as with no rule. - **Discount from the compare-at price:** sale items get the percentage off their compare-at price. Only available for **Percentage** discounts. - **Exclude sale items:** sale items are left out of this discount and its Group conditions. 3. To remove the rule, click the red trash icon next to **Sale items**. ![The Sale items section on a product discount, with Exclude sale items selected](https://staticfiles.us.gleap.ai/p6ae440349b260bc5e19963ea/n56W15Y2S287jLv0sIRM3p4VHJ5f5PoVDYqK5uEa5i048OibzogVM7bvYdbUxgCiomFWNxvUyb2.png "The Sale items section on a product discount, with Exclude sale items selected") ## Discount from the compare-at price Use this when you run a sale with compare-at prices and a code should give its full percentage off the original price, instead of adding it on top of the sale price. With 20% off: - An item reduced from $100 to $85 ends at $80. - An item already reduced further, from $100 to $70, stays at $70. - An item with no compare-at price gets 20% off its price, as normal. ![The Sale items section with Discount from the compare-at price selected](https://staticfiles.us.gleap.ai/p6ae440349b260bc5e19963ea/yBWqBEwRxHH6G1PKGfwjQMk4GSal85TjJhjdZk957IDWjJQsqaedvfuay8ApoFkL6odGly0Losy.png "The Sale items section with Discount from the compare-at price selected") Checkout shows the discount as "20% OFF" (or your discount title), but the saving is the difference from the sale price: $5 on the $85 item. If every item in the cart is already reduced further, the code gives nothing off, so checkout may say it can't be applied. ## Exclude subscription items 1. Open the product discount type and click **Add exclusions**. 2. Tick **Exclude subscription items** to skip items bought with a Shopify purchase option: subscriptions, and preorders from apps that use purchase options, such as STOQ. 3. To remove it, click the red trash icon next to **Exclusions**. ![The Exclusions box on a product discount with Exclude subscription items ticked](https://staticfiles.us.gleap.ai/p6ae440349b260bc5e19963ea/a980K7d8QrG74TupvaGQPG6ADyAZltU8JYM9LiDDkES9m7z7PmOFjc1wbkKMUimn3c7nR2O7vGx.png "The Exclusions box on a product discount with Exclude subscription items ticked") ## What "excluded" means An excluded item, whether from **Exclude sale items** or **Exclude subscription items**, is treated as if it isn't part of this discount: - It doesn't get this discount. - It doesn't count toward this discount type's **Group Subtotal**, **Group Total**, **Group Quantity** or quantity limit. It **does** still count toward cart-wide conditions: **Cart Subtotal**, **Cart Total** and **Cart Quantity** look at the whole cart. ## Worked example: sale items count toward the tier but aren't discounted You want "buy 3, get 15% off", where sale items help reach 3 items but don't get the 15%. - Add **Cart Quantity** greater than or equal to `3` as a Per-Discount Condition. Cart Quantity counts every item, including sale items. - Click **Add sale item rule** and choose **Exclude sale items**. ![A 15% product discount on the Summer Collection with Exclude sale items selected and a Cart Quantity condition of 3](https://staticfiles.us.gleap.ai/p6ae440349b260bc5e19963ea/qgAGCP3OIY3OOKLFEsbQXf0Jer56npfkvXC5WnMFfiBrMSCb0Yxyea3wpIdIlTZ4fIM177MXDRn.png "A 15% product discount on the Summer Collection with Exclude sale items selected and a Cart Quantity condition of 3") A customer buys two full-price items and one sale item. Cart Quantity is 3, so the discount applies, and only the two full-price items get 15% off. If you used **Group Quantity** instead, the sale item wouldn't count and the customer would only have 2. ## Good to know - Sale item rules and exclusions are per discount type. Each product discount type in the same code can treat sale and subscription items differently. - Subscription and preorder items follow the same sale rules as everything else: if their compare-at price is higher than their price, they're on sale. If your subscription app shows the one-time price as the compare-at price, subscriptions count as on sale too. To handle them separately, use **Exclude subscription items**, or split the discount with the condition **Item has subscription**. - Sale item rules and exclusions are only available on product discounts. - **Discount from the compare-at price** isn't available for **Fixed Amount** discounts. A fixed amount always comes off the current price. - You can't exclude a specific product or collection. Target only the collections you want discounted instead. ## Related - [Product discounts](https://docs.onecodediscounts.com/en/articles/5-product-discounts.md) - [Limit how many items get a discount](https://docs.onecodediscounts.com/en/articles/6-limit-how-many-items-get-a-discount.md) - [Order discounts](https://docs.onecodediscounts.com/en/articles/8-order-discounts.md) - [Shipping discounts and free shipping](https://docs.onecodediscounts.com/en/articles/9-shipping-discounts-and-free-shipping.md)