Pay-as-you-go (PAYG)
Pay-as-you-go is an optional add-on for shops whose usage exceeds the limits of their base plan. You only pay for what you consume above the included amount; everything below is covered.
Why PAYG instead of just upgrading?
Sometimes you're on Scale ($49/mo) and have a one-off spike — a Black Friday weekend, a viral TikTok — where you'd briefly need Max-level capacity. Rather than locking you into $99/mo permanently, PAYG charges you the marginal cost of the extra usage, then drops back to $49/mo when the spike ends.
What's metered
| Resource | PAYG rate |
|---|---|
| Bot Shield signals beyond plan cap | $0.30 per 1,000 signals |
| Custom Rule matches beyond plan cap | $0.10 per 1,000 matches |
| Evidence packets generated (Scale-and-below) | $2.00 per packet |
| Visitor Analytics CSV rows beyond plan cap | $0.05 per 1,000 rows |
A "signal" is one visitor scored by Bot Shield. Most small shops use 10k–50k signals/month; a busy DTC shop in peak season might use 500k+.
Plan caps
| Plan | Signals/mo included | Beyond → PAYG |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 100 (hard cap, no overage) | — |
| Grow | 50,000 | $0.30 per 1k |
| Scale | 250,000 | $0.30 per 1k |
| Max | 1,500,000 | $0.30 per 1k |
Hitting your cap doesn't disable protection. We keep scoring; you just accumulate PAYG charges.
Enabling / disabling PAYG
Settings → Billing → Pay-as-you-go: On / Off.
- On (default for Grow+): we keep protecting when you exceed caps and bill the overage on your next Shopify invoice.
- Off: we cap usage at your plan limit. Beyond that, Bot Shield falls back to monitor only (we score and log but never block). You stay protected against accidental overcharges, but you do lose enforcement when you're over.
Spending caps
Set a monthly PAYG ceiling in Settings → Billing → Spending cap. Default ceiling is $50/mo. When you approach 80% we email you; at 100% we drop back to monitor-only.
How charges show up
PAYG charges are added to your regular Shopify Billing invoice via the Shopify Billing API. You'll see line items like:
SOptim — Bot Shield signals (overage: 12,400)— $3.72
No separate invoicing or credit cards. Same payment method as your base plan.
Available on
All paid plans (Grow $19, Scale $49, Max $99). Free does not offer PAYG — it has a hard cap.