Selling licence keys

If your product needs a licence key — software, a plugin, anything the buyer activates — the app can issue one with every item sold. Keys are held per variant, so a five-seat licence and a single seat can draw on different stock.

Set the variant's delivery method to A separate link and key for each item, or A key only if there is no file to download. Then load the keys.

Importing keys you already have

This is the usual case. If your own system already produces keys, paste them into the Manage keys screen, one per line. They are matched to buyers in the order you added them.

Imported keys work with whatever already validates them — there is nothing to integrate. Duplicates are skipped, both within what you paste and against keys already loaded, and the screen tells you how many of each.

Having the app generate keys

You can also generate a batch. Generated keys use an unambiguous character set, so nothing is lost when someone reads one over the phone.

Worth knowing before you choose this: a generated key only means something if your own software asks us whether it is valid. On its own it is a string in an email. If you do not have software that can check a key, import the keys your existing system produces instead.

Running out

Shopify stock for the variant follows your unclaimed keys, so the variant stops selling on its own when they run out — no overselling, and no order arriving with nothing to give it.

You can hold a few back with the buffer setting, which keeps that number in reserve rather than selling down to the last key.

If an order does arrive short — which can happen if stock was changed elsewhere — the buyer still gets their download links immediately, and only the key is withheld. The order is flagged in your admin and you get an email. Import more keys and those waiting items are given keys automatically, with no need to find the order yourself.

Checking a key from your own software

Your application can ask whether a key is valid, and record an activation against it. You can cap how many times a single key may be activated, so a one-seat licence cannot be installed on twenty machines.

Keys are stored encrypted, and are shown to you shortened in lists so a full key is never sitting on a screen you might be sharing.