A discount reduces the amount on an invoice or a recurring contract — a percentage or a fixed amount, applied to the whole order or a specific item, automatically or with a coupon code. Discounts travel on the Invoicing and Recurring Billing requests. For the full field list, jump to the Discount fields.

Common use cases

• Apply a percentage discount to an order
• Give a fixed-amount credit on a specific line item
• Accept a coupon code at checkout or on a recurring plan

How discounts are applied

A discount is defined by three choices:

• What it reduces (discountType): the whole Order, a single Item, a Collection, or a Tag.
• How it's valued (discountRateType): a Percent (use rate, e.g. 0.13 for 13%) or a fixed Amount.
• How it's triggered (discountApplicationType): Automatic, Manual, or by Coupon (with a code).

Add the discount to the discounts[] array on the invoice or contract; PCE applies it and reflects the result in discountAmount and totalAmount on the response.

Apply a discount to a recurring plan

List the discount in the contract-level discounts[] array.

POST /checkout/v3/contractsubscription

{
  "contract": {
    "merchantId": 1000157980,
    "type": "Recurring",
    "interval": "Monthly",
    "frequency": 1,
    "discounts": [
      {
        "name": "Loyalty 13%",
        "discountType": "Order",
        "discountRateType": "Percent",
        "discountApplicationType": "Automatic",
        "rate": "0.13",
        "code": "LOYAL13"
      }
    ],
    "subTotalAmount": "24.95",
    "discountAmount": "3.24",
    "totalAmount": 21.71
  },
  "subscription": {
    "customerId": 10000001524400,
    "cardAccountId": 10000001225823,
    "invoiceMethod": "Autopay",
    "status": "Active",
    "startDate": "2026-02-01"
  }
}

The plan is created via POST /checkout/v3/contractsubscription. See Recurring Billing for the full request.

Apply a discount to an invoice

Reduce a line item with the discount field on a purchases[] entry, or read the discounts already applied to an invoice.

• Read the discounts on an invoice: GET /checkout/v3/invoice/{invoiceId}/discount/
• Read a specific applied discount: GET /checkout/v3/invoice/{invoiceId}/discount/{discountId}

See Invoicing for the full create-invoice request.

Discount fields

Each item in discounts[]:

See also

• Invoicing: apply a discount to an invoice
• Recurring Billing: apply a discount to a recurring plan
• Sales Tax: tax is applied after discounts