Pricing - Spree Commerce documentation

Overview

Spree’s pricing system supports both simple single-currency pricing and advanced multi-currency, rule-based pricing through Price Lists. Every Variant can have multiple prices — a base price per currency, plus additional prices from Price Lists that apply conditionally based on rules like geography, customer segment, or quantity.

Prices

Each variant has one or more Price records — one per currency. The API automatically returns the correct price based on the current currency and Market context. See monetary amounts for how money fields (decimal, cents, and display string) are formatted across the API.

Attribute	Description	Example
`amount`	Current selling price	`"99.90"`
`compare_at_amount`	Original/compare price for strikethrough display	`"129.90"`
`currency`	ISO 4217 currency code	`USD`

If a product doesn’t have a price in the selected currency, it won’t appear in Store API responses by default.

Fetching Prices via API

The Store API returns the resolved price (including Price List rules) for the current currency and market context:

// Product price is included by default
const product = await client.products.get('spree-tote')
console.log(product.price.amount)              // "15.99" — resolved for current currency
console.log(product.price.compare_at_amount)   // "19.99" — compare-at/strikethrough price (if set)

// Each variant has its own price
const detailed = await client.products.get('spree-tote', {
  expand: ['variants'],
})
detailed.variants?.forEach(variant => {
  console.log(variant.price.amount)            // "15.99"
  console.log(variant.price.compare_at_amount) // "19.99"
})

Setting Prices via the Admin API

Base prices are set per variant per currency. Use the Admin API — via the Admin SDK — to set them individually or in bulk (bulk_upsert matches on variant + currency):

import { createAdminClient } from '@spree/admin-sdk'

const client = createAdminClient({
  baseUrl: 'https://store.example.com',
  secretKey: 'sk_xxx',
})

// Set / change one variant's price in a currency
await client.prices.create({ variant_id: 'variant_xxx', currency: 'USD', amount: '15.99' })

// Upsert many at once
await client.prices.bulkUpsert({
  prices: [
    { variant_id: 'variant_xxx', currency: 'USD', amount: '15.99' },
    { variant_id: 'variant_xxx', currency: 'EUR', amount: '14.99' },
  ],
})

Price Lists

Price Lists allow you to create different pricing strategies based on various conditions. This enables advanced pricing scenarios like:

Market-based pricing — different prices for different Markets (e.g., North America vs Europe)
Regional pricing — different prices for different geographic zones
Wholesale/B2B pricing — special prices for business customers
Volume discounts — tiered pricing based on quantity purchased
Promotional pricing — time-limited special offers
VIP customer pricing — exclusive prices for specific customers

How Price Lists Work

When a customer views a product, Spree’s pricing resolver determines which price to use:

Price List priority — Price Lists are ordered by position; higher priority lists are checked first
Status — only active or scheduled Price Lists are considered
Date range — the current time must fall within starts_at and ends_at (if set)
Price Rules — all configured rules must match (or any, depending on match_policy)

If no applicable Price List is found, the base price is used.

Price List Attributes

Attribute	Description
`name`	Human-readable name for the Price List
`status`	`draft`, `active`, `scheduled`, or `inactive`
`starts_at`	Optional start date when the Price List becomes applicable
`ends_at`	Optional end date when the Price List stops being applicable
`match_policy`	How rules are evaluated: `all` (every rule must match) or `any` (at least one)
`position`	Priority order (lower numbers = higher priority)

Creating a Price List via the Admin API

Rules and per-variant price overrides ride on the create/update payload. Each rule is a { type, preferences } draft (see Price Rules below):

import { createAdminClient } from '@spree/admin-sdk'

const client = createAdminClient({
  baseUrl: 'https://store.example.com',
  secretKey: 'sk_xxx',
})

const priceList = await client.priceLists.create({
  name: 'EU wholesale',
  match_policy: 'all',
  rules: [
    { type: 'customer_group_rule', preferences: { customer_group_ids: ['cg_xxx'] } },
  ],
  prices: [
    { variant_id: 'variant_xxx', currency: 'EUR', amount: '19.99' },
  ],
})

// Price Lists are draft until activated
await client.priceLists.activate(priceList.id)

Price Rules

Price Rules define conditions that must be met for a Price List to apply. Spree includes five built-in rule types:

Rule	Description	Use Case
Market Rule	Matches based on the current Market	Regional pricing across markets
Zone Rule	Matches based on the customer’s geographic zone	Country or state-level pricing
User Rule	Matches specific customer accounts	VIP customers, wholesale accounts
Customer Group Rule	Matches members of customer groups	Loyalty tiers, membership pricing
Volume Rule	Matches based on quantity purchased	Bulk discounts, tiered pricing

Market Rule

The recommended approach for regional pricing when using Markets. Applies the Price List when the customer is in one of the specified markets. Example: Price a product at $29.99 in North America and €24.99 in Europe, rather than relying on exchange rate conversion.

Zone Rule

Applies based on the customer’s geographic zone. Useful for regional or country-specific pricing when not using Markets.

User Rule

Limits the Price List to specific customer accounts. Useful for VIP customers, employee pricing, or wholesale accounts.

Customer Group Rule

Applies to members of specific customer groups. Useful for wholesale tiers, loyalty programs, or membership-based pricing.

Volume Rule

Applies based on quantity purchased. Supports min_quantity and max_quantity to create tiered pricing:

Tier	Quantity	Price
Base	1–9	$10.00
Bulk Tier 1	10–49	$8.50
Bulk Tier 2	50+	$7.00

Custom Price Rules can be created for specialized pricing logic. See the Customization Quickstart for details.

Pricing Context

When resolving prices, Spree considers the full context of the request:

Context	Source	Description
Currency	Market or request header	The currency to price in
Market	Customer’s country	The Market for market-based rules
Zone	Customer’s address	The geographic zone for zone-based rules
Customer	JWT authentication	The logged-in customer for user-based rules
Quantity	Cart line item	The quantity for volume-based rules
Date	Current time	For time-based Price List scheduling

The Store API automatically builds this context from the request headers (X-Spree-Currency, X-Spree-Country) and authentication state. You don’t need to construct it manually — just make API requests and the correct price is resolved.

Price resolution runs per request — there is no in-process caching of resolved prices. The Store API instead relies on HTTP/CDN caching, with Vary headers keyed on the X-Spree-Currency and X-Spree-Locale request headers so each currency/locale combination is cached separately at the edge.

Time-Based Pricing

Price Lists support scheduling through starts_at and ends_at attributes. Scheduled Price Lists automatically become applicable when the current time falls within their date range — no manual activation needed. Example: A Black Friday sale Price List with starts_at: 2025-11-28 00:00 and ends_at: 2025-11-28 23:59 will automatically activate and deactivate.

Managing Price Lists

Price Lists are managed in the Admin Panel under Products → Price Lists, or via the Admin API. Each Price List contains prices for specific variants and currencies. Products can be added to a Price List, and individual variant prices set within it.

Price History (EU Omnibus Directive)

Spree automatically records price changes for EU Omnibus Directive compliance. When a product goes on sale, EU regulations require displaying the lowest price in the preceding 30 days alongside the discounted price.

How It Works

Every time a base price amount changes, a PriceHistory record is created automatically. Price list prices are not tracked — only the base price visible to all customers.

Fetching Prior Price via API

The prior price is available as an expandable field on product and variant endpoints:

const product = await client.products.get('spree-tote', {
  expand: ['prior_price'],
})

if (product.prior_price) {
  console.log(product.prior_price.amount)         // "9.99"
  console.log(product.prior_price.display_amount)  // "$9.99"
  console.log(product.prior_price.currency)        // "USD"
  console.log(product.prior_price.recorded_at)     // "2026-03-10T..."
}

The response includes a prior_price object when expanded:

{
  "id": "prod_xxx",
  "name": "Spree Tote",
  "price": { "amount": "15.99", "currency": "USD", "display_amount": "$15.99" },
  "prior_price": {
    "amount": "9.99",
    "amount_in_cents": 999,
    "currency": "USD",
    "display_amount": "$9.99",
    "recorded_at": "2026-03-10T14:30:00Z"
  }
}

Configuration

Price history tracking is enabled by default. To disable it (e.g., for non-EU stores):

# config/initializers/spree.rb
Spree.config do |config|
  config.track_price_history = false
  config.price_history_retention_days = 30 # default
end

Price history retention defaults to 30 days and can be configured globally. A Rake task is provided for cleanup:

spree rake spree:price_history:prune

Seeding Existing Prices

After enabling price history on an existing store, seed the current prices as a baseline:

spree rake spree:price_history:seed

Products — Products, Variants, and base prices
Store SDK: Products — Fetching product and variant prices with the Store SDK
Markets — Geographic regions with currency and locale
Taxes — Tax categories, tax rates, and zones
Promotions — Discount-based pricing via promotion rules

​Overview

​Prices

​Fetching Prices via API

​Setting Prices via the Admin API

​Price Lists

​How Price Lists Work

​Price List Attributes

​Creating a Price List via the Admin API

​Price Rules

​Market Rule

​Zone Rule

​User Rule

​Customer Group Rule

​Volume Rule

​Pricing Context

​Time-Based Pricing

​Managing Price Lists

​Price History (EU Omnibus Directive)

​How It Works

​Fetching Prior Price via API

​Configuration

​Seeding Existing Prices

​Related Documentation

Overview

Prices

Fetching Prices via API

Setting Prices via the Admin API

Price Lists

How Price Lists Work

Price List Attributes

Creating a Price List via the Admin API

Price Rules

Market Rule

Zone Rule

User Rule

Customer Group Rule

Volume Rule

Pricing Context

Time-Based Pricing

Managing Price Lists

Price History (EU Omnibus Directive)

How It Works

Fetching Prior Price via API

Configuration

Seeding Existing Prices

Related Documentation