Subscription cost [subscription_cost]

Use the subscription cost [subscription_cost] attribute to include the details for the following:

• A monthly or annual payment plan that bundles a communications service contract with your wireless product (mobile phone or tablet).
• A weekly, monthly or annual payment plan for physical goods products. View the recurring billing policy for more information.

On this page

• When to use
• Format
• Minimum requirements
• Best practices
• Examples

When to use

Telecommunications

Optional for each product

• Africa: South Africa
• Asia-Pacific: Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand
• Europe: Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye, the United Kingdom
• Middle East: Israel, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates
• North America: Canada

This attribute is supported for mobile products with the following Google product category:

• Watches (ID: 201)
• Mobile Phone (ID: 267)
• Tablet Computers (ID: 4745)
• Mobile Phone Pre-Paid Cards & SIM Cards (ID: 6030)
• GPS Tracking Devices (ID: 6544)

Physical goods

Required for each subscription-based product

For physical goods subscriptions, this attribute is only available for the following marketing methods:

• Shopping ads
  Note: Physical goods subscriptions will only display on Google Search.

For physical goods subscriptions, this attribute is only available in certain countries:

• North America: United States

This attribute is only supported for physical goods subscriptions under the following Google product category:

• Personal Care (ID: 2915)
• Healthcare (ID: 491)
• Home & Garden (ID: 536)
• Pet Supplies (ID: 2)
• Toys (ID: 1253)
• Prepared Foods (ID: 5814)
• Clothing & Accessories (ID: 166)
• Coffee (ID: 1868)
• Alcoholic Beverages (ID: 499676)
• Medicines & Drugs (ID: 518)

Format

Follow these formatting guidelines to make sure that Google understands the data that you're submitting. Learn when and how to submit your product data.

File format examples

To ensure that your attribute is recognised correctly, use the formatting specific to your data source type.

Minimum requirements

These are the requirements that you'll need to meet to show your product. If you don't follow these requirements, we'll disapprove your product and let you know in your Merchant Center account.

For all products:

• Don't use the subscription cost [subscription_cost] attribute for software subscriptions. Software subscriptions must be prepaid and submitted using the yearly prepaid cost as the price [price] attribute.
• Use in approved countries only. The use of the subscription cost [subscription_cost] attribute in unapproved countries will result in disapprovals.
• Use for approved product categories only. The use of the subscription cost [subscription_cost] attribute for other categories of products will result in disapprovals.
• If the subscription cost for your product increases after a certain period of time, then you must use the highest payment in the amount [amount] sub-attribute. For example, if the subscription payment increases from 25 GBP to 35 GBP after three months, then specify 35 GBP.

For mobile products:

• Include the total amount due at checkout in the price [price] attribute.
• When used in combination with the instalment [installment] attribute, also include the total amount due at checkout in the deposit [downpayment] sub-attribute of the instalment [installment] attribute.
• Match the communications payment plan that you display on your landing page. You can also display other communication options on your landing page, but the plan that you submit must be easy to find on the landing page.
• Don't require that users have a loyalty card to choose the service plan that you submit.

For physical goods:

• Specify the subscription offer terms of the subscription on your landing page as per policy requirements.
• Submit the subscription cost as the total, non-discounted periodic payment, including any additional required fees and VAT where required (in the US and Canada, tax and other governmental fees should be excluded).
• The price [price] attribute must be present and provided as 0. The price value will be ignored and not shown. The [sale_price] attribute, if provided, will also be ignored and not shown.
• Landing pages should clearly display a visible subscription price with the currency and duration of a single subscription period. The subscription price and currency on the landing page should match the subscription cost amount [amount] field in your product data and the duration of a single subscription period should match the subscription cost period [period] field. If there are multiple variants of the product or subscription options displayed on the landing page, they should be clearly separated, each displaying its own subscription price and subscription period. If there are promotional subscription periods on the landing page, they should be clearly separated from the non-discounted subscription price.

Best practices

These best practices can help you to go beyond the basic requirements to optimise your product data for performance.

• Use the same currency for subscription cost [subscription_cost], instalment [installment] and price [price].
• If the product is also paid for in monthly instalments, use the same number of months for the subscription cost [subscription_cost] as for the instalments.
• If your product has instalment payments, submit the same number of months for the subscription cost [subscription_cost] attribute as for the instalment [installment] attribute. If the number of months is different and we need to combine your instalment and subscription cost due to space constraints, then we'll use the highest of the two values. For example, if your instalment plan is 12 months but your subscription service contract is 24, we will use 24 months.

Examples