title: Shopify API Vocabulary description: Operational and domain vocabulary for the Shopify commerce platform APIs provider: Shopify version: '2026-05-02' source: https://shopify.dev/docs/api terms: - term: Admin API definition: >- The Shopify Admin API lets you build apps and integrations that extend the Shopify admin. It provides REST and GraphQL interfaces for managing products, customers, orders, inventory, and other store data. Available to apps with appropriate OAuth scopes. type: concept related: [REST Admin API, GraphQL Admin API] - term: Store definition: >- A Shopify merchant's online shop instance. Each store has a unique myshopify.com subdomain (e.g., my-store.myshopify.com). The store is the top-level container for all products, customers, orders, and configuration. type: resource - term: Product definition: >- The goods and services that merchants sell in their Shopify store. Products can have multiple variants (different sizes, colors) and images. Each product has a unique handle (URL slug) and can be organized into collections. type: resource related: [Variant, Collection, Inventory] - term: Variant definition: >- A specific version of a product with unique attributes (e.g., Blue T-Shirt in size Large). Each variant has its own price, SKU, and inventory quantity. Products can have up to 3 options generating up to 100 variants. type: resource related: [Product, Inventory Item] - term: Order definition: >- A customer's completed purchase from a Shopify store. Orders contain line items, customer information, shipping and billing addresses, payment and fulfillment status, and financial totals. type: resource related: [LineItem, Customer, Fulfillment] - term: Customer definition: >- A person who has placed an order or created an account in a Shopify store. Customer records include contact information, order history, and can have multiple addresses saved. type: resource related: [Order] - term: Collection definition: >- A grouping of products in a Shopify store. Smart Collections automatically include products based on conditions (tags, price, vendor). Custom Collections include manually curated products. type: resource related: [Product] - term: Fulfillment definition: >- The process of shipping an order to a customer. A fulfillment record contains tracking information, line items being fulfilled, and fulfillment service details. An order can have multiple partial fulfillments. type: resource related: [Order] - term: Inventory Item definition: >- The physical item represented by a product variant. Inventory items track stock across locations, cost, SKU, and whether inventory is tracked. type: resource related: [Variant, Location] - term: Webhook definition: >- An HTTP callback that Shopify sends to your application when specific events occur (e.g., orders/create, products/update). Webhooks enable real-time integrations without polling. type: resource - term: Access Token definition: >- The authentication credential for the Shopify Admin REST API. Sent in the X-Shopify-Access-Token header. Obtained through the OAuth flow when a merchant installs your app. type: concept related: [OAuth] - term: API Version definition: >- Shopify releases new API versions quarterly (e.g., 2025-01, 2025-04). Versions are stable for at least 12 months. Apps should upgrade before a version is retired. type: concept - term: Financial Status definition: The payment state of an order. type: enum values: pending: Payment is pending authorized: Payment authorized but not captured partially_paid: Partial payment received paid: Fully paid partially_refunded: Partially refunded refunded: Fully refunded voided: Payment void - term: Fulfillment Status definition: The shipping state of an order. type: enum values: null: Not yet fulfilled fulfilled: All items shipped partial: Some items shipped restocked: Returned and restocked - term: Product Status definition: The publishing state of a product. type: enum values: active: Published and available for sale draft: Unpublished, not available in storefront archived: Archived, no longer sold - term: Multipass definition: >- A Shopify Plus feature that enables single sign-on (SSO) by redirecting customers from your website and automatically logging them into the Shopify store. Requires a Shopify Plus plan. type: concept - term: Storefront API definition: >- A GraphQL API that provides commerce primitives for building custom storefronts. Unlike the Admin API, the Storefront API is customer-facing and allows building headless commerce experiences on any platform. type: concept - term: Hydrogen definition: >- Shopify's React-based framework for building custom storefronts with the Storefront API. Provides optimized components, hooks, and utilities for headless commerce. type: concept - term: Rate Limiting definition: >- Shopify Admin REST API allows 40 requests per minute (leaky bucket: 2 req/sec drain rate, 40 capacity). GraphQL uses a cost-based limit of 1000 points per minute. Exceeded limits return 429 Too Many Requests. type: concept capabilities: - name: Product Management description: Manage products, variants, and collections in a Shopify store apis: [Admin REST API] - name: Order Management description: Process and manage customer orders through the fulfillment lifecycle apis: [Admin REST API] - name: Customer Management description: Manage customer profiles, addresses, and purchase history apis: [Admin REST API] - name: Inventory Management description: Track and update inventory levels across locations apis: [Admin REST API] - name: Webhook Integration description: Receive real-time event notifications for store activity apis: [Webhooks API] - name: Storefront Experience description: Build custom shopping cart and product browsing experiences apis: [Ajax API, Storefront API] - name: Headless Commerce description: Build fully custom storefronts powered by Shopify apis: [Storefront API, Hydrogen]