Initial Price (Base Price)

Initial Price (Base Price)

In the editor, this section is labeled Initial Price. The dropdown inside it is labeled Base price.

Overview

Initial Price sets the calculator’s base—the starting dollar amount the app uses before stacking option prices and (optionally) your Unit price calculation or Total price calculation formula. You configure it at Calculator Editor → Options & Pricing → Initial Price, at the top of the tab.

This is not the same as “only used when you write a formula.” The base is always part of the pricing engine. What changes is whether you also drive the line with a custom unit/total formula, or leave that formula empty (see Total Price Formula — When the formula is empty).

When initial price is used

  1. With a unit/total formula — The runtime passes your base into the formula context as VAR("BASE_PRICE") (in dollars). Your formula can add OPT("KEY") terms, tables, IF(), etc. The engine evaluates that formula to get the unit or total (depending on Price granularity), then applies minimum/maximum price, discount, Fixed fees, and quantity discount rules as configured.

  2. With an empty unit/total formula — The app does not stop pricing. It treats the price as:

    • Initial Price base (fixed amount or selected variant price, per your setting), plus
    • The sum of each option’s priced contribution (each option’s formula result × rate, when the option is set up to contribute).

    After that, minimum/maximum, discount, fixed fees, and quantity tiers still run as usual.

So the initial price is always in play: either inside your explicit formula via VAR("BASE_PRICE"), or as the starting point for the automatic base + options path when the formula field is blank.

VAR("BASE_PRICE")

Mode What VAR("BASE_PRICE") returns
Base price → Fixed Your Fixed value (dollars).
Base price → Selected Product Variant The current Shopify variant price used as the calculator base (updates when the customer changes variant).

Use VAR("BASE_PRICE") anywhere formulas are supported (option pricing, computed variables, unit/total formula, fixed fees, discounts, etc.) when you want to reference this starting point explicitly.

Compared to VAR("SHOPIFY.PRICE"): SHOPIFY.PRICE is the product variant price from the Shopify storefront context. BASE_PRICE is always “whatever you configured as Initial Price” (fixed number or variant-linked base). For most product-linked calculators they align; use the name that matches your intent in the formula.

Steps

  1. Open Initial Price at the top of Options & Pricing.
  2. Choose Base price:
    • Fixed — Enter a dollar amount. Same starting point on every product/page where this calculator runs (subject to placement).
    • Selected Product Variant — (Only when the calculator is linked to a product.) The base is the price of the variant the customer has selected (or the associated product’s variant on non-product pages).
  3. Save. The preview reflects the base.

Details

Setting Description
Fixed A manual dollar amount used as the calculator base.
Selected Product Variant Uses the current variant price as the base. Updates when the customer changes variants. Not available for standalone calculators (use Fixed).

Examples

  • Custom printing service — Flat $10 setup: Fixed $10.00, then material/size options add on. In the unit formula you might write VAR("BASE_PRICE") + OPT("MAT") or leave the formula empty and price each option.
  • Configurable furniture — Variant-priced SKUs: Selected Product Variant, then armrest/cushion options add to that base.

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