Set up discount exclusions for items
About discount exclusions
Discount exclusions let you mark specific items or variations as ineligible for discounts. When an item is excluded, no manual or automatic discount can reduce its price at checkout.
Use discount exclusions for items that should always sell at full price. Common examples include:
Alcohol and regulated products
Gift cards
Consignment or third-party goods
Items with fixed margins
Excluded items remain in your item library and appear in your catalog as usual. The exclusion only affects discount eligibility during a transaction.
Before you begin
You need at least one item in your Item Library.
You need general items permissions to edit item settings. Account owners have this by default.
Set discount exclusions on an individual item
Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > Item Library.
Select the item you want to exclude from discounts.
For items, navigate to Manage checkout.
Under Discount eligibility dropdown, select Excluded to exclude this item from discounts.
Select Save.
The item is now protected from all discounts at checkout. To re-enable discount eligibility, return to the Discount Eligibility dropdown and select Eligible.
Set discount exclusions on an item with multiple variations
Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > Item Library.
Select the item you want to exclude from discounts.
For items, navigate to the variations table.
Scroll to the Discount Eligibility column
Under Discount eligibility dropdown, select Excluded to exclude this item from discounts.
Select Save.
The selected variations are now protected from all discounts at checkout. To re-enable discount eligibility, return to the Discount Eligibility dropdown and select Eligible.
Bulk edit discount exclusions
Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > Item Library.
Select the checkbox next to each item you want to update, or select all items.
Select Edit item from the bulk actions bar.
Select the Attributes dropdown and confirm that Discount eligibility is toggled on
Find the Discount eligibility column.
Set the value to exclude each or multiple selected items from discounts.
Select Save.
You can also export your item library as a CSV, update the Discount eligibility column, and re-import to apply changes in bulk. Learn more about Bulk edit and update items.
Understand checkout behavior for excluded items
When an excluded item is in the cart at checkout:
Manual discounts do not apply to the excluded item, even if a team member attempts to add one.
Automatic discounts skip the excluded item when calculating eligible totals.
The cart displays the item’s exclusion status so your team knows it cannot be discounted.
Other items in the same transaction remain eligible for discounts as usual.
Review receipts for excluded items
When an excluded item appears on a digital receipt, it displays an Excluded from discounts label. This confirms to the customer that the item was sold at full price and was not eligible for any applied discount.