How to Do a Test Order on Shopify: Test Cards & Methods (2026)

If you searched your Shopify admin for “Bogus Gateway” and came up empty, you didn’t miss it. Shopify quietly renamed it to Test payment gateway in the Payments settings, and most tutorials, including the one this page replaces, never caught up. The card numbers, the setup steps, and the number of test scenarios have all changed too.

This guide covers what’s actually in your admin right now: five ways to place a test order, the full current list of test card numbers (Shopify added six new card types since this article first published), and the specific checks that catch problems before a real customer does.

QUICK ANSWER

To do a test order on Shopify, activate the Test payment gateway (Settings > Payments > choose a provider), then check out using card number 1 for a successful transaction, 2 for declined, or 3 for a gateway failure. Use any future expiry date and any 3-digit CVV.

If you’re on Shopify Payments, use test mode instead with a real-format test card like 4242 4242 4242 4242. Both options simulate the full checkout without charging real money, and neither appears in your payouts or reports.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Shopify renamed “Bogus Gateway” to “Test payment gateway”, the function is identical, only the label in your admin changed
• The test purchase amount must be greater than $1 USD equivalent, orders below that won’t process even in test mode
• Shopify Payments test mode now supports 12 card types, including UnionPay, Cartes Bancaires, and eftpos Australia, up from 6 when this guide first published
• There are now 9 documented failed-transaction test cards (insufficient funds, lost card, stolen card, expired card, and more), not just 3
• The Test payment gateway doesn’t work with Shopify POS or subscription products, use a cash payment for POS and Shopify Payments test mode for subscriptions instead
• You can test Shop Pay specifically by adding a test card and typing test_card as the first word in its nickname field

5

documented ways to test a Shopify order
without spending real money

12

card types supported in Shopify Payments
test mode, up from 6

9

failed-transaction scenarios you can
simulate before launch

Why You Need to Test Orders Before Launch

A checkout that fails silently costs you sales you’ll never know you lost. Test orders exist to catch that before a real customer hits it.

• Smooth customer experience: you catch a clunky or broken checkout before a real buyer does, not after they’ve already left annoyed.
• Early issue detection: broken cart buttons, misconfigured shipping rates, and gateway errors all show up in a test run instead of your order data.
• Payment and shipping verification: confirms PayPal, credit cards, and shipping rates all display and process correctly at checkout.
• Confirmation flow check: verifies customers get order confirmation and you get staff notifications, with the right information, every time.

Method 1: Test Payment Gateway (Formerly Bogus Gateway)

• From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Payments: You’ll know it worked when you see your current payment providers listed.
• If a live credit card provider is active, deactivate it first. For a third-party provider, click Manage > Deactivate. For Shopify Payments, click Manage > Manage payment methods, scroll down, and click Switch to a third-party provider twice to confirm. You’ll know it worked when the live provider no longer shows as active.

• Open the full provider list: click See all other providers (if Shopify Payments is available in your country) or Choose a provider. Select Test payment gateway from the list. You’ll know it worked when “Test payment gateway” appears as your active provider.

• Click Activate, then Save. Every order placed from this point on is automatically a test order. You’ll know it worked when checkout shows the test gateway’s card icon instead of your usual payment logos.

At checkout, use Test payment gateway as the name on card, then enter 1 for an approved transaction, 2 for declined, or 3 for a gateway failure in the card number field. Any 3-digit CVV and any future expiry date work.

Remember to deactivate it after testing. While the Test payment gateway is active, customers cannot place real orders with a credit card. Go back to Settings > Payments, click Manage next to the test gateway, and deactivate it before you go live.

Method 2: Shopify Payments Test Mode

If you’re on Shopify Payments, its built-in test mode is the more realistic option since it runs through the exact gateway your live orders will use.

• Log into your Shopify account and go to Settings > Payments. You’ll know it worked when you’re in the Payments settings page.

• In the Shopify Payments section, click Manage. You’ll know it worked when you see the Test mode section on the page.

• Select Enable test mode and click Save. You’ll know it worked when a test mode banner appears on orders you place afterward.

Go to your storefront and check out like a real customer. Use any name with at least two words, any future expiry date, and any of the card numbers below.

Current Test Card Numbers (Successful Transactions)

Security code: any 4 digits for American Express, any 3 digits for every other card type.

Test Cards for Failed Transactions

For invalid expiry, enter a month like 13 or a past year like 2000. For an invalid security code, enter any 2 digits.

Testing Shop Pay specifically? Add one of the test card numbers above to Shop Pay, and type test_card as the first word in the card’s Nickname field (not case-sensitive). That card then processes through Shopify Payments test mode with no real charge, as long as test mode is active on the store. This doesn’t work with Shop Pay Installments.

Minimum test amount: the order total needs to be greater than the equivalent of $1 USD. Orders below that threshold won’t process, even in test mode.

Method 3: Manual Payment Methods

Bank deposit or cash on delivery (COD) skip the payment gateway entirely, useful if you just want to confirm the confirmation-page and email flow without touching card testing at all.

• In Shopify admin, go to Settings > Payments.
• Under Manual payment methods, select Bank Deposit or Cash on Delivery (COD), then click Activate. You’ll know it worked when the method appears as an active option at checkout.
• Add a note marking it for testing only, then place an order at checkout using that method. It moves straight to the order confirmation page and sends the same confirmation email a paid order would.

Method 4: Third-Party Providers in Test Mode

Some integrated providers, like Braintree or PayPal Payflow Pro, expose their own test mode toggle directly inside Shopify’s admin. If yours does, enable it there and follow that provider’s documentation for the specific test card details it expects, since these vary by provider and aren’t standardized by Shopify.

If your provider doesn’t offer this option in the Shopify admin, you have two paths: contact their support team to ask how they support test orders, or fall back to the Test payment gateway from Method 1. Note that the Test payment gateway is fully separate from your regular gateway, so it won’t reproduce provider-specific behavior like currency conversion or local payment methods.

Method 5: Real Gateway + Cancel/Refund

The most realistic test, and the riskiest if you forget a step. You place a genuine order through your live gateway, then cancel and refund it.

1. Create a 100% off discount code to zero out the order total.
2. Complete a real checkout using the discount code and your actual live payment setup (Shop Pay, real card, etc.).
3. Confirm the order, confirmation emails, and admin view all look correct.
4. Cancel and refund the order if any real charge occurred, then deactivate the discount code immediately so it can’t be reused.

Trade-off: this is the only method that tests your exact live configuration end to end, but it’s also the only one where a forgotten step (leaving the discount active, skipping the refund) has real financial consequences. Use it last, after the other four methods have already caught the obvious issues.

Which Method Should You Use?

USE TEST PAYMENT GATEWAY OR PAYMENTS TEST MODE IF…

• You want the fastest, zero-risk way to test checkout
• You need to simulate specific failure scenarios (declined, insufficient funds, etc.)
• You’re testing before launch, with no live gateway pressure yet

USE MANUAL METHODS OR REAL GATEWAY IF…

• You specifically need to verify the confirmation email/page flow (manual methods)
• You’re validating your exact live setup post-launch (real gateway + refund)
• Your store is already live and switching gateways mid-test isn’t practical

Testing on Shopify POS and Subscriptions

Two common gaps the older testing methods don’t cover:

• Shopify POS: the Test payment gateway isn’t compatible with POS card readers. To test an in-person sale, use a cash payment on the POS device instead, that’s the only supported test path for physical checkout.
• Subscription products: the Test payment gateway also doesn’t support subscriptions. Use Shopify Payments test mode for those instead, since it’s built to handle recurring billing logic that the Test payment gateway skips entirely.

What to Check During a Test Order

Placing the test order is half the job. What you check afterward is what actually catches problems.

1. Order details in Shopify admin: confirm customer info, order total, product details, and any discounts show correctly.
2. Email notifications: verify both the customer confirmation and any internal staff alerts send, with correct content and formatting.
3. Payment and shipping display: check that all enabled payment options display correctly at checkout and that shipping rates calculate as expected.
4. Failed transaction handling: deliberately trigger a decline using the test cards above and confirm the error message is clear and the customer can retry without getting stuck.

While you’re in there: a test order is also a good moment to check your actual conversion funnel end to end, not just whether payment processes. If you haven’t run a full checkout and CRO audit recently, pair it with this test.

Frequently Asked Questions

Testing Checkout Changes? Back Up First

If a test order surfaces a problem in your theme or checkout settings, you’ll want a clean rollback point. Syncora backs up your store automatically before you start making fixes.

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