On a discount offer and on a bundle there is a field the list page shows as Cap, described on the form as a negotiation cap, from 1 to 5, defaulting to 1.
The default of 1 is doing real work. It is what stops Arbyn from mentioning the same code over and over inside one conversation, which reads as pushy to a shopper and, worse, reads as a hint that the code is negotiable if they push back.
What the Cap counts
It counts how many times the offer has been put in front of the shopper in this conversation. Not how many times it was accepted, and not how many times it was applied.
Set the Cap to 1 and Arbyn may raise that offer once. After that, it stops being available for the rest of the conversation, even if every one of its When to offer conditions is still satisfied.
Set it to 3 and Arbyn has room to bring it up again later, which is what makes it a negotiation cap: it gives the agent a little space to return to an offer if the conversation moves on and the moment comes round again.
The count is per conversation, not per day and not per shopper. A new conversation starts the count fresh.
A declined offer still uses one up
This is the part worth knowing before you set a Cap of 1.
If Arbyn offers the code and the shopper says no, that still counts. The Cap measures times shown, not times accepted, so a "no thanks" burns the same allowance a "yes please" would.
With a Cap of 1, that means one refusal ends the offer for that conversation. Often that is exactly right, since a shopper who declined a discount does not usually want to be asked again three minutes later. But if you intend an offer to survive a first "not right now", it needs a Cap of at least 2.
Asking to see it again also counts
If a shopper says "what was that code again?" and Arbyn shows it once more, that counts too.
This surprises people, and it is worth understanding rather than working around. The count is based on how many times the offer has appeared in the conversation, which is the only measure that reliably captures "how much has this shopper been shown this". A merchant with a Cap of 1 whose shopper asks to see the code twice will find the second request declined.
Practical guidance: if your offer is one a shopper is likely to want to re-read, such as a code they need to copy, a Cap of 2 is a kinder setting than 1.
The Cap is not a limit on redemptions
This is the most important distinction in this article.
The Cap governs conversation, not checkout. It limits how often Arbyn talks about the offer. It does not limit how many times the underlying discount can actually be used, and it is not a usage limit.
If you need to limit redemptions, that lives on the discount itself in Shopify, as a usage limit. Arbyn mirrors your Shopify discount rather than replacing its rules, so a code with no usage limit in Shopify remains a code with no usage limit no matter what the Cap here says.
Two separate counts therefore exist, and they can legitimately disagree:
How many times it was shown, which is what the Cap governs.
How many times it was actually applied to a cart, which is what Shopify's own usage limit governs.
An offer shown three times and never taken has used its whole Cap and has zero redemptions. That is normal, not a fault.
Choosing a number
1 (the default): a clean, single mention. Right for most discounts, and right whenever being asked twice would feel like pressure.
2: the setting to use if the code is something a shopper may need to re-read, or if you want the offer to survive one polite refusal.
3 to 5: room for genuine back-and-forth. Reasonable on a high-value bundle where a conversation might reasonably circle back to it, and rarely right on a small percentage-off code.
Good to know
Bundles have the same field with the same meaning. A bundle's Cap counts how many times that bundle has been put in front of the shopper in this conversation.
The Cap is per offer, not per shop. Two different discounts each with a Cap of 1 can both be mentioned in one conversation. What decides whether that is appropriate is Priority, not the Cap.
Only one discount ends up on an order. However many offers get discussed, Shopify applies a single discount code per order, so a conversation that mentions two is still a conversation that ends with one.
The Perks tab does not use the Cap. Perks is a browsable list a shopper opens deliberately, so nothing there is counted against a per-conversation allowance.
FAQ
Does a shopper declining an offer reset the Cap? No, it uses one up. The Cap counts times shown, and a declined offer was shown.
If a shopper asks to see the code again, does that count? Yes. Set the Cap to 2 if you expect a code to be re-read.
Can I stop a discount being redeemed more than once? Not with this field. Set a usage limit on the discount in Shopify. The Cap only governs how often Arbyn mentions it.
Does the Cap carry over to the shopper's next conversation? No. It is per conversation, and a new conversation starts fresh.
Two offers could both apply. Does the Cap decide which one Arbyn picks? No, Priority decides that. The Cap only decides how many times whichever offer was picked may be raised.