"Is shipping free?" is almost never a yes-or-no question underneath. It's usually "free, if I spend enough" or "free, if my order stays under a certain weight." Arbyn reads the actual condition behind a rate, not just its price, so a shopper hears the real rule instead of a number that looks unconditional when it isn't.
What it does
A shipping rate in Shopify can carry a condition that decides whether it applies at all. The two kinds Arbyn reads are a minimum order amount ("free once the order is $70 or more") and a maximum weight ("this rate applies only under 5kg"). Some rates carry no condition at all and apply to every order in that zone, no threshold required. Arbyn reads whichever condition, if any, is actually attached to a rate, and states it alongside the price whenever a shopper asks about cost or free shipping.
Where to find it
Nothing to set up for this specifically; conditions come from however you've configured your rates in Shopify, under Settings, then Shipping and delivery. To see exactly what Arbyn reads for each rate, open Knowledge, then Catalog, then Shipping, choose your profile, and select View zones & rates. Every rate is shown with its condition directly underneath the price.
How it works
A rate showing $0.00 with nothing explaining it is exactly the confusing case this exists to fix. Before this was built, a free-shipping rate could show as a bare zero with no rule attached, which reads as unconditional free shipping to anyone looking at it, merchant or agent alike, even when the real rule was "free above $70." Shopify has always carried that condition on the rate itself; it just wasn't being read. Now, whenever a rate has a condition, Arbyn states it directly: "Standard Shipping, FREE (applies when order subtotal ≥ USD 70.00)," not a bare FREE with the threshold left out.
Price-based and weight-based conditions are named separately, because they're different promises. "Spend $70 to get free shipping" and "this rate only applies if your parcel stays under 5kg" are not interchangeable rules, and collapsing them into one generic "conditions apply" would lose exactly the detail a shopper is asking about. Arbyn distinguishes them by reading which kind of condition Shopify actually attached, order value or parcel weight, and states the correct one.
Both directions of a threshold are read correctly, not just the common "spend more" direction. A rate can require an order to be at or above an amount to qualify (a spend threshold) or at or below an amount to qualify (a cap, most often on weight, sometimes on price for a specific low-cost rate). Arbyn reads which direction actually applies and represents it accordingly, rather than assuming every condition works the same way.
A rate with genuinely no condition is stated as unconditional, not silently. If a shipping method applies to every order in that zone with no minimum spend and no weight limit, Arbyn says so plainly: that rate simply applies, full stop. This matters because "no condition mentioned" and "a condition exists but wasn't communicated" need to read differently to a shopper, and Arbyn is built to distinguish a rate that's genuinely unconditional from one where a condition just hasn't come up yet in the conversation.
This is always read from your live rates, never estimated or assumed from your written shipping policy. If your policy page says "free shipping over $50" but your actual configured rate in Shopify says $70, Arbyn quotes $70, because that's the number the shopper will actually be charged at checkout. The written policy is only used as a fallback if you haven't set up a real delivery profile at all. This is the same principle that governs cost and coverage generally, covered in more depth in the main shipping-questions article.
A worked example. A shopper asks "how do I get free shipping?" Arbyn checks the zone their address falls into, finds the free-shipping rate attached to it, reads its condition, and answers with the specific number: "Orders over $70 ship free in your area." If the store instead runs a weight-based free rate, the answer becomes something like "orders under 5kg ship free," reflecting whichever rule is actually configured, never a generic "sometimes we offer free shipping" that leaves the shopper without the number they need to hit it.
Good to know
A rate with no condition and a rate whose condition failed to load are different things, and Arbyn is built not to conflate them. A genuinely unconditional rate is stated as such; if something about a condition were ever unreadable, Arbyn would not present it as unconditional by default.
Currency is always included with a price-based threshold. "Order ≥ USD 70.00" carries its currency explicitly, since the same number without a currency attached would be a different, and potentially wrong, claim for a store selling in more than one currency.
A rate can have a condition on one zone and not another. Free shipping over $70 domestically and no free-shipping option at all internationally is a completely normal, and common, setup, and Arbyn reads each zone's rates independently.
Weight units are read exactly as you configured them, kilograms or pounds, whichever your store uses, and stated in the same unit rather than converted.
FAQ
Why did Arbyn say my free shipping requires a $70 minimum, when my shipping policy page says $50? Because your actual configured rate in Shopify carries a $70 threshold, and that's the number the shopper will genuinely be charged against at checkout. Arbyn always prefers the real rate over written policy text when the two disagree; that's on purpose. Update whichever one is out of date so they match.
Can Arbyn tell a shopper how much more they need to spend to hit free shipping? Arbyn can state the threshold itself, for instance "free over $70," so a shopper can work out the gap from their own cart total. It grounds the threshold number itself on your real rate every time.
What if I have both a spend threshold and a weight limit on the same rate? Arbyn reads and states both conditions together, since a rate genuinely requiring both to be true is different from one requiring only either.
A rate in my zone shows no condition at all. Is that a mistake? Not necessarily. It usually means that rate applies to every order in that zone with no minimum required, which is a completely valid setup, most common for a flat standard-shipping rate.
Does this work the same for a carrier-calculated rate, like a live courier quote? A carrier-calculated rate is labelled as calculated at checkout rather than shown with a fixed price, since it genuinely doesn't have one until checkout runs the calculation. Any condition still attached to that rate, like a weight cap, is still read and stated the same way.