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Automated discounts

Automated discounts is a Merchant Center feature in which Google lowers the prices of products a store opts in, never below a minimum price the store sets.

How it works

For each product you opt in, you set a minimum price in the auto_pricing_min_price attribute. Google then optimises the product’s price, and the discounted price never falls below that minimum. The same attribute also sets the floor for Dynamic Promotions, a separate Google programme, so one minimum serves both.

Google reports the price it currently applies separately from your feed price, along with the price before the first reduction. If you send the cost of goods sold, Merchant Center uses it to report gross profit. Our guide to Google automated discounts covers what the feature does to your margin.

Where you see it

  • Merchant API: the automatedDiscounts field of a processed product, with the price Google currently applies (gadPrice) and the price before the first reduction (priorPrice).

Example

Example store, not client data.

The tableware shop buys a dinner set for 390 and sells it for 600. It sets the minimum price at 510, so Google can cut the price by at most 90, or 15%. At 510, gross profit per set falls from 210 to 120. At that price, the discount adds gross profit only if the shop sells more than 1.75 sets for every set it would have sold at 600 anyway.

Not to be confused with

  • Sale price — a reduced price you set yourself in the feed and on the site. Google chooses an automated discount within your minimum and reports it separately from your feed price.
  • Price insights — a report of suggested prices and their predicted effect. The price changes only if you change it.

Right and wrong readings

  • Wrong: “A minimum price set at cost gives Google the most room, so the store earns the most.” Right: a set sold at a minimum equal to its cost of goods brings zero gross profit: the shop buys it for 390 and sells it for 390.

Sources

  • ProductAttributes — auto_pricing_min_price as the floor for automated discounts and Dynamic Promotions; cost of goods sold for gross profit reporting. Checked 2 October 2026.
  • REST Resource: accounts.products — the automated discounts fields of a processed product. Checked 2 October 2026.
  • Merchant API reports.proto — price insights: suggested price and its predicted effect. Checked 2 October 2026.