How Long Do You Have to Respond to a Chargeback?

The clock starts the moment a chargeback is filed against your store. From that point, you have a fixed window to submit evidence — and the deadline is firm. Miss it and you lose by default, even if you have airtight proof the customer received the product. There are no extensions, no grace period, and no second chance once the due date passes.

Knowing how long you have, where to find the exact date, and when to submit your response is one of the highest-leverage things you can do for your dispute win rate. Here is how Shopify chargeback deadlines work and how to stay ahead of them.

The short answer

For Shopify Payments merchants, you typically have 7 to 21 days from when the chargeback is filed to submit your evidence. The exact number of days depends on the card network and dispute type — not on when you first notice the chargeback in your admin.

That due date is shown on the disputed order in Shopify and cannot be extended. If you are unsure how many days you have left on a specific case, use our tool to calculate your deadline from the filing date and network rules.

Why the deadline varies

Chargeback response windows are set by card networks — Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover each have their own rules. The deadline for a given dispute also depends on the dispute type and the reason codeattached to it. A fraud dispute may carry a different response window than a "product not received" or "not as described" claim, even on the same order.

Shopify surfaces the network-calculated due date on the order so you do not have to look up network manuals yourself. What you do need to know is that the window is shorter than most merchants expect — and that treating every chargeback as if you have a month to respond is a reliable way to lose winnable cases.

Where to find your exact deadline

Open the disputed order in your Shopify admin. When a chargeback is active, a banner appears at the top of the order page showing the reason code and your response due date. That date is displayed in your store's timezone.

If no specific time is shown, assume the deadline is 11:59 PM on that date in your store timezone. Do not wait until the evening of the due date to start gathering evidence — build your response as soon as the chargeback appears and submit well before the cutoff.

What happens if you miss it

If you do not submit evidence before the deadline, the dispute is lost automatically. You forfeit the disputed amount and the chargeback fee, regardless of how strong your proof would have been.

Shopify auto-submits the basic order data it can collect on the due date if you have not responded manually. That thin, generic response usually is not enough to win — it lacks the delivery proof, AVS/CVV match data, and reason-code-specific evidence that issuing banks expect. Missing the deadline effectively means accepting the loss.

When should you actually submit?

Aim to submit at least three days before the deadline. That buffer gives you time to fix upload errors, add a missing exhibit, or resubmit if something fails — without cutting it close on the due date.

Once you submit, you cannot add more evidence to the same dispute. Make your evidence packet complete the first time: delivery confirmation, customer communications, product descriptions, authentication data, and a clear cover letter matched to the reason code. Late submissions — evidence uploaded after the deadline — are rejected, and the case closes as a loss.

Inquiries vs chargebacks

Not every dispute starts as a full chargeback. Some cases open as an inquiry — a preliminary review where the card issuer asks for information before deciding whether to escalate. During an inquiry, no funds are withdrawn from your account while the investigation is underway.

Responding early and thoroughly to an inquiry can deflect it before it becomes a full chargeback. The evidence process is the same: identify the reason, gather matched proof, and submit before the deadline shown on the order. Treat inquiries with the same urgency as chargebacks — they are your best chance to stop a dispute before money moves.

What happens after you submit

After you upload your evidence, the card issuer reviews your response. This review can take up to roughly 75 days, and the full case is typically resolved within about 120 days from when the chargeback was filed. You will not get a decision the day after you submit — plan for a waiting period while the bank evaluates your package against the customer's claim.

If you win, the disputed amount is returned to you along with the $15 chargeback fee for US merchants. If you lose, the funds stay with the cardholder and the chargeback counts against your ratio. Our guide on how to win the dispute covers how to build the evidence package that gives you the best shot during that review window.

Never miss a deadline again

Manual tracking breaks down quickly when you are running a store. A chargeback filed while you are traveling, buried in a busy week, or mixed in with fulfillment notifications is easy to miss until the due date has passed.

ChargeGuard shows color-coded deadline tracking on every open dispute so you can see at a glance which cases need attention today. Instant alerts notify you the moment a chargeback opens — not days later when you happen to check the order. Evidence is auto-collected from the moment the dispute is filed, so you are building your response from day one instead of scrambling on the last afternoon before time runs out.