> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://developer.paddle.com/llms.txt).

# Discounts

Discount entities describe percentage or amount-based discounts for transactions. They're sometimes called coupons or promo codes.

---

Discounts let you reduce a transaction total by a percentage, a flat amount per transaction, or a flat amount per unit on a transaction.

Discount entities hold information like:

- How the discount reduces the total of the transaction.
- Whether the discount is one-time or recurring.
- When the discount is valid to.
- Which items in your catalog the discount applies to.
- Whether this discount can be applied by customers using a code.

Discounts work with [prices](https://developer.paddle.com/api-reference/prices.md), [transactions](https://developer.paddle.com/api-reference/transactions.md), [checkouts](https://developer.paddle.com/concepts/sell/self-serve-checkout.md), and [subscriptions](https://developer.paddle.com/api-reference/subscriptions.md).

By default, discounts apply to the entire value of a transaction. You can link discounts to price entities to limit them to certain prices. For example, you can create a discount for subscription plans that won't work on other items.

Use discount codes to let customers apply discounts themselves at checkout, or pass a discount to a checkout to apply it automatically.

Discounts don't have to have codes. They can be applied manually to transactions as part of the sales process.

Discounts can be added to a [discount group](https://developer.paddle.com/api-reference/discount-groups.md) to organize them. You can only add a discount to one discount group at a time. You can list discounts by discount groups to see which discounts are in which groups.

{% callout type="info" %}
There's no delete operation for discounts. Use the [update a discount operation](https://developer.paddle.com/api-reference/discounts/update-discount.md) to archive discounts when you no longer need them. To learn more, see [Delete entities](https://developer.paddle.com/api-reference/about/delete-entities.md)
{% /callout %}