How to give a free product with purchase of another product in Magento 2

Offering a free product with a purchase is a simple way to add value without discounting the main item. For example, a beauty store could offer a free mini moisturizer with a serum, while another store might give customers a free travel kit once their cart reaches a certain value.

Default Magento 2 can handle a basic Magento 2 free gift with purchase promotion using Cart Price Rules. Merchants can define the purchase conditions, specify which product receives the promotion, and set Percent of product price discount to 100% to make that item free.

This works for a straightforward free product with purchase of another product offer. However, native Cart Price Rules are primarily designed to apply discounts. They become more limited when merchants want to automatically add gifts, offer several gift choices, or let customers interact with gifts directly on the storefront.

Let’s look at where the native approach works and where additional functionality becomes useful.

How Magento 2 Free Gift With Purchase Works by Default

Magento 2 Cart Price Rules let merchants define the conditions a cart must meet and the discount applied when those conditions are satisfied.

For a basic free-product promotion, the logic is:

Customer meets the purchase condition → Gift product qualifies for the rule → Magento applies a 100% discount to the gift

For example: Purchase Product A → Get Product B free

The merchant sets Product A as the qualifying condition, restricts the discount action to Product B, and sets Apply to Percent of product price discount with a Discount Amount of 100 to make Product B free. Maximum Qty Discount is Applied To must also be set to 1, or every unit of Product B in the cart becomes free.

The same approach can use cart conditions. For example, a merchant can require the cart subtotal to reach a certain value before the gift becomes eligible.

However, there is an important distinction: the native percentage-discount rule discounts an eligible product that is in the cart. It does not provide a dedicated workflow for automatically adding, presenting, or letting customers choose the gift.

What Can You Do With Native Magento 2 Cart Price Rules?

For simple free-product promotions, native Cart Price Rules may be enough. The limitations become clearer when the gift needs to be part of the shopping experience rather than simply an item discounted to $0.

Native Cart Price Rules work well for a basic free-product promotion, but they offer limited control over how gifts are added, displayed, and selected on the storefront.

Mageplaza Free Gifts for Magento 2 fills these gaps. The extension can automatically add eligible gifts, let customers select or change gifts, offer multiple gift options, control gift quantities, and display gift information across category, product, and cart pages.

For merchants that need this flexibility, the gift campaign can be configured directly through dedicated Free Gift rules.

How to Configure Magento 2 Free Gift With Purchase

After installing Mageplaza Free Gifts, go to:

Mageplaza → Free Gifts → Configuration

The setup has two main parts: configuring how gifts behave on the storefront and creating the rules that determine when customers receive them.

Step 1: Configure Free Gift Display and Behavior

Under General Configuration, set Enable to Yes to activate the extension.

Then choose how gifts display and behave, such as the Gift List layout, popup or block display, and button visibility on the Cart and Category pages. See the Free Gift User Guide for the full list of display options.

Step 2: Create a Free Gift Rule

Go to: Mageplaza → Free Gifts → Rules Management

In the General tab, define the basic rule settings, including where and when the promotion applies and which customers are eligible.

Mageplaza Free Gifts supports two main types of rules: Whole Cart and Per Item.

Whole Cart rules use cart conditions, making them suitable for promotions such as:

Spend $100 → Get a free gift

Per Item rules use product conditions, making them suitable when purchasing a particular product qualifies the customer for a gift:

Purchase Product A → Get Product B free

Step 3: Set the Gift Conditions

Open the Condition tab and define when the rule applies.

For a Whole Cart rule, conditions are based on the cart. For a Per Item rule, conditions are based on the qualifying product.

You can add or remove conditions and combine multiple requirements when needed.

For example:

Purchase at least 3 items and spend at least $50 → Get a free gift

This gives merchants more control over gift eligibility without having to build the campaign around a generic discount rule.

Step 4: Choose How Gifts Are Added

Next, open the Action tab.

Under Type, choose how customers receive the gift:

• Automatic: The extension automatically adds gifts from the Gift List, following their order from top to bottom.
• Manually: Customers select the free gift they want from the available Gift List.

For example, Automatic works well for:

Purchase a serum → Automatically receive a mini moisturizer

Manual selection is more suitable for:

Spend $100 → Choose one free gift

You can also use Number of gifts allowed to limit how many gifts customers can receive from the rule.

If several gift rules could apply at the same time, Discard Subsequent Rules can prevent lower-priority rules from being applied afterward.

Step 5: Add Products to the Gift List

Still under Action, use Add Gift to select the products customers can receive.

Select Free as the discount type so the gift is offered at no cost when the rule conditions are met.

You can add multiple products when customers should have several gift options and decide whether free shipping applies to each gift.

Here’s how it looks on the frontend:

Step 6: Review the Gift Experience on the Storefront

Before launching, check that eligible gifts appear correctly on the configured storefront pages and customers can select, change, or automatically receive gifts as expected.

Finally, test both qualifying and non-qualifying carts to ensure the rule works correctly.

FAQ

Can Magento 2 offer a free product with the purchase of another product?

Yes. A basic free product with purchase of another product promotion can be created with native Cart Price Rules. Set the purchase conditions, restrict the action to the intended gift product, and use Percent of product price discount = 100% to make that item free.

Is this the same as Buy X Get Y Free?

No. Buy X Get Y Free discounts extra units of the same product a customer is already buying. This article covers giving away a different, chosen product instead. See the Buy X Get Y guide for that native rule.

Does Magento 2 automatically add the free product to the cart?

Not with the native percentage-discount approach described above. The Cart Price Rule applies the discount to an eligible product in the cart. Mageplaza Free Gifts adds dedicated automatic gift allocation, allowing eligible gifts to be added when the promotion conditions are met.

Can customers choose their own free gift?

Yes, with Mageplaza Free Gifts. Set the rule’s Action Type to Manually, and customers can choose from the products available in the Gift List. Merchants can also limit how many gifts a customer may receive.

Can customers change a free gift after selecting it?

Yes. Mageplaza Free Gifts allows customers to change their selected gift from the available Gift List, provided the campaign configuration allows alternative gifts.

Can I offer a free gift based on cart value?

Yes. A native Cart Price Rule can use cart attributes such as subtotal as a condition. Mageplaza Free Gifts can also use Whole Cart conditions for promotions such as Spend $100, get a free gift.

Can free gifts be displayed before customers reach the cart?

Yes. Mageplaza Free Gifts can display gift information on Category and Product Detail Pages as well as the Cart Page. This makes customers aware of the available gift earlier in their shopping journey.

Conclusion

Default Magento 2 can support a basic Magento 2 free gift with purchase promotion through Cart Price Rules. By defining the qualifying conditions and applying a 100% Percent of product price discount to the designated gift product, merchants can offer a free item without additional functionality.

The limitation appears when the promotion needs more control over the gift experience. Automatic gift allocation, multiple gift choices, customer selection, gift quantity controls, and storefront gift displays go beyond the basic percentage-discount workflow.

Mageplaza Free Gifts for Magento 2 adds these capabilities through dedicated gift rules, making it easier to manage more flexible free gift campaigns from eligibility through gift selection.