Setting up a roblox shop gui script with currency is basically a rite of passage for anyone getting serious about game dev on the platform. It's one thing to make a cool map, but it's another thing entirely to give players a reason to keep playing—and that usually means giving them stuff to buy. Whether you're making a simulator, an RPG, or a basic hangout game, you're going to need a way for players to spend their hard-earned virtual cash.
The problem is that a lot of people try to overcomplicate this. They think they need some massive, complex system right out of the gate. In reality, you just need a few specific components working together: a UI to look at, a leaderstat system to track money, and a bridge between the player's screen and the server to make sure nobody is cheating.
Building the UI Foundation
Before we even touch a line of code, we need something for the player to click on. In Roblox Studio, this always starts in the StarterGui. You'll want to insert a ScreenGui and then a Frame. This frame is going to be your main shop window.
Don't worry about making it look like a masterpiece yet. Just get the basics down. Toss in a ScrollingFrame if you plan on having more than three or four items, and use a UIGridLayout or UIListLayout inside it. This is a lifesaver because it automatically keeps your buttons organized. If you've ever tried to manually align twenty different shop buttons, you know exactly why these constraints are a gift.
Once your frame is set up, add a TextButton for each item. This is what the player will click to buy stuff. Oh, and don't forget a "Close" button. There's nothing more annoying than a shop that won't go away once it's open.
Setting Up the Currency System
You can't have a shop without money. In Roblox, the standard way to do this is through leaderstats. This is a folder that sits inside the player object and shows their stats on the leaderboard.
To get this working, you'll need a script in ServerScriptService. You want to listen for when a player joins the game and then create a folder named exactly "leaderstats" (all lowercase, this is important!). Inside that folder, you'll create an IntValue or a NumberValue called "Coins" or "Cash."
Here is the thing about currency: it has to be handled on the server. If you try to give a player money using a script inside their UI, it won't actually save or show up for anyone else. It's a "client-side" change, which is basically useless for a real economy. Always keep your money logic on the server.
Making the Shop Actually Work
Now we get to the meat of the roblox shop gui script with currency. This is where most people get stuck. You have a button on the screen (the Client), and you have the money data (the Server). These two things cannot talk to each other directly for security reasons. If they could, a hacker could just send a message saying "Hey, give me a billion coins," and the server would just say "Okay!"
To bridge this gap, we use RemoteEvents. Think of a RemoteEvent like a secure walkie-talkie. The player presses a button, the UI sends a signal through the walkie-talkie to the server, and the server checks if the player actually has enough money before giving them the item.
The Client Side Logic
Inside your buy button, you'll want a LocalScript. This script's only job is to detect a click and fire that RemoteEvent. It shouldn't do the math. It shouldn't check the balance. It should just say, "Hey server, this guy wants to buy Item A."
You'll use something like RemoteEvent:FireServer("Sword"). It's simple, clean, and keeps the heavy lifting off the player's computer.
The Server Side Logic
This is where the magic happens. In your main server script, you'll connect a function to that same RemoteEvent. When it receives the signal, the first thing it does is look at who sent it. The server automatically knows which player fired the event, so you don't have to worry about people spoofing their identity.
The script then looks at that player's leaderstats, checks the price of the item, and does a quick if statement. If money >= price, then you subtract the price from their total and give them the item. If they're broke, the script just does nothing (or maybe sends a message back saying "Not enough cash").
Handling Different Item Types
A common mistake I see is people writing a brand-new script for every single item in their shop. That is a nightmare to manage. Instead, try to use a single RemoteEvent and pass the item's name as a string.
You can set up a simple table (like a list) in your server script that holds the prices of everything. For example: * Sword: 100 coins * Shield: 50 coins * Speed Coil: 500 coins
When the server receives the "Sword" request, it looks at the table, sees it costs 100, and proceeds. This makes adding new items way faster. You just add one line to your table instead of writing forty lines of code.
Why Security is a Big Deal
I touched on this earlier, but it's worth repeating: never trust the client. If you're building a roblox shop gui script with currency, you have to assume some players will try to mess with it.
If your script says "The client tells the server how much the item costs," a player can change that 500-coin price tag to -999,999 on their end. If the server blindly accepts that, the player just "bought" an item and gained nearly a million coins. Always keep your prices stored on the server script where the player can't reach them.
Polishing the Experience
Once the backend is working, you can start making it feel "gamey." This means adding feedback. When a player buys an item, maybe a little sound effect plays. Or maybe the button turns red for a second if they can't afford it.
You can also use TweenService to make the shop window slide onto the screen instead of just appearing out of thin air. It's a small touch, but it makes your game feel much more professional. Players notice when a UI feels smooth, even if they don't consciously think about it.
Another pro tip: add a "debouncer" to your buy buttons. This is basically a short cooldown. If you don't have one, a player might click the buy button ten times in one second, and if they have the money, the server might try to give them ten copies of the same item or glitch out the currency subtraction. A simple task.wait(0.5) can save you a lot of bug-fixing later on.
Saving the Data
The final piece of the puzzle is making sure that money is still there when the player logs back in tomorrow. For this, you'll need DataStoreService.
When the player leaves the game, you want to save their current currency value to the Roblox cloud. When they join back, your leaderstats script should check if there's any saved data and load it up. If you don't do this, your shop is basically a "temporary fun" simulator where progress disappears every time the server restarts.
It sounds intimidating, but saving data is actually pretty straightforward once you get the hang of GetAsync and SetAsync. Just make sure you're wraping these calls in a pcall (protected call) because sometimes Roblox's servers have a bad day, and you don't want your whole script to crash just because the DataStore is being slow.
Final Thoughts
Putting together a roblox shop gui script with currency is one of the most rewarding parts of learning Luau. It combines UI design, logic, and server-client communication all into one project. Once you've got the basic "Click button -> Check money -> Give item" loop down, you can expand it into almost anything.
You could add categories, gamepasses that give discounts, or even a system where items rotate every hour. The sky is the limit once the foundation is solid. Just remember to keep your server checks tight, your UI clean, and your code organized. Happy developing!