Shopify fees explained: plans, card rates and the third-party fee
Shopify’s pricing page leads with the monthly plan. That is the fee you notice. The fees you pay most often are the ones on each order, and they depend on two choices: which plan you are on, and whether you take payments through Shopify Payments.
Rates below are for US stores, checked October 9, 2026. Shopify’s transaction fees page gives online card rates of 2.5% to 2.9% plus 30 cents depending on plan. Check your own under Settings > Payments, because Shopify does change them.
The monthly plan
The plans are Basic, Grow and Advanced, with Shopify Plus above them for large brands. Prices depend on your country and on whether you pay monthly or yearly; paying for a year up front is cheaper per month. Look up the current price for your country on Shopify’s pricing page.
The plan fee is fixed. It costs the same whether you take five orders or five thousand, so for a new store it is often the biggest cost per order.
Card fees with Shopify Payments
If you use Shopify Payments, each online card payment costs a percentage plus 30 cents. The rates at the time of writing:
| Plan | Online card rate | In person (POS) |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | 2.9% + 30¢ | 2.6% + 10¢ |
| Grow | 2.7% + 30¢ | 2.5% + 10¢ |
| Advanced | 2.5% + 30¢ | 2.4% + 10¢ |
On a $50 order on Basic that is 50 × 0.029 + 0.30 = $1.75, or 3.5% of the order. On a $20 order it is $0.88, or 4.4%. As with every processor, the fixed 30 cents weighs more on small orders.
Cards issued outside the US and payments that need currency conversion cost more. If a lot of your customers are abroad, your real average rate will be higher than the table.
The third-party transaction fee
You do not have to use Shopify Payments. You can take payments through another provider instead. But then Shopify charges its own fee on every order, on top of what that provider charges:
| Plan | Shopify’s extra fee |
|---|---|
| Basic | 2% |
| Grow | 1% |
| Advanced | 0.6% |
Take the same $50 order on Basic through a provider charging 2.9% + 30¢. The provider takes $1.75, and Shopify adds $1.00. Total $2.75 instead of $1.75. At 200 orders a month, that is $200 a month for using a different provider.
There are good reasons to use another provider: Shopify Payments is not available in every country or for every type of business. If it is available to you, the extra fee is usually a strong reason to use it.
When does upgrading pay for itself?
Higher plans have lower card rates, but they cost more each month. Going from Basic to Grow saves 0.2% of your card sales. That means:
Every $10 of extra monthly plan price needs $5,000 of monthly card sales before the lower rate pays for it.
So if the higher plan costs, say, $60 more a month, you would need around $30,000 a month in online card sales for the fee saving alone to cover it. Below that, upgrade for the features (more staff accounts, better reports, lower shipping label rates) if you need them, not to save on fees.
To check with your own numbers, put your order size and monthly orders into the Shopify fees calculator, add your plan price, and compare the “Shopify fees per month” line across plans.
Costs that are not in the plan
- Apps. Many stores pay more for apps each month than for the plan. Go through them every few months.
- Themes. Free themes cost nothing; paid themes are a one-off charge.
- Shipping labels bought through Shopify are billed with your invoice.
- Chargebacks. If a customer disputes a payment, Shopify charges a chargeback fee on top of the disputed amount.
- Shopify Email, domains and other add-ons are billed separately.
A simple way to think about it
Add up, for one month:
- the plan price,
- your apps,
- card fees on your orders (orders × average fee per order),
- Shopify’s extra fee if you use another provider.
Divide by the number of orders. That is what Shopify costs you per order, and it is the number to put into your pricing and your margin. If you are deciding whether to use Stripe or PayPal alongside Shopify, remember the extra fee in the table above; the Stripe and PayPal fee calculator shows the provider’s side.