PricingGuide7 min read
Shopify Fees Explained: What You Actually Pay Each Month
The plan price is the smallest part of most Shopify bills. Here is every fee a store pays, which ones you can avoid, and the sales level at which a bigger plan becomes cheaper.
Key takeaways
- A Shopify bill has four main parts: the plan, card processing, a transaction fee if you don't use Shopify Payments, and apps.
- Card processing usually costs more than the plan. Higher plans pay a lower card rate, which is why upgrading can save money.
- With US standard rates, Grow becomes cheaper than Basic at about $20,000 a month in sales, and Advanced cheaper than Grow at about $167,000.
- Using another payment provider adds 2%, 1% or 0.6% on top of that provider's own fee, depending on your plan.
- Who it is for
- Store owners comparing plans or payment providers
- Time needed
- 15 minutes with last month's sales figures
- What you need
- Monthly sales, order count, and your card rates from Settings > Payments
Shopify's pricing page shows one number per plan, and that number is the part of the bill that matters least once a store starts selling. Card processing, transaction fees, currency conversion and apps all come on top, and together they usually cost more than the plan.
This guide goes through each fee, using the prices on Shopify's US and UK pricing pages as I checked them on 21 October 2026. It shows which fees you can avoid, works through an example, and explains when moving to a bigger plan saves money rather than costing it.
The plan price
Shopify has three standard plans. Paying for a year upfront is about a quarter cheaper than paying monthly.
| Plan | US, monthly | US, billed yearly | UK, monthly | UK, billed yearly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $25 | $19 a month | £25 | £19 a month |
| Grow | $65 | $49 a month | £65 | £49 a month |
| Advanced | $399 | $299 a month | £344 | £259 a month |
Shopify Plus starts at $2,300 a month in the US. When I checked, the US pricing page also offered new stores a 3-day free trial followed by $1 a month for three months. Offers like this change often, so check the page on the day you sign up.
Card processing
Every card payment costs a percentage of the order plus a small fixed fee. With Shopify Payments, the rate depends on your plan: the bigger the plan, the lower the percentage.
In the UK, Shopify prints the rates on its pricing page. On 21 October 2026 they were:
| Plan | UK cards, online | International and Amex, online | In person |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | 2% + 25p | 3.1% + 25p | 1.7% |
| Grow | 1.7% + 25p | 2.7% + 25p | 1.6% |
| Advanced | 1.5% + 25p | 2.5% + 25p | 1.5% |
The US pricing page doesn't list card rates. It only says they vary by plan. The standard US online rates Shopify has quoted for these plans are 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic, 2.7% + 30¢ on Grow and 2.5% + 30¢ on Advanced, and that's what the examples below use. Your own rates are in your Shopify admin under Settings > Payments, so check them there before you rely on any calculation.
Cards issued in another country also carry a cross-border fee with Shopify Payments, separate from any currency conversion. Shopify Payments is only available in certain countries, so check Shopify's supported list for yours.
The third-party transaction fee
This is the fee most people don't see coming. If customers pay through a provider other than Shopify Payments, Shopify adds its own fee on every one of those orders, on top of what the provider charges:
Shopify's fee when you use another payment provider
- Basic2%Of each order paid through the other provider.
- Grow1%Halves the fee, which can matter more than the plan price.
- Advanced0.6%Lower again, for stores selling at scale.
- Plus0.2%From Shopify's US pricing page.
According to Shopify's help centre, there's no third-party transaction fee on orders paid through Shopify Payments, Shop Pay or Shop Pay Installments, or with manual methods such as cash on delivery or bank transfer. PayPal payments are exempt too, as long as Shopify Payments is your main provider. If you run Shopify Payments alongside another provider, the fee still applies to the orders that go through the other one. For stores created on or after 12 May 2025, orders paid with gift cards or store credit also count towards it.
So a provider with a slightly lower card rate can still cost more overall. At $10,000 a month on Basic, the 2% fee alone is $200.
Other fees to know about
- Currency conversion. When you accept a currency that differs from your payout currency, Shopify Payments charges a conversion fee: 1.5% for stores based in the US and 2% in most other countries, according to Shopify's help centre.
- Refunds. Shopify's help centre says the original card fee isn't returned when you refund a Shopify Payments order, and third-party transaction fees aren't returned either. Frequent refunds cost you twice.
- Apps. Most apps charge a monthly subscription, some charge per order. Add them up from Settings > Apps, because they're often the cost that grows fastest.
- Theme and domain. Free themes cost nothing, paid themes are a one-off purchase. A domain bought through Shopify renews every year and is billed separately from your plan.
A worked example
Take a US store selling $10,000 a month across 200 orders, all paid with US cards through Shopify Payments, with $50 a month in apps and plans billed monthly. Using the standard US rates above:
| Item | Basic | Grow | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plan | $25 | $65 | $399 |
| Card fees (percentage) | $290 | $270 | $250 |
| Card fees (30¢ per order) | $60 | $60 | $60 |
| Apps | $50 | $50 | $50 |
| Total per month | $425 | $445 | $759 |
The plan is less than 6% of the Basic total. Card processing is more than 80% of it.
Now the same store at $30,000 a month and 600 orders: Basic comes to $1,125 and Grow to $1,105. Grow has become the cheaper plan, because its rate is 0.2 points lower and 0.2% of $30,000 ($60) is more than the $40 difference in plan price.
That gives a simple rule. Divide the difference in plan price by the difference in card rate. With these rates, Grow overtakes Basic at $40 ÷ 0.2% = $20,000 a month in sales, and Advanced overtakes Grow at $334 ÷ 0.2% = $167,000. The Shopify fees calculator does this with your own numbers, including international cards and other payment providers, and lets you edit every rate.
A 10-minute monthly fee check
Once a month, check where the money actually went. It takes a few minutes and catches most surprises.
- Read your Shopify bill. Settings > Billing lists the plan, app charges and any third-party transaction fees.
- Check your payouts. If you use Shopify Payments, the payout details show the fees taken from each order. Look for currency conversion and cross-border charges.
- Review your apps. Compare Settings > Apps and sales channels with what you actually use, and remove the rest.
- Work out your effective rate. Add up every fee for the month and divide by sales. Track that number over time, not just the plan price.
- Check the break-even. Put last month's sales into the fees calculator to see whether another plan would now cost less.
How to pay less
- Use Shopify Payments if it's available to you. It removes the third-party fee entirely.
- Change plans at the break-even point, not before. Use last month's sales. If a peak season will push you past it, upgrade for those months and move back afterwards.
- Pay yearly once you're sure. It saves about a quarter of the plan price, paid upfront.
- Audit your apps every quarter. Remove what you don't use. Uninstalled apps can also leave code behind that slows the store down; here's how to spot it.
- Raise the average order. The fixed fee per order is the same on a $20 order and a $200 order. Bundles and free-shipping thresholds spread it over more revenue.
Fees are mostly fixed by your plan and your volume. What moves profit more is how many visitors buy. If you sell through ads, the profit calculator shows how fees, product cost and ad spend add up per order, and the Shopify CRO service is how I help stores raise the conversion rate itself.
Free tools
Check your own store
Free, no sign-up. Each one runs a part of this guide for you.
Frequently asked questions
Does Shopify take a percentage of every sale?
Only through card processing if you use Shopify Payments, which every payment provider charges in some form. Shopify adds its own percentage, the third-party transaction fee, only on orders paid through another provider.
Which Shopify plan is cheapest?
Basic has the lowest price, but not always the lowest total. With US standard rates, Grow costs less in total once a store sells about $20,000 a month, because its lower card rate saves more than its higher price.
Do I get the fees back when I refund an order?
No. Shopify's help centre says the original card fee on a Shopify Payments order isn't returned when you refund it, and third-party transaction fees aren't returned either.
Where can I see the card rates for my store?
In your Shopify admin under Settings > Payments. UK rates are also printed on Shopify's UK pricing page. The US pricing page doesn't list them.
What is an effective fee rate?
Everything you paid Shopify, your payment provider and your apps in a month, divided by that month's sales. It's the clearest single number for comparing plans and providers, because it includes the fixed fee on each order as well as the percentages.
Can I change my Shopify plan at any time?
Yes, from Settings > Plan. Check Shopify's billing terms for how the change is charged in the current billing cycle, and remember that a yearly plan is paid upfront.
Sources
- Pricing (US), Shopify
- Pricing (UK), Shopify
- Shopify Payments, Shopify Help Center
- Third-party transaction fees, Shopify Help Center
- Fees and costs (currency conversion), Shopify Help Center
- Refunds and Shopify Payments, Shopify Help Center
Related services and work
I'm a Shopify developer and CRO specialist. I have built and improved Shopify stores since 2018, completed more than 1,000 projects, and hold a 4.96 average rating across 719 client reviews.
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