Shopify Fees: Payments, Transaction Rates, and Profit Examples

Shopify fees depend on the subscription plan, where and how the payment is accepted, and whether Shopify Payments or an outside payment provider processes it. Shopify's public U.S. pricing currently lists online Shopify Payments rates of 2.9% plus $0.30 on Basic, 2.7% plus $0.30 on Grow, and 2.5% plus $0.30 on Advanced. Shopify Payments orders do not also pay Shopify's third-party transaction fee when Shopify Payments is the sole provider.

A merchant using an external processor can instead pay both that processor's charge and a Shopify third-party transaction fee. The public U.S. plan table lists that Shopify fee at 2% for Basic, 1% for Grow, and 0.6% for Advanced. This guide and calculator use official Shopify pages reviewed August 4, 2026. Country, card type, payment method, contract, and account settings can change the result, so the rate displayed in Shopify admin remains the final authority.

What are Shopify's current U.S. payment fees?

For an ordinary domestic online card processed through Shopify Payments, the public U.S. plan comparison lists 2.9% plus $0.30 on Basic, 2.7% plus $0.30 on Grow, and 2.5% plus $0.30 on Advanced. In-person card rates are lower and use a different fixed charge, while international cards add a published premium. Plus pricing can be contract-specific, so this calculator does not pretend there is one universal Plus rate.

These payment-processing rates are separate from the monthly subscription. A plan can lower the percentage while raising the fixed monthly software cost. The correct economic comparison uses expected order volume and average order value, then allocates the actual subscription bill across orders only if the seller wants a per-order profit view.

• Basic online Shopify Payments: 2.9% + $0.30
• Grow online Shopify Payments: 2.7% + $0.30
• Advanced online Shopify Payments: 2.5% + $0.30
• Third-party provider: provider processing charge plus Shopify's plan-based transaction fee

How does the Shopify fee calculator work?

The calculator first builds the processed payment base from item price, buyer-paid shipping, and sales tax. It multiplies that complete amount by the selected processing percentage and adds the fixed payment fee. If a third-party provider is selected, it separately applies Shopify's transaction percentage to the same official base of product cost after discounts, tax, and shipping. An optional subscription allocation is then added as a business cost.

Payment balance, tax-excluded revenue, and profit are deliberately different. Payment balance subtracts modeled platform and processing fees from the complete captured amount, including collected tax. Revenue after fees and collected tax then removes that tax liability. Profit also subtracts inventory, seller-paid shipping, packaging, and the optional plan allocation. This prevents a tax-inclusive payment balance from being mislabeled as money the merchant can keep.

When does Shopify charge a third-party transaction fee?

Shopify says third-party transaction fees apply when an outside or alternate payment gateway accepts the customer's payment. The fee is charged in addition to whatever that provider charges. The public U.S. pricing table currently lists 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, and 0.6% on Advanced. A seller therefore needs both rate schedules to estimate an externally processed order accurately.

Shopify lists important exclusions. When Shopify Payments is used as the sole provider, orders processed through Shopify Payments, Shop Pay, Shop Pay Installments, PayPal Express Checkout, and manual methods do not receive the extra third-party transaction fee. If Shopify Payments is used alongside a direct third-party provider, Shopify currently adds a 1.25% premium to standard Shopify Payments rates for transactions it processes, including eligible recovery payments. The calculator includes a Basic mixed-provider preset; merchants on other plans can edit the percentage to their admin rate. POS and manual payments are excluded under the help-center rules. Stores created on or after May 12, 2025 can face special treatment for the portion paid with store credit or gift cards, which a general order calculator cannot infer.

What amount is the Shopify transaction fee based on?

Shopify's billing help gives the formula as product cost after discounts, plus tax, plus shipping charges, multiplied by the applicable rate. This means the fee base can be larger than the revenue a seller informally calls the item price. If an item is $100, shipping is $10, and tax is $8, the modeled base is $118.

Inventory cost, postage paid to the carrier, packaging, advertising, labor, returns, and overhead do not reduce Shopify's transaction-fee base. They still matter to profit, which is why the tool collects them separately. Discounts reduce product proceeds before the fee base is formed, so enter the actual discounted item price rather than the crossed-out catalog price.

Three worked Shopify fee examples

Example one: a $100 Basic online Shopify Payments order with no shipping or tax. The percentage charge is $2.90 and the fixed charge is $0.30, for $3.20 total payment processing. The balance before inventory and fulfillment costs is $96.80. If direct costs are $55, profit before allocated subscription and other overhead is $41.80.

Example two: the same $100 order on Grow uses 2.7% plus $0.30. Processing is $3, leaving $97 before costs. Advanced at 2.5% plus $0.30 costs $2.80. The per-order savings versus Basic are $0.20 and $0.40 respectively. Those savings must be compared with the actual difference in monthly subscription price and expected order count.

Example three: a Basic order handled entirely by a third-party provider at a hypothetical 2.9% plus $0.30 provider rate. The provider would charge $3.20 and Shopify's separate 2% transaction fee would add $2, for $5.20 total. The provider rate here is an editable example, not a Shopify promise. On a $118 processed order, Basic Shopify Payments at 2.9% plus $0.30 produces $3.72 after cent rounding.

How should monthly Shopify plan cost affect profit?

The subscription is not a transaction fee deducted from each payout. It is a recurring software bill. To compare plans on a per-order basis, divide the actual monthly plan amount by a realistic monthly order count. If a store pays $100 in applicable monthly platform cost and expects 200 paid orders, the allocation is $0.50 per order.

Allocation is useful for planning but can mislead when volume swings. A slow month raises cost per order, while a busy month lowers it. Keep the raw payment fee and allocated plan cost in separate lines, and compare annual billing discounts, apps, POS subscriptions, and negotiated terms outside the public transaction formula. The calculator defaults allocation to zero rather than inventing an order count.

How does reverse pricing find a target profit?

Reverse pricing asks for the lowest complete-cent item price that reaches the requested profit after the chosen percentage, fixed fee, third-party fee, and entered costs. The calculator tests cent values so the displayed result reaches the goal and one cent less does not. This avoids the common mistake of simply adding the fee percentage to the desired payout.

Conceptually, when all charges are linear, required price equals the required money after fees plus fixed charges, divided by one minus the combined percentage rate. Shipping and tax complicate the amount processed, while tax is not seller revenue. The tool handles those offsets directly. A target price is a planning result, not authorization to add a surcharge that violates card-network rules or consumer law.

When will the estimate differ from a Shopify statement?

International and commercial cards, currency conversion, PayPal Wallet, Shop Pay Installments, duties and import-tax calculation, local payment methods, refunds, disputes, chargebacks, apps, POS, store credit, gift cards, taxes on fees, and custom contracts can add or change charges. Shopify also notes that credit-card fees are not returned when an order is refunded, while third-party transaction fees have their own refund treatment.

Confirm the country and plan on Shopify's pricing page, then open Settings and Payments in the store admin to see the account's actual card rates. For an outside gateway, obtain the provider's current official fee schedule as well. Reconcile completed orders with payout and billing exports rather than treating a public calculator as an accounting ledger.

Sources

• Shopify: U.S. plans and payment rates ↗
• Shopify Help: Third-party transaction fees and fee base ↗
• Shopify Help: Shopify Payments fees ↗

Frequently asked questions