Shopify Payment Fees Explained: How Much Does Shopify Actually Take

Key Insights

• Shopify payment fees have two separate layers: your monthly plan fee and the card processing rate on every sale, and most merchants only budget for one of them.
• Using Shopify Payments avoids Shopify’s third-party transaction surcharge entirely. Skip it for another processor and that surcharge stacks on top of the gateway’s own rate.
• On a $100 sale through Shopify Payments, a Basic-plan merchant keeps about $96.80. That gap narrows on higher plans, which is the actual math behind any upgrade decision.
• Card processing is rarely the only fee eating into revenue. App subscriptions, chargebacks, and the amortized plan cost all belong in a real answer to how much does Shopify take.

How much does Shopify take per sale sounds like it should have one clean answer, and merchants are usually surprised to learn it does not. Shopify payment fees stack in layers: a monthly subscription, a card processing rate that changes by plan, and a separate surcharge if you skip Shopify’s own payment processor for something else. This piece breaks down every layer with concrete numbers, shows exactly what a $100 sale nets you on each plan, and covers the costs that do not show up on the pricing page at all. No vague ranges, just the actual math.

The Two Layers of Shopify Payment Fees

Every Shopify merchant pays fees in two separate places, and conflating them is where most confusion starts. The first layer is your subscription, a fixed monthly cost for the plan itself, currently Basic, Grow, or Advanced, each unlocking more features and a lower card processing rate. The second layer is the card processing fee, charged as a percentage plus a flat amount on every transaction that runs through Shopify Payments.

These two layers move in opposite directions by design. A higher plan costs more per month but takes a smaller percentage per sale, which is exactly why the right plan depends on your sales volume, not just your budget. Shopify also adjusts pricing and plan names periodically, so treat the numbers below as a snapshot and confirm current rates on Shopify’s own pricing page before you commit to a plan.

What Shopify Actually Charges, Plan by Plan

On the Basic plan, expect roughly $39 a month with a card rate of 2.9% plus 30 cents per online transaction through Shopify Payments. That is the highest per-sale rate of the three core plans, which makes sense given it is also the lowest monthly commitment.

Grow, the plan formerly labeled simply Shopify in a lot of older guides, runs around $105 a month with a card rate closer to 2.6% plus 30 cents. The lower percentage starts paying for itself once you are processing a meaningful volume of orders each month.

Advanced sits at roughly $399 a month with a rate around 2.4% plus 30 cents, the lowest of the three, aimed at stores where the fee percentage difference on high volume outweighs the steeper monthly cost.

These figures reflect US online rates as commonly published. International transactions, Amex, and in-person rates typically run slightly higher, and Shopify does adjust pricing over time, so confirm current numbers before budgeting around them.

What a $100 Sale Actually Nets You

Concrete numbers make this easier to reason about than percentages alone. On Basic, a $100 sale through Shopify Payments costs $2.90 plus 30 cents, so you keep $96.80. On Grow, the same sale costs $2.60 plus 30 cents, leaving $97.10. But on Advanced, it is $2.40 plus 30 cents, leaving $97.30.

The difference between Basic and Advanced on a single sale looks small, about 50 cents, but it compounds at volume. A store doing 1,000 orders a month at that $100 average would see roughly $500 more in processing costs on Basic than on Advanced. Whether that gap justifies the higher plan fee depends entirely on your order volume and average order value, which is worth actually calculating rather than guessing.

How the Math Changes as Your Volume Grows

The plan-versus-percentage tradeoff only becomes real once you run it against your own numbers instead of a single sale. At $5,000 a month in card sales, the difference between Basic and Advanced processing rates comes out to roughly $25, nowhere near enough to justify Advanced’s higher monthly fee on its own. Therefore, at $30,000 a month, that same rate difference is closer to $150, which starts to meaningfully offset the jump in plan cost. At $100,000 a month, the processing savings alone can exceed $500, comfortably paying for the upgrade with room to spare.

This is why generic advice like start on Basic and upgrade later is directionally correct but not precise enough to act on. The actual crossover point depends on your average order value and monthly volume, not a rule of thumb. Pull last month’s total processed through Shopify Payments, apply each plan’s rate, and compare the difference against the monthly fee gap. That five-minute calculation tells you more than any blog post’s rounded example.

The Third-Party Surcharge Nobody Reads Until It Costs Them

Everything above assumes you are using Shopify Payments. Route transactions through a different processor instead, PayPal being the one notable exception, and Shopify adds its own surcharge on top of that processor’s rate: roughly 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced, and 0.2% on Shopify Plus.

That surcharge is where how much does Shopify take gets meaningfully bigger than most merchants expect. On $10,000 a month in sales through a third-party gateway on the Basic plan, that is an extra $200 a month on top of whatever the processor itself charges, money that disappears specifically because Shopify Payments was not the processor of choice. It is the clearest financial argument for using Shopify Payments as your primary gateway even before comparing rates directly. For a full breakdown of how the alternatives compare, our guide to the best Shopify payment gateways in 2026 covers each option side by side.

The Costs That Do Not Show Up on the Pricing Page

Subscription and card processing are the two fees everyone budgets for. A complete answer to how much does Shopify take needs three more line items most merchants forget until the bill arrives.

App subscriptions add up quietly. Reviews, email marketing, upsell tools, and inventory apps each carry their own monthly charge, and a lean app stack still commonly runs $50 to $250 a month.

Chargebacks carry a flat fee, typically $15 through Shopify Payments, refunded automatically if you win the dispute. Categories with higher dispute rates should budget for this explicitly rather than being surprised by it.

Premium themes are a one-time cost, but a custom or heavily modified theme carries ongoing development costs worth planning for separately, alongside whatever custom checkout work your store has planned.

Pro Tip 💡

Run your own numbers instead of trusting a generic percentage. Take last month’s total card volume and order count, apply your plan’s actual rate, and compare the result against what a higher plan would have cost you in fees plus subscription. The breakeven point is almost always more specific to your store than any blog post’s rounded example, including this one.

FAQ

How much does Shopify take per sale?

It depends on your plan and payment method. Through Shopify Payments, expect roughly 2.4% to 2.9% plus 30 cents per online transaction, lower on higher plans. Using a different processor adds Shopify’s own surcharge, roughly 0.2% to 2%, on top of that processor’s rate.

What are Shopify’s monthly plan fees in 2026?

The three core plans run roughly $39 for Basic, $105 for Grow, and $399 for Advanced per month on standard billing, with about 25% off if you pay annually. Shopify Plus starts significantly higher and is priced separately for enterprise merchants. Confirm current figures on Shopify’s pricing page, since these do change.

Does Shopify charge a fee if I do not use Shopify Payments?

Yes. Skipping Shopify Payments for another processor triggers Shopify’s own third-party transaction surcharge on top of that processor’s fees, except for PayPal, which Shopify treats as a payment method rather than a third-party gateway.

Are Shopify’s payment fees negotiable?

For standard plans, no. Rates are fixed by plan tier. At Shopify Plus and higher enterprise volumes, merchants can sometimes negotiate custom processing rates directly with Shopify.

Why did my Shopify fees go up this month?

Usually one of three reasons: a plan change, a shift toward more international or Amex transactions, which carry slightly higher rates, or a new app subscription that was not there last billing cycle. Reviewing your monthly statement line by line usually surfaces the cause quickly.

Is Shopify cheaper than WooCommerce or other platforms?

It depends what you are counting. Shopify’s fees are transparent and bundled into a predictable monthly cost. WooCommerce has no platform fee but often costs $1,500 to $15,000 a year once hosting, plugins, and development are factored in. Total cost of ownership matters more than the sticker price on either platform.

Ready to Get Started?

Shopify payment fees are not complicated once you separate the layers: a monthly plan fee, a card processing rate that drops as you upgrade, and a surcharge you only pay if you skip Shopify Payments. Run your own numbers against your actual order volume instead of relying on someone else’s rounded example, and the right plan usually becomes obvious.

If you want a second opinion on whether you are on the right plan or losing money to an avoidable surcharge, our Shopify development team can review your setup and show you the real numbers. Reach out and we will walk through your specific store together.