Shopify transaction fees: what you actually pay, and what it does to your profit
Every Shopify sale costs you a little before it reaches your bank. How much depends on two things: which Shopify plan you're on, and how your customers pay. Here's what you're actually charged, and how to work out what it does to your profit.
Two different fees
Shopify charges two kinds of fee, and stores often mix them up.
Card processing fees are what you pay to take a card payment. If you use Shopify Payments, this is the only fee on each sale.
Transaction fees are what Shopify adds when you use an outside payment provider instead of Shopify Payments. You pay that provider's own processing fee as well, so you're charged twice on the same sale.
Shopify Payments rates (United States)
| Plan | Price, billed monthly | Online card rate | In-person card rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $39/month | 2.9% + 30¢ | 2.6% + 10¢ |
| Grow | $105/month | 2.7% + 30¢ | 2.5% + 10¢ |
| Advanced | $399/month | 2.5% + 30¢ | 2.4% + 10¢ |
| Plus | from $2,300/month | 2.25% + 30¢ | 2.3% + 10¢ |
Billed yearly, Basic drops to $29 a month, Grow to $79 and Advanced to $299. Cards issued outside the US cost an extra 1% on every plan.
The extra fee for outside providers
If you take payments through a provider other than Shopify Payments, Shopify adds its own transaction fee on top:
| Plan | Shopify's transaction fee |
|---|---|
| Basic | 2% |
| Grow | 1% |
| Advanced | 0.6% |
| Plus | 0.2% |
PayPal Wallet is priced separately, starting at 3.49% + 49¢.
What it looks like on one order
Take a $50 online order on the Basic plan.
- Through Shopify Payments, you pay 2.9% + 30¢, which is $1.75. That's 3.5% of the sale.
- Through an outside provider that also charges 2.9% + 30¢, you pay that $1.75 plus Shopify's 2%, another $1.00. Now it's $2.75, or 5.5% of the sale.
- If the customer's card is from outside the US, add another 50¢.
A dollar an order doesn't sound like much. At 1,000 orders a month it's $1,000, and it comes straight out of profit.
When upgrading your plan pays for itself
Each plan step lowers your card rate. Here's the monthly sales figure where the lower rate covers the higher plan price, using Shopify Payments online rates:
- Basic to Grow: about $33,000 a month in sales on monthly billing, or $25,000 on yearly.
- Grow to Advanced: about $147,000 a month on monthly billing, or $110,000 on yearly.
Below those numbers, the cheaper plan costs you less overall.
What the fees do to your profit
Revenue tells you what came in. Profit tells you what you kept, and payment fees are one of the costs that sit between the two. To get there, start from your sales after refunds and subtract:
- what the products you sold cost you,
- your shipping costs,
- your payment processing fees,
- your ad spend.
What's left is your net profit.
See it without the spreadsheet
Nesvo is a free Shopify app that does this for you. It reads the processing fee Shopify Payments reports on every order and takes it out of your net profit, along with your product and shipping costs. For PayPal, Stripe or any other provider, you enter the rate once and it does the same. The analytics are free on every plan.
Install Nesvo on the Shopify App Store →
Fees and rates are from Shopify's US pricing page, checked October 23, 2026. Shopify changes its rates from time to time, so check the pricing page for your country before you decide on a plan.