Shopify Fee Calculator

The two fees Shopify charges

Shopify has two moving parts, and sellers routinely confuse them.

• Card processing: what Shopify Payments charges to take the money. On Basic that's 2.9% + 30¢ per online card order; Grow is 2.7%, Advanced 2.5% and Plus 2.25%, all plus 30¢.
• Third-party transaction fee: an extra charge Shopify levies when you use a gateway other than Shopify Payments, 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced, 0.2% on Plus.
• Subscription: the monthly plan fee, $39 on Basic (less billed annually), $105 on Grow, $399 on Advanced and $2,300 on Plus.

The calculator applies all three. Rates live on Shopify's pricing page and in the Shopify Payments fees help doc. If you use Shopify Payments, the third-party line is zero, that's the single biggest lever on your per-order cost.

It helps to think of the third-party fee as Shopify's way of charging you for not using its payments product. It is not a penalty for using a bad gateway, it is the price of a checkout platform that has to integrate with someone else's processing. That is why the fix is usually to switch to Shopify Payments rather than to shop around for a cheaper gateway.

Worked example: a $50 order on Basic

Defaults: a $50 product with $5 shipping, so the order total is $55, on the Basic plan with Shopify Payments.

• Card processing (2.9% × $55 + $0.30): $1.90
• Third-party fee: $0.00
• Total fees: $1.90

You net $53.10. If the product cost you $18, your profit is $53.10 − $18 = $35.10, a 63.8% margin. Now switch the gateway dropdown to third-party: Shopify adds 2% of $55 = $1.10, fees become $3.00 and profit falls to $34.00. That 2% is on top of whatever the outside processor charges, so a Stripe or PayPal gateway means paying two fees instead of one.

Shopify plan rates at a glance

Shopify's plans side by side:

Monthly prices drop if you pay annually. The card rate applies to every online card order; the third-party fee applies only when you don't use Shopify Payments.

How the monthly subscription changes your break-even

The subscription is a fixed cost, so its impact per order depends entirely on volume. At 100 orders a month on Basic you pay $190 in processing fees plus $39 for the plan = $229, an effective $2.29 per order, 4.2% of a $55 order. At 10 orders a month the same $19 in fees plus $39 = $58, or $5.80 per order, which is 10.5% of a $55 order. A slow store is an expensive store.

That's also how you decide whether to upgrade. Moving from Basic to Grow cuts the card rate by 0.2 points and the third-party fee by 1 point, but costs $66 more a month. On $55 orders the card-rate saving is only $0.11 each, so the card rate alone would need about 600 orders a month to justify it, the third-party fee is what makes Grow pay off faster if you use an outside gateway.

Run the numbers at your own order volume. Multiply your per-order fees by your monthly orders, add the subscription, and divide by orders again to get the true all-in cost per order. That single figure is what you should compare against a marketplace's percentage, not the headline 2.9%.

Should you use a third-party gateway?

Almost always, no. Shopify Payments avoids the third-party fee entirely and its card rate is competitive on its own. Add a third-party gateway and you pay the outside processor's rate plus Shopify's 2% on Basic. If Stripe charges 2.9% + 30¢ and Shopify adds 2%, your effective cost on a $55 order is about $2.99-5.4%, versus $1.90 with Shopify Payments.

The exception is a gateway that gives you materially cheaper rates (some high-volume merchants negotiate below 2%) or a payment method Shopify Payments doesn't support in your country. For most US stores, the default is Shopify Payments.

Shopify vs marketplace fees

Shopify's per-order fees look low next to a marketplace, but you're also paying the subscription and doing your own marketing. On a $55 order, Shopify Payments costs $1.90 (3.5%). Etsy on the same order costs about $4.90 once transaction and processing stack up. eBay in most categories is $7.88 (13.6% × 55 + $0.40).

The trade-off is reach: marketplaces bring buyers, a Shopify store doesn't. If you sell 100 orders a month, Shopify's $229 all-in is far cheaper than a marketplace's fees, but only if you can generate the traffic. Many sellers run both: a Shopify store for repeat customers and a marketplace for discovery.

If you already sell on Etsy or eBay, a Shopify store is usually an addition, not a replacement. Keep the marketplace for discovery and use Shopify for the customers who come back, where you keep the extra 10-15% a marketplace would have taken.

What the calculator doesn't include

The calculator covers processing, third-party fees and the subscription. It leaves out:

• Currency conversion: 1.5% for US stores when a customer pays in another currency.
• Apps: many stores run $20, $100 a month in paid apps.
• Shipping labels: Shopify Shipping discounts help, but label cost is still real.
• Refunds: the card rate isn't always returned, so returns and chargebacks carry a cost.

Those are the reasons a store that looks profitable on paper can still lose money. Track them separately, and remember processing fees are a deductible business expense, the IRS self-employed tax center covers the treatment.

Do Shopify fees count as a business expense?

Yes. Processing fees, third-party transaction fees and the monthly subscription are all ordinary and necessary business expenses, so they reduce your taxable income in the US. If you're a sole proprietor you deduct them on Schedule C; if you run an LLC or corporation the treatment is similar but your accountant will want the monthly Shopify invoice and the payout reports.

The payout Shopify deposits is gross revenue, not profit, fees were already deducted before it hit your bank, so the fee amount is the part you need to record as an expense rather than treating the deposit as income. The IRS self-employed tax center explains the self-employment side, and Shopify's own fee help docs give you the itemised totals to hand your accountant at year end.