April 20, 2026 · By Alex Morgan

Every dollar you collect through your Shopify store gets touched by fees before it hits your bank account. Knowing exactly what you’ll pay — and how to pay less — can save you hundreds or thousands of dollars each year. This guide covers the exact rates for every Shopify plan in 2026, with real-dollar math so you can pick the right plan for your sales volume.

What Are Shopify Payment Processing Fees?

Two distinct fee types apply to every Shopify store. Confusing them is one of the most common — and costly — mistakes merchants make.

Credit card processing fees are charged on every sale, regardless of which payment gateway you use. These cover the actual cost of running the card. Shopify’s additional transaction fee is a separate charge. Shopify applies it only when you use a third-party gateway instead of Shopify Payments.

Enable Shopify Payments and the additional transaction fee disappears entirely. You still pay credit card processing rates. But that second layer of cost is gone. PCI compliance, fraud analysis tools, and chargeback management are all bundled into Shopify Payments at no extra charge (Shopify, 2026).

Your actual effective rate depends on your plan tier, whether the sale happens online or in person via Shopify POS, and the card type used. Accelerated checkouts like Shop Pay, Apple Pay, and Google Pay add no surcharge beyond the standard card rate.

2026 Shopify Plan Pricing at a Glance

Here’s what each plan costs and what you’ll pay per transaction in 2026. All credit card rates assume you’re using Shopify Payments in the United States.

PlanMonthly CostOnline Card RateIn-Person RateThird-Party Gateway Fee
Starter$55.0% + $0.30N/A5.0%
Basic$392.9% + $0.302.6% + $0.102.0%
Standard$1052.6% + $0.302.5% + $0.101.0%
Advanced$3992.4% + $0.302.4% + $0.100.5%
PlusFrom $2,300~2.15% + $0.30 (negotiable)Negotiable0.15%

(Source: Shopify Pricing Page, as of 2026)

Pay annually instead of monthly and you save roughly 25% on your subscription across all standard plans. The Starter plan at $5/month is built for social selling — Buy Button, link-in-bio, that kind of thing. Its 5% transaction fee makes it impractical for any store doing real volume. Shopify Plus starts at $2,300/month and can go higher based on a revenue-share model for very high-volume merchants.

Shopify Basic Plan Fees: Best for Stores Under ~$22K/Month

On Basic at $39/month, your online credit card rate through Shopify Payments is 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. In-person sales through Shopify POS come in lower at 2.6% + $0.10. Use a third-party gateway instead and Shopify adds a 2.0% surcharge on top of whatever your gateway already charges (Shopify, 2026).

Here’s the math on $10,000/month in online sales, assuming a $50 average order value and 200 transactions:

That $200 difference makes the decision easy for most sellers. Basic typically suits stores doing under roughly $22,000/month in gross merchandise volume (GMV). That’s the point where upgrading to Standard starts saving money on processing fees alone.

Merchants moving from marketplace selling to their own storefront often start here. A small handmade jewelry shop leaving Etsy for a standalone Shopify store, for example, keeps fixed costs low on Basic while testing direct-to-consumer demand.

For help getting started, check out our Shopify Payments setup guide.

Shopify Standard Plan Fees: The Break-Even Math at $22K/Month

Standard costs $105/month and drops your online card rate to 2.6% + $0.30 per transaction with Shopify Payments. In-person rates fall to 2.5% + $0.10, and the third-party gateway surcharge drops to 1.0% (Shopify, 2026).

The key question: when does upgrading from Basic ($39/month) to Standard ($105/month) actually save money? The monthly cost difference is $66. The online rate difference is 0.3% (2.9% vs. 2.6%). Divide $66 by 0.003 and you get $22,000/month in GMV as the break-even point. If your monthly sales consistently exceed that number, Standard costs you less overall.

Using a third-party gateway like PayPal or Stripe exclusively? The surcharge drops from 2.0% to 1.0% — a full percentage point. At just $6,600/month in GMV, that 1.0% saving alone covers the $66 plan difference. So Standard is especially useful for merchants who have business reasons to stick with a third-party gateway.

Shopify Advanced Plan Fees: Worth It for Features Before Fee Savings

Advanced at $399/month brings your online rate down to 2.4% + $0.30 and your in-person rate to 2.4% + $0.10. The third-party gateway surcharge drops to 0.5% (Shopify, 2026).

Here’s what Advanced saves on $50,000/month in online sales, assuming 500 transactions at $100 average order value:

At $50,000/month, Standard still wins by about $194. The break-even between Standard and Advanced lands around $147,000/month in GMV — that’s the $294 monthly cost difference divided by the 0.2% rate gap.

Advanced also unlocks third-party calculated shipping rates, advanced analytics, and up to 15 staff accounts. These features add value beyond raw fee savings. See our full Shopify plan comparison for a feature-by-feature breakdown.

A mid-size DTC skincare brand doing $80,000/month might choose Advanced for the analytics and shipping tools before hitting the pure fee break-even. The custom reporting alone can surface margin insights that more than offset the higher subscription cost.

Shopify Plus Payment Fees: Negotiable Rates for High-Volume Stores

Shopify Plus starts at $2,300/month and uses a variable pricing model that scales with revenue at higher tiers. The biggest advantage for payment processing: your Shopify Payments card rate is negotiable. It typically lands around 2.15% + $0.30 or lower, depending on your monthly volume and average order value (Shopify Plus, 2026).

The third-party gateway surcharge on Plus is just 0.15% — the lowest available. Plus merchants can also accept payments in multiple currencies natively through Shopify Payments, which cuts out the friction and added cost of currency conversion apps.

Plus gives you access to Checkout Extensibility for custom checkout experiences. That doesn’t change your processing rate, but it can meaningfully lift conversion. Your Merchant Success Manager can renegotiate rates as volume grows past agreed thresholds.

The target merchant for Plus is typically doing $500K+ in annual GMV. At that scale, even a few tenths of a percentage point in rate reduction means thousands in annual savings. One thing to know: Plus contracts typically require a three-year commitment. Downgrading is harder than on standard plans. Read our full Shopify Plus review for more detail.

Third-Party Gateway Fees: The Stacking Cost Most Merchants Overlook

Use any payment gateway other than Shopify Payments and Shopify charges an additional transaction fee on top of whatever that gateway already charges you. It’s Shopify’s platform fee for routing the order through external infrastructure. The two costs stack directly.

Here’s how that plays out on the Basic plan using Stripe:

On $10,000 in monthly sales, that’s roughly $520 in total processing costs — compared to about $350 with Shopify Payments alone. That’s a $170/month difference, which compounds over a year into more than $2,000.

Common third-party gateway base rates for US merchants as of 2026:

For most US-based merchants, Shopify Payments is the cheaper path. But there are real exceptions. Stores selling high-risk products that Shopify Payments won’t support — CBD, certain supplements — need a third-party option. So do subscription-heavy businesses using platforms like ReCharge that require direct gateway access. Merchants in countries where Shopify Payments isn’t available yet have no choice either.

Shopify Payments: What to Know About Card Types and Chargebacks

All major card brands — Visa, Mastercard, Amex, and Discover — process at the same advertised rate through Shopify Payments on your plan. That’s a real advantage. Amex historically charges higher interchange rates on other platforms. Here, you pay the same percentage regardless of card brand (Shopify, 2026).

International cards trigger an additional 1.5% currency conversion fee when the card’s currency doesn’t match your store’s default currency. This applies even with Shopify Payments. Factor it in if you sell globally. Merchants with a large share of international orders — common in niches like vintage collectibles or specialty apparel — should watch this fee closely in their analytics dashboard.

Chargebacks carry a $15 fee per dispute. Win the dispute and Shopify refunds the $15. Accelerated checkout methods — Shop Pay, Apple Pay, and Google Pay — process at your standard card rate with no added surcharge. For help handling disputes, see our Shopify chargeback guide.

How to Reduce Your Shopify Processing Fees in 2026

Step 1: Use Shopify Payments. If you’re in a supported country and not in a restricted product category, switching from a third-party gateway to Shopify Payments is the single biggest fee reduction available. A $25,000/month apparel store on Basic that switches from Stripe to Shopify Payments eliminates the 2.0% surcharge — saving $500/month, or $6,000/year. That money goes straight back to ad spend or inventory.

Step 2: Upgrade plans at the right time. Use this formula: (New plan cost − Current plan cost) ÷ (Current rate − New rate) = Break-even monthly GMV. Only upgrade when your sales consistently exceed that number for at least two or three consecutive months. Seasonal spikes alone don’t justify the jump.

Step 3: Enable Shop Pay. Shop Pay has been shown to increase checkout conversion by up to 50% compared to guest checkout (Shopify, 2025). The card rate is identical, but higher conversion means more revenue per visitor and a lower effective customer acquisition cost.

Step 4: Pay annually. The ~25% subscription discount on annual billing cuts your fixed costs. On the Standard plan, that’s roughly $315 saved per year.

Step 5: Audit your actual rates. Go to Shopify Admin → Analytics → Finances and check your effective processing rate each month. If it’s running higher than your plan’s stated rate, look at international card volume or refund patterns — both can push your effective rate above the published number. For more strategies, see our guide on reducing Shopify transaction fees.

Shopify Fees vs. Competitors: No Single Platform Is Cheapest for Everyone

WooCommerce + Stripe charges no platform transaction fee. But you pay for hosting ($25–$100+/month), SSL certificates, security plugins, and PCI compliance management. For stores under $20,000/month in GMV, those infrastructure costs often equal or exceed the savings from avoiding Shopify’s platform fees (WooCommerce, 2026). WooCommerce also demands more hands-on work — plugin updates, security patches, and server optimization are all your problem.

BigCommerce charges zero additional transaction fees on every plan. That’s a genuine advantage for merchants using third-party gateways. BigCommerce’s recommended processors — Braintree, Stripe — charge similar credit card rates to Shopify Payments, so the savings come mainly from avoiding the platform surcharge layer. See our Shopify vs. BigCommerce comparison for the full breakdown.

Wix eCommerce processes payments through Wix Payments starting at 2.9% + $0.30 on their Business plan (Wix, 2026). Wix doesn’t charge additional transaction fees. But its app ecosystem and fulfillment integrations are less mature than Shopify’s, which can become a real problem for merchants scaling past six figures annually.

The honest takeaway: no single platform has the cheapest fees across all situations. Shopify’s bundled fraud tools, Shop Pay’s conversion lift, and Shopify Balance for faster payouts create a total cost of ownership that’s typically competitive at mid-market volumes ($10K–$500K/month). Merchants who want gateway flexibility without surcharges may prefer BigCommerce. Those who want full infrastructure control may prefer WooCommerce, despite the added maintenance burden.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Shopify charge a fee if I use PayPal?

Yes. Use PayPal or any third-party gateway instead of Shopify Payments and Shopify adds an extra transaction fee on top of PayPal’s own rate. On Basic that’s 2.0%, Standard is 1.0%, Advanced is 0.5%, and Plus is 0.15%.

What is the cheapest way to accept payments on Shopify?

Enable Shopify Payments to eliminate the additional transaction fee, and choose annual billing. At higher sales volumes, upgrading to a higher plan reduces your per-transaction rate enough to offset the higher monthly cost. Use the break-even formula in the fee reduction section above to find your optimal plan.

Are Shopify payment processing fees negotiable?

Only on Shopify Plus. Plus merchants can negotiate lower card rates directly with Shopify once they reach sufficient volume. All other plans have fixed published rates as of 2026.

Does Shopify charge fees on refunds?

Shopify Payments does not return the Shopify transaction fee on refunds. The percentage portion of the credit card processing fee is typically returned by the card network, but the fixed $0.30 per-transaction fee is not. This matters for stores with high return rates. A fashion retailer with a 30% return rate, for example, should factor those unrecovered per-transaction fees into margin calculations.

How does Shopify’s 2026 fee structure compare to 2025?

The core rate structure stayed largely stable heading into 2026. The main changes involve Shopify Plus pricing adjustments for high-volume tiers and expanded Shopify Payments availability in additional countries. Always check Shopify’s pricing page for the latest confirmed rates (Shopify, 2026).

Do I pay credit card fees on Shopify POS in-person sales?

Yes, but in-person rates are lower than online rates. On Basic, in-person is 2.6% + $0.10 versus 2.9% + $0.30 online. You must use Shopify POS with Shopify Payments hardware to access these rates. Check our Shopify POS hardware review for compatible readers and terminals.