Compare fees across all Shopify plans and see your exact payout with or without third-party gateways.
Processing + transaction fees · 2026
✓ Verified against Shopify official pricing · June 2026
Shopify operates on a fundamentally different model than marketplaces like eBay or Etsy — instead of paying a percentage to access an existing audience, you pay a monthly subscription for the storefront infrastructure itself, plus a separate processing fee on each transaction. This structure means Shopify's true cost depends heavily on your sales volume, making the "right" plan a moving target as your business grows.
The difference between Shopify's Basic plan (2.0% + $0.30, $39/month) and the standard Shopify plan (1.0% + $0.30, $105/month) comes down to a single percentage point on processing — but that point only pays for itself once your sales volume is high enough. The break-even calculation is straightforward: the $66 monthly price difference divided by the 1.0% rate difference works out to $6,600 in monthly sales. Below that threshold, Basic remains the more economical choice even though its per-transaction rate looks less appealing on paper.
Consider three businesses doing $2,000, $7,000, and $15,000 in monthly sales respectively. At $2,000/month, Basic costs $39 + $40 in processing = $79 total; upgrading to Shopify plan would cost $105 + $20 = $125 — clearly worse. At $7,000/month, Basic costs $39 + $140 = $179, while Shopify plan costs $105 + $70 = $175 — now slightly favoring the upgrade. By $15,000/month, the gap widens meaningfully: Basic costs $339 versus Shopify plan's $255, an $84 monthly saving that easily justifies the higher subscription cost.
A detail that surprises many new Shopify merchants: using any payment gateway other than Shopify Payments (such as a separate PayPal Business integration as your primary processor) triggers an additional transaction fee on top of whatever that gateway already charges. This extra fee ranges from 2.0% on Basic down to 0.5% on Advanced, meaning third-party gateways become progressively more expensive relative to staying within the Shopify Payments ecosystem as your plan tier increases. For most merchants, consolidating around Shopify Payments as the primary processor — while still offering PayPal as a secondary option for customer choice — delivers the best overall cost structure.
The most important consideration isn't actually the percentage rate — it's that Shopify provides zero built-in customer traffic, unlike Etsy or eBay's existing buyer base. A merchant paying 2.3% in total Shopify fees but unable to generate consistent traffic will earn less overall than one paying Etsy's 10% but benefiting from the platform's built-in buyer discovery. The lower fees only translate into real savings once you have a reliable way to drive customers to your store — through existing audience, paid advertising, SEO, or social media presence. See our Etsy vs Shopify comparison for a deeper look at when each model makes more sense.
| Plan | Monthly Cost | Processing Rate | 3rd-Party Fee | On $100 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $39 | 2.0% + $0.30 | 2.0% | $2.30 |
| Shopify | $105 | 1.0% + $0.30 | 1.0% | $1.30 |
| Advanced | $399 | 0.5% + $0.30 | 0.5% | $0.80 |
| Plus | $2,000 | 0.15% | 0.15% | $0.15 |
Third-party gateway fee is waived when using Shopify Payments.