Shopify Fee & Profit Calculator
Card rates are only part of the cost. Add the monthly plan allocated across your orders, and see which plan tier actually wins on your volume.
Rates last verified: October 2026 · US/USD, monthly-billing list prices.
Results
| Card processing per order | — |
| Third-party gateway surcharge | — |
| Plan cost allocated per order | — |
| Total Shopify cost per order | — |
Plan comparison at your volume
| Plan | Profit / month |
|---|---|
| Basic | — |
| Shopify | — |
| Advanced | — |
The three layers of Shopify cost
Shopify pricing looks simpler than a marketplace's, but it still has three distinct layers. Card processing is the percentage-plus-fixed fee on each online transaction: 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic, 2.6% + 30¢ on the Shopify plan, 2.4% + 30¢ on Advanced when using Shopify Payments in the US. Third-party gateway surcharges apply if you use an external provider such as PayPal or a regional gateway instead of Shopify Payments — an extra 2%, 1% or 0.5% of the order respectively, on top of whatever your gateway itself charges. The subscription is a fixed monthly cost that only becomes visible per order when you divide it by your volume: $39 across 100 orders is 39¢ each; across 1,000 orders it is under 4¢.
This structure means the "best" plan is a volume question, not a feature question. Higher tiers charge more per month but less per transaction, so there is always a crossover point where the processing savings overtake the subscription difference. The plan comparison table computes that crossover for your actual average order value and order count, including the gateway surcharge if it applies to you.
A worked example
Consider 300 orders a month at a $60 average order value on Shopify Payments. On Basic, card processing is $60 × 2.9% + $0.30 = $2.04 per order, and the plan adds $39 ÷ 300 = $0.13, for a total platform cost of $2.17 per order. On the Shopify plan, processing drops to $1.86 but the subscription allocation rises to $0.35 — total $2.21, slightly worse despite the lower rate. At 1,000 orders the same math flips: Basic costs $2.08 per order while the Shopify plan costs $1.97, saving about $110 a month. The lesson generalizes: upgrading for a lower card rate only pays when your volume is large enough to dilute the bigger subscription.
What this calculator leaves out
Real Shopify P&L also includes apps, themes, domain costs, Shopify Email, POS hardware, and any external gateway's own processing fees. Apps in particular can rival the subscription itself — audit them alongside this calculation. Taxes, chargebacks and currency conversion are also excluded. Treat the output as the platform-cost floor of each order, then add your other overheads to get the true picture.
Frequently asked questions
Is Shopify Payments always cheaper than a third-party gateway?
Not automatically. A gateway might offer a lower base rate for your card mix or country, but Shopify's surcharge (0.5–2%) usually makes it more expensive overall. Compare the combined cost, not just the gateway's headline rate.
Do these rates apply outside the US?
No. Card rates and plan prices vary by country. The model is US/USD; for other countries, replace the rates with your local Shopify pricing page values before relying on the comparison.
What about annual billing?
Annual billing typically discounts the subscription substantially. If you can commit, re-run the comparison with the discounted plan price — it moves the crossover point toward upgrading sooner.