Shopify charges 2 distinct types of fees on every transaction: a credit card processing rate and, if you use a payment gateway other than Shopify Payments, an additional transaction fee on top. Most merchants who ask about “Shopify transaction fees” are asking about that second charge. This guide covers both, breaks them down by plan, and explains exactly how to avoid the extra fee entirely.

Want the quick per-plan answer or a calculator? This page goes deep on how fees differ between the entry Basic plan and enterprise Shopify Plus. For the current transaction fee on every Shopify plan, plus a tool that works out your exact per-sale cost, use our Shopify transaction fee calculator and per-plan guide.

The short version: use Shopify Payments and you pay only the card processing rate. Use any other gateway and Shopify adds a per-transaction surcharge ranging from 2% on Basic down to 0.2% on Plus. Here is what each plan actually costs.

Key Takeaways
1
Shopify charges 2 types of fees: a credit card processing rate (always) and a transaction fee surcharge (only when using a third-party gateway).
2
Use Shopify Payments to eliminate the transaction fee entirely on any plan.
3
Basic Shopify charges a 2% surcharge for third-party gateways; upgrading to Grow (formerly Shopify) reduces it to 1%, Advanced to 0.6%, Plus to 0.2%.
4
High-volume merchants on Plus can negotiate both their card processing rate and their transaction fee surcharge directly with Shopify.

What is a Shopify transaction fee?

A Shopify transaction fee is a surcharge Shopify adds when you process payments through a gateway other than Shopify Payments. It is separate from the credit card processing rate your gateway charges. The transaction fee goes to Shopify; the processing rate goes to the payment processor.

If you use Shopify Payments as your gateway, you pay no Shopify transaction fee at all. You only pay the credit card rate, which varies by plan. This is the single most direct way to cut your per-transaction cost on any Shopify plan.

Shopify transaction fees and card rates by plan

The table below shows the transaction fee (for third-party gateways) and the online credit card rate (for Shopify Payments) on each plan. In-person rates are slightly lower on every plan.

Plan Transaction fee (3rd-party gateway) Online card rate (Shopify Payments)
Starter 5% 5% + $0.30
Basic 2% 2.9% + $0.30
Grow 1% 2.6% + $0.30
Advanced 0.6% 2.4% + $0.30
Plus 0.2% (negotiable) Negotiated (typically 2.15% or lower)

Fees verified against Shopify’s pricing page, October 2026.

A few things to note from this table. First, the Starter plan has a 5% transaction fee, making it impractical for any real sales volume. Second, upgrading from Basic to Grow cuts the surcharge in half (2% to 1%). Third, Shopify Plus replaces fixed fees with negotiated rates, so the exact numbers depend on your sales volume and agreement with Shopify.

Basic Shopify transaction fees in practice

On Basic Shopify, the transaction fee is 2% per order when using an external gateway such as PayPal, Stripe, or any other third-party processor. On 100 orders averaging $80 each, that is $160 per month going to Shopify on top of whatever your processor charges. At higher volumes, that 2% adds up faster than the plan cost itself.

The credit card rate on Basic via Shopify Payments is 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction online, and 2.7% for in-person sales. These rates are fixed and the same for every Basic merchant. If your average order value is high, the per-transaction $0.30 has less impact. If your orders are small, the fixed portion represents a larger share of each sale.

Shopify Plus transaction fees: what changes

Shopify Plus does not use the standard published fee schedule. The transaction fee drops to 0.2% for third-party gateways, and card processing rates are negotiated based on annual sales volume. For merchants processing $1 million or more per year through Shopify Payments, negotiated rates typically start below 2.2% online.

Plus also removes the external gateway transaction fee cap structure entirely for many use cases. Merchants selling in multiple currencies or using Shopify’s international payment features get additional flexibility on how fees are applied across markets. These terms are set in the merchant agreement, not on a published rate card.

The net effect for a high-volume merchant is significant. Moving from Basic (2% surcharge, 2.9% card rate) to Plus (0.2% surcharge, negotiated card rate) on $5 million in annual sales can save tens of thousands of dollars in fees, often exceeding the difference in monthly subscription cost.

How to avoid Shopify transaction fees

The only way to avoid Shopify’s transaction fee is to use Shopify Payments as your payment processor. Shopify waives the surcharge entirely for merchants on all plans, including Basic, when Shopify Payments handles the transaction. You still pay the card processing rate, but the additional gateway surcharge disappears.

Shopify Payments is available in most major markets. If it is not available in your country, you cannot avoid the transaction fee on any plan. For merchants where Shopify Payments is available, switching is typically the highest-return fee reduction available without upgrading plans.

If you need a gateway Shopify Payments does not support, such as a specific local payment method, factor the 2% (Basic) or 1% (Grow plan) surcharge into your pricing decisions from the start.

When does upgrading plans reduce your fees?

If you use Shopify Payments, the transaction fee is already 0 on any plan. The question then becomes whether the lower card processing rate on a higher plan saves enough to cover the higher subscription cost.

Rough break-even points using Shopify Payments (online sales, no third-party gateway):

  • Basic to Grow: the card rate drops 0.3% (from 2.9% to 2.6%), costing roughly $29/month more. Break-even is around $9,700/month in sales, where the 0.3% saving covers the plan difference.
  • Grow to Advanced: the rate drops another 0.2%, with a higher plan cost. Break-even is around $38,000/month in sales.
  • Advanced to Plus: Plus starts at $2,300/month and rates are negotiated. Break-even for Plus only makes sense at $80,000/month or above for fee savings alone, though Plus includes features (custom checkouts, API access, automation) that provide value beyond fee reduction.

If you use a third-party gateway and cannot switch to Shopify Payments, the transaction fee savings from upgrading are direct. Moving from Basic (2%) to Grow (1%) saves 1% on every sale, which covers the plan difference at around $2,900/month in sales.

Basic Shopify vs Shopify Plus: fee summary

Basic and Plus sit at opposite ends of the Shopify pricing structure, so the fee gap between them is the widest. Basic is a published-rate plan for new and small merchants. Plus is a negotiated-rate plan built for high-volume and enterprise merchants.

For a merchant at $500,000 in annual online sales using Shopify Payments, Basic costs roughly $14,500/year in card processing fees at 2.9% + $0.30 (excluding the fixed portion). An Advanced merchant running the same volume pays around $12,000/year at 2.4%. The fee gap grows proportionally with sales volume, which is why upgrading plans is worth modeling before staying on Basic by default.

For our full breakdown of what Shopify’s plans cover beyond fees, see the Shopify plan comparison guide.

To run these numbers against your own sales, use our Shopify fee calculator.