TallyCrunch

The true cost of selling on Shopify (beyond the monthly plan)

TallyCrunch

When people ask what Shopify costs, they usually mean the monthly plan. But the subscription is the predictable part. The fees that quietly decide whether your store is profitable are charged on every order — and they're easy to overlook until you reconcile your payouts.

The three layers of Shopify cost

  1. Subscription — your flat monthly plan (Basic, Shopify, or Advanced).
  2. Payment processing — a percentage plus a fixed fee on every card sale (2.9% + 30¢ on Basic).
  3. Transaction fee — an extra cut Shopify takes only if you use a third-party gateway instead of Shopify Payments.

The first is a line item you budget for once a month. The other two scale with your revenue, so they're the ones that actually move your margin.

A quick example

Sell a $49 product that costs you $14, with $4.50 shipping, on Basic with Shopify Payments:

  • Processing fee: 2.9% × $49 + $0.30 = $1.72
  • Net profit: $49 − $14 − $4.50 − $1.72 = $28.78 (a 58.7% margin)

That $1.72 looks trivial — until you multiply it by 1,000 orders a month. Then it's $1,720 gone to processing alone. Run your own numbers in the Shopify Fee Calculator to see the exact figure for your store.

The fee most sellers miss

If you process payments through PayPal, Stripe, or another outside gateway instead of Shopify Payments, Shopify charges a transaction fee on top — 2% on Basic. You end up paying the gateway and Shopify. Unless you have a specific reason not to, Shopify Payments is almost always the cheaper choice because that extra fee disappears.

How to keep more of every sale

  • Use Shopify Payments to avoid the transaction fee entirely.
  • Raise your average order value — the fixed 30¢ hurts cheap orders far more than expensive ones.
  • Right-size your plan: higher tiers charge lower rates, which can outweigh the bigger subscription once your volume is high enough.
  • Build ~3% of fee headroom into your prices so processing costs don't eat your margin.

The bottom line

Treat the subscription as your cost of entry and the per-order fees as your real cost of doing business. Budget roughly 2.9% + 30¢ per order on Basic, avoid stacking a third-party gateway, and check your true profit per sale before you set prices — the Shopify Fee Calculator does it in a few seconds.

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