Shopify Payments
- If you're on Shopify, use Shopify Payments. Shopify charges a third-party gateway fee on every order if you don't. That's 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced, 0.2% on Plus. That fee is the real lock-in, not the processing rate.
- The US rates are confirmed VENDOR. Online 2.9% / 2.7% / 2.5% + 30c by plan. In person 2.6% / 2.5% / 2.4% + 10c. Plans $39 / $105 / $399 monthly, or $29 / $79 / $299 billed annually.
- The "no cents in person" claim is Canada-only, and it gets stated as universal. The US in-person rate carries a 10 cent fixed component. The Canadian one carries zero. On an $8 ticket that's 1.25 points of effective rate. The two markets aren't interchangeable.
- US online rates also run 0.1 points above Canadian at every tier. That isn't a currency conversion. It's a different price.
- The chargeback fee is $15 in the US, and Shopify returns it if you win. That's on the help centre rather than the pricing page. Instant payout and keyed-in rates are still NOT PUBLISHED.
If you're on Shopify, Shopify Payments is almost always the right answer. The integration is built in. And the third-party gateway fee makes anything else uneconomical.
The US card is the bare shopify.com/pricing opened from a US connection. There's no /us/ path to request, and its 404 doesn't mean Shopify is hiding anything. Shopify resolves country by connection, so from anywhere else you get that country's card instead. The US figures below were read on 2 August 2026 from a US connection.
One claim you'll see stated as structural is Canada-only. "The in-person rate carries no fixed per-transaction cent charge on any plan" is true in Canada and false in the US, where it carries 10 cents. On an $8 coffee that's 1.25 points of effective rate, which is not a rounding difference. Any single table covering both countries is wrong for one of them.
For reference, the Canadian card is: plans CA$49 / CA$132 / CA$517 monthly or CA$37 / CA$99 / CA$389 annually, Plus from CA$3,400; online 2.8% / 2.6% / 2.4% + 30c; in person 2.6% / 2.5% / 2.4% + CA$0.00.
What genuinely is identical in both countries is the third-party gateway fee: 2% / 1% / 0.6% / 0.2% by plan. That's the lock-in, and it travels.
When to Use Shopify Payments
You should use Shopify Payments if:
- You're on Shopify. This is the default and the gateway fee makes it close to mandatory.
- You want unified reporting across sales and payments.
- You're selling in multiple countries through Shopify.
- You take in-person payments with Shopify POS. At zero cents in Canada and 10 in the US, its fixed fee undercuts Square's 15. That's a real advantage at low ticket sizes.
Skip Shopify Payments if:
- You're not on Shopify. It only works with Shopify.
- You're in a high-risk industry. Shopify is conservative.
- Shopify Payments isn't available in your country. That's the main legitimate reason to eat the gateway fee.
Pricing Breakdown
US Rates by Plan VENDOR
| Shopify Plan | Monthly billing | Annual billing | Online rate | In-person rate | Third-party gateway fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $39 | $29 | 2.9% + 30c | 2.6% + 10c | 2% |
| Grow | $105 | $79 | 2.7% + 30c | 2.5% + 10c | 1% |
| Advanced | $399 | $299 | 2.5% + 30c | 2.4% + 10c | 0.6% |
| Plus | From $2,300 | - | "Most competitive rates" | "Most competitive rates" | 0.2% |
All figures US dollars. Source: shopify.com/pricing, verified 2 August 2026 via a US connection.
Shopify doesn't publish a number for Plus rates. "Most competitive rates" is the entire disclosure. So Plus pricing is a negotiation, and you should treat it as one. REPORTED: Merchant Maverick, a review site that discloses referral partnerships, last updated 2024-12-23, adds that Plus is $2,300/month on a three-year term or $2,500/month on a one-year term. Its plan prices match Shopify's own exactly. That's a point in its favour on the Plus figure.
The In-Person Cents: 10 in the US, Zero in Canada
This is the correction that matters most on this page.
| Ticket size | Shopify US, Basic (2.6% + 10c) | Shopify Canada, Basic (2.6% + 0c) | Square Free (2.6% + 15c) |
|---|---|---|---|
| $5 | $0.23 (4.60%) | $0.13 (2.60%) | $0.28 (5.60%) |
| $10 | $0.36 (3.60%) | $0.26 (2.60%) | $0.41 (4.10%) |
| $25 | $0.75 (3.00%) | $0.65 (2.60%) | $0.80 (3.20%) |
| $100 | $2.70 (2.70%) | $2.60 (2.60%) | $2.75 (2.75%) |
Shopify still beats Square in every row, but by 5 cents a transaction in the US rather than 15. Take a coffee shop doing 200 transactions a day at $6. That's about $300 a month of saved fixed fees against Square. Apply Canadian pricing to that US merchant and the same shop reads as roughly $900.
The structural claim that survives. Shopify's in-person fixed fee still undercuts Square's in both markets. The claim that doesn't: that it's zero. In the US it isn't, and Stripe Terminal's 5 cents and PayPal Zettle's 9 both sit below it.
What Shopify Publishes, and Where
| Item | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Chargeback fee | VENDOR. $15.00 in the US, and "if you win the chargeback, then the fee is returned to you". Shopify attributes the fee to your bank rather than to itself | help.shopify.com. Not on the pricing page |
| Instant payout fee | NOT PUBLISHED | The US and Canadian pricing pages and the help centre |
| Keyed-in rate | NOT PUBLISHED | Not published separately from the online rate |
| Currency conversion rate | NOT PUBLISHED | Not on the pricing page |
| Volume floor | Not published, and no negotiation path below Plus | Pricing page |
| Plus plan rates | NOT PUBLISHED. "Most competitive rates" is the whole disclosure | Pricing page |
| POS hardware prices | Not part of this verification pass | - |
Three more figures get quoted for Shopify and don't verify anywhere. A 1.5% instant payout fee, a 1.5% currency conversion fee, and a $5 a month Starter plan at 5%. The $15 chargeback fee holds up, and it sits on the help centre rather than the pricing page, which is why a pricing-page-only check missed it.
Ask Shopify support, in writing. What do instant payouts cost? What is the keyed-in rate? Neither is on the pricing page, and both are load-bearing for a real cost model. Keep the reply.
The Third-Party Gateway Fee Is the Real Story
This is the fee that decides everything. It's also the one part of Shopify pricing that's unambiguous in every market.
If you use any processor other than Shopify Payments, Shopify charges an additional percentage of every order, on top of whatever your processor charges:
| Plan | Third-party gateway fee |
|---|---|
| Basic | 2% |
| Grow | 1% |
| Advanced | 0.6% |
| Plus | 0.2% |
Source: shopify.com/pricing, verified 2 August 2026.
Worked example on Basic, using the US rates:
| Rate | On $100,000/month, 1,000 orders | |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify Payments | 2.9% + 30c | $3,200 |
| An outside processor at 2.9% + 30c, plus the 2% gateway fee | 4.9% + 30c | $5,200 |
| Extra cost of going outside | $2,000/month |
That's $24,000 a year to use a different processor, for reasons that have nothing to do with the processor's rate. The gateway fee isn't a processing fee. It's a platform fee. It exists to stop "which processor?" being a question at all.
Note the scale of it against the plan prices. On Basic, the 2% gateway fee on a single $2,000 day exceeds the entire monthly cost of moving up to Grow.
The honest read. Shopify Payments' rates are competitive, but they aren't what keeps you there. The gateway fee is. Factor it into any decision about staying on Shopify at all. It ties your payments cost to a platform decision rather than a payments one.
Should You Upgrade Your Plan?
Higher plans have lower rates and higher monthly fees. The breakeven is straightforward.
Breakeven volume = (monthly fee difference) / (rate difference)
Using the US figures, on annual billing:
| Upgrade | Extra monthly cost | Online rate saving | Online breakeven | In-person rate saving | In-person breakeven |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic to Grow | $50 | 0.2% | $25,000/month | 0.1% | $50,000/month |
| Grow to Advanced | $220 | 0.2% | $110,000/month | 0.1% | $220,000/month |
| Advanced to Plus | From $2,001 | Not published | Cannot be calculated | Not published | Cannot be calculated |
On monthly billing the breakevens rise, because the plan gap widens. Basic to Grow is $66 extra, so $33,000 online and $66,000 in person. Grow to Advanced is $294 extra, so $147,000 online and $294,000 in person.
All figures US dollars, calculated from shopify.com/pricing, verified 2 August 2026.
Three things worth noticing:
- Online upgrades pay off at half the volume in-person ones do, because the online rate drops twice as fast per tier. If you're mostly in-person, you need roughly double the volume to justify the same upgrade.
- Annual billing lowers every breakeven by shrinking the plan gap. If you're near a boundary, switching to annual billing may upgrade you for free.
- You can't evaluate the Advanced to Plus upgrade from published information. Shopify doesn't state Plus rates. If a Plus salesperson says the plan pays for itself, ask for the rate in writing and run this calculation yourself. The reported Plus price is $2,300 a month on three years, or $2,500 on one. So the term is itself a $2,400-a-year decision.
To run this for Canada or any other market. Read your own plan prices and rates from shopify.com/pricing in your region, then use the same formula. The method is portable even though the numbers aren't.
What Shopify Payments Does Well
1. Zero-Friction Integration
Enable it in settings. No separate signup, no API keys, no webhook configuration. Instant activation in supported countries.
2. Unified Dashboard
Sales, payments, payouts, chargeback management, fraud analysis, and customers in one admin. You never leave Shopify. That's worth real operational time.
3. A Low In-Person Fixed Fee
Covered above. In Canada, Shopify's in-person fixed component is zero, the lowest of any flat rate verified for this site. In the US it's 10 cents, which is mid-pack. Stripe Terminal charges 5 cents, PayPal Zettle 9, Clover 10, Square 15. For a retail business with a low average ticket, the fixed fee is most of the cost, so it's worth knowing where you sit on that list.
Just don't carry the Canadian "zero cents" claim into a US model. It's 10 cents here.
4. Multi-Currency Checkout
Local currency pricing and unified reporting across currencies for international stores.
What Shopify Payments Does Poorly
1. Platform Lock-In
You can only use Shopify Payments on Shopify. Leaving Shopify means migrating your store and your processor at the same time. And the gateway fee means you can't decouple them in advance by moving payments first.
2. The Dispute Fee Isn't on the Pricing Page
Shopify's pricing page publishes no chargeback fee. Its help centre does. $15.00 in the US, returned if you win. Shopify attributes the fee to your bank rather than to itself. The policy is good. You just have to go looking for it. Compare Helcim, which publishes $0 for a chargeback you win and $15 for one you lose, and Stripe, which publishes $15 plus $15 and returns neither on a partial win.
3. Basic Fraud Tools
Shopify's fraud detection is rules-based and simple. No advanced ML screening, no device fingerprinting, limited customisation. Dedicated fraud tools are better for high-fraud merchants.
4. Conservative Risk Tolerance
Volume spikes and high-ticket sales trigger holds and delays. Launch a successful campaign and expect a review.
5. No Published Negotiation Path Below Plus
Rates are what they are until Plus, and Plus rates aren't published either. There's no volume threshold at which Shopify says it'll talk to you.
Who Shopify Payments Is Best For
Perfect Fit
| Business Type | Why Shopify Payments Wins |
|---|---|
| Shopify stores | Built in, and the gateway fee makes anything else expensive |
| Low-ticket retail on Shopify POS | 10 cents in person in the US, zero in Canada. Well under Square's 15 |
| Omnichannel | Shopify POS and online unified |
| International sellers | Multi-currency support |
Poor Fit
| Business Type | Better Alternative |
|---|---|
| Not on Shopify | You can't use it |
| High-fraud merchants | Stripe has better fraud tooling |
| Dispute-heavy merchants | Helcim. $0 when you win, $15 when you lose, and it's on the pricing page |
| Custom payment flows | Stripe |
| Cost-optimising at high volume | Helcim or Stax, but only if leaving Shopify is on the table |
Common Gotchas
1. The Gateway Fee Applies to Every Order
Not to failed orders. Not to a sample. To every order processed outside Shopify Payments. On Basic that's 2% of your gross, forever. There's almost never a good reason to accept it. The one legitimate reason is that Shopify Payments doesn't operate in your country.
2. Plan Tier Inertia
Merchants stay on Basic well past the point where Grow is cheaper. On the US annual-billing figures, an online store past $25,000 a month is losing money by staying on Basic. Run the breakeven above once a quarter.
3. In-Person and Online Upgrade at Different Speeds
The online rate improves 0.2 points per tier and the in-person rate improves 0.1. A mostly-in-person business needs roughly twice the volume to justify the same upgrade. Split your volume by channel before running the calculation.
4. The Chargeback Fee Lives in the Help Centre
Shopify publishes $15 in the US, refunded if you win, on its help centre rather than its pricing page. Its threshold behaviour is still undisclosed. Nothing says what ratio triggers a review or a hold. Monitor your ratio against the published card network programs, not against a number from an article. See Chargeback Prevention.
5. Account Holds on Spikes
A large volume spike triggers a hold while Shopify reviews. Email support before a big launch.
Test to Run
Shopify plan and payments audit:
Week 1: get your own rates
- Open shopify.com/pricing from your own market and write down your plan's online rate, in-person rate, monthly fee, and gateway fee.
- Pull your last three months of payment fees from Shopify analytics.
- Calculate your effective rate:
total fees / total volume. - Split volume by channel: online and in-person.
Week 2: check your plan
5. Breakeven for the next tier up = (monthly fee difference) / (rate difference).
6. Run it separately for online and in-person, because the rate savings differ.
7. If your channel volume is above the breakeven, upgrade.
Week 3: check for outside processors 8. Are you running any third-party gateway? Multiply that volume by your plan's gateway fee. 9. Unless Shopify Payments is unavailable in your country, move it.
Week 4: close the unknowns 10. Email Shopify support and ask, in writing, for the instant payout fee and the keyed-in rate. Confirm the $15 chargeback fee for your market while you're there. 11. Add the answers to your model. Keep the email.
Success criteria. You're on the right plan for your channel mix. No volume is going through a third-party gateway. And you know what a chargeback costs you.
Scale Callout
Volumes below are US dollars on annual billing. Recalculate with your own market's numbers and your own billing frequency.
Under $25,000/month online:
- Basic is correct.
- Focus on conversion rather than fees.
$25,000-$110,000/month online:
- Grow pays for itself. Upgrade.
- Check your in-person split. In-person doesn't justify the upgrade until roughly $50,000 a month.
Above $110,000/month online:
- Advanced pays for itself.
- Also start asking what leaving Shopify would cost. The gateway fee is large in absolute terms now, and it's what ties your payments cost to your platform choice.
Approaching Plus:
- Plus rates are not published. Get them in writing and run the breakeven yourself.
- Ask about the term. Plus is reported at $2,300/month on three years against $2,500/month on one, so a shorter term costs $2,400 a year and buys you the ability to leave.
- At this volume, model what Helcim or Stax would cost on a non-Shopify platform. That comparison is the real decision. And it's a platform decision, not a payments one.
Where This Breaks
-
Rates are country-specific in ways that look like currency conversion and aren't. US in-person carries 10 cents where Canada carries zero, and US online runs 0.1 points higher at every tier. Read your own market's page, opened from your own market.
-
Platform lock-in is the actual cost. The gateway fee means your payments decision and your platform decision are the same decision.
-
The dispute fee isn't on the pricing page. It's $15 in the US, refunded on a win, and it lives in the help centre. What Shopify publishes nowhere is the ratio at which a rising dispute rate triggers a review or a hold. For a dispute-prone category, that's the gap to close with support.
-
Plus is a black box on rate. The plan price is published, from $2,300 a month. The rates are "most competitive rates", which isn't a number. You can't evaluate the upgrade from public information.
-
High volume gets expensive with no negotiation path below Plus. Rates are fixed and Shopify publishes no threshold at which they'd discuss it.
Sources
| Source | What it gave us | Kind | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| shopify.com/pricing | All US plan prices, online and in-person rates, and the third-party gateway fee. The working US path is the bare URL served to a US IP; shopify.com/us/pricing does not resolve | Vendor page, retrieved via a US-located connection | Accessed 2026-08-02 |
| help.shopify.com, chargeback process | The $15.00 US chargeback fee and the statement that it's returned if you win the chargeback | Vendor help centre | Accessed 2026-08-02 |
| Merchant Maverick, Shopify Payments review | Independent confirmation of every plan price, plus the reported Plus term pricing of $2,300/month on three years or $2,500/month on one. Discloses referral partnerships | Review site | Updated 2024-12-23 |
Next Steps
On Shopify already?
- Enable Shopify Payments in Settings then Payments.
- Run the audit above.
- Disable any third-party gateway. You're paying your plan's gateway fee on every order.
Choosing between Shopify and other platforms?
- Compare Shopify plus Shopify Payments against your alternative platform plus a processor of your choice.
- Include the gateway fee in the Shopify column, because it's part of the platform cost.
- For most SMBs, Shopify plus Shopify Payments is simpler and the simplicity is worth something.
High volume on Shopify?
- Get Plus rates in writing and run the breakeven yourself.
- Model Helcim or Stax on a non-Shopify platform so you know what the platform is costing you in payments terms.
- Migration is expensive. Do the arithmetic before the emotion.
See Also
- Stripe - Alternative if leaving Shopify
- Square - Alternative for retail, though it charges 15 cents in person where Shopify charges 10 in the US
- Helcim - Lower cost off-platform, with published rates
- Processor Comparison - Full comparison table
- Buying Payments - Processor selection framework
- Checkout Conversion - Optimizing Shopify checkout
- Chargeback Prevention - Reducing disputes