Shopify pricing in 2026: what you’ll really pay

Shopify plans and prices

Shopify has three main plans for a regular online store, plus Shopify Plus for large brands. Paying yearly cuts the monthly price by about a quarter (Shopify pricing).

New stores start with a free 3-day trial that doesn’t need a credit card. After the trial, most plans cost $1 a month for the first 3 months, then switch to the standard price.

What Shopify takes per sale

If you use Shopify Payments, Shopify doesn’t add a separate transaction fee. You pay the card rate on each payment, and it depends on your plan and where the sale happens.

On a $50 online order on Basic, that’s $1.45 plus 30¢, or $1.75 in total: 3.5% of the order. Small orders lose a bigger share to the fixed 30¢.

US stores that let customers pay in another currency also pay a 1.5% currency conversion fee on those payments (Shopify Help Center).

The extra fee for other payment providers

If you take payments through a provider other than Shopify Payments, Shopify charges its own transaction fee on top of whatever that provider charges: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced, and 0.2% on Plus. On $10,000 a month of sales on Basic, that’s $200 a month to Shopify before the provider takes its share.

Is Shopify free?

Not for a regular online store. The free 3-day trial and the $1 months are the closest thing to free. Shopify’s pricing page does list an Agentic plan at $0 a month: you add products to Shopify’s Catalog, choose which AI channels to sell in, and pay card fees (from 2.9% + 30¢ online) only when you make a sale. For a store of your own, Basic is the cheapest plan.

Costs that aren’t on the pricing page

• Apps. Reviews, subscriptions, email, and upsell apps often charge monthly, and a handful of them can cost more than the plan itself.
• Your theme. Shopify has free themes. Paid themes are a one-time purchase, and custom design is a separate project.
• Your domain. A custom domain renews every year, and the renewal continues even if you close the store.
• Currency conversion. The 1.5% fee above, if you sell in other currencies.
• Help. Design, development, and setup, if you hire someone.

When a bigger plan pays for itself

Each step up lowers the card rate by 0.2 percentage points, so past a certain sales level the savings cover the higher subscription. On yearly billing, Grow costs $50 a month more than Basic, and $50 divided by 0.2% is $25,000. These are the break-even points with Shopify Payments:

With another payment provider the switch comes much sooner, because Shopify’s extra fee drops from 2% to 1% to 0.6%. On yearly billing, Grow beats Basic at $5,000 a month and Advanced beats Grow at $55,000. Plans also differ in features, such as staff accounts and reporting, so cost isn’t the only reason to upgrade.

A worked example

A store selling $10,000 a month online across 200 orders, billed yearly, on Shopify Payments:

Basic wins at this size. To run your own numbers, including international cards, another payment provider, and apps, use the free Shopify fee calculator.

How to keep the bill down

• Use Shopify Payments if you can. It avoids the extra 0.2% to 2% on every sale.
• Pay yearly once you know the store is staying, and stay on Basic until your sales pass the break-even point.
• Review your apps every few months and remove the ones nobody uses.
• If you have to stop selling for a while, the $9-a-month Pause and Build plan costs less than closing and reopening. See how to cancel or pause Shopify.