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How Much Does Shopify Take From Sales? Shopify Fees Explained

The short hook

If you sell online, fees quietly eat into your margins. Knowing exactly what Shopify takes per sale helps you price products, forecast revenue, and decide whether to use Shopify Payments or an external gateway.

Quick context: two fee buckets

Shopify fees come in two main flavors: a recurring monthly subscription and per-transaction fees. The per-transaction fees themselves are split into payment processing fees (what the card processor charges) and an optional Shopify transaction fee when you use a third-party payment gateway.

If you want a concise reference, the original write-up and examples are mirrored at https://prateeksha.com/blog/shopify-fees-how-much-does-shopify-take-from-sales and you can browse more posts at https://prateeksha.com/blog or the site home at https://prateeksha.com.

Plan and fee breakdown (the numbers)

Shopify has tiered plans and each affects how much you pay per sale:

  • Monthly plans (example tiers used here): Basic Shopify — $39/month, Shopify — $105/month, Advanced Shopify — $399/month.
  • If you use Shopify Payments (Shopify’s own processor), the per-online-sale processing fees typically are:
    • Basic: 2.9% + $0.30
    • Shopify: 2.6% + $0.30
    • Advanced: 2.4% + $0.30
  • If you instead use a third-party gateway (PayPal, Stripe, etc.), Shopify adds a transaction fee on top:
    • Basic: 2.0% per sale
    • Shopify: 1.0% per sale
    • Advanced: 0.5% per sale

Remember: your payment gateway (PayPal/Stripe) will also charge its own processing fee in addition to what Shopify charges.

How to calculate total fee per sale (step-by-step)

  1. Decide which plan you’re on and whether you’re using Shopify Payments.
  2. Start with the gateway processing fee (percentage + flat cents).
  3. If you’re using a third-party gateway, add Shopify’s transaction fee percentage.
  4. Add any fixed shipping or app fees if you want the full margin picture.

Example:

  • $100 sale on Basic plan using Shopify Payments: 2.9% ($2.90) + $0.30 = $3.20 fees.
  • $100 sale on Basic plan using PayPal (assume PayPal charges 2.9% + $0.30): PayPal $3.20 + Shopify’s 2.0% ($2.00) = $5.20 total.

What developers and founders should watch

  • Rounding and net amounts: Payment processors sometimes round differently. When reconciling, use the processor’s net payouts rather than naive per-order math.
  • Chargebacks and disputes: These can add large costs (fees + lost sale). Monitor dispute webhooks and automate evidence submission.
  • Currency conversion fees: If you accept multiple currencies, conversion spreads and fees will change the effective take.
  • Apps and theme costs: Monthly app subscriptions and premium themes are often overlooked but compound with per-transaction costs.

Quick checklist:

  • Automate reconciliation with webhooks/payout reports.
  • Tag orders by payment gateway to analyze fee impact.
  • Add a handling fee or slightly adjust prices for high-fee products.

Implementation tips for developers

  • Use Shopify webhooks (orders/fulfillments/payouts) to capture real-time reconciliation events. Store the processor’s fees and net payout per order for accurate accounting.
  • Build a small service to normalize fee fields across gateways (PayPal, Stripe, Shopify Payments) so your P&L code works with consistent fields.
  • Log transaction metadata (currency, gateway, card-country) — it helps analyze conversion and cross-border costs later.
  • Consider feature flags to enable/disable a visible “processing fee” or include it in price tests to see customer behavior.

Strategies to reduce fees

  • Use Shopify Payments to avoid Shopify’s additional transaction fee — usually the simplest savings move.
  • If your margin allows, move higher-volume SKUs to a higher Shopify plan where the percentage fee is lower.
  • Negotiate or switch gateways if you reach volume thresholds with Stripe/PayPal for better rates.
  • Consolidate apps and eliminate unused ones to reduce monthly overhead.

Conclusion — make fees a dashboard metric

Shopify’s fees are straightforward once you break them into subscription + processor + optional Shopify transaction fees. For developers and founders, the difference between using Shopify Payments and a third-party gateway is often the biggest lever to reduce per-sale costs.

Turn this into an operational metric: add fee-per-order to your daily dashboard and watch how it moves with promotions, cross-border sales, and plan changes. For an extended write-up and examples, see https://prateeksha.com/blog/shopify-fees-how-much-does-shopify-take-from-sales and explore related posts at https://prateeksha.com/blog or the main site https://prateeksha.com.

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