Payment processing fees
Every time a customer pays with a credit card, you pay a processing fee. With Shopify Payments (Shopify's built-in processor), these range from 2.4% to 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction depending on your plan.
The higher your plan level, the lower your rate. This is meaningful at scale: on $50,000 monthly revenue, the 0.5% difference between Basic and Advanced saves $250/month.
Third-party transaction fees
If you use a payment processor other than Shopify Payments (like PayPal, Stripe directly, or Authorize.net), Shopify charges an additional transaction fee on top of whatever your processor charges.
This fee is 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, and 0.5% on Advanced. It's why most merchants use Shopify Payments when available—you avoid this extra layer of fees.
International card fees
When customers pay with cards issued outside your country, you pay an additional 1.5% international fee. For stores selling globally, this adds up.
If 40% of your sales are international, you're effectively paying 0.6% more on average across all transactions. Use our calculator's advanced options to see the impact on your specific mix.
The hidden cost of refunds
When you refund an order, Shopify keeps the payment processing fees from the original transaction. This is often overlooked when calculating true costs.
For a $100 order with 2.9% + $0.30 fees, you paid ~$3.20 in processing. If refunded, that's gone. With a 5% refund rate, you're losing an extra 0.16% of revenue to non-refundable fees.