Three charges, three bases
The subscription is fixed per month. The third-party transaction fee is a percentage of the amount Shopify uses for the transaction, charged only when you use a third-party payment provider. Payment processing is charged by Shopify Payments or by the external provider on each order.
Because the charges have different bases, a single “Shopify fee percentage” cannot describe the bill. The plan fee does not scale with volume; the transaction and processing fees do.
The transaction fee base includes tax and shipping
Shopify's third-party transaction fee uses [(cost of products − discounts) + tax + shipping] × rate. That means an AOV based on product revenue alone understates the fee base. This calculator labels the input “average order value subject to fee” so the number is used correctly.
If you enter product-only AOV, the comparison still works directionally, but the absolute cost will be lower than the real bill. Use the amount that matches Shopify's formula.
Worked example: Basic, Grow and Advanced
500 orders at $65 of fee-subject AOV produce a $32,500 fee base. With a third-party gateway and 2.9% + $0.30 processing, the processing fee is $1,092.50. Basic costs $39 + $650 + $1,092.50 = $1,781.50. Grow costs $105 + $325 + $1,092.50 = $1,522.50. Advanced costs $399 + $162.50 + $1,092.50 = $1,654.00.
At this volume, Grow is the cheapest of the three. Advanced becomes cheaper than Grow once the fee base exceeds $58,800 per month, because the extra $294 of subscription is offset by the 0.5-point lower transaction rate. Basic becomes more expensive than Grow above $6,600 of fee base.
When a higher plan pays off
The break-even between two plans is the extra subscription divided by the transaction-rate difference. Basic to Grow is $66 ÷ 1% = $6,600 of monthly fee base. Grow to Advanced is $294 ÷ 0.5% = $58,800. Below those thresholds, the lower plan is cheaper on platform fees alone.
The comparison assumes everything else stays the same. A higher plan may also include features, staff accounts or lower processing rates that are worth paying for; those are outside this calculation.
Shopify Payments changes the comparison
With Shopify Payments, the third-party transaction fee is zero for eligible payment methods, so the plan comparison collapses to the subscription plus processing. At that point, a higher plan is more expensive unless its other features or processing terms justify the difference.
The calculator still applies the processing rate you enter, because Shopify Payments has its own per-order processing cost. It does not assume that switching to Shopify Payments lowers processing; enter the rate that applies to your account.
Where the model stops
Plan prices and transaction rates change by country, currency and date; the presets here are editable examples. App charges, theme purchases, refunds, chargebacks, currency conversion, tax remittance and one-off fees are excluded. The model also assumes every order is charged the same processing rate.
Verify the plan fee and transaction rate on your current Shopify bill before making a plan decision. For order-level profit after product, fulfillment and ads, use the Shopify net profit calculator.