Shopify Basic Plan Transaction Fees: What You Pay Per Order
Key takeaways
- On Shopify Basic with Shopify Payments, you pay 2.9% plus 30 cents per online US card sale plus a 0.5% platform fee, so a $50 order costs $1.70 in fees.
- Using any third-party gateway on Basic triggers a 2% platform fee that stacks on top of the gateway's own processing rates, often pushing combined fees toward 3.4% or higher.
- PayPal orders on Basic stack Shopify Payments' card rate with PayPal's own processing cut, so the two fees apply to the same order rather than replacing each other.
- Starter's flat 5% fee beats Basic's layered costs until monthly online sales reach roughly $1,600, after which Basic's 2.9% + 30¢ plus $39/month wins.
- To find your true effective fee per order, divide total monthly transaction fees from Shopify's Transactions report by order count, then divide by average order value.
On the Shopify Basic plan, Shopify Payments charges 2.9% plus 30 cents per online credit card transaction, and there is no additional platform fee as long as you use Shopify Payments. Switch to PayPal or a third-party gateway and Shopify adds 2% on top of that processor's own fees. This guide computes both scenarios line by line, in US dollars and Canadian dollars, so you can fill in your own numbers and see your true effective fee per order.
What transaction fees does the Shopify Basic plan charge with Shopify Payments?
The two fees that make up shopify basic plan transaction fees
On the Basic plan, you pay two separate layers. First, the platform transaction fee: 0.5% on every order when you use Shopify Payments. Second, the Shopify credit card transaction fee, which is 2.9% plus 30 cents for online US card sales. These stack, so a $50 order costs you $1.70 in fees before anything else.
The 0.5% platform fee only applies when you use Shopify Payments. Switch to a third-party gateway and it jumps to 2%, on top of whatever that gateway charges. That detail matters more than most merchants realize.
US Shopify Payments rates by plan
Rates drop as you upgrade, which is how the plan tiers trade monthly cost against per-order cost (Shopify pricing):
| Plan | Card fee (US online) | Platform fee (Shopify Payments) |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | 5% | — |
| Basic | 2.9% + 30¢ | 0.5% |
| Shopify | 2.7% + 30¢ | 0.5% |
| Advanced | 2.5% + 30¢ | 0.5% |
For comparison, UnifyCart's Growth plan is $79/month with a 1% platform fee and no separate card-rate layer (https://www.unifycart.com/pricing).
How do Shopify credit card transaction fees differ from platform transaction fees?
Two separate fees come out of every sale on Shopify Basic: the credit card fee and the platform transaction fee. The credit card fee goes to the payment processor, applies on every gateway you could pick, and exists on any platform, Shopify alternatives included. The platform transaction fee goes to Shopify itself, and it only disappears when you use Shopify Payments as your gateway.
That distinction is what makes your effective rate confusing. Merchants who switch to a third-party gateway for better processing rates often keep Shopify's platform fee on top, so the "cheaper" gateway can cost more per order overall. Add the paid apps covering basic stuff and the flat monthly subscription, and the stack grows fast, which is the pattern we break down line by line on the UnifyCart blog.
When do Shopify third-party transaction fees apply and how much are they?
If you use any gateway other than Shopify Payments, Shopify adds a platform transaction fee on every sale: 2% on Basic, 1% on Shopify, and 0.5% on Advanced (Shopify Help Center, card rates by country). This is separate from whatever your gateway itself charges, so it stacks on top.
Third-party rates by plan
The penalty shrinks as you upgrade. Basic pays the full 2%, mid-tier plans pay 1%, and Advanced pays 0.5%. On a $50 order, that is $1.00, $0.50, and $0.25 respectively, before your gateway's own processing fee. On Basic, a $50 order through an external gateway could easily carry 3.4% in combined fees once a typical 2.9% gateway rate is added.
This is one reason "apps for basic stuff" stings: the fee structure quietly pushes you toward Shopify Payments, and away from gateways with better rates for your situation. UnifyCart charges a single flat platform fee instead, so gateway choice does not change what the platform takes.
How do Shopify transaction fees work with PayPal?
PayPal runs through Shopify Payments as a secondary wallet, so a PayPal order still pays the Shopify Payments credit card rate plus PayPal's own processing cut. On the Basic plan, Shopify Payments takes 2.9% + 30¢ on US cards, and PayPal charges its standard commercial rate on top for the portion it processes. The two fees stack on the same order; they never replace each other.
When PayPal fees stack on top of Shopify Payments
Stacking happens whenever a customer checks out with PayPal while Shopify Payments is your primary gateway. If you use a third-party gateway instead, you already pay the extra 0.5-2% platform fee, and PayPal's cut sits on top of that too.
Decision rule: is PayPal worth enabling on Basic?
Estimate the share of orders that would have been lost without PayPal. If PayPal lifts conversion enough to cover roughly 3%+ of its own order volume, keep it; otherwise it is a discount you hand to buyers who would have paid by card anyway. Platforms that fold wallet processing into one rate, as UnifyCart does with its integrations (https://www.unifycart.com/features/integrations), remove the stacking math entirely.
What are Shopify transaction fees in Canada?
Canada rate table for Basic
Canadian merchants on the Basic plan pay higher Shopify Payments card rates than US merchants, and the rates differ by card type: one percentage for Visa, Mastercard, and American Express domestic cards, and a higher percentage for international or premium cards. Shopify publishes these rates in CAD on its Canadian pricing page, so check the exact figures there before you model anything. The key difference from the US table is that you cannot assume a single flat card percentage across all transactions.
Worked example: a $60 CAD order
Say a customer pays $60 CAD with a domestic Visa. Your effective fee is the card percentage Shopify Payments charges on that card type, applied to $60 CAD. If a portion of your orders come from US buyers using American cards, those orders fall into the international rate and cost you more per sale than the same order from a Canadian buyer.
That mixed-card reality is why your effective fee in Canada often lands above the headline rate. When you compare platforms, look at what is included natively rather than stacked through apps: UnifyCart includes checkout, payments, shipping rates, and tax out of the box, with the details at https://www.unifycart.com/features.
How do Shopify Starter plan transaction fees compare to the Basic plan?
Starter charges a flat 5% transaction fee on every sale with Shopify Payments, with no monthly subscription and no separate platform fee. Basic layers its costs instead: 2.9% + 30¢ per online sale plus a $39 monthly plan, and a 0.5% fee only when you use a third-party gateway instead of Shopify Payments, per Shopify's payment documentation.
The break-even point between Starter and Basic
Roughly, 5% of revenue equals Basic's 2.9% + 30¢ plus $39/month when monthly online sales hit about $1,600. Below that, Starter's flat fee costs less; above it, Basic wins, and the gap widens fast. If you sell $5,000/month, Starter's 5% runs $250 versus about $184 on Basic. Illustrative math, not official pricing. Note the tradeoff: Starter has no full checkout customization, so if checkout flow tweaks are what pushed you off Basic, Starter won't fix that.
How can you find your actual fees using the Shopify transaction fees report?
In Shopify admin, go to Analytics, then Reports, and search for "Transactions." The report shows each fee charged on an order: Shopify Payments card fees, PayPal fees, and the platform transaction fee if you use a third-party gateway.
What it does not show: your app subscriptions, your plan cost, or chargeback fees. Those live elsewhere and belong in the calculation anyway.
To get your true effective fee per order, take the total transaction fees from the report for a month, divide by the number of orders, then divide again by your average order value. That percentage is what you are actually paying per sale, before apps and the plan itself.
How do you calculate your true effective fee per order? (fill-in-the-blank walkthrough)
The fill-in-the-blank formula
Your true effective fee per order is not one number on a pricing page. It is the sum of every fee that touches a single order, divided by what the customer paid. Write it out like this: ______ % (card fee on Shopify Payments) + $______ (fixed per-charge fee) + ______ % (platform fee, only if you use a third-party gateway, 2% on Basic) + ______ % (PayPal's fee, only on orders paid through PayPal, which Shopify bills separately from Shopify Payments per its PayPal integration doc) + $______ (your monthly plan and app costs ÷ orders this month). Add the percentages and fixed fees, divide by order value, and you get the real number. On a $25 order, a $0.30 fixed fee alone adds 1.2%. Small orders punish you hardest, which is why averages hide the damage.
Worked order 1: $45 US, Shopify Payments only
Card fee: 2.9% of $45 = $1.31, plus $0.30 fixed = $1.61. No platform fee, no PayPal. $1.61 ÷ $45 = 3.58% effective.
Worked order 2: $60 CAD with PayPal enabled
Customer pays with PayPal: PayPal's fee applies, roughly 2.9% + fixed in CAD, and Shopify Payments does not process it. 2.9% of $60 = $1.74 + fixed ≈ $2.04. ÷ $60 = 3.4% effective, and it stacks on top of the card-fee orders you run the same day.
What would these fees look like on a platform with no transaction fees?
Same orders, different platforms
Take the two worked orders from the previous section. On UnifyCart's Growth plan ($79/mo plus a 1% platform fee), your per-order cost is the payment processor's rate plus 1%, with no app subscriptions stacked on top. The $250-300/month all-in figure you pay on Shopify mostly disappears, because checkout, tax, shipping rates, and accounts are built in. BigCommerce and Shift4Shop both advertise no transaction fees on their published plans; check their current pricing pages for plan costs and processor rates before comparing, since those numbers change.
Where UnifyCart falls short
Run UnifyCart through the same criteria honestly and the gaps show up fast. The app ecosystem is far smaller than Shopify's, so if your store depends on a niche integration, you may end up building it yourself or going without. The theme and checkout customization options are narrower than what a mature platform offers after years of development. If your monthly stack is mostly free apps and you rarely touch checkout code, the savings case is weaker. If you're paying for three or four apps for basic functionality, it's worth running your own fill-in-the-blank math against a flat subscription.
FAQ
Does Shopify Basic charge transaction fees if I use Shopify Payments?
Yes. Using Shopify Payments avoids the higher third-party penalty but not fees entirely. You still pay the 2.9% plus 30 cents card rate on US online sales, and Shopify takes a 0.5% platform fee on top. A $50 order costs $1.70 in combined fees before apps or your monthly plan enter the picture.
Can I use my own payment gateway on Shopify to avoid fees, and what does that cost me?
You can, but it costs more, not less. On Basic, Shopify adds a 2% platform fee to every sale processed through a third-party gateway, stacked on whatever that gateway charges. A $50 order through a typical 2.9% gateway could carry roughly 3.4% combined. Upgrading to Advanced drops the penalty to 0.5%.
Are Shopify transaction fees charged on shipping and tax, or just the product price?
The card fee applies to the total amount the customer pays, so shipping and tax are included in the base the percentage is calculated on. That means a $45 product with $10 shipping costs you more in fees than the product price alone suggests. Model fees against the full order total, not the item price.
Do Shopify transaction fees apply to in-person POS sales on the Basic plan?
The rates covered here apply to online sales; in-person card-present transactions are priced differently, typically at a lower percentage than the 2.9% online rate. Check Shopify's current card rates for your country before modeling POS volume, since card-present and online rates are published separately and change by plan and region.
How much is Shopify's fee on a $100 order all-in, realistically?
With Shopify Payments on Basic: 2.9% of $100 is $2.90, plus 30 cents, plus the 0.5% platform fee of $0.50, totaling $3.70, or 3.7%. With PayPal enabled, PayPal's own processing cut stacks on top for those orders. Third-party gateways push the combined rate toward 5% once their fees are added.