Processing rates do not decide the Shopify plan until monthly volume passes $25,000

United States pricing, annual billing, excluding tax, cards issued in the United States. On those terms the $25,000 figure holds only for merchants who take every payment through Shopify Payments. Put PayPal or any other outside gateway alongside it and the crossover drops; a store routing all of its sales through outside providers reaches it at $5,000 a month.

Three terms to settle before the arithmetic

Processing rate: the percentage the payment company deducts from card sales. With Shopify Payments (Shopify's own payment function) it is fixed by plan, and each transaction also carries a flat 30¢ that does not change with the plan.
Outside payment providers: any payment company other than Shopify Payments — PayPal, Amazon Pay, an outside gateway such as Authorize.net. Sales on that route carry Shopify's third-party transaction fee on top of whatever the payment company itself charges.
Monthly volume: the total billed amount cleared by card (goods, shipping and sales tax). Bank transfers, checks and cash on delivery are excluded, so it does not match revenue as booked in the accounts.

Listed prices exclude tax, and annual billing means a year paid up front

The pricing page says nothing about tax, but clause 5.5 of the terms of service states that all fees are exclusive of applicable sales and other governmental taxes, and clause 5.6 states that any tax Shopify charges is calculated from the billing address you provide. What actually leaves the account when an annual contract is signed is twelve months, not a monthly equivalent.

	Basic	Grow	Advanced	Plus	How to read the figure
Monthly fee (annual billing, excl. tax)	$29	$79	$299	No annual price published	Payable at signing: $348 / $948 / $3,588 excluding tax
Monthly fee (monthly billing, excl. tax)	$39	$105	$399	From $2,300	The first payment covers one month only. On Basic the gap against annual billing is $10 a month
Online cards issued in the US	2.9% + 30¢	2.7% + 30¢	2.5% + 30¢	"Most competitive rates"	The gap between plans is 0.2%. Below $25,000 a month it never covers the $50 difference in monthly fee. The 30¢ is the same on every plan
Cards issued outside the US	+1%	+1%	+1%	+1%	A cross-border fee added to the rate above. Identical on every plan, so it drops out of the comparison
Third-party transaction fee	2%	1%	0.6%	0.2%	The 1% gap is wide, and for stores using outside providers this row sets the crossover
Staff accounts	0	5	15	Unlimited	Basic adds none. The moment a second person needs access, Grow is the floor regardless of volume

Figures in US dollars, excluding tax, United States rate card. Sources: shopify.com/pricing, shopify.com/legal/terms, help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/shopify-payments/transactions/domestic-international-eu-credit-cards (prices and rates rechecked 6 September 2026)

Without outside providers, the crossover sits at $25,000 a month

Total monthly cost is the plan fee plus volume × processing rate; the 30¢ per transaction is the same on both plans and cancels. 29 + S × 2.9% equals 79 + S × 2.7% when S = 50 ÷ 0.2% = $25,000.

Figure 1 — What moving up to Grow costs each month, as the difference between the two monthly totals. The formula is 50 − volume × 0.2%. Positive means Grow costs more; negative means Grow costs less. At the $25,000 a month where the difference is zero, both plans total $754 before the 30¢ per-transaction component, which is identical on both. US dollars, excluding tax, annual billing, cards issued in the United States, no outside payment providers. Source: shopify.com/pricing (rechecked 6 September 2026)

With outside providers in the mix, the crossover falls to $5,000

Moving up to Grow saves two things at once: 0.2% on the volume cleared through Shopify Payments, and 1% on the volume cleared outside it. Writing the outside share as f and solving 50 = S × {0.2% × (1−f) + 1% × f} gives $25,000 at f = 0, about $13,900 at 0.2, about $11,400 at 0.3, about $8,300 at 0.5, and $5,000 at 1.0. A fifth of sales moved outside cuts it to a little over half; a third takes it below half.

Figure 2 — Outside-payment share f against the monthly volume at which Basic gives way to Grow. US dollars, excluding tax, annual billing, cards issued in the United States. Crossovers calculated by SaaS COMPASS from 50 = S × {0.2% × (1−f) + 1% × f}. Rates: shopify.com/pricing (rechecked 6 September 2026)

The mix question is worth settling before the plan question

Official help carries a condition the pricing page never shows: "When you use Shopify Payments as your sole payment provider, there are no third-party transaction fees for orders." Put the other way round: the moment one payment method moves outside, "Transactions processed by Shopify Payments, such as Shop Pay and local payment methods, are charged at standard Shopify Payments rates plus a 1.25% premium." Take a store at $30,000 a month that moves $3,000 of it.

Before: $30,000 × 2.9% = $870
After: Shopify Payments $27,000 × (2.9% + 1.25%) = $1,120.50, outside provider $3,000 × 2% = $60, total $1,180.50

That is $310.50 more a month, about six times the $50 gap between plans — and it covers only what goes to Shopify, since the outside payment company charges its own fees on top. The 30¢ per transaction is left out of both sides because the order count does not change. Adding the method earns its place if the sales it newly creates exceed that increase; if existing customers simply switch payment method, it is a straight loss. The 1.25% applies at the same rate on both plans, so it cancels out and leaves the crossover itself where it was.

Basic cannot add a single staff account

Grow allows five, Advanced fifteen, Plus unlimited. Official help states that "Users are available only on the Grow plan and higher", which means the number that can be added alongside the owner is zero. The moment a second person needs access, Grow is the answer regardless of volume.

Figure 3 — Plan decision flow. US dollars, excluding tax, annual billing; monthly volume is the amount cleared by card. Filled nodes are plan conclusions. Sources: shopify.com/pricing, help.shopify.com/en/manual/your-account/users/users-plan-requirements (rechecked 6 September 2026)

SaaS COMPASS model — the list below is our reading of the published prices, not Shopify guidance. It holds on annual billing, with cards issued in the United States and a monthly volume steady enough to compare against a threshold; change any of those and the thresholds move. The arithmetic behind every line is in the body above.

Which one to choose

Two or more people in the admin: Grow. Basic allows no staff accounts at any volume.
Shopify Payments only: Basic up to $25,000 a month.
Outside providers in the mix: about $13,900 at a 20% share, $5,000 at 100%.
Cards issued outside the United States: the 1% cross-border fee is the same on every plan, so it moves the bill but not the threshold.
Pre-launch, with volume still unknown: Basic on monthly billing. Paying $10 more a month costs less than tying up $348 for a year and then dropping the plan.
If undecided, start on Basic monthly and put three months of settlement statements into the formula above. You can upgrade at any time.

SaaS COMPASS model — these exclusions follow from the thresholds calculated above, not from any Shopify recommendation. Each one assumes annual billing and a volume that stays on the same side of its threshold; a store near the line should re-run the formula on its own statements rather than take the entry as given.

Stores that should not choose these plans

Basic: stores with two or more people involved, and stores above about $11,400 a month with more than 30% of sales on outside providers.
Advanced: stores below $110,000 a month that do not need fifteen staff seats. A 0.2% rate gap will not recover the $220 monthly increase.
Shopify Payments itself: stores whose merchandise falls into Shopify Payments' prohibited or restricted categories. All sales run through outside providers, carrying a permanent 2% on top of the payment company's own fees.

Sources

United States prices and rates rechecked 6 September 2026.

US monthly fees (annual billing $29 / $79 / $299; monthly billing $39 / $105 / $399; Plus from $2,300 with no annual price published), online credit cards 2.9% / 2.7% / 2.5% (all + 30¢), third-party transaction fees 2% / 1% / 0.6% / 0.2%, staff accounts 0 / 5 / 15 / unlimited → https://www.shopify.com/pricing
"you're charged a 1% cross-border fee on all sales made with a credit card issued in another country" → https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/shopify-payments/transactions/domestic-international-eu-credit-cards
Listed prices exclude tax (clause 5.5, payment of fees and taxes; clause 5.6, tax calculated from the billing address you provide) → https://www.shopify.com/legal/terms
"Annual billing charges the full year upfront" → https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/intro-to-shopify/pricing-plans/pricing-overview
"When you use Shopify Payments as your sole payment provider, there are no third-party transaction fees for orders." / "Transactions processed by Shopify Payments, such as Shop Pay and local payment methods, are charged at standard Shopify Payments rates plus a 1.25% premium." → https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/shopify-payments/onboarding/cost-of-shopify-payments
"Users are available only on the Grow plan and higher"; users by plan 0 / 5 / 15 / unlimited → https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/your-account/users/users-plan-requirements
The United States is a supported country for Shopify Payments → https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/shopify-payments/supported-countries
Requirements for use in the United States (a full US checking account in USD eligible for ACH transfers; an SSN or ITIN for the people on file, and an EIN for any entity other than a sole proprietor; a valid passport, driver's license or state-issued ID card) → https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/shopify-payments/supported-countries/united-states/requirements
Prohibited and Restricted Businesses are defined in the payments terms (section B5) rather than listed on the pricing page → https://www.shopify.com/legal/terms-payments/us

The crossovers, totals and multiples are calculated by SaaS COMPASS from the official prices above, with the formulas left in the body so they can be re-run. These are the United States figures. Shopify's Japanese rate card has different rate steps and no per-transaction component, so a crossover calculated here cannot be carried across to Japan; the Japanese-language version of this article works that case through on its own numbers.

What we could not confirm officially

Whether the 1% cross-border fee varies by plan. The help page states a single figure and publishes no per-plan breakdown, so we treat it as identical on all four plans.
What "most competitive rates" resolves to on Plus. No Plus processing rate is published, so Plus is left out of the rate arithmetic here.
Whether processing fees are charged on shipping and sales tax as well as goods. No official wording could be confirmed. The definition of monthly volume used here is a working approximation.
Explicit wording that the outside payment company's own fees arise separately from Shopify's transaction fee. Official help goes only as far as stating that transactions processed by outside providers attract the third-party transaction fee set by plan; the payment company's own rates are a matter for each contract.
The total number of countries supported by Shopify Payments. The count in the published list is not used in any judgment here — only the fact that the United States appears on it.

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What changed on this page

scope change6 September 2026 The English edition — currency and tax assumptions
yen prices, Japanese consumption tax and a card issuer’s foreign transaction fee → US published prices in US dollars; sales tax is described as determined by the billing address and no rate is assumed
Buying from Japan is covered in the Japanese edition, which keeps the yen figures.
Where: Is the free trial actually free, No two vendors mean the same thing by “seat”, Budgeting from the list price times twelve leaves you short, On which plan does support stop being a help article?, Which country will your customer data sit in?, monday.com or Asana: which should you choose?, How many months until that SaaS pays for itself?

Every recorded change to this site is in the change log.