Does Shop Pay charge a fee?
No. Shop Pay doesn’t charge you a fee of its own. Shopify’s help center says it “is included as part of Shopify Payments, and transactions are processed at your Shopify Payments rates” (Shop Pay help).
A Shop Pay order is charged at the same rate as a card your customer types in by hand. Only Shop Pay Installments costs more, and that’s covered below.
Shop Pay is Shopify’s accelerated checkout. A shopper who’s used it once on any Shopify store already has their address and card saved, so they finish on yours with a one-time code. It only runs on Shopify Payments, so a store on Stripe or Authorize.net can’t offer it.
Two fees get confused here, so keep them apart:
- The card rate is the percentage plus 30¢ that Shopify Payments takes on every sale.
- The third-party transaction fee is a surcharge Shopify adds only when you process through another gateway.
Shopify’s fees page confirms you “aren’t charged third-party transaction fees for orders that are processed through Shopify Payments, Shop Pay, Shop Pay Installments, and Paypal Express” (Shopify Payments fees).
Shop Pay fees by Shopify plan
Your Shopify plan sets what a Shop Pay order costs you, because a Shop Pay order is charged at your plan’s online card rate. Shopify’s published US rates run from 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic to 2.25% + 30¢ on Plus as of September 2026 (pricing page).
Here’s what you pay on a $100 Shop Pay sale, by plan.
| Plan | Price (monthly / yearly) | Online card rate | Third-party fee | Fee on $100 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $39 / $29 | 2.9% + 30¢ | 2% | $3.20 |
| Grow | $105 / $79 | 2.7% + 30¢ | 1% | $3.00 |
| Advanced | $399 / $299 | 2.5% + 30¢ | 0.6% | $2.80 |
| Plus | from $2,300 | 2.25% + 30¢ | 0.2% | $2.55 |
On Grow, a $100 Shop Pay order costs you 2.7% plus 30¢, which is $3.00. You keep $97.00. These are the rates for cards issued in your own country; a card from abroad is charged at a higher rate, covered below.
Shopify quotes Plus at “from” $2,300 a month and negotiates the card rate at volume, so treat the Plus row as the most you’d pay, not the price. These are the US rates; Shopify sets different ones in other countries.
What Shop Pay Installments costs you
Shop Pay Installments costs you more than a standard Shop Pay order, and Shopify doesn’t publish how much. One third-party guide puts it at about 5.9% + 30¢. Swipesum’s 2026 guide lists a merchant fee of “5.9% + $0.30 per installment transaction” (Swipesum).
Shopify sets your rate store by store, so the only reliable number is the one Support gives you. Ask them before you switch it on.
Shopify staff said the same on the community forum back in 2021: “Shop Pay Installment fees are determined on a case-by-case basis and not generic across all stores” and that “a set fee is not included in documentation as each store owner may receive different rates” (Shopify Community).
Installments runs in the US, Canada and the UK only, on orders from $35 to $30,000 USD (£50 to £30,000 in the UK). Those limits are on the order total, discounts, shipping and taxes included (Installments help).
Here’s what a $100 order costs on Basic each way.
| Order type | Rate | Fee | You receive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shop Pay, Basic plan | 2.9% + 30¢ | $3.20 | $96.80 |
| Shop Pay Installments, at the reported rate | ~5.9% + 30¢ | ~$6.20 | ~$93.80 |
Your customer sees none of that. In the US, orders from $35 to just under $50 split into two interest-free payments two weeks apart, and orders of $50 to $999.99 into four. Orders of $150 to $30,000 can take a monthly plan of 3, 6, 12, 18 or 24 months at 0 to 36% APR (customer experience). Eligibility and the customer-facing terms are in our Shop Pay Installments guide.
International cards and currency conversion
Two things raise the fee on a cross-border sale, and Shopify only publishes one of them as a plain number.
A card issued outside your country is charged at a higher rate. Shopify publishes that as its own “Online international rates” row on the pricing page, one rate per plan, and the rates differ by country (pricing page). How much higher than your domestic rate depends on the plan you’re on, so read it off the row for your own country rather than assuming a flat number. Your exact rate is in your Shopify admin. This applies to any Shopify Payments order, whether or not the shopper used Shop Pay.
The second one is fixed and published. When a customer pays in a currency other than the one you get paid in, a US store pays a 1.5% conversion fee, and that doesn’t change with your plan (Markets fees).
Here’s what a $100 Basic sale costs in each of the three cases.
| Sale | What you pay on $100 |
|---|---|
| US card, paid in USD | $3.20 |
| Card issued abroad, paid in USD | $3.20, with the international rate in place of the 2.9% |
| Card issued abroad, paid in another currency | the same again, plus $1.50 |
So a cross-border sale in a foreign currency costs you at least $1.50 more than the same order on a US card, and more again once the international rate is applied.
Are Shop Pay fees refunded on a return?
No. When you refund an order, the fee stays with Shopify. The refund help page says “If the order was processed through Shopify Payments, then you don’t get any credit card fees refunded” (refund help), and the Installments FAQ adds that “The Shop Pay Installments transaction fee isn’t returned to you when you issue a refund” (Installments FAQ).
Refund a $100 Installments order in full and your customer gets $100 back, while you’re out about $6.20 at the reported rate.
If three in ten of your orders come back, you’re paying that fee on every one of them and getting no revenue for it. So check your return rate before you turn Installments on. More on that side of it in turning Shopify returns into an opportunity.
How Shop Pay compares with other checkouts
Shop Pay costs you exactly what every other Shopify Payments method costs. Apple Pay, Google Pay and typed-in cards all cost you your plan’s card rate, and Shopify’s fees page lists Shop Pay, Shop Pay Installments and PayPal Express among the methods for which you “aren’t charged third-party transaction fees” (Shopify Payments fees).
The difference only shows up when you leave Shopify Payments.
| Checkout | Card rate | Third-party transaction fee |
|---|---|---|
| Shop Pay | Your plan’s Shopify Payments rate | None |
| PayPal Express | PayPal’s own rate | None |
| A third-party gateway (Stripe, Authorize.net) | That gateway’s rate | 2% / 1% / 0.6% / 0.2% by plan, on top |
Shopify’s argument for Shop Pay is conversion. Its product page claims “as much as 50% better conversion compared to guest checkout” and that Shop Pay “outpaces other accelerated checkouts by at least 10%”, both from a study with an outside consulting firm in April 2023. It also says 1 in 5 buyers choose Shop Pay at checkout (Shop Pay page).
Treat those as claims rather than facts about your store. Check checkout completion for Shop Pay against your other methods in Analytics before you assume the 50%.
When a plan upgrade pays for itself
Basic pays for the jump to Grow at about $25,000 a month in US online sales. Grow pays for Advanced at about $110,000. Here’s how those come out.
Every step up from Basic to Advanced cuts your card rate by 0.2 points and costs a fixed amount more each month. Divide the price difference by the rate difference and you get the monthly revenue where the lower rate alone covers the higher price.
Here’s the arithmetic for the first step. Grow costs $79 a month on yearly billing against $29 for Basic, so $50 more. The card rate falls from 2.9% to 2.7%, which is 0.2 points, or 0.002 (pricing page). $50 ÷ 0.002 = $25,000.
So a Basic store on yearly billing is better off on Grow once it does around $25,000 a month in US online sales.
| Upgrade | Extra cost per month (yearly billing) | Card rate saved | Break-even monthly revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic to Grow | $50 | 0.2 points | $25,000 |
| Grow to Advanced | $220 | 0.2 points | $110,000 |
On monthly billing the gaps are $66 and $294, which moves the break-evens to $33,000 and $147,000.
Advanced to Plus is a bigger step. Plus starts at $2,300 a month against Advanced’s $299 on yearly billing, so $2,001 more, and the rate falls 0.25 points, from 2.5% to 2.25%. $2,001 ÷ 0.0025 = about $800,000 a month. Shopify negotiates both the price and the rate on Plus, so treat that as a rough marker.
The table understates the case. It counts only the card rate, and the higher plans also bring lower third-party transaction fees and more staff accounts, so your real break-even is lower than these numbers. More in Shopify Advanced vs Plus.
Keeping Shop Pay fees down
Two things lower what you pay on Shop Pay orders, and a third tells you whether Shop Pay converts better than your other methods.
Process every order through Shopify Payments. Then the third-party transaction fee never applies, on any method.
Move up a plan once your revenue clears the break-even above. On yearly billing that’s around $25,000 a month for Basic to Grow.
Compare checkout completion for Shop Pay against your other payment methods in Shopify Analytics, so you know whether the conversion lift is real on your store rather than on Shopify’s.
Before you turn Installments on, ask Shopify Support for your store’s rate and put it next to your gross margin and your return rate. At the reported figures that’s about $3.00 more per $100 on Basic, and more on the higher plans, and you don’t get it back on a return.
Shop Pay saves a returning shopper the form. A slow checkout, a surprise shipping cost or a discount field that fails still loses the order. Checkout extensions, such as showing a shipping estimate before the payment step, are the kind of work we do on our ongoing optimization retainer, and none of it changes what Shop Pay costs.
Frequently asked questions
Where do I see Shop Pay fees in my Shopify admin?
Shop Pay fees appear in the payouts report in your Shopify admin, where each payout lists the gross amount, the fees and the net deposit. The report doesn’t label them as Shop Pay, because they’re the same Shopify Payments card rate as every other order. Installments orders have their own rate, which Shopify Support can confirm for your store.
Does Shop Pay work with PayPal or Stripe as my processor?
No. Shop Pay requires Shopify Payments, so a store running only Stripe, Authorize.net or PayPal can’t offer it. You can keep PayPal Express switched on alongside Shopify Payments without a third-party transaction fee on those orders, and moving to Shopify Payments removes that fee from every other order you take.
Is Shop Pay free for customers?
Yes, on a standard Shop Pay order. Your customer pays the order total and nothing else, and the card rate comes out of your side. Shop Pay Installments is interest-free on the two and four payment options, while the monthly plans charge 0 to 36% APR depending on the terms.
How long until I get paid on a Shop Pay Installments order?
One to three business days. Shopify’s Installments FAQ says you receive full payment for the order within 1 to 3 business days, less the Installments fee, whichever payment schedule your customer chose. In the US, Affirm collects the remaining installments and handles any dispute, so a missed customer payment doesn’t change your payout.
Is Shop Pay the same as Shopify Payments?
No. Shopify Payments is the processor that moves money from your customer’s card to your bank account and sets your card rate. Shop Pay is a checkout that runs on top of it, saving a returning shopper’s details. Every Shop Pay order is a Shopify Payments order, but not every Shopify Payments order is Shop Pay.
