Shopify Pricing (2026): Basic Until Staff or $25K/Month

Shopify starts at $5 for Starter or $29/month billed yearly for Basic. See every plan, card fee, break-even point, and hidden cost.

Sunday, August 2, 2026Omid Saffari
Shopify Pricing (2026): Basic Until Staff or $25K/Month

Shopify Basic costs $39 month to month or $29 a month billed yearly, and it remains the default until staff access or payment volume gives Grow a job to do. On annual-equivalent pricing, Basic and Grow cost exactly the same at $25,000 in monthly standard-card sales: $904 each across 500 $50 orders.

Every price, limit, and fee below was verified against Shopify's live US pricing page and official help pages on 2 August 2026. The blunt recommendation is simple: use Starter for link-led selling, Basic for a full store, and upgrade only when a named operational limit or the payment math pays for the move.

Shopify live US pricing page showing current plans and annual prices
Shopify pricing, verified 2 August 2026

Shopify pricing at a glance

Shopify has two low-cost entry points and four full-store plans, but they do different jobs. Agentic is a $0 sales path for AI channels. Starter is a $5 social and link-selling plan. Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Plus are the plans for running a full online store.

PlanMonthly billingAnnual equivalentBest fit
Agentic$0$0Products sold through eligible AI channels
Starter$5Not listedSocial, messaging, and product-link selling
Basic$39$29/monthA solo operator running a full store
Grow$105$79/monthA small team or a store above the fee threshold
Advanced$399$299/monthInternational, integration-heavy, or high-volume operations
PlusFrom $2,300Contract pricingFull checkout control and enterprise operations

Annual equivalents are not flexible monthly prices. Shopify charges the full year upfront for annual billing. Basic therefore costs $348 for the year, Grow costs $948, and Advanced costs $3,588. Plus starts at $2,300 per month, and Shopify's POS pricing page labels that public starting figure as a three-year subscription price.

POS Pro sits beside these plans rather than replacing them. It costs $89 per month per retail location on Basic, Grow, and Advanced. Plus includes 20 POS Pro locations and supports up to 200 when Shopify Payments is used.

The advertised entry offer is 3 days free, then $1 per month for 3 months for most eligible plans. Standard pricing begins after the promotion. There are no setup fees, but payment processing, apps, themes, domains, shipping, tax services, and retail hardware can all increase the bill.

For a wider judgment on checkout, inventory, international selling, headless commerce, and alternatives, read the full Shopify review. The pricing decision comes down to four variables: staff, payment method, monthly card volume, and the operational feature that would otherwise block the store.

The upside
What it does well
4 points

  • Basic includes a full store, unlimited products, checkout, hosting, SSL, inventory, analytics, discounts, and casual in-person selling for $29 per month billed yearly.
  • The annual prices and payment-rate differences make the self-service tiers easy to model.
  • Shopify Payments avoids the separate third-party transaction fee when used as the sole provider.
  • The platform can carry one business from product links to a full store, multi-location retail, B2B, and headless commerce.
The downside
Where it falls short
4 points

  • Basic includes no additional staff accounts, so a small team can be forced to Grow before payment savings justify it.
  • An outside payment provider adds a Shopify fee of 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced, or 0.2% on Plus before the processor's own charge.
  • Annual fees are paid upfront, and Shopify's terms say it does not provide refunds.
  • POS Pro, Shopify Tax, marketplace-sync overages, apps, themes, and domains sit outside the headline subscription price.

Is Shopify free?

Shopify is free only for building during the trial or selling through the limited Agentic route. A live, full-featured online store eventually needs a paid subscription.

The free trial begins when the account is created, not when the store is ready to launch. Shopify says a trial store begins behind a storefront password or with an inactive checkout. Choosing a paid plan activates checkout. If the trial ends without a plan, the store is paused until one is selected, while its products, design, and settings remain saved.

That makes the trial useful for a disciplined setup sprint. A founder can load products, configure shipping, connect a domain, inspect themes, and test the admin before paying. It is not an unlimited free storefront, and Shopify says trials cannot be extended or reset.

The $1 promotion is paid, even though the amount is small. Apps installed during the trial can also put subscription or usage charges on the first invoice. Deactivating during the promotion does not entitle the merchant to a refund for charges already incurred.

Who can stay at $0 per month

Shopify Agentic is the only currently listed $0 monthly plan. It places products in Shopify's Catalog, lets eligible merchants choose AI sales channels, and charges when a sale occurs. The published online card rate starts at 2.9% + 30¢, so $0 describes the platform subscription, not the total cost of selling.

Agentic can be enough for a merchant who wants to surface a small catalog in AI shopping channels and does not need a full branded storefront. The merchant still has product, fulfillment, return, customer-service, and payment obligations. A business that needs its own browsable website, theme control, standard navigation, merchandising, and a conventional online store should budget for Basic.

The $5 Starter plan is cheap, not full Shopify

Shopify Starter costs $5 per month and lists a 5% transaction fee when Shopify Payments is used. It provides a simple store, product links, checkout, order management, analytics, and mobile point of sale. Its natural use case is a creator or seller sharing products through Instagram, WhatsApp, email, SMS, or a link in bio.

Starter should be skipped when the site itself has to sell. A complete catalog hierarchy, developed brand experience, editorial landing pages, advanced merchandising, and broader store customization belong on Basic or above. The $24 monthly difference between Starter and Basic's annual equivalent buys the full online-store layer, not merely a lower plan label.

What every Shopify plan buys, and where it stops

The right Shopify plan is the lowest tier that removes a current bottleneck. Revenue alone is a poor upgrade trigger because staff access, shipping rates, checkout control, B2B catalogs, and API capacity can force a decision at very different sales volumes.

All four full-store plans include a full online store, themes, unlimited products, checkout, social and marketplace selling, AI-chat selling, inventory management, more than 200 real-time reports plus custom analytics, Shopify Payments, unlimited hosting, SSL, unlimited contacts, discounts, gift cards, and abandoned-checkout recovery. All list shipping discounts of up to 87%.

Starter at $5 per month is for selling where an audience already exists. It gives a creator, consultant, or tiny catalog a checkout link without asking them to build a full store first. The 5% transaction fee makes the low subscription less compelling as volume grows, and the simplified storefront is the larger limitation for a brand that expects customers to browse.

Choose Starter when distribution lives in social posts, messages, email, events, or direct outreach. Move to Basic when customers need to discover products through collections, navigation, search, campaigns, and a branded destination.

Basic: the default full-store plan

Basic costs $39 month to month or $29 per month billed yearly. It is the correct baseline for a solo founder because the storefront, checkout, inventory, analytics, hosting, SSL, discounts, gift cards, recovery, and casual POS are already present.

Its limits are specific. Basic includes no additional staff accounts. It allows 10 inventory locations, up to 3 B2B catalogs, 1 headless storefront, standard selected API rate limits, limited custom-app data access, and limited checkout customization. Third-party calculated carrier rates are not included.

A solo product founder can live comfortably inside that envelope. An operations lead, merchandiser, and support agent sharing one owner login cannot. If several people need accountable access, Grow is a security and workflow purchase before it is a payment-rate purchase.

Basic is also the strongest place to validate Shopify itself. The storefront and checkout are representative of the platform, so there is little reason to prepay for Advanced before product, payment, shipping, tax, and app requirements have been proven.

Grow: buy staff access or a measurable fee saving

Grow costs $105 month to month or $79 per month billed yearly. It keeps the 10 inventory locations, 3 B2B catalogs, 1 headless storefront, and standard selected API limits, while adding 5 staff accounts, full custom-app data access, and the ability to add third-party calculated shipping.

The standard online card rate falls from 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic to 2.7% + 30¢. The third-party provider fee falls from 2% to 1%. On annual-equivalent subscriptions, those differences repay Grow at $25,000 in monthly standard-card GMV or only $5,000 in monthly GMV routed through an outside provider.

Grow is therefore correct when staff or math gives it a job. Five legitimate operators need separate accounts, or the store's actual payment mix crosses the calculated line. It is not automatically the right tier because a business calls itself a team. Third-party collaborators can be invited on all main plans, while internal staff access is the plan limit that matters.

Advanced: an operating-control plan

Advanced costs $399 month to month or $299 per month billed yearly. It includes 15 staff accounts, third-party calculated shipping, market-specific storefront tailoring, enhanced live-chat support, full custom-app data access, and up to 2x selected API rate limits.

Its standard online card rate is 2.5% + 30¢, and its outside-provider fee is 0.6%. Payment savings alone repay the $220 annual-equivalent premium over Grow at $110,000 in monthly standard-card GMV. An outside provider moves that line down to $55,000 because the Shopify fee falls by 0.4 percentage points.

The non-payment reasons are often stronger. A global brand may need regional storefront messaging. A logistics operation may require live negotiated carrier rates without an add-on. A technical team may need the higher API allowance. A larger commerce operation may need separate accounts. If none of those constraints exists and monthly standard-card volume is well below $110,000, Advanced is an expensive name.

Plus: pay for architecture, not prestige

Plus starts at $2,300 per month. Shopify's public POS pricing page describes that figure as a three-year subscription price, and the main pricing page says Plus subscriptions can carry one-year or three-year terms. The actual commercial quote matters more than the headline.

Plus changes the operating envelope. It allows unlimited staff and B2B catalogs, 200 inventory locations, full checkout customization, 25 headless storefronts, up to 10x selected API limits, high-volume checkout, up to 9 expansion stores, bot protection, Shopify Audiences, and Combined Listings. It includes 20 POS Pro locations and can support up to 200 with Shopify Payments.

That makes Plus rational for a retailer with a large store footprint, a B2B and DTC business with many catalogs, a technical organization that needs deeper checkout control, or a high-volume brand whose stability and API requirements exceed Advanced. It is not a cheaper payment plan for an otherwise simple store. The jump from $299 to at least $2,300 per month needs a platform capability that cannot be bought more safely another way.

Decision path from Shopify Starter through Plus using staff, payment volume, and control thresholds
The plan should change only when a named limit or cost threshold changes.

Shopify payment fees: the subscription is only the first layer

Shopify takes a payment-processing fee on card sales, and it can take a second platform fee when an outside processor is used. Those are different charges and should never be collapsed into one vague percentage.

Shopify Payments rates

For US online standard cards, Basic costs 2.9% + 30¢, Grow costs 2.7% + 30¢, and Advanced costs 2.5% + 30¢. Shopify defines premium cards as domestic commercial, corporate, and business-tier cards plus domestic American Express cards. Those cost 3.5% + 30¢ on Basic, 3.3% + 30¢ on Grow, and 3.1% + 30¢ on Advanced.

International online cards add 1% on the three self-service plans. PayPal Wallet starts at 3.49% + 49¢. In-person cards are cheaper at 2.6% + 10¢ on Basic, 2.5% + 10¢ on Grow, and 2.4% + 10¢ on Advanced. Plus publishes its rates as the most competitive rates rather than one fixed public schedule.

Shopify Payments has no separate monthly or setup fee when used as the sole provider, and it removes Shopify's third-party transaction fee. The card-processing charge remains. A $0 payment-provider add-on is not the same as free payments.

On a $20 standard online sale, Basic takes $0.88, Grow takes $0.84, and Advanced takes $0.80. On a $100 sale, the same fees are $3.20, $3.00, and $2.80. The fixed 30¢ matters disproportionately on low-ticket products: it is more than one-third of Basic's $0.88 charge on a $20 order.

Outside payment providers

An outside provider adds Shopify's own transaction fee before the processor's charge: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced, and 0.2% on Plus. A $100 Basic order therefore creates a $2 Shopify fee plus whatever the outside processor charges. A $20 order creates a $0.40 Shopify fee before processing.

This changes the plan decision quickly. A store committed to an existing processor recovers Grow's $50 annual-equivalent premium over Basic at only $5,000 in monthly eligible GMV. Grow recovers Advanced's $220 premium at $55,000.

The least obvious payment cost appears when Shopify Payments and a direct third-party provider run side by side. Shopify says third-party-processed orders carry the plan's outside-provider fee, while transactions handled by Shopify Payments are charged the standard Shopify Payments rate plus a 1.25% premium. A mixed-provider setup can therefore be more expensive on both sides of the split.

  1. Pull the last 90 days of payment volume

    Group sales by standard online cards, premium cards, international cards, PayPal Wallet, in-person cards, and every outside provider. Use order count as well as GMV because the fixed fee is charged per transaction.

  2. Apply the live rate to each group

    Multiply each group's GMV by its percentage, then add the fixed fee multiplied by order count. Add the plan's third-party fee only to eligible outside-provider volume.

  3. Add the subscription and usage charges

    Include the chosen billing cycle, POS Pro locations, app subscriptions, marketplace-sync overage, Shopify Tax when applicable, and any quoted Plus commitments.

  4. Upgrade only when the total or a limit flips

    Compare full monthly totals. If the lower plan remains cheaper and no staff, shipping, checkout, API, B2B, or location limit is blocking the operation, keep it.

The break-even math between Shopify plans

Basic wins on pure cost until Grow's lower percentage saves at least the subscription difference. On annual-equivalent pricing, that line is $25,000 in monthly standard-card GMV.

Grow costs $50 more per month than Basic when both are billed yearly. Its standard-card rate is 0.2 percentage points lower. Dividing $50 by 0.002 gives $25,000. If the store runs 500 orders at a $50 average order value, both plans cost $904 for that month before other charges:

  • Basic: $29 subscription + $725 percentage charge + $150 in fixed charges = $904.
  • Grow: $79 subscription + $675 percentage charge + $150 in fixed charges = $904.

Below that point, Basic is cheaper on standard-card math. At $5,000 in monthly GMV across 100 $50 orders, Basic costs $204 in subscription and processing, or $2.04 per order. Grow costs $244, or $2.44 per order. The 0.2-point rate saving removes only $10, while the plan adds $50.

Monthly billing moves the threshold because the subscriptions cost more. Grow is $66 above Basic on monthly billing, so the same 0.2-point rate difference repays the upgrade at $33,000 in monthly standard-card GMV, not $25,000.

Staff can override both figures. A small DTC team with a merchandiser, operations lead, support owner, and founder may need Grow's 5 accounts well below the payment threshold. In that case, the upgrade buys access control and accountability. Calling the extra $50 a payment investment would be inaccurate, but it can still be the responsible operational choice.

Grow versus Advanced

Advanced costs $220 more than Grow on annual equivalents, and the standard-card rate again falls by 0.2 percentage points. The payment-only break-even is $110,000 in monthly standard-card GMV. On monthly billing, the $294 plan difference moves the threshold to $147,000.

At $110,000 across 2,200 $50 orders, Grow and Advanced each total $3,709 for subscription and standard-card processing. Grow costs $79 + $2,970 + $660. Advanced costs $299 + $2,750 + $660.

An outside provider moves the threshold to $55,000 because Advanced reduces Shopify's added fee from 1% to 0.6%. A merchant should still include the processor's own charge. It cancels in the comparison only when the processor applies the same rate on both Shopify plans.

The clean decision rule is this: use the payment threshold only when payment rates are the only difference the business values. Upgrade earlier for a required feature. Stay lower when the feature set still fits and the weighted payment mix has not crossed the line.

Balanced cost comparison showing Basic and Grow both at 904 dollars for 25000 dollars GMV
At $25,000 in monthly standard-card GMV, Basic and Grow meet at $904 on annual-equivalent subscriptions.

Shopify hidden costs that change the budget

The largest Shopify surprise is rarely the plan price. It is a workload charge or operating requirement discovered after the store has been designed around the platform.

POS Pro multiplies by location

Casual in-person selling is included in every paid plan. POS Pro is for permanent retail operations that need unlimited POS staff access, permissions, deeper inventory work, and returns or exchanges across locations. It costs $89 per month per location on Basic, Grow, and Advanced.

Three POS Pro locations on Basic's annual equivalent cost $296 per month. That is $3,552 per year before hardware and card processing. A retailer comparing platforms should price every current and planned location, not one representative store.

Plus changes that calculation because 20 POS Pro locations are included. A large retailer can justify Plus partly through avoided per-location subscriptions, but only after the full contract and implementation costs are compared.

Shopify Tax can become a usage fee

Shopify Tax is free below a sales threshold, then charges per eligible transaction. For a US store created on or after 13 May 2026, the free threshold is $100,000 in lifetime global sales. After that point, Basic, Grow, and Advanced pay 0.35% on eligible US transactions, while Plus pays 0.25%. The fee is capped at $0.99 per order.

Older stores follow a different structure. A store created before 13 May 2026 uses a $100,000 annual threshold and a $5,000 annual cap per region. That date split matters when two otherwise similar stores compare bills.

Tax calculation fees apply only to the relevant orders and regions, but the threshold counts global sales under Shopify's stated rules. A growing store should add the fee to its forecast before it crosses the threshold, not after it appears on an invoice.

Marketplace syncing has an overage

Every main plan includes 50 synced marketplace orders per month for free. Above 50, Shopify lists a 1% charge capped at $99 per month. A seller using marketplaces as a primary channel should include that usage line even if the core Shopify plan never changes.

Apps can convert a clean plan into a fragmented stack

Shopify's terms separate subscription fees from charges for apps, themes, domains, shipping, POS equipment, and third-party services. App developers can charge recurring subscriptions, usage fees, or one-time fees. Those charges can begin during a trial and appear on the next invoice.

The right budget does not assign a generic app allowance. It lists the jobs the store cannot perform with native features, then prices one app for each. Reviews, subscriptions, advanced search, bundling, loyalty, returns, feeds, and support are common categories, but a specific store may need none or several.

Paid apps also create operational cost beyond the invoice. Each dependency introduces another vendor, data flow, permission set, renewal date, and failure point. A $20 app that removes custom development can be excellent value. Six $20 apps added without an architecture decision are a different system.

Premium, international, and mixed payments cost more

The 2.9% + 30¢ Basic headline applies to standard US online cards. Premium cards cost 3.5% + 30¢. International cards add 1%. PayPal Wallet starts at 3.49% + 49¢. Running Shopify Payments beside a direct third-party provider can add the 1.25% premium described earlier.

A B2B seller with many commercial cards should not model the consumer-card rate. A cross-border store should not model only domestic cards. The weighted mix can move a break-even threshold by tens of thousands of dollars.

Plus carries a term, not just a price

Shopify publishes Plus from $2,300 per month and identifies that amount as a three-year subscription price on its POS page. The main pricing FAQ says one-year and three-year Plus subscriptions can be canceled when the term expires. A buyer should model the full committed value, implementation, apps, payments, and any usage-dependent services from the quote.

Plus should solve a named architecture problem: checkout control, high-volume stability, many B2B catalogs, a large retail footprint, expansion stores, or API demand. If the business needs none of those, a long commitment magnifies a poor plan choice.

Monthly versus yearly billing: commit after the store passes its tests

Annual billing becomes cheaper at about nine months on Basic, Grow, and Advanced. Basic's $348 annual total equals 8.92 monthly payments at $39. Grow's $948 equals 9.03 payments at $105. Advanced's $3,588 equals 8.99 payments at $399.

The annual savings are meaningful: $120 on Basic, $312 on Grow, and $1,200 on Advanced. They are not free money. Shopify charges the year upfront, and its terms say it does not provide refunds or pro-rata refunds after cancellation.

Monthly billing is the better validation price when payment support, shipping logic, product data, app compatibility, international requirements, or migration risk remains unresolved. The extra monthly cost buys an exit. Once the store has survived a launch cycle and the team expects to remain for more than nine months, annual billing usually becomes the rational default.

Shopify versus BigCommerce and WooCommerce on price

Shopify is neither the cheapest platform in every scenario nor unusually expensive at the entry level. BigCommerce matches its annual self-service plan prices but introduces GMV thresholds. WooCommerce removes the platform subscription but makes hosting, extensions, maintenance, and technical ownership part of the bill.

BigCommerce: matching prices, revenue-based upgrades

BigCommerce prices Core at $29 per month billed annually or $39 monthly, Growth at $79 or $105, and Scale at $299 or $399. Those figures line up almost exactly with Shopify Basic, Grow, and Advanced.

BigCommerce live pricing page showing Core Growth and Scale plans
BigCommerce pricing

The upgrade logic does not. Core supports up to $30,000 in trailing-12-month GMV and automatically moves to Growth. Growth supports up to $100,000 and then moves to Scale. Scale includes $33,333 in monthly GMV and charges a 0.9% overage above that cap.

BigCommerce also splits payment providers into Embedded and Open programs. Embedded providers carry no additional BigCommerce order fee. Open providers cost 2% on Core, 1% on Growth, and 0.6% on Scale, separate from processor charges. Published card processing begins at 2.89% + 29¢.

At $5,000 monthly GMV across 100 $50 orders, Core would cost about $202.50 using the starting card rate and an embedded provider, compared with Shopify Basic at $204. The initial difference is $1.50. Sustaining that volume produces about $60,000 annual gross sales, which pushes BigCommerce beyond Core's $30,000 trailing threshold. On Growth, the same monthly workload becomes about $252.50 before other costs.

BigCommerce is the stronger price model when its native feature set and an embedded payment provider fit, and when the GMV upgrade path remains acceptable. Shopify Basic is more predictable for a store that can exceed $30,000 in trailing sales without needing Grow's staff or rate benefits.

WooCommerce: lower platform fees, higher ownership

WooCommerce is a free, open-source ecommerce platform for WordPress. It charges no platform subscription, revenue share, or extra fee for choosing a third-party payment solution.

WooCommerce official pricing page showing free core hosting and extension ranges
WooCommerce pricing

The cost moves into infrastructure. WooCommerce publishes a hosting range of $25 to $350 per month for most stores and an extension range of $29 to $299 per year per extension. WooPayments processing is shown at roughly 2.50% to 2.90% + 30¢.

At $5,000 monthly GMV across 100 $50 orders, using $25 hosting and that processing range produces $180 to $200 before extensions. Shopify Basic is $204 in the same standard-card scenario. WooCommerce can save $4 to $24 per month at the low end of the published range. One paid extension or a higher hosting tier can erase that difference.

The meaningful trade is control. WooCommerce lets a technical team choose hosting, checkout code, payment providers, deployment, and extensions. It also makes that team responsible for updates, security, backups, performance, compatibility, and incident response. Shopify charges for a managed operating surface. WooCommerce lets the owner compose one.

Choose WooCommerce when control and payment freedom have an owner. Choose Shopify when the business wants checkout, hosting, inventory, orders, channels, analytics, and support under one vendor. For smaller site-first projects where commerce is secondary, the broader AI website builder comparison covers a different set of tradeoffs.

Which Shopify plan should you choose?

Choose Basic unless a person, feature, or measured fee saving forces a higher plan. That rule prevents both under-buying and status-driven upgrades.

A creator selling through social links: choose Starter at $5 when the product link is the storefront. Move to Basic when customers need collections, navigation, campaigns, and a branded shopping destination.

A solo founder with a full store: choose Basic at $29 per month billed yearly after validation. It already covers the full storefront, checkout, inventory, analytics, hosting, SSL, discounts, recovery, and casual POS. Skip it only if an outside processor, calculated carrier rates, or another staff account is mandatory.

A small DTC operations team: choose Grow when up to 5 staff accounts are operationally necessary. If staff access is not the constraint, wait until standard-card GMV approaches $25,000 per month on annual billing or outside-provider GMV approaches $5,000.

An international or integration-heavy brand: choose Advanced when 15 staff accounts, included calculated carrier rates, regional storefront tailoring, or higher selected API limits solve a current bottleneck. Payment savings alone require about $110,000 in monthly standard-card GMV on annual equivalents.

A multi-location retailer: add POS Pro only to locations that need permanent-store workflows. Three locations on Basic cost $296 per month on the annual equivalent. Price Plus when the 20 included POS Pro locations, unlimited staff, checkout control, and enterprise allowances begin to offset its contract.

A technical headless team: Basic, Grow, and Advanced each list 1 headless storefront. Plus lists 25. Advanced raises selected API limits up to 2x, while Plus raises them up to 10x and includes full checkout customization. The front-end architecture should set the tier, not the desire to call the build headless.

Shopify pricing FAQ

How much does Shopify really cost?

A full Shopify store starts at $39 month to month or $29 per month billed yearly on Basic. Starter costs $5 for simpler social and product-link selling, while Agentic has a $0 monthly subscription for eligible AI-channel selling. Add payment processing, and budget separately for any apps, themes, domain, POS Pro locations, marketplace overage, Shopify Tax, or outside payment provider.

How much does Shopify take from a $20 sale?

On Basic with a standard US online card through Shopify Payments, 2.9% + 30¢ equals $0.88. Grow takes $0.84, and Advanced takes $0.80. A third-party provider can also trigger Shopify's own fee of $0.40 on Basic, $0.20 on Grow, or $0.12 on Advanced before the processor's charge.

How much does Shopify take from a $100 sale?

Basic takes $3.20 for a standard US online card through Shopify Payments, Grow takes $3.00, and Advanced takes $2.80. With an outside processor, Shopify's separate fee is $2 on Basic, $1 on Grow, $0.60 on Advanced, or $0.20 on Plus, before the processor's own fee.

Does Shopify have a free plan?

Shopify does not offer a permanent free full storefront. Agentic is $0 per month for eligible AI-channel selling, with payment due when a sale occurs. The full-store trial lasts 3 days under the live US offer, followed by $1 per month for 3 months for eligible plans. A trial store needs a paid plan to activate normal checkout.

Does Shopify offer a student discount?

Shopify's live US pricing, Starter, and trial pages did not list a student plan or student discount when verified on 2 August 2026. The standard trial and promotional offer apply when eligible. Free Shopify Academy courses are included across the four main plans, but that is an education benefit rather than a subscription discount.

What is Shopify's refund policy?

Shopify's terms state that Shopify does not provide refunds. Canceling does not create a pro-rata refund, and outstanding fees remain due. Test the required payments, shipping, apps, tax, staff, and migration path on monthly billing before paying a year upfront.

Did Shopify pricing change in 2026?

The live US pages on 2 August 2026 list Starter at $5, Basic at $39 monthly or $29 on the yearly equivalent, Grow at $105 or $79, Advanced at $399 or $299, Plus from $2,300, Agentic at $0, and POS Pro at $89 per location. Shopify's current pricing table does not provide a historical changelog, so an older number should be treated as stale unless it matches the current vendor page.

Can I cancel Shopify at any time?

Basic, Grow, and Advanced can be canceled by deactivating the store, but paid fees are not refunded. Shopify says Plus can be canceled when its 1-year or 3-year term commitment expires. Any outstanding balance becomes due when the service ends.

What is the cheapest Shopify plan that can run a full store?

Basic is the cheapest full-store plan at $39 month to month or $29 per month billed yearly. Starter is cheaper at $5, but it is designed for simple social, messaging, and product-link selling. Agentic is $0 monthly, but it is an AI-channel sales route rather than a full branded online store.

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Last Updated

Aug 2, 2026

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