Shopify Profit Calculator — True Monthly Net After All Costs
Calculate your real monthly Shopify profit after the plan fee, payment processing, apps and cost of goods.
Last reviewed 2026-10-01. Rates change — verify against the official sources linked below before relying on these figures.
What this is based on
- Monthly plan prices: Basic $39, Shopify $105, Advanced $399 (annual billing discounts not included).
- US online Shopify Payments rates per plan: 2.9%/2.6%/2.4% + $0.30.
- Third-party gateways add a Shopify surcharge: 2% / 1% / 0.6% by plan, on top of your gateway's own fees.
The three layers of Shopify cost
Shopify's real cost is three stacked layers: the plan fee, payment processing, and apps. A store doing $5,000/month on Basic pays $39 for the plan, roughly $175 in processing (2.9% + $0.30 × 100 orders), and typically $30–100 in apps — call it $250, or 5% of revenue, before product costs.
The under-discussed layer is the third-party gateway surcharge. Use Stripe or PayPal instead of Shopify Payments and Shopify adds 2% on Basic — on $5,000/month that's an extra $100 for nothing, on top of your gateway's own ~3% fee.
When upgrading the plan saves money
Higher plans charge less per transaction: 2.9% on Basic vs 2.6% on Shopify vs 2.4% on Advanced. The break-even for upgrading Basic→Shopify is where the 0.3% saving covers the $66/month price difference — roughly $22,000/month in card revenue. Below that, stay on Basic.
The same math applies Basic→Advanced: the extra 0.2% saving (2.6%→2.4%) must cover $294/month, a break-even near $147,000/month. Plan upgrades are a volume decision, not a feature decision — do the math before Shopify's upgrade prompts convince you otherwise.
What margin do successful stores run?
After product costs, platform fees, shipping and ads, healthy Shopify stores typically net 15–25%. If your net margin is under 10%, the usual culprits are app bloat ($50–200/month of tools you barely use) and over-reliance on paid ads. Audit apps quarterly — each one you remove drops straight to the bottom line.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does Shopify really cost per month?
- Plan fee ($39–399) + payment processing (~2.4–2.9% + $0.30/txn) + apps. A $5k/month store on Basic typically pays around $250/month all-in to the platform.
- Is Shopify Payments required?
- No, but using a third-party gateway adds a surcharge of 0.6–2% depending on your plan — almost always making Shopify Payments the cheaper option.
- When should I upgrade from Basic?
- When your monthly card revenue exceeds roughly $22,000 — that's where the lower processing rate on the Shopify plan covers the $66/month price increase.
- What is a good profit margin for a Shopify store?
- 15–25% net after product, platform, shipping and marketing costs is healthy. Under 10% usually means app bloat or ads eating the margin.
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