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As of October 2026, Shopify’s pricing page lists Basic at $39 a month ($29 a month billed yearly), Grow at $105 ($79 yearly), Advanced at $399 ($299 yearly), Plus from $2,300 a month, and a $0 Agentic plan for selling in AI channels. New accounts get 3 days free and then $1 a month for 3 months on most plans. This is the plan-price guide from Ecommerce Paradise: what each plan costs, how billing works, what you get at each step, and when the next tier pays for itself. If you are ready to open a store, Shopify is where I start new builds.
The plan fee is only one line on your bill. The real monthly total also includes apps, a theme, a domain and payment processing, and I cover that math in my Shopify pricing breakdown. Everything below comes from Shopify’s own pricing page and Help Center, and anything I could not find on those pages is marked as not shown.
Shopify Plans at a Glance (as of October 2026)
| Plan | Monthly price | Billed yearly (per month) | Online card rate | Third-party gateway fee | Additional staff accounts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $39 | $29 | 2.9% + 30¢ | 2% | Not included |
| Grow | $105 | $79 | 2.7% + 30¢ | 1% | 5 |
| Advanced | $399 | $299 | 2.5% + 30¢ | 0.6% | 15 |
| Plus | From $2,300 | Not shown | 2.25% + 30¢ | 0.2% | Unlimited |
| Agentic | $0 | Not shown | From 2.9% + 30¢ | Not shown | Not shown |
The card rates in the table are the standard online rates for Shopify Payments, and Shopify lists higher online premium card rates of 3.5%, 3.3%, 3.1% and 2.95% (plus 30 cents) for Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus. The page does not define which cards count as premium, so I treat the standard rate as a floor, not a promise. Starter is missing from this table on purpose, and I explain why in the plan sections below. My Shopify fees guide lists every card rate and fee with worked examples.
How Shopify Billing Works
Shopify’s Help Center says a standard billing cycle is 30 days and that you cannot choose the billing date. You can move to a one-year cycle, which earns a discount. The help page does not state the discount, but the pricing page shows the monthly equivalents, and I work out the savings in the yearly billing section further down. Plan charges are generally non-refundable under Shopify’s terms, so I do not buy a year upfront until I am sure the store is going ahead.
Changing plans follows rules that surprised me the first time. When you upgrade, you are billed immediately for the new plan, the new features turn on right away, and the unused part of your old plan is prorated and subtracted. When you downgrade, the change waits until the end of your current billing cycle because plans are prepaid. Moving from annual back to monthly also waits until the annual cycle ends. The store owner, or a staff member with the Manage plan permission, has to authorize any change. Shopify also notes that on Basic or Grow, switching from monthly to annual resets your shipping carrier information, so you re-enter it. You can read the exact wording in Shopify’s plan change rules.
The Free Trial and the $1 Offer
The pricing page headline reads “Try 3 days free, then $1/month for 3 months,” and the FAQ says the trial needs no credit card. The same FAQ says “most plans” start at $1 a month for the first 3 months, then move to the standard rate. The pricing page does not say which plans are excluded. Shopify’s plan change page says promotions do not cover Plus, so I would not plan on the $1 offer if you are shopping for Plus.
If the offer applies to your plan, the arithmetic is simple: three months at $1 is $3 in plan fees, after the 3-day trial. That is my multiplication, and it excludes your domain, theme and apps. Two details from the help page matter. If you upgrade during the free trial, the trial length does not change and you are not charged until it ends. If you change tiers during a promotional period, the promotional price carries over and the end date does not reset. If you want yearly billing, the switch takes effect after the promotional period ends, and the full annual amount is charged upfront at that point.
My advice is to use those three months for work that earns money: choose a niche, connect a supplier, publish products and run your first traffic. Do not spend the cheap months browsing the admin. My Shopify setup walkthrough shows the order I would build things in.
Shopify Basic: $39 a Month ($29 Billed Yearly)
Basic is where I start almost every new store. Shopify’s Basic plan page lists an online store with the built-in theme editor, a blog, SSL certificates, international selling tools and full access to reports, including custom reports. The pricing page lists 10 inventory locations, live chat support and a 2.9% + 30 cent online card rate. In-person card sales are 2.6% + 10 cents, and the third-party gateway fee is 2%. Basic does not support adding staff accounts, and carrier-calculated shipping from third parties is not available on it.
Basic is plenty for high-ticket dropshipping in the early months, because you are the only person in the admin and your priorities are offers, suppliers and traffic. The staff limit is the first thing you will notice. The day you want a virtual assistant to process orders in your admin, you are looking at Grow.
Shopify Grow: $105 a Month ($79 Billed Yearly)
Grow is the middle plan. The pricing page lists 5 additional staff accounts, a 2.7% + 30 cent online card rate, 2.5% + 10 cents in person and a 1% third-party gateway fee. Shopify’s Grow plan page says it supports five user accounts and inherits everything on Basic, and it lists reports such as sales, inventory, marketing, profit and customers, plus custom reports. Third-party calculated shipping rates are an add-on on Grow, not included.
The practical upgrade triggers are two. One is staff: if you hire help, Basic cannot add them. The other is volume: at some monthly sales level, the lower card rate covers the higher plan price. I run that calculation in the break-even section below, and the answer is higher than most pricing articles imply when you compare equal billing cycles.
Shopify Advanced: $399 a Month ($299 Billed Yearly)
Advanced has the lowest standard card rates of the three self-serve plans: 2.5% + 30 cents online and 2.4% + 10 cents in person, with a 0.6% third-party gateway fee. The pricing page lists 15 additional staff accounts, enhanced live chat and third-party calculated shipping rates included. It also lists up to 2x API rate limits on select APIs. Shopify’s Advanced plan page adds that you can customize the theme, checkout and customer account pages for each market you sell in.
In my experience, some stores jump to Advanced for the shipping calculator alone. For high-ticket freight, accurate shipping at checkout can matter more than a quarter point of card fees, because a wrong quote on a heavy item eats margin on every order. Run the numbers on your own catalog before you decide, and compare the extra $294 a month (monthly billing) with what bad shipping quotes cost you now.
Shopify Plus: From $2,300 a Month
Plus is Shopify’s enterprise tier. The pricing page shows “from $2,300” a month, the FAQ says Plus can be taken on a 1-year or 3-year subscription, and you can cancel when the term ends. It lists a 2.25% + 30 cent online card rate, a 0.2% third-party gateway fee, unlimited staff accounts, 200 inventory locations, fully customizable checkout, up to 9 free expansion stores, 25 headless storefronts and priority 24/7 phone support. A yearly price and any variable platform fee are not shown on the pages I could load, so ask Shopify sales for a quote if you are near this tier.
For nearly every store I teach, Plus is not the answer yet. If you are comparing it with Advanced, I wrote a separate Shopify vs Shopify Plus guide that covers when the jump makes sense.
Shopify Agentic: $0 a Month
Agentic is the newest plan on the list. The pricing page describes it as a plan for selling in AI channels, with no monthly fee, and you pay only when you make a sale, at online card rates starting at 2.9% + 30 cents. Shopify’s Agentic plan page says it is meant for merchants who do not use Shopify as their ecommerce platform, as well as anyone who wants to build a Shopify store before moving to a paid plan. You add products to Shopify Catalog and sell through Shopify agentic storefronts without migrating.
The same page lists what you cannot do on it: publish your online store, sell through that store’s checkout, use Shopify Messaging, sell gift cards or create orders manually. The pricing page’s dashboard caption mentions ChatGPT, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot as partners, but the help page does not name AI channels, so I would not promise any specific channel to yourself. Treat Agentic as an extra sales channel. If your plan is to own the customer relationship and run a branded high-ticket store, you still need Basic or higher.
What Happened to the Starter Plan
Older Shopify guides, including an earlier version of this one, list a $5 Starter plan for selling through social media and messaging apps. The pricing page I loaded does not list Starter at all. Shopify’s Starter plan page says the plan is not available to new stores and that you cannot return to it after changing plans. It lists no staff accounts, no collections and limited themes. I could not load a current Starter price or transaction rates, so I am not quoting any. If you are starting fresh, your real choices are Basic and up.
Yearly vs Monthly Billing: What You Actually Save
Shopify’s pricing page shows monthly and yearly prices side by side but does not state a percentage. Here is my arithmetic from the listed prices, as of October 2026.
| Plan | Monthly billing | Yearly billing (per month) | Saved per month | Saved per year | Discount | Paid upfront for the year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $39 | $29 | $10 | $120 | 25.6% | $348 |
| Grow | $105 | $79 | $26 | $312 | 24.8% | $948 |
| Advanced | $399 | $299 | $100 | $1,200 | 25.1% | $3,588 |
The discount is about 25% on all three plans. The “paid upfront” column is the monthly equivalent multiplied by 12, which matches the help page’s note that the full annual amount is charged at the start of the yearly cycle. The trade-off is cash flow and flexibility. If you are not yet sure the store will survive, the extra $10 a month on Basic is cheap insurance. If you have sales and you know you will be here in a year, yearly billing is an easy saving.
When Does the Next Plan Pay for Itself?
This is a worked example, not a quote. I assume $50,000 of online sales a month, all paid with standard cards through Shopify Payments, across 100 orders (a $500 average order). I ignore premium cards, international sales, taxes and refunds, and I keep the 30 cent fixed fee in because it is the same on Basic, Grow and Advanced.
| Plan | Percentage fee on $50,000 | Fixed fee (100 orders x $0.30) | Plan price, monthly billing | Total, monthly billing | Plan price, yearly billing | Total, yearly billing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $1,450.00 (2.9%) | $30.00 | $39 | $1,519.00 | $29 | $1,509.00 |
| Grow | $1,350.00 (2.7%) | $30.00 | $105 | $1,485.00 | $79 | $1,459.00 |
| Advanced | $1,250.00 (2.5%) | $30.00 | $399 | $1,679.00 | $299 | $1,579.00 |
At that volume, Grow is $34 cheaper than Basic on monthly billing ($1,519 minus $1,485) and $50 cheaper on yearly billing ($1,509 minus $1,459). Advanced costs $194 more than Grow on monthly billing and $120 more on yearly billing, so it only wins on card fees at much higher volume. To find your own break-even, divide the price gap between plans by the 0.2 percentage point rate gap, which is 0.002.
| Upgrade | Price gap, monthly billing | Break-even sales, monthly billing | Price gap, yearly billing | Break-even sales, yearly billing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic to Grow | $66 | $33,000 a month | $50 | $25,000 a month |
| Grow to Advanced | $294 | $147,000 a month | $220 | $110,000 a month |
Those break-evens count card fees only. They ignore the staff accounts, shipping calculator and reporting you may need regardless of volume. The break-even also assumes your sales run through Shopify Payments at the standard rate. A high-ticket store with fewer, larger orders pays less in fixed 30 cent fees, so the percentage gap drives the decision even more.
Which Plan Should You Start On?
If you have not made a sale yet, start on Basic. Pick yearly billing only after the store has proven it will stay open. The plan you choose is not what makes the store succeed. Your niche and your supplier terms do, because on a $2,000 order the product cost and shipping dwarf a $39 plan fee.
If you are processing around $25,000 to $35,000 a month, or you are about to hire help, compare Basic and Grow with the formula above. If you are processing six figures a month, or you sell heavy freight and need calculated rates, price out Advanced. Plus is a different conversation, and you should talk to Shopify sales when you are near it. Whatever you pick, you can change later using the proration rules above.
One more thing before you pay for any plan: sort out your supplier before you commit to a long plan. If you are not sure how to find suppliers who accept dropshipping orders on big-ticket items, my supplier guide walks through it step by step. A plan you pay for while waiting on supplier approval is a plan you are paying for with no revenue.
What the Plan Fee Does Not Cover
Your plan fee does not pay for a domain, a premium theme, most apps or your payment processing. I keep the dollar totals in the pricing breakdown, so here I will only name the categories and my picks, without quoting vendor prices I have not rechecked for this page. Check each vendor’s own page for current numbers.
For domains, I register through Namecheap. For my main theme pick, I have used Flex on most high-ticket builds.
When speed is the priority, I look at Turbo. Another budget option with built-in conversion tools is Booster.
For apps, my usual first install is email marketing through Omnisend. Next comes live chat, and I have used Tidio for that.
For syncing catalogs and inventory with suppliers, I use Inventory Source when the supplier supports it. Every app adds a bill and a bit of page weight, so I install only what ties to revenue.
Plan Fees as a Business Expense
Treat the plan, theme and app subscriptions as business costs from day one, and keep clean records. The IRS publishes a guide to business expense resources that points to its small business tax guide and its record-keeping publication. This is general information, not tax advice, so talk to a CPA about your own return.
Set up the company before your first sale so your Shopify account, bank account and processor all carry the same legal name. My business formation guide covers the order of steps. For the LLC filing itself, I have used Bizee.
For bookkeeping, QuickBooks connects to Shopify. Another option built for ecommerce books is Finaloop.
For store analytics, Lucky Orange shows where visitors drop off. For organic search research, I use Semrush.
Is Shopify Worth the Price Compared With Alternatives?
Shopify is not the cheapest platform. Wix is a lower-cost builder. WooCommerce has no platform fee, though hosting and plugins add up. I have not rechecked any rival’s prices for this guide, so compare their pricing pages directly.
Squarespace is worth a look if you want a design-first builder. BigCommerce is the other full ecommerce platform I would price out.
My ecommerce platform comparison breaks down how they stack up. For dropshipping, I stay on Shopify because of its app ecosystem, supplier integrations and checkout, and that is my opinion from building stores on it, not a claim about market share.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Shopify cost per month in 2026?
As of October 2026, Shopify’s pricing page lists Basic at $39 a month, Grow at $105 and Advanced at $399 on monthly billing, or $29, $79 and $299 a month billed yearly. Plus starts from $2,300 a month, and Agentic is $0 a month with card fees on each sale. These are plan fees only, and apps, themes, domains and card processing are extra.
Does Shopify have a free trial?
Yes. Shopify’s pricing page offers 3 days free with no credit card required, then $1 a month for 3 months on most plans. The page does not say which plans are excluded, and Shopify’s Help Center says promotions do not cover Plus. After the promotion ends, you pay the standard rate for your plan.
Can I switch Shopify plans at any time?
Yes, but timing differs by direction. Upgrades take effect immediately and are prorated, while downgrades and annual-to-monthly switches take effect at the end of your current billing cycle. A store owner or a staff member with the Manage plan permission has to authorize the change.
Does Shopify charge transaction fees on top of the plan price?
Shopify lists a third-party gateway fee of 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus if you use an outside payment provider. Orders paid through Shopify Payments, Shop Pay and Shop Pay Installments do not carry that fee, but card processing rates still apply. The card rate is a separate charge from the third-party gateway fee, and my Shopify fees guide covers both with three worked examples.
Is the Shopify Starter plan still available?
Not to new stores. Shopify’s Starter plan page says it is not available to new stores and that you cannot return to it after changing plans. I could not load a current Starter price, so if you are starting a new store, plan around Basic or higher.
Final Thoughts
Shopify’s plan pricing as of October 2026 is easy to read once you separate the plan fee from the card rate. Basic at $39 ($29 yearly) is the right start for a new store, Grow pays for itself around $25,000 to $33,000 a month in online card sales (or sooner if you need staff), and Advanced makes sense at much higher volume or when shipping calculations matter. Prices change, so confirm the numbers on Shopify’s pricing page before you buy. I wish you guys the best of luck out there, and you can always upgrade later.
Related Articles
If you found this useful, these guides go deeper on related topics:
- Shopify Pricing Breakdown 2026: What Every Plan Actually Costs (And Which One You Need)
- Shopify Payments vs Stripe vs PayPal: Which Should You Use?
- Shopify vs Shopify Plus: When to Upgrade and Is It Worth the Cost?
- How to Set Up a Shopify Store Step by Step: The Complete 2026 Guide
- Best Ecommerce Platforms in 2026: 10 Options Compared
Trevor Fenner is an ecommerce entrepreneur and world traveler from Seattle, Washington, and the founder of Ecommerce Paradise, a platform focused on helping entrepreneurs build and scale profitable high-ticket ecommerce and dropshipping businesses. With over a decade of hands-on experience, Trevor specializes in high-ticket dropshipping strategy, niche and product selection, supplier recruiting and onboarding, Google & Bing Shopping ads, ecommerce SEO, and systems-driven automation and scaling. Through Ecommerce Paradise, he provides free education via in-depth guides like How to Start High-Ticket Dropshipping, advanced training through the High-Ticket Dropshipping Masterclass, and fully done-for-you turnkey ecommerce services for entrepreneurs who want a faster, more hands-off path to growth. Trevor is known for emphasizing sustainable, real-world ecommerce models over hype-driven tactics, helping store owners build scalable, sellable, and location-independent brands.
He maintains homes in Seattle and Bali, spends most of the year overseas, and usually returns to Seattle for about a month each summer.
