Shopify Plus Pricing: What It Actually Costs, From the $2,300 Fee to Total Cost of Ownership by GMV

Updated November 1, 2026.

Shopify Plus costs $2,300 a month on a three-year term or $2,500 a month on a one-year term in the United States, according to Shopify's Plus plan help page. Higher-volume stores can move from that flat fee to a variable platform fee based on revenue, and Shopify sets that fee in the contract rather than on its public pages. On top of the subscription, Shopify Payments charges Plus stores 2.25% + 30¢ per standard online card transaction (2.95% + 30¢ for premium cards, plus 1% for international cards), and stores that use a third-party payment gateway pay Shopify an extra 0.2% per transaction, per the Shopify pricing page. What usually pushes the real number higher is everything around the license: the app stack, the build or migration, and the team that runs the store after launch.

This guide breaks Shopify Plus pricing down by the one axis that actually decides what a merchant pays: annual gross merchandise value (GMV). Each band below has a worked example with the arithmetic shown, so a finance lead can swap in their own numbers.

Shopify Plus pricing at a glance

Shopify notes that pricing is subject to change and that the Plus team quotes current figures, so treat this table as the published baseline and your order form as the final word.

How the Shopify Plus variable platform fee works

The flat $2,300 fee is the floor, not the ceiling. Shopify's help center says there "might be a variable platform fee based on your revenue and business model," and that the fee differs for B2B and direct-to-consumer companies. Shopify does not publish the percentage, the revenue threshold, or a cap on any public page.

Third-party pricing analyses commonly describe the variable fee as a small percentage of monthly revenue that replaces the flat fee once a store crosses a threshold, with figures between 0.25% and 0.40% and a threshold near $800,000 a month in sales. Those numbers are not confirmed by Shopify, and they vary by contract. For the worked examples below, this guide uses an illustrative 0.35% of monthly revenue on a three-year term for any band above roughly $800,000 a month. Replace it with the rate in your own order form.

Two pieces of arithmetic are worth knowing before a sales call:

• At 0.35%, the percentage equals the $2,300 flat fee at about $657,000 a month in revenue ($2,300 divided by 0.0035). If your contract says "the greater of" the flat fee or the percentage, that is where the fee starts to climb.
• Every additional $1,000,000 a month in revenue adds $3,500 a month to the platform fee at 0.35%, or $4,000 at 0.40%.

Ask Shopify to state in writing which revenue counts (online only, or online plus POS and B2B), whether a cap applies, and whether the rate differs between a one-year and a three-year term.

Shopify Plus total cost of ownership by GMV band

Every example below uses the same assumptions so the bands compare cleanly:

• Subscription on a three-year term ($2,300 a month).
• All orders through Shopify Payments at the standard domestic online rate of 2.25% + 30¢, with a $100 average order value. That works out to $2.55 per $100 order, an effective 2.55% of GMV. Premium and international cards push this higher.
• App stack and build costs are typical ranges seen on mid-market Shopify Plus stores, not quotes. The build is amortized over 36 months to match the contract term.
• Retainer figures use Netalico's published tiers: Focus $2,700 a month for 15 hours in a dedicated week, Essential $5,100 for 30 hours, Core $7,500 for 45 hours, and Enterprise $10,000 for 60 hours.

Payment processing is shown separately because a store pays it on any platform. The "excluding payments" line is the number that actually changes when a merchant picks Plus.

Around $2M a year in GMV

Monthly GMV is about $166,667, well under any reported variable fee threshold, so the platform fee stays flat.

That is $149,000 a year, or 7.45% of GMV. Excluding payment processing it is $98,000 a year, 4.9% of GMV. At this size the flat license is a large share of the bill, which is why the Advanced comparison further down matters most for brands near $2M.

Around $10M a year in GMV

Monthly GMV is about $833,333, which sits right at the threshold most analyses cite. The platform fee could be the flat $2,300 or the variable rate, depending on your contract. The table uses the variable rate to show the higher case.

That is $427,200 a year, 4.27% of GMV. Excluding payments it is $172,200 a year, 1.72% of GMV. The license itself is now a rounding error next to processing, which is why payments terms deserve more negotiation time than the subscription at this size.

Around $25M a year in GMV

Monthly GMV is about $2,083,333, comfortably above any reported threshold, so the variable fee applies.

That is $935,000 a year, 3.74% of GMV. Excluding payments it is $297,500 a year, 1.19% of GMV. Brands at this size often add B2B wholesale or a second region, which is where included expansion stores and B2B features start paying for themselves (see the Shopify Plus B2B guide for how B2B pricing and catalogs work).

$50M a year in GMV and above

Monthly GMV is about $4,166,667.

That is about $1,749,333 a year, 3.5% of GMV. Excluding payments it is about $474,333 a year, 0.95% of GMV. Above this size the variable fee becomes a real line item ($175,000 a year in this example), so the revenue definition and any cap in the contract matter more than the headline $2,300.

The pattern across bands

Plus gets cheaper as a share of revenue as a brand grows, even with the variable fee. The fixed pieces (license floor, build, retainer) spread over more sales, while processing stays roughly proportional to GMV.

Shopify Plus vs Advanced: when the upgrade pays

Shopify Advanced costs $299 a month billed yearly or $399 billed monthly, per the Shopify pricing page. Plus starts at $2,300 a month. The direct cost comparison looks like this:

The break-even on fees alone. Plus costs $27,600 a year on a three-year term and Advanced costs $3,588 a year on yearly billing, a gap of $24,012. The card rate difference is 0.25 percentage points. $24,012 divided by 0.0025 is about $9.6M, so a store processing through Shopify Payments saves enough on card fees to cover the subscription gap at roughly $9.6M in annual online card volume. A store on a third-party gateway reaches break-even sooner, because the gateway fee drops from 0.6% to 0.2%: at $2M in sales that is $12,000 a year on Advanced versus $4,000 on Plus.

Where the upgrade pays below $9.6M. Most brands between $2M and $10M do not upgrade for the card rate. They upgrade because a feature they need is Plus-only:

• Checkout customization. Shopify's checkout configuration docs state that advanced checkout customization is available only on Plus, including apps that customize the information, shipping and payment pages and access to the Checkout Branding API.
• Shopify Functions in custom apps. Per Shopify's developer docs, only Plus stores can use custom apps that contain Shopify Function APIs. Public App Store apps with functions work on any plan, but bespoke discount, shipping or payment logic built for one brand needs Plus.
• B2B at scale. B2B exists on every plan, but Plus adds unlimited catalogs, catalog assignment to companies and locations, deposits, partial payments and payment requests per fulfillment.
• Launchpad. Shopify's Launchpad help page says the app is available only to stores on the Plus plan. It schedules sales, product drops and theme changes so nobody has to be awake at midnight to flip them.
• Higher API limits. Brands that sync an ERP, a PIM and a 3PL all at once hit standard limits first.

If none of those are on the roadmap and online card volume is under about $9.6M, Advanced is usually the cheaper answer. If two or more are, Plus tends to cost less than working around them with extra apps and custom middleware.

What Shopify Plus includes that you would otherwise pay for

Part of the Plus price buys things a merchant would otherwise license separately or build:

• Up to 9 expansion stores. Separate stores for a new country, a wholesale channel or a second brand, included per the Plus plan help page. Each live expansion store needs its own theme license.
• Unlimited B2B catalogs. Company accounts, price lists, payment terms and catalogs are covered in the Shopify B2B help center.
• Shopify Flow. Flow is free on Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus according to the Flow help page, so it is not a Plus differentiator anymore, but Plus stores can pair it with Launchpad and custom apps for deeper automation.
• Launchpad. Plus-only event scheduling, as above.
• Shopify Audiences. Listed as included on Plus and not included on other plans on the Shopify pricing page. Details are in the Shopify Audiences help page.
• POS Pro for 20 locations. POS Pro is $89 a month per location on other plans. Plus includes 20 locations, and with Shopify Payments as the primary retail processor the fee is waived for the first 200 retail locations. A 20-store retailer avoids $1,780 a month, or $21,360 a year.
• Up to 25 headless storefronts, 100 themes, unlimited staging stores and 1 TB of file storage per store.
• Priority support with 24/7 phone access.

Hidden and one-time costs of Shopify Plus

The subscription is the smallest surprise. These are the costs that show up after the contract is signed:

• Migration or build. Project work for a mid-market Plus store typically runs $25,000 to $250,000+, depending on catalog size, integrations, B2B scope and how much custom checkout logic is involved. Replatforming has its own risks, covered in the BigCommerce to Shopify migration, Magento to Shopify Plus migration and Salesforce Commerce Cloud to Shopify migration pages.
• Apps. Reviews, subscriptions, search, loyalty, returns and email or SMS tools are mostly priced by order or contact volume, so they grow with the store. The ranges in the GMV tables above are typical, not fixed.
• Theme. A premium theme is a one-time purchase, often a few hundred dollars, and each live expansion store needs its own license. A custom theme is part of the build.
• ERP, PIM and 3PL connectors. B2B brands almost always connect an ERP. Connector subscriptions and the integration work are separate from the Shopify bill and can rival the license itself.
• Payment edge cases. International cards add 1%. PayPal Wallet starts at 3.49% + 49¢. Capturing an extended authorization after the standard 7 days adds 1.75%. Marketplace orders beyond the first 50 synced each month cost 1%, up to $99 a month.
• File storage beyond 1 TB. Shopify handles increases through a paid request to support and does not publish the price.
• Post-launch support. A Plus store needs ongoing development for promotions, app changes and fixes. Netalico's retainers run $2,700 to $10,000 a month, and the average client spends around $4,500 a month (see Shopify retainer pricing).

One cost that does not apply: PCI compliance. Shopify states on its PCI compliance page that it is Level 1 PCI DSS compliant and that this compliance extends by default to all stores it powers. Self-hosted platforms push that audit and hosting cost onto the merchant.

Shopify Plus pricing compared with other enterprise platforms

At the platform level, Plus is the only one of the major enterprise options that publishes a starting price:

• BigCommerce. The BigCommerce pricing page lists a Performance plan for businesses with $1M+ in annual sales at custom pricing starting at $1,499 a month billed annually. Its Scale plan, at $299 a month billed annually, carries a GMV limit of $33,333 a month with a 0.9% overage above it.
• Salesforce Commerce Cloud. The Salesforce Commerce pricing page lists B2C Commerce as "Contact for pricing." Licensing is negotiated with Salesforce.
• Adobe Commerce. Adobe does not publish a list price for Adobe Commerce. Third-party guides describe quotes tiered by GMV and average order value. Magento Open Source remains free to download but the merchant pays for hosting, security and PCI scope.

The license is rarely what separates these platforms in total cost. Hosting, upgrades, PCI scope and developer hours usually are, and that is where hosted Plus tends to come out ahead for brands in the $2M to $50M range.

How to negotiate or reduce Shopify Plus cost

1. Take the three-year term if the business is stable. $2,300 instead of $2,500 a month saves $2,400 a year and $7,200 over the term.
2. Process through Shopify Payments. It removes the 0.2% third-party gateway fee. On $25M in sales that is $50,000 a year.
3. Get the variable fee terms in writing. Ask which revenue counts, whether POS and B2B are included, the DTC and B2B rates, and whether a cap applies. Model your next three years of growth against it before signing.
4. Use what Plus already includes. Audit the app stack against Flow, Launchpad, B2B, Audiences and POS Pro. Retiring two or three overlapping apps can recover a meaningful slice of the license.
5. Use the included expansion stores instead of paying for a separate platform or a multi-store app for wholesale or international.
6. Bring a Plus partner into the evaluation. A Shopify Plus development agency that has scoped many builds can tell you which features you will actually use, size the build realistically and read the order form with you before you sign.

Where Netalico fits

Netalico is a Shopify Plus Premier Partner, the most selective Plus partner tier, and has built and supported hundreds of Shopify stores. The agency was founded in 2011 and has been full-time since 2013, when founder Mark Lewis left NASA, where his work included enterprise systems. Netalico has been a Shopify Partner since 2016. Mark also serves as a fractional ecommerce and Shopify CTO for several larger brands, and Shopify chose him as the lead expert for its enterprise guide to AI ecommerce migration. Netalico uses AI-accelerated development and migration, with senior engineers in control of quality, and the same team stays on from build through the post-launch retainer. Clients include Big Green Egg, Oatly, Getty Images, Rifle Paper Co and Crossrope. For brands moving into B2B, the Shopify Plus B2B wholesale agency page covers that work.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Shopify Plus cost?

Shopify Plus costs $2,300 a month on a three-year term or $2,500 a month on a one-year term in the US. High-volume stores can pay a variable platform fee based on revenue instead, set in the contract. Card processing adds 2.25% + 30¢ per standard online transaction. Including apps, an amortized build and a retainer, a $10M brand typically spends around 4% of GMV in total.

What is the Shopify Plus variable platform fee?

It is a revenue-based fee that can replace the flat subscription for higher-volume stores. Shopify confirms it exists and that it differs for B2B and DTC, but does not publish the rate or threshold. Third-party analyses cite roughly 0.25% to 0.40% of revenue above about $800,000 a month in sales. Confirm the exact terms, revenue definition and any cap in your order form.

What are the Shopify Plus credit card processing fees?

Through Shopify Payments in the US, Plus pays 2.25% + 30¢ for standard online cards, 2.95% + 30¢ for premium cards, and 2.3% + 10¢ for in-person cards. International cards add 1%. On a $100 order that is $2.55 at the standard rate. These rates are lower than every other Shopify plan, which is part of the case for upgrading at higher volume.

Does Shopify Plus charge transaction fees?

Not when you use Shopify Payments. If a store uses a third-party payment gateway, Shopify charges a 0.2% fee on each transaction on top of the gateway's own fees. That compares with 0.6% on Advanced, 1% on Grow and 2% on Basic. On $10M in sales, the 0.2% fee is $20,000 a year, a cost that Shopify Payments avoids entirely.

Is Shopify Plus worth it compared with Shopify Advanced?

On fees alone, Plus pays for itself at about $9.6M in annual online card volume, because its card rate is 0.25 points lower and the subscription gap is about $24,012 a year. Below that, the upgrade pays when a brand needs Plus-only features: full checkout customization, Shopify Functions in custom apps, unlimited B2B catalogs, Launchpad, expansion stores or higher API limits.

How much does a Shopify Plus build or migration cost?

Mid-market Shopify Plus builds and migrations typically cost $25,000 to $250,000+, depending on catalog size, integrations, B2B scope and checkout customization. Amortized over a three-year contract, a $120,000 build adds about $3,333 a month. Ongoing support usually follows: Netalico's retainers run $2,700 to $10,000 a month, with the average client around $4,500 a month.

Are Shopify Plus expansion stores free?

Shopify Plus includes up to 9 expansion stores at no extra subscription cost, which brands use for new countries, wholesale channels or additional brands. Each live expansion store needs its own theme license, and each store still pays card processing on its own sales. Apps are usually billed per store, so the app stack cost can multiply with each expansion store.

Can you negotiate Shopify Plus pricing?

The published lever is term length: a three-year term is $2,300 a month versus $2,500 on one year, saving $7,200 over three years. Beyond that, the variable fee terms are set in the contract, so ask for the rate, revenue definition and any cap in writing. Using Shopify Payments also removes the 0.2% third-party gateway fee.

About Netalico

Netalico is a Shopify Plus agency for mid-market and enterprise DTC brands doing $2M to $50M in GMV. It is an Americas-based agency with hubs in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Miami, plus colleagues in Canada and Brazil, and nothing is subcontracted. Project work runs $25,000 to $250,000+, and retainers run $2,700 to $10,000 a month. Netalico is also a Klaviyo Gold Partner.