Shopify selling fees UK: what you’ll actually pay in 2026

Shopify’s Basic plan costs £19 a month on annual billing, but most active UK stores pay £200 or more once they’re actually trading, and that difference comes not from the subscription but from what surrounds it.

Card processing, third-party surcharges, apps and FX conversion (for sellers buying stock abroad or collecting payouts in foreign currency) are all billed separately from the plan fee, often without much visibility into the running total.

In this guide, we explain everything that UK sellers need to know about Shopify selling fees in 2026, what costs to plan for beyond the headline price and how to keep the total under control.

Key takeaways:

• Activate Shopify Payments if you’re eligible: Using a third-party gateway like PayPal or Stripe adds a Shopify surcharge on top of your gateway’s own fees. Removing it is the fastest plan-level cost reduction available to most UK sellers
• The plan upgrade pays for itself faster than most sellers expect: Moving from Basic to Grow costs £30 more per month, but the lower card rate covers that difference at roughly £10,000 in monthly card sales. At higher volumes, staying on Basic costs more than upgrading
• The plan fee is only the starting point: Apps, domain registration, professional email and VAT accounting software all sit outside the subscription. Most active stores pay £100 to £200 a month on apps alone before those other costs are counted
• International orders carry charges beyond the standard card rate: Shopify applies a 2% currency conversion fee on every order settled in a foreign currency, and cards issued outside the UK attract higher processing rates than domestic ones.
• Managing supplier payments separately from Shopify payouts keeps FX costs down: UK sellers sourcing from overseas convert currency twice if they go through GBP each time. A World Account from WorldFirst lets you hold foreign currency and pay suppliers directly, removing one conversion step from the cycle

Open a World Account and receive, hold and pay in multiple currencies from one place.

Shopify selling fees in the UK by plan

All five Shopify plans are priced in GBP for UK merchants. Annual billing saves roughly 25% compared to monthly billing on Basic, Grow and Advanced. The prices below reflect annual billing.

All prices exclude VAT. Monthly billing adds approximately 25–35% to Basic, Grow and Advanced. Shopify Plus pricing is negotiated directly with Shopify; the figures above reflect published starting rates only.

• Starter is for sellers using social channels or existing websites. It doesn’t include a standalone online storefront.
• Basic opens a full online store with unlimited products and basic reporting. It carries the highest card rate of the main plans (2% + 25p), which makes it costly at higher sales volumes.
• Grow (previously called the Shopify plan) offers lower card rates, professional reporting and up to five staff accounts. At roughly £10,000 a month in card sales, the lower processing rate covers the extra plan cost.
• Advanced supports 15 staff accounts and adds custom reporting, third-party carrier-calculated shipping and duties collection at checkout. The duties feature is particularly relevant for UK sellers shipping into the EU post-Brexit, and the lower card rate starts paying for the plan at around £50,000 a month in sales.
• Plus is the enterprise tier for brands doing £1m+ annually, with fully customisable checkout and B2B wholesale tools included.

Card processing and third-party surcharges

Card processing fees are charged by whichever payment provider handles your transactions. With Shopify Payments, the card rate shown in the plan table is your only per-transaction cost.

Third-party transaction fees are a separate Shopify surcharge that applies whenever you use a payment gateway other than Shopify Payments, such as PayPal or Stripe. The rate depends on your plan (2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced) and stacks on top of your payment provider’s own processing charge.

Processing £15,000 a month through PayPal on the Basic plan means Shopify adds £300 in surcharges before PayPal takes its own cut. Using Shopify Payments removes that surcharge entirely.

When Shopify Payments isn’t available

Shopify Payments is open to most UK-registered businesses, but certain product categories are excluded. Cannabis and related products, firearms, financial products and services, and adult content are among the prohibited categories listed in Shopify’s eligibility requirements.

If your products fall into a restricted category, the third-party surcharge is unavoidable, and the plan you’re on determines the surcharge rate.

The fees that don’t appear on the pricing page

Most active UK stores pay for several things Shopify doesn’t list on its pricing page.

Apps

An active Shopify store typically runs between three and eight paid apps (covering reviews, email marketing, returns, inventory and SEO), each with its own monthly subscription. Most established stores spend £100–£200 a month on apps alone, and this figure tends to rise during peak season.

Themes

Shopify includes free themes, but most growing UK brands move to a paid theme.

Premium themes from the Shopify Theme Store are priced in USD, typically US$200–US$500 as a one-time purchase (check the GBP equivalent at the point of purchase, as it varies by exchange rate). Custom-built themes from an agency run considerably higher.

Domain and email hosting

No Shopify plan includes domain registration. Buying through Shopify or a registrar like Namecheap typically costs £10–£15 per year for a .co.uk address.

Professional email (a @yourbrand.co.uk inbox, separate from Shopify’s built-in marketing tool) requires Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 on top of that, from around £5.75 per user per month.

POS hardware and software

POS Lite is included with all plans for basic in-person selling. POS Pro, which adds detailed reporting, staff roles and unlimited registers, costs £69 per month per location.

Hardware (including terminals and card readers) is sold separately, with the Shopify Tap & Chip reader starting at around £49.

VAT: calculated automatically, but not filed

VAT is calculated and displayed at checkout automatically. Once taxable turnover passes £90,000 in any rolling 12-month period, VAT registration with HMRC is mandatory.

Shopify doesn’t file VAT returns; that falls to your accounting software or accountant under Making Tax Digital for VAT, which typically adds £10–£30 per month to your running costs.

What international selling adds to your costs

International sales carry additional charges that aren’t itemised on Shopify’s pricing page.

The 2% currency conversion fee

When a customer pays in a currency that differs from your payout currency, Shopify applies a 2% conversion fee, charged on top of the standard card processing rate for UK stores using Shopify Payments.

From April 2026, Shopify calculates this fee on the gross order amount rather than the net, so the charge is marginally higher per order than it was before.

For instance, on the Grow plan selling to a US customer, you’d pay 1.7% + 25p in card processing and a separate 2% conversion fee on each order. This means that on 100 orders averaging £80 each, the conversion fee alone comes to £160 a month, before card processing is added.

Cross-border card rates

Cards issued outside the UK attract higher processing rates than UK-issued cards. Shopify doesn’t publish a fixed uplift figure, as the rate varies by card type and the customer’s region, but it applies on top of your standard plan rate and increases the effective cost of every international sale.

Supplier payments and FX costs outside Shopify

Currency costs don’t stop at what Shopify charges on sales.

Sellers sourcing from China, the US, or Europe pay suppliers in foreign currency, and the FX rate and fees on outgoing payments affect landed costs as directly as any incoming order charge.

Managing FX international payments separately from your Shopify account gives you more control over when and at what rate you convert, which reduces the risk of converting the same funds twice: once when the Shopify payout lands, and again when the supplier invoice is due.

How to reduce your Shopify selling costs

Some of the fixes below are plan-level decisions; others involve how you handle currency outside Shopify.

• Activate Shopify Payments if you’re eligible: Removing the third-party gateway surcharge is the fastest fee reduction available to most UK sellers. Check your product category against Shopify’s eligibility requirements before switching, as certain business types or products are excluded.
• Switch from monthly to annual billing: Annual billing saves approximately 25% on Basic, Grow and Advanced plans, which works out to around £192 a year on Grow. It’s charged upfront and non-refundable, so confirm the plan works for your volume before committing.
• Audit your app stack every quarter: Every three months, check which subscriptions are still earning their place. Cutting two unused apps at £20–£40 each saves money immediately with no operational impact.
• Calculate the upgrade break-even before staying on Basic: On Basic, card processing costs 2% + 25p. On Grow, it’s 1.7% + 25p. The £30 monthly plan difference pays for itself at roughly £10,000 in monthly card sales. At £20,000 a month, the fee saving on Grow is approximately £60.
• Keep cross-border FX separate from Shopify’s conversion: Shopify’s 2% conversion fee applies to every international order where the customer’s currency differs from your payout currency. Tracking FX international payments through a dedicated provider rather than accepting Shopify’s automatic rate on each payout can reduce the per-sale cost. It also gives you visibility into marketplace payments across platforms in one place.

Read more: 

• How to reduce international payment fees for suppliers in 2026
• 7 best marketplace payment solutions for secure payouts in 2026

Manage cross-border payments with WorldFirst

Say you’re on the Grow plan, selling to customers in the US and the EU, and buying stock from a supplier in China every three months.

On each US sale, Shopify charges 1.7% + 25p in processing and a separate 2% currency conversion fee. When the USD payout lands, you convert to GBP through your bank at whatever rate applies that day, plus a margin. When the stock invoice arrives in CNH (offshore Chinese renminbi, used for cross-border payments), you convert GBP again. On a CNH invoice equivalent to £4,000, a bank FX margin of 2.5% adds roughly £100 above mid-market. Converting at WorldFirst’s margin of up to 0.5% on the same amount costs around £20.

Month on month, the conversion costs on both sides of the business (on incoming sales and outgoing supplier payments) don’t appear anywhere in Shopify’s payout reports.

WorldFirst isn’t a bank. WorldFirst entities in the UK hold FCA authorisation as an Electronic Money Institution for issuing electronic money and providing payment services.

A World Account lets UK Shopify sellers receive USD from marketplace sales, hold it, and pay Chinese suppliers in CNH without converting to GBP in between, removing one conversion step from each trade.

UK businesses looking at multi-currency account options more broadly can compare the main providers before deciding. Funds held in a World Account are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

Open a World Account to receive, hold and pay in multiple currencies alongside your Shopify store.

FAQs

1. Does Shopify refund transaction fees when I issue a refund?

No. Card processing fees and currency conversion fees are not returned when you refund a customer. If you processed a £100 sale and paid £2 in fees, that £2 is gone even if you return the full amount.

2. What is the chargeback fee for UK Shopify sellers?

UK merchants using Shopify Payments are charged £10 per chargeback dispute, deducted from the next payout alongside the disputed amount. The fee is typically returned if you win the dispute, though Shopify notes this may vary by country.

3. Can I try Shopify before committing to a paid plan?

Shopify offers a three-day free trial with no payment details required. After that, a promotional rate of £1 per month applies for the first three months on Basic, Grow and Advanced plans. Check Shopify’s current offers before signing up, as promotional pricing changes.

4. Does Shopify charge VAT on its subscription fees in the UK?

UK businesses registered for VAT can provide their VAT number to Shopify and benefit from the reverse charge mechanism, meaning VAT isn’t added to the subscription invoice. Businesses without a VAT number are charged 20% UK VAT on top of the plan price.

5. Can I switch Shopify plans at any time?

Yes. Upgrades take effect immediately, with the cost prorated for the remainder of your billing cycle. Downgrades take effect at the next billing date. Switching from monthly to annual billing locks in the discounted rate but charges the full year upfront.

6. Can I sell on Shopify UK as a sole trader?

Yes. Shopify doesn’t require a limited company; sole traders can register and sell on any plan. You’ll need to declare income through Self Assessment with HMRC, and the same £90,000 VAT registration threshold applies regardless of your business structure.

Sources:

1. https://www.shopify.com/uk/pricing
2. https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/international/pricing/fees
3. https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/markets/customizations/local-currencies
4. https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/shopify-payments/onboarding/eligibility
5. https://www.gov.uk/vat-registration/when-to-register
6. https://www.shopify.com/blog/foreign-transaction-fees