How Much Profit Does Shopify Take? Shopify’s Share of Each Sale

Every example and amount on this page is illustrative. It shows the method and is not a benchmark, a quote or advice.

How much profit does Shopify take?

Shopify does not take a share of your profit. It does not calculate your profit and then claim a percentage of it. Shopify charges for using the platform and, depending on your payment setup, for processing transactions or using a third-party payment provider.

There are three different cost types to check in Shopify’s current UK pricing documentation: a plan subscription, payment processing charges, and possible transaction fees. The subscription pays for access to the Shopify store platform. Payment processing charges relate to accepting a customer’s payment. A transaction fee may apply in some setups, such as when payment is handled by a provider other than Shopify Payments. The exact terms and rates depend on the plan, payment method and provider, so do not rely on an old fee table.

That distinction matters because “Shopify takes X% of every sale” is usually an incomplete description. A percentage-based payment charge is calculated against an eligible transaction amount; it is not a percentage of the merchant’s eventual profit. A merchant could have strong sales and little profit, or modest sales and healthy profit, while Shopify’s charge is determined by the applicable pricing and payment rules.

Use Shopify’s fee schedule to estimate the cost of selling through the platform. Use your own profit reporting to decide whether the business, product or order is economically worthwhile. A store-level sales figure cannot answer that on its own. ORVX connects to Shopify and reports profitability at product and collection level, so the platform charge can be considered alongside the merchant’s own trading results rather than mistaken for Shopify taking a cut of profit.

Separate Shopify fees from business profit

Shopify fees and business profit answer different questions. A Shopify charge is a cost of selling through the platform; profit is what remains after the sale’s costs and the wider costs of running the business. Treating the Shopify charge as Shopify’s share of profit confuses a bill with a profit allocation.

Cost per order asks: how much did this order cost to process and fulfil? Depending on your reporting scope, it may include Shopify and payment charges, product cost, packaging, fulfilment, discounts, refunds and advertising. Use it when setting a minimum viable order value, reviewing shipping economics or comparing products. State the included costs, because two “cost per order” figures can describe different things.

The effective Shopify fee rate expresses relevant Shopify charges as a percentage of sales. It is useful for budgeting platform costs, comparing payment arrangements or checking whether fees are rising relative to revenue. It is not a margin measure: an effective fee rate does not show what profit remains. Subscription costs also need a consistent allocation if you want to express them per order or as a percentage.

Contribution margin measures what remains from a sale after the costs directly associated with generating and delivering it. Operators commonly use it to decide whether a product, collection or customer order can support advertising and other variable costs. The scope must be explicit: contribution before advertising and contribution after advertising are different management measures. See CAC vs profit per order for that distinction.

Net profit is the broader result after operating expenses such as platform costs, payroll, software, rent, professional fees and other overheads, alongside the costs included in contribution. Use it to assess whether the business is profitable overall, not to decide whether one order can afford another pound of advertising. A useful dashboard therefore reports all four measures rather than ranking one as universally superior; each supports a different decision. ORVX can connect to Shopify and calculate realised revenue, gross profit, net profit and their margins from the store’s own data.

The formula, stated plainly

Calculate Shopify-related cost over the same period as the sales you are analysing. The plain formula is:

Total Shopify-related cost = allocated plan charge + payment processing fees + third-party transaction fees + applicable taxes.

Then calculate the effective fee rate: effective Shopify fee rate = total Shopify-related cost ÷ sales revenue × 100. Use the same revenue basis throughout—for example, delivered sales for the period, rather than mixing gross orders with refunded sales. This rate tells you what proportion of sales went to Shopify, payment processing and related charges; it is not a profit margin.

• Allocated plan charge: assign the relevant monthly or annual Shopify subscription cost to the period. If you want a per-order figure, divide the period’s plan charge across the orders or sales being analysed using one consistent method.
• Payment processing fees: include the percentage and fixed charges taken by the payment provider for those transactions. Apply the provider’s actual fee to the relevant payment amount.
• Third-party transaction fees: include any additional Shopify charge that applies when payment is handled by an external provider, separate from that provider’s own processing fee.
• Applicable taxes: include tax charged on these Shopify-related fees when it is a real cost to the business. Recoverable VAT is normally tracked separately from the underlying expense; VAT collected from customers is not a Shopify cost.
• For a single sale, the same logic applies: allocated plan cost + processing fee + applicable third-party fee + non-recoverable tax. Divide that total by the sale value to get the sale-level effective rate. A period-level rate is usually more stable because the plan charge is spread across more transactions.

A worked UK sale with real numbers

Take one UK order for £24, including VAT. Assume the shop is VAT-registered, applies 20% VAT, and can recover VAT on its business costs. The £24 customer payment therefore contains £4 VAT, leaving £20 of net sales revenue. For illustration only, assume the product costs £6 and fulfilment costs £3.50, both shown net of recoverable VAT.

For Shopify Payments, use the 2.52% rate Shopify UK’s pricing page states for plans other than Shopify Plus. Shopify also says the rate is variable, subject to change without notice, so treat this as an example rather than a permanent tariff. The fee is 2.52% of the £24 payment: £0.6048, rounded to £0.60. Finally, assume a £39 monthly plan and 100 orders that month. Allocating the plan evenly gives £0.39 per order.

The fees people leave out

The monthly plan fee is easy to miss because it is not attached to an individual order. Allocate it across the period you are analysing. For illustration only, a £30 monthly plan cost spread over 100 delivered orders adds 30p to each order; spread over 10 orders, it adds £3. The Shopify UK pricing page also advertises promotional pricing such as “Try 3 days free, then £1/month for 3 months”, so use the price that applies after the promotion, not the introductory charge.

Payment method can change the result. Shopify Payments combines payment processing with the Shopify checkout, while an external gateway has its own processing agreement and may also trigger a Shopify third-party transaction charge. Compare the complete cost of each route: processor fee, fixed per-transaction charge, Shopify charge, payout fee and any minimum or monthly gateway fee. A gateway that looks cheaper on its headline rate may not be cheaper once all charges are included.

Refunds need separate treatment from cancelled orders. A refund reverses some or all of the customer payment, but the original payment-processing charge may not be returned under the provider’s terms. Record the refund value, retained payment costs and any return shipping or handling cost. ORVX reports return rate by units and refund value against revenue, which helps distinguish a payment-cost issue from a product or fulfilment issue.

Currency conversion can add another layer when the customer pays in a different currency from the store’s trading currency. Check the conversion rate, conversion fee and the currency in which the payout arrives. Keep these amounts in their actual currencies before converting consistently; ORVX keeps each merchant’s trading currency and does not mix currencies in one figure.

Apps, shipping and marketplace charges belong in the commercial view even when Shopify does not collect them. An app subscription, per-order app fee, postage subsidy, marketplace commission or marketplace payment fee reduces what the order contributes. Analyse Shopify platform cost separately when judging the platform, then include these operating costs when deciding whether the product or channel is profitable. ORVX’s Shopify profit analytics connects Shopify orders, products and customers so those costs can be assessed alongside product-level profitability.

The mistakes that make the answer wrong

A common mistake is treating the customer’s VAT-inclusive payment as the revenue base for every calculation. If a shop is VAT-registered, VAT collected from the customer is not retained as trading revenue. Use the VAT-exclusive amount when assessing sales, then apply the relevant fee rule to the amount that the provider actually uses. Otherwise, both revenue and fees can be overstated.

The headline order value is not profit. A £60 checkout does not mean £60 earned: the order may still need to absorb product cost, fulfilment, payment processing, returns, discounts, advertising and Shopify-related charges. Even a fee calculation that is correct can produce a misleading answer if it is described as profit rather than as a platform or payment cost.

Do not stop at order-level charges. A fixed monthly subscription cost still reduces profit, whether the shop receives ten orders or 1,000. Allocate that cost across the period being analysed, or show it separately when comparing individual orders. Omitting it makes low-volume trading look more profitable than it is.

Gateway fees and Shopify transaction fees are separate lines to check. A payment provider may charge for processing the payment, while Shopify may apply a transaction charge under the store’s setup. Do not assume one includes the other, and do not add both automatically without checking the statement or plan terms.

Finally, rates are not interchangeable. Confirm the store’s country, currency, plan, payment method and billing arrangement before calculating. A rate found for another market or plan can make every order look consistently over- or under-charged. For a reliable profit view, use delivered orders and include product costs rather than relying on the Shopify sales total alone; Shopify profit analytics is designed around that broader measure.

General information only: tax, duty and import rules change and depend on your situation, so check with an accountant or the official source before acting.