How Shopify fees work in Canada
Selling on Shopify in Canada means three separate costs eat into every order, and it is easy to under-count them. This calculator brings them together so you see real profit per unit, not just the headline margin on your product.
- Subscription: a fixed monthly plan fee, spread across the orders you actually take.
- Payment processing: a percentage of each sale plus a small fixed fee, charged by Shopify Payments or your gateway.
- Third-party transaction fee: an extra Shopify charge that only applies if you don’t use Shopify Payments.
On top of those sit your product cost, shipping and advertising; the calculator subtracts all of them to give net profit, margin, break-even price and the maximum you can spend on ads per order before you lose money.
Shopify plan pricing in Canada (CAD)
Rates last verified 2026-08-05. Shopify occasionally adjusts pricing, so always confirm against the official Canada pricing page before committing.
Canadian payment methods
Shopify Payments in Canada supports the local methods Canadian shoppers expect. Each is selectable in the calculator’s advanced options:
- Standard card (Visa / Mastercard)
- American Express: Amex runs at 3.5% on Basic, 3.4% on Grow and 3.3% on Advanced, plus 30¢.
- International card: Same published rate as Amex on every plan, so the uplift over standard grows as you move up plans.
Shopify publishes absolute international-card rates for Canada rather than a flat surcharge: 3.5% on Basic, 3.4% on Grow and 3.3% on Advanced, identical to the Amex rates. Interac has no rate on the pricing page, so it is not modelled. Shop Pay, Apple Pay and Google Pay all run at your plan’s card rate.
Third-party gateway fees
If you use an external payment provider instead of Shopify Payments, Shopify adds a transaction fee on top of whatever your gateway charges: 2% on Basic, falling to 0.2% on Plus. Switch the calculator’s payment method to “Third-party provider” to enter your gateway’s own rate and see the combined cost.
For most Canadian merchants, using Shopify Payments removes this fee entirely and is the cheaper route unless a specific gateway gives you a materially better processing rate.
GST/HST considerations
Prices and profit here exclude tax, and the 5% figure is the federal GST floor. Depending on the buyer’s province you may charge HST up to 15% (the Atlantic provinces), or GST plus PST/QST in provinces like BC and Quebec. Enter net prices and layer your provincial mix on top.
This tool works in net (GST/HST-exclusive) terms. If your listed prices include GST/HST at 5%, convert to net before entering them so your margin reflects money you actually keep.
How this calculator works
Every figure is traceable to a formula:
- Processing fee = Price × rate% + fixed fee
- Plan allocation = Monthly plan fee ÷ Monthly order volume
- Break-even price = (fixed costs + fixed fee) ÷ (1 − variable fee rate)
- Max ad spend = profit per order before advertising is deducted
GST/HST is excluded throughout. The price-sensitivity table re-runs the full model at ±10/20/30% of your price so you can see how margin moves before you discount or raise prices.
Frequently asked questions
Basic (CAD $49/month, or $37/month billed annually) is the cheapest subscription with the highest rates: 2.8% + 30¢ per online card payment. Grow (2.6%) and Advanced (2.4%) get cheaper per transaction as volume grows. Allocate the plan fee across your real monthly orders in the advanced options and the crossover point becomes obvious.
Because Shopify publishes them as the same figure: 3.5% on Basic, 3.4% on Grow and 3.3% on Advanced, plus 30¢. That means the premium over a domestic Visa or Mastercard is 0.7 points on Basic but 0.9 points on Advanced. The calculator uses the published absolute rates, not an assumed flat surcharge.
It is not baked in, because it depends on the buyer’s province. Every sale carries at least 5% GST; HST provinces go up to 15%, and BC, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec add their own provincial layer. Enter net prices here and treat tax as a pass-through, not margin.
Skipping Shopify Payments for an external gateway costs an extra 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus, on top of the gateway’s own pricing. Unless a Canadian acquirer is quoting you a materially better rate, Shopify Payments usually wins.
Annual billing drops Basic from $49 to an effective $37/month, Grow from $132 to $99 and Advanced from $517 to $389. Processing rates stay the same either way, so it is purely a cash-flow versus commitment decision.
Sources
- Shopify Canada pricing
