Shopify’s pricing page looks simple: a few plans, a monthly price each. But the plan fee is only part of what you’ll pay. Card rates, the fee for using a different payment provider, paid apps and your theme all add up, and they change which plan is actually the cheapest for your store.
This guide covers every Shopify plan in Australian dollars, what the extra fees are, and the simple maths for when an upgrade pays for itself. All prices are from Shopify’s Australian pricing page, checked in October 2026. Shopify changes its prices from time to time, so always check there before you sign up.
Shopify plans and prices in AUD
| Plan | Paid monthly | Paid yearly (per month) | Online card rate (Shopify Payments) | Fee if you use another payment provider |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $56 | $42 | 1.7% + 30¢ | 2% |
| Grow | $149 | $114 | 1.55% + 30¢ | 1% |
| Advanced | $575 | $431 | 1.35% + 30¢ | 0.6% |
| Plus | From $3,700 | n/a | 1.15% + 30¢ | 0.2% |
In-person card rates (if you sell at markets or in a shop with Shopify POS) are a little different: 1.85% on Basic, 1.75% on Grow, 1.65% on Advanced and 1.45% on Plus, with no 30¢ fee.
Paying yearly saves about a quarter of the plan fee. If you’re confident you’ll still be trading in twelve months, it’s the easiest saving on this page.
The 2% fee most people miss
If you take payments through Shopify Payments, the card rate in the table is all you pay per sale. If you use a different provider instead, like Stripe or a bank gateway, Shopify adds its own fee on top of that provider’s charges: 2% of every sale on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced.
On $10,000 a month of sales, that’s an extra $200 a month on Basic, just for using a different provider. For most small Australian stores, Shopify Payments is the simpler and cheaper choice. Wallets like PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay can still sit alongside it at checkout.
Which plan do you actually need?
Basic: where most small stores should start
Basic has everything you need to launch and sell properly: your own theme, unlimited products, discount codes, abandoned cart emails and Shopify Payments. If you’re launching, or turning over less than a few thousand dollars a month online, start here.
Grow: when the maths says so, not before
Grow costs $93 a month more than Basic on monthly billing ($72 on yearly). What you get back is a lower card rate, and more staff accounts and reporting.
- On Shopify Payments, the card rate drops from 1.7% to 1.55%. That 0.15% only covers the extra $93 once you’re selling around $62,000 a month online. Below that, you’re paying more for the rate, not less.
- On another payment provider, the fee drops from 2% to 1%. That covers the extra $93 from roughly $9,300 a month in sales. But switching to Shopify Payments would save you more than upgrading.
So upgrade to Grow because you need the extra staff accounts or reporting, or because your sales are well past the break-even point. Don’t upgrade because it sounds more serious.
Advanced and Plus: for established, high-volume stores
Advanced and Plus are built for stores with large teams, high volumes, or international selling at scale. If you’re asking whether you need one, you almost certainly don’t yet.
Costs that aren’t on the pricing page
- Your theme. Shopify’s free themes are genuinely good. Premium themes are a one-off purchase. I compare them in premium vs free Shopify themes.
- Apps. This is where monthly costs creep up. Before installing a paid app, check whether your theme or Shopify already does the job. Read more in Shopify partner apps.
- Your domain. A .com.au domain is a small yearly cost, and it should be registered in your name.
- Your time, or someone else’s. A store that’s set up properly from the start costs less to run, and it’s easier to grow, than one that’s been patched together.
A rough monthly budget for a small Australian store
For a new store on Basic, paid yearly, using Shopify Payments and a free theme, you’re looking at $42 a month plus 1.7% + 30¢ per online sale, plus any apps you choose. On $5,000 a month of sales from 100 orders, card fees come to about $115, so roughly $157 a month all in before apps.
That’s the real number to plan around, not the $42 on the pricing page.
Want it set up properly from day one?
If you’d rather not work this out alone, I build Shopify stores for small Australian businesses from $4,500 + GST, launched in four weeks, with the plan, payments and apps chosen to keep your running costs low. Already trading? A 3, 5 or 10-hour optimisation sprint is a good way to check you’re not overpaying for apps or fees, and to get more sales from the traffic you already have.
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Written by Kiah Bush
Shopify Partner and founder of Kida Digital, a Shopify and web design studio in Norwest, Sydney. 12+ years in web design and 30+ Shopify builds, website designs and optimisations for small Australian businesses.
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