--- title: "How much does Shopify cost in Australia?" description: "What a Shopify store really costs in Australia: plan prices in AUD, card rates, the third-party surcharge, apps, postage and three worked monthly bills." date: 2026-08-16 lastUpdated: 2026-09-10 author: "Chloe Marsden" url: https://aussiestoreguides.com/shopify-cost-australia/ site: "Aussie Store Guides (aussiestoreguides.com)" language: en --- # How much does Shopify cost in Australia? ![A brass balance scale with empty pans on a cream cloth table, beside a stack of kraft envelopes, a pile of pale yellow paper, a ball of twine, a black notebook and a plain ceramic mug](https://aussiestoreguides.com/images/shopify-cost-australia-cover-1200.webp) > **The short answer:** Shopify's Australian pricing page, checked on 10 August 2026, lists Basic at A$56 a month billed monthly or A$42 billed annually, Grow at A$149 or A$114, and Advanced at A$575 or A$431. Plus starts at A$3,700 a month. On top of the plan comes card processing on every online order: 1.75 % + 30c on Basic, 1.6 % + 30c on Grow and 1.4 % + 30c on Advanced. American Express and international cards cost more again. Process through a third-party gateway instead and Shopify adds 2 %, 1 % or 0.6 % depending on the plan. Then come apps, a theme if you buy one, a domain, and postage, which is usually the largest number and the one no article can quote for you. A realistic small Australian store lands somewhere between A$90 and A$300 a month all in. The plan price is the number Shopify advertises. It is almost never the number that leaves your account. This guide adds the lines up in Australian dollars, in the order they hit you: the plan, the processing, the things that are not on the pricing page at all, and postage. Every platform figure comes from Shopify's own Australian pages with the date it was read. Where Shopify publishes no figure, this guide says so instead of inventing one. ## Table of contents - [What Shopify charges you, in four lines](#four-lines) - [The trial, and the A$1 offer](#trial) - [Plan prices in Australian dollars](#plan-prices) - [Card processing: the line that grows with your sales](#card-fees) - [When in-person rates beat online rates](#in-person) - [Third-party gateways cost more, not less](#gateways) - [The costs that are not on the pricing page](#hidden-costs) - [Postage: the biggest number nobody can quote you](#postage) - [Does GST change what Shopify costs?](#gst) - [Three worked monthly bills](#worked-bills) - [So what should you actually pay?](#recommendation) - [Frequently asked questions](#faq) - [Sources](#sources) ## What Shopify charges you, in four lines Every Australian Shopify bill is built from the same four lines, and they behave very differently as you grow. **The subscription** is fixed and predictable. It is the only line most people plan for. **Card processing** is a percentage of everything you sell, plus a flat amount per order. It starts small and quietly becomes your biggest Shopify line. **Apps and add-ons** are subscriptions you sign up for yourself, usually in the first fortnight, and usually forget about by month three. **Postage** is not a Shopify charge at all, but it comes out of the same margin, and in Australia it is the line that decides whether the store works. Only the first line is on the pricing page in a way you can budget from. The rest are yours to work out, and that is what the rest of this guide does. ## The trial, and the A$1 offer Heads up: this guide uses Shopify affiliate links. Sign up through one and we are paid a commission, and you pay exactly the same as you would otherwise. Shopify's Australian pricing page at [shopify.com](https://shopify.pxf.io/WOzLvA?subId1=aussiestoreguides.com&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.shopify.com%2Fau%2Fpricing) advertises **3 days free, then A$1 a month for 3 months**, checked on 10 August 2026. Take the offer for what it is. It is a genuine way to build the store, load real products and see your own postage numbers before paying a plan price. It is also a promotion, and Shopify can change or end it whenever it likes, so confirm it on the page rather than on this one. It does not cover everything, though. Card processing is charged on real sales from your first real order, promotion or not. And app subscriptions bill at their own price from day one — the A$1 applies to the Shopify plan alone. The practical move is to treat the promotional months as your build window, not as a cheap trading period. Work out the real bill during those three months, so month four is not a surprise. ## Plan prices in Australian dollars The [Shopify plan comparison calculator](https://aussiestoreguides.com/tools/shopify-plan-comparison/) compares all three plans at your order volume, including apps and an allocated theme budget. Shopify plans, pricing and features change; always verify the current details on shopify.com before deciding. Every plan carries two prices. Annual billing charges the whole year upfront at a lower effective monthly rate. These are the figures on Shopify's Australian pricing page, checked on 10 August 2026. | Plan | Billed monthly | Billed annually | Yearly difference | |---|---|---|---| | Basic | A$56 a month | A$42 a month | A$168 | | Grow | A$149 a month | A$114 a month | A$420 | | Advanced | A$575 a month | A$431 a month | A$1,728 | | Plus | From A$3,700 a month | Quoted separately | Not published | The annual saving is real money, and it is also a twelve-month commitment to a business you have not proved yet. On Basic you are betting A$504 upfront to save A$168. That is a reasonable bet in month six and a poor one in week one. The plans separate on staff accounts and a few gates rather than on anything your customers ever see. Basic includes no additional staff accounts, Grow supports five and Advanced fifteen. One gate matters more than its price: **third-party carrier-calculated shipping is not available on Basic**, so live carrier rates at checkout are a plan decision, not an app decision. ## Card processing: the line that grows with your sales This is the line that overtakes the subscription, usually sooner than sellers expect. The Australian pricing page lists three separate online card rates per plan, checked on 10 August 2026. Most articles quote only the first one. | Plan | Standard cards | American Express | International cards | |---|---|---|---| | Basic | 1.75 % + 30c | 2.9 % + 30c | 3.5 % + 30c | | Grow | 1.6 % + 30c | 2.8 % + 30c | 3.4 % + 30c | | Advanced | 1.4 % + 30c | 2.7 % + 30c | 3.3 % + 30c | The last two columns get ignored constantly, and both matter here. **American Express costs you roughly a point more.** On Basic that is 2.9 % against 1.75 %. If a meaningful share of your customers pay with Amex, your blended rate is not the number on the pricing page. **International cards cost more again**, at 3.5 % + 30c on Basic. Selling to New Zealand or Singapore is a fine idea, but price it knowing the processing line is double your domestic one. A second international charge is easy to miss. Shopify's documentation states that with automatic exchange rates, a currency conversion fee is included in the price shown to the customer. For Australian stores that fee is **1.5 %**. It sits inside the displayed price rather than on an invoice, which does not make it free. ## When in-person rates beat online rates If you also sell at markets or in a shopfront, the maths flips. In-person rates on the Australian pricing page are **1.95 % on Basic, 1.85 % on Grow and 1.75 % on Advanced**, with no 30c per transaction. The percentage is higher; the flat component disappears. Which is cheaper depends entirely on your average order value. On a A$15 sale the missing 30c is worth more than the extra 0.2 %. On a A$150 sale it is not. Work it out on your own average, not on a generic example. Selling in person has its own subscription. **Shopify POS Pro is A$129 a month per location** on Basic, Grow and Advanced, per the Australian pricing comparison table checked on 10 August 2026. For one market stall a fortnight, that is a serious line — POS Pro should follow the takings, not the ambition. ## Third-party gateways cost more, not less This is the most expensive mistake available on the pricing page, and it is usually made for good reasons. Use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments and Shopify adds a surcharge on top of whatever that provider charges you: **2 % on Basic, 1 % on Grow, 0.6 % on Advanced** and 0.2 % on Plus, checked on 10 August 2026. Look at the size of that. On Basic, the surcharge alone is larger than the entire Shopify Payments standard card rate of 1.75 %. You are paying Shopify roughly what Shopify Payments would have cost, and then paying your gateway as well. The Help Centre is specific about what escapes it: "you aren't charged third-party transaction fees for orders that are processed through Shopify Payments, Shop Pay, Shop Pay Installments, and Paypal Express". It also states there are "no transaction fees on manual payment methods such as cash, cash on delivery (COD), and bank transfers". Australia is one of the countries where Shopify Payments is available, and payouts are straightforward here. The Australian payouts page states there is **no minimum payout amount** and that the minimum settlement time is **2 business days**. Banks then need another 24 to 72 hours to deposit the funds. AUD payouts to an Australian account incur no multi-currency payout fees. ## The costs that are not on the pricing page Four lines that surprise people, in the order they usually arrive. **A theme, if you buy one.** The Shopify Theme Store lists 24 free themes alongside 1,204 paid ones, and the browse page showed prices from $100 to $500 when checked on 10 August 2026. The store did not state the currency on that page, so confirm it at checkout rather than assuming Australian dollars. Paid themes are a one-off purchase per store, not a subscription. The free themes are genuinely usable, and this is the easiest line on the list to make zero. **Apps.** Shopify publishes no typical monthly figure, and neither will this guide. What it will say is how the number gets away from you: each app looks like a small monthly amount at signup, and nothing in the admin adds them up in front of you. Write your app subscriptions in a spreadsheet in AUD, review it monthly, and cancel what you have not opened. **A domain.** A `.com.au` signals to Australian shoppers that you are actually here. That is registrar pricing, not a Shopify figure, and it is an annual charge rather than a monthly one. **Marketplace syncing.** The Australian pricing page lists a charge for syncing over 50 orders a month from marketplaces: **1 % up to A$99 a month**, checked on 10 August 2026. Irrelevant if you sell only through your own store, and easy to miss if you do not. One more, for stores taking foreign currencies: Shopify's documentation states that payouts in NZD or USD to an Australian account are subject to multi-currency payout fees, while AUD to an Australian bank is not. ## Postage: the biggest number nobody can quote you Postage will usually cost you more per month than Shopify does, and no honest article can price it. A parcel crossing three suburbs and a parcel going from Melbourne to a remote postcode are different costs, and averaging them is a business decision rather than a settings decision. Australia Post prices business Parcel Post by lodgement postcode and destination and publishes its own rates; Sendle is the other name small Australian stores weigh up, particularly metro to metro. - Australia Post, business postage costs: https://auspost.com.au/business/shipping/postage-costs - Australia Post, MyPost Business: https://auspost.com.au/business/shipping/mypost-business Price your own three worst destinations off those rate cards before you set a flat rate or a free-shipping threshold. A threshold set below your worst realistic postage cost turns every large regional order into a loss, and you will not notice for a quarter. **See what your own bill looks like before you commit:** [Get started](https://shopify.pxf.io/WOzLvA?subId1=aussiestoreguides.com&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.shopify.com%2Fau) — The Australian pricing page advertises 3 days free and A$1 a month for the three months after that, checked on 10 August 2026. Long enough to load real products and run your own postage numbers. *(affiliate link)* ## Does GST change what Shopify costs? This section is general orientation, not tax advice. Check the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) or your registered tax agent about your own situation. There are two different questions here, and they get mixed up constantly. **The fees Shopify charges you** are a business expense. If you are registered for Goods and Services Tax (GST), the GST treatment of your own costs is a conversation for your registered tax agent, not for a guide. **What you charge customers** is the one that changes your pricing. GST is 10 % on most goods and services sold or consumed in Australia, per business.gov.au, and registration becomes compulsory once your GST turnover reaches A$75,000 or more. Australian shoppers expect the price on the product page to be the price they pay, so a registered store shows GST-inclusive prices rather than adding tax at checkout. The cost consequence is simple and easy to get wrong. Once you are registered, one eleventh of every GST-inclusive sale is not yours. If you set your prices before registering and do not revisit them afterwards, you have just cut your own margin by 10 %. Our step-by-step [Shopify Australia setup guide](https://aussiestoreguides.com/shopify-australia-setup-guide/) covers the ABN and GST groundwork in more detail. ## Three worked monthly bills Here is what the four lines add up to at three realistic stages. The rates are verified; the sales volumes are illustrations, and you should substitute your own. Postage is excluded from all three, because it depends on where your parcels go.
A$88 A$286 A$933 Side hustle Growing store Established store 0 200 400 600 800 1000 AUD per month, postage excluded
Monthly Shopify cost at three stages, built from the plan prices and standard card rates on Shopify's Australian pricing page, retrieved 10 August 2026, applied to illustrative order volumes. Postage and GST are excluded.
**The side hustle.** Basic billed monthly at A$56, plus 20 orders averaging A$75. That is A$1,500 in sales, so 1.75 % is A$26.25 and the 30c component adds A$6. Total: about **A$88 a month**, of which the plan is nearly two thirds. **The growing store.** Basic at A$56, 100 orders averaging A$80, so A$8,000 in sales. Processing is A$140 plus A$30, and a modest app stack at A$60 lands the month near **A$286**. Processing has now passed the subscription. **The established store.** Grow at A$149, 400 orders averaging A$85, so A$34,000 in sales. Processing at 1.6 % is A$544 plus A$120, apps at A$120, and the total is about **A$933**. The subscription is now 16 % of the bill. Read the shape rather than the totals. Your plan choice stops mattering very quickly, and your processing rate — which cards, which gateway, which plan tier — starts mattering a lot. Run your own numbers through our [Shopify fee and profit calculator](https://aussiestoreguides.com/tools/shopify-fee-calculator/). ## So what should you actually pay? Four recommendations, in the order you will face them. **Start on Basic, billed monthly.** Pay the extra A$14 a month for the first quarter. Buying twelve months of a platform you have used for a fortnight is not a saving, it is a bet. **Use Shopify Payments unless you have a specific reason not to.** On Basic the third-party surcharge alone costs more than the entire standard card rate. **Keep the app stack near zero until something is actually broken.** Apps are the only line on this list you add to yourself, one small decision at a time. **Move to Grow when the maths says so, not when the marketing does.** The trigger is a second staff login or the processing gap: at A$34,000 a month, the 0.15 % rate difference between Basic and Grow is worth about A$51, which alone does not cover the A$93 step up in subscription. This is an independent educational site. It is not operated by, affiliated with, or endorsed by Shopify Inc. **Run the numbers on your own products:** [Get started](https://shopify.pxf.io/WOzLvA?subId1=aussiestoreguides.com&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.shopify.com%2Fau) — Load a real product, set one postage zone and check the rate you are quoted at checkout. That is the only version of this maths that is yours. *(affiliate link)* ## Frequently asked questions ### What is the cheapest way to run a Shopify store in Australia? Basic on annual billing at A$42 a month is the cheapest subscription outside Plus, per Shopify's Australian pricing page checked on 10 August 2026. The cheaper decisions are elsewhere: use a free theme, use Shopify Payments rather than a third-party gateway, and keep app subscriptions to what you actually use. Those three choices are worth more per month than the annual-billing discount on Basic. ### Is there a free Shopify plan? No. The Australian pricing page advertises 3 days free and then A$1 a month for 3 months, checked on 10 August 2026. That is a trial and a promotion, not a free tier. Card processing applies to real orders throughout, and app subscriptions bill at their normal price during the promotional months. ### How much does Shopify take per sale in Australia? On the standard online card rate it is 1.75 % + 30c on Basic, 1.6 % + 30c on Grow and 1.4 % + 30c on Advanced. Those come from the Australian pricing page, checked on 10 August 2026. American Express is dearer at 2.9 %, 2.8 % and 2.7 %, and international cards dearer again at 3.5 %, 3.4 % and 3.3 %. Use a third-party gateway and Shopify adds 2 %, 1 % or 0.6 % on top of that provider's own fees. ### Do I pay Shopify in Australian dollars? The Australian pricing page quotes AUD, and Shopify's Help Centre billing overview lists subscription charges in "Euros (EUR), British pounds (GBP), US dollars (USD), Indian rupees (INR)". Shopify does not reconcile those two statements anywhere we could find, so check the currency on your first invoice rather than assuming. Payouts are a separate question: Shopify's Australian payouts page states you can receive payouts in AUD on all plans. ### What does Shopify cost per year in Australia? On Basic billed annually the subscription is A$504 a year, and billed monthly it is A$672. Neither figure is the bill. Add card processing on everything you sell, any app subscriptions, a domain, a theme if you buy one, and postage. For the growing store modelled above, the subscription is about A$672 of an annual Shopify-and-apps cost near A$3,400, with postage still on top. ### Is Shopify worth the cost for a small Australian store? That depends on volume, and the honest test is arithmetic rather than opinion. Below roughly A$1,000 a month in sales, the fixed A$56 plan is a large share of your revenue and a market stall or a marketplace listing may cost less. Above that, the plan becomes a small line and the questions that matter are your processing rate and your postage. Shopify publishes no break-even figure and neither should anyone else — run your own numbers on the trial. ## Sources 1. Shopify, "Shopify Pricing" (Australia). https://www.shopify.com/au/pricing — retrieved 10 August 2026. 2. Shopify Help Center, "Pricing plans and billing overview". https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/intro-to-shopify/pricing-plans/pricing-overview — retrieved 10 August 2026. 3. Shopify Help Center, "Shopify Payments" (fees). https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/shopify-payments/fees — retrieved 10 August 2026. 4. Shopify Help Center, "Payouts and settlement times with Shopify Payments in Australia". https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/shopify-payments/supported-countries/australia/payouts — retrieved 10 August 2026. 5. Shopify Help Center, "Currency conversions and exchange rates". https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/international/pricing/exchange-rates — retrieved 10 August 2026. 6. Shopify Help Center, "Basic plan". https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/intro-to-shopify/pricing-plans/plans-features/basic-shopify-plan — retrieved 10 August 2026. 7. Shopify Theme Store, "Ecommerce website templates". https://themes.shopify.com/themes — retrieved 10 August 2026. 8. Australian Government, business.gov.au, "Register for goods and services tax (GST)". https://business.gov.au/registrations/register-for-taxes/register-for-goods-and-services-tax-gst — retrieved 10 August 2026. 9. Australia Post, "Business postage costs". https://auspost.com.au/business/shipping/postage-costs — retrieved 10 August 2026. 10. Australia Post, "MyPost Business". https://auspost.com.au/business/shipping/mypost-business — retrieved 10 August 2026.