TL;DR: Shopify has four full-store plans. Basic ($39/mo) to launch. Grow ($105/mo) once US sales pass roughly $200,000/year, per Shopify's own break-even guidance. Advanced ($399/mo) for 15 admin users, included carrier-account shipping rates and higher API limits. Plus (from $2,300/mo) for full checkout customization, nine included expansion stores and enterprise B2B. Since April 2, 2026, most wholesale no longer requires Plus: Basic, Grow and Advanced all include native B2B up to a three-catalog ceiling.
Jump to: The four plans · Which plan you need · What each costs per sale · Break-even by region · Wholesale without Plus · Carrier-calculated shipping · Selling internationally · What Plus adds · FAQ
What are the Shopify plans in 2026?
Shopify has four standard plans that run a full online store: Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus. Shopify Starter is a separate, cheaper product for selling through social and messaging with a simplified online store, and it does not appear in Shopify's main plan comparison.
| Plan | Monthly | Annual (per mo) | Admin users | Built for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $39 | $29 | 0 + owner | Launching, solo operators |
| Grow | $105 | $79 | 5 | A team, own carrier rates |
| Advanced | $399 | $299 | 15 | Bigger team, higher API limits |
| Plus | from $2,300 | — | Unlimited | Custom checkout, multi-store, enterprise B2B |
Shopify US standard plan pricing, observed September 2026. Annual figures are effective monthly rates billed yearly. Plus pricing is term-based. Source: Shopify pricing.
The Basic user count is not a typo. Shopify lists Basic as 0 staff users. The store owner is exempt from the limit, so one person can run a Basic store, but you cannot add a second person without moving to Grow. Collaborator accounts are also exempt.
Plus is $2,300/month on a three-year term or $2,500/month on a one-year term in the US and in countries without a supported local Plus billing currency. Shopify notes that more complex or higher-volume Plus businesses may instead pay a variable platform fee based on revenue and business model, but does not publish a threshold or a percentage.
One naming note: the middle tier was called "Shopify" until Shopify renamed it Grow in April 2025. Same plan, same position. Any comparison of "Basic vs Shopify vs Advanced" describes the same three tiers under the older name.
Which Shopify plan should I be on?
Pick the cheapest plan that clears your actual blockers, then upgrade when a specific number or feature forces it.
- Start on Basic unless you need a second person in the admin. Basic runs unlimited products, the full checkout and native B2B. Its real limits are 0 additional users, limited custom-app API data access, and no third-party carrier accounts.
- Move to Grow when you need up to five admin users, full custom-app API access, your own UPS, FedEx or USPS account rates at checkout, or when sales pass Shopify's break-even estimate for your region.
- Move to Advanced when you need 15 admin users, carrier-account shipping included without Grow's add-on, up to 2x API limits on select APIs, or market-contextualized storefront and checkout experiences.
- Move to Plus when you need full checkout customization, included expansion stores, B2B past the three-catalog ceiling, Shopify Audiences, Launchpad or substantially higher platform limits. Almost nobody upgrades to Plus on fee math.
How much does each plan actually cost per sale?
The subscription is usually the smaller number; payment processing is the larger one. With Shopify Payments there is no separate Shopify transaction fee, only the card processing rate. Use a third-party payment provider and Shopify adds its own fee on top of whatever that provider charges.
| Plan | Online card rate (US, standard) | Third-party provider fee |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | from 2.9% + 30¢ | 2.0% |
| Grow | from 2.7% + 30¢ | 1.0% |
| Advanced | from 2.5% + 30¢ | 0.6% |
| Plus | from 2.25% + 30¢ | 0.2% |
US online card rates for standard cards and Shopify's third-party payment provider fee, observed September 2026. Premium and international cards carry higher rates. Rates differ by country. Source: Shopify pricing.
Use Shopify Payments if it is available in your country. The third-party fee is pure overhead. At $50,000/month of third-party transaction volume, Basic's 2.0% fee costs $1,000/month, roughly 25 times the $39 subscription, before the payment provider's own charges.
At what sales volume should you upgrade your Shopify plan?
Shopify publishes its own break-even estimates, and they vary by region and by whether you use Shopify Payments. These are the figures to use. Most comparison articles quote a single number, which is wrong everywhere except the US.
| Region | Upgrade to Grow at | Upgrade to Advanced at |
|---|---|---|
| US | $200,000/yr | $1,320,000/yr |
| UK, Ireland | $200,000/yr | $880,000/yr |
| Canada | $300,000/yr | $880,000/yr |
| Australia | $400,000/yr | $1,320,000/yr |
| New Zealand | $300,000/yr | $2,640,000/yr |
| Singapore | $600,000/yr | $2,640,000/yr |
| Not using Shopify Payments (all regions) | $60,000/yr | $528,000/yr |
Estimated annual sales volume at which the transaction-fee saving covers the higher plan cost. Figures in USD. Source: Shopify, Choosing the right plan, observed September 2026. Shopify notes actual break-even may vary.
Note the counter-intuitive part: the thresholds are far lower if you are not on Shopify Payments. That is because the third-party provider fee drops more steeply between tiers (2.0% to 1.0% to 0.6%) than the card rate does (2.9% to 2.7% to 2.5%). If you are stuck on an external gateway, upgrading pays off much earlier.
Why Shopify publishes no figure for Advanced to Plus
Shopify's break-even table stops at Advanced. On card rate alone, the roughly $2,000/month subscription increase against a 0.25-point rate improvement would need in the region of $800,000/month in card volume to recover, which is our calculation rather than Shopify's. In practice brands buy Plus for capabilities, and the rate improvement is a partial offset rather than the reason.
Can you sell wholesale without Shopify Plus?
Yes, for most wholesale operations. As of April 2, 2026, Shopify's core B2B features are included on Basic, Grow and Advanced at no extra cost. This is the most consequential recent change to Shopify plan selection, and many comparison articles still get it wrong because they were written when B2B was Plus-only.
Every paid plan now includes company profiles and company locations, location-level permissions, up to three active B2B catalogs, volume price breaks, quantity rules, net payment terms (Net 7, 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, due on fulfillment and due on receipt), payment reminders, vaulted credit cards, ACH in the US, purchase order numbers, quick order lists, draft orders and invoicing, checkout-to-draft, self-serve reorders, sales staff permissions, the Trade theme, and Shopify Flow with B2B objects.
What still requires Plus for B2B
| Feature | Basic | Grow | Advanced | Plus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active B2B catalogs (via markets) | 3 | 3 | 3 | Unlimited |
| Catalog assigned directly to a company or location | — | — | — | Yes |
| Company-level deposits | — | — | — | Yes |
| Draft-order deposits | — | — | — | Yes |
| Partial payments | — | — | — | Yes |
| Payment request per fulfillment | — | — | — | Yes |
| Contextual B2B checkout (via Markets) | — | — | Yes | Yes |
| Contextual B2B storefront (via Markets) | — | — | Yes | Yes |
B2B feature availability by Shopify plan, observed September 2026. Source: Shopify B2B features by plan.
The deciding question is how many distinct pricing tiers you run, and whether any single buyer needs their own. Basic, Grow and Advanced permit up to three active B2B catalogs across all B2B markets combined. Plus permits unlimited market catalogs and direct assignment to an individual company or location.
Why the three-catalog limit is stricter than it looks
The cap is three active catalogs across all of your B2B markets combined, not three per market. Assigning three catalogs to a single market consumes the entire allowance, and you have to remove or draft an existing assignment before adding a catalog elsewhere. Your store also has to be on new Shopify Markets to use B2B catalog features on Basic, Grow or Advanced at all.
Does Shopify Grow include carrier-calculated shipping?
Yes. Shopify Grow can connect third-party carrier accounts for calculated checkout rates, included on annual billing or available as a paid add-on on monthly billing. Basic cannot connect carrier accounts at all. Advanced and Plus include it.
This matters because it is one of the most common reasons merchants believe they need Advanced. If you want your own negotiated UPS, FedEx, USPS, Canada Post or Australia Post rates shown at checkout, Grow on annual billing gets you there for $79/month rather than $299.
Do you need Shopify Advanced to sell internationally?
No. Shopify Markets localized selling is available on all four plans, and collecting duties and import taxes at checkout has no plan requirement at all. Advanced's genuine international advantage is narrower than most comparisons suggest: market-contextualized storefront and checkout experiences, which Shopify gates to Advanced and Plus.
To collect duties and import taxes at checkout, Shopify requires that your store uses a carrier supporting DDP labels if you buy labels through Shopify, does not use Shopify Fulfillment Network, and has HS codes applied to your products. Plan tier is not among the requirements.
The duties fee most comparisons leave out
Collecting duties and import taxes at checkout carries its own transaction fee, separate from your plan and card rates. Shopify charges 0.85% on orders with duties calculated when Shopify Payments is your primary gateway, or 1.5% when another provider is. As of February 2, 2025 this was temporarily lowered to 0.5% for all merchants regardless of provider.
The fee applies to every order with duties calculated, even when the calculated amount is zero. It is not charged on domestic orders, on orders shipped between EU member countries, or on abandoned checkouts.
What does Shopify Plus give you that Advanced does not?
Shopify Plus adds full checkout customization, nine included expansion stores, enterprise B2B controls, and substantially higher platform limits. Concretely:
- Checkout customization. Shopify lists checkout customization as Limited on Basic, Grow and Advanced, and Full on Plus. Checkout is not entirely fixed on lower plans, and some capabilities have moved down: Checkout Blocks order value limits became available on all four plans on April 13, 2026. Full control, including custom-app Functions, remains a Plus capability.
- Expansion stores. Nine expansion stores in addition to your primary store, for ten included stores total.
- B2B past the ceiling. Unlimited catalogs, direct company-level assignment, deposits, partial payments and payment requests per fulfillment.
- Platform limits. Unlimited admin users, 200 inventory locations against 10 on other plans, 25 headless storefronts against 1, and API rate limits of up to 10x standard on select APIs against up to 2x on Advanced.
- Plus-only tools. Shopify Audiences, Launchpad, Combined Listings, advanced bot protection, custom user groups, and the first 20 POS Pro locations included.
- Support. Priority 24/7 phone and chat support.
What upgrading to Plus does not change
Moving from Advanced to Plus is a subscription change, not a replatform onto another commerce system. Your theme, products, orders, customers, URLs and apps stay where they are. The one real technical task is rebuilding any legacy checkout customizations on the current extensibility model, which matters more now that Shopify ended execution of legacy Shopify Scripts on June 30, 2026. We covered the upgrade in detail in our guide to when to upgrade to Shopify Plus.
What gets locked behind each tier?
| Capability | Basic | Grow | Advanced | Plus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unlimited products | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Variants per product | 2,048 | 2,048 | 2,048 | 2,048 |
| Native B2B | 3 catalogs | 3 catalogs | 3 catalogs | Unlimited |
| Admin users | 0 + owner | 5 | 15 | Unlimited |
| Inventory locations | 10 | 10 | 10 | 200 |
| Duties collection at checkout | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Third-party carrier accounts | — | Annual, or paid add-on | Included | Included |
| Custom-app API data access | Limited | Full | Full | Full |
| API rate limits | Standard | Standard | Up to 2x | Up to 10x |
| Headless storefronts | 1 | 1 | 1 | 25 |
| Checkout customization | Limited | Limited | Limited | Full |
| Contextual storefront / checkout by market | — | — | Yes | Yes |
| Expansion stores included | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| POS Pro | $89/mo per location | $89/mo per location | $89/mo per location | First 20 included |
| Shopify Audiences, Launchpad | — | — | — | Yes |
Selected capability gating by Shopify plan, observed September 2026. Sources: Shopify pricing and Shopify Help Center. Two things often claimed as tier differences but are not: the headline shipping discount is up to 87% on all four plans, and the 2,048-variant limit became uniform across plans in October 2025.
Which plan is best for a new store?
Basic on annual billing, for a new merchant who does not yet need a second admin user, their own carrier account rates, or market contextualization. At $29/month effective it is the lowest-priced full-store plan, and it includes unlimited products, the full checkout, and native B2B.
The mistake we see most often is the opposite one: a pre-launch brand buying Advanced because it sounds serious, then paying $299/month for capabilities it will not use for a year.
Can you change Shopify plans at any time?
Upgrades take effect immediately and are prorated from the upgrade date. Downgrades are not prorated and take effect at the end of your current billing cycle, because Shopify plans are pre-paid. Either way there is no migration, data loss or downtime between Basic, Grow and Advanced. Shopify Plus involves a one-year or three-year term commitment, so it is not a month-to-month decision.
Written by Andrew Zam, Co-Founder of Liquid Lemon, a Shopify / Shopify Plus design + development studio for DTC brands.
