Short answer
The store plan, your payment gateway's fee and the GST on it, Shopify's own per-order fee for using an outside gateway, apps, shipping, packaging, returns and failed deliveries, and advertising. Shopify Payments is not available in India, so the gateway fee and Shopify's fee both apply to every order. Rates differ by plan and provider, so check your own statements.
The fees, in the order a sale meets them
Plan prices and rates change, so check the current ones on Shopify's pricing page and your gateway's statements. Where this guide gives a figure, it says where it comes from.
The store plan
A monthly subscription, whatever you sell. On Shopify's India pricing page in October 2026 the Basic plan was listed at ₹1,499 a month, Grow at ₹5,599 and Advanced at ₹22,680, with a lower price if you pay yearly. In India Shopify adds GST to its plan and fees.
It is a fixed cost, so it hurts more at low volume. Spread across 100 orders it is a visible cost per order. Across 1,000 it nearly disappears.
Try it now: Shopify Profit Margin and Fees Calculator →
The payment gateway fee
The company that takes the customer's payment charges a percentage of the amount, sometimes with a fixed fee on top. The rate varies by payment method. Cards, UPI, wallets and net banking are often priced differently, so an average rate is only a starting point.
The fee is charged on what the customer pays, including GST, not on your price without GST.
GST on the fee
Gateways add GST on their own fee, and Shopify adds GST to its plan and fees for merchants in India. If your GSTIN is on the account, you can generally claim that GST back as input credit, and your accountant can confirm. If not, it is a cost. Either way, count it on purpose and not by accident.
Shopify's per-order fee
When a store takes payments through a gateway other than Shopify Payments, Shopify charges a fee on every order. Shopify Payments is not available in India, so in India it applies to every order, and the same is true in any other country without Shopify Payments.
The rate depends on the plan. On Shopify's pricing page in October 2026 it was 2 percent on Basic, 1 percent on Grow, 0.6 percent on Advanced and 0.2 percent on Plus. It sits on top of your gateway's own fee, and it is the main reason a bigger plan can pay for itself at high sales.
Apps
Monthly subscriptions for reviews, search, email, upsell and the rest. They add up quietly, and apps you stopped using often keep billing. List them and put the total in.
Shipping, packaging, returns and failed deliveries
Shipping you pay, the box and the tape, and the cost of orders that come back. Returns and undelivered cash on delivery orders cost shipping both ways and sometimes the product itself. For many Indian stores this is one of the largest hidden costs.
Advertising
Ad spend divided by orders is your cost per order from ads. It is usually larger than every fee above put together, and it is the one you can change fastest.
Putting it together
Add every line, subtract it from the price without GST, and you have your real profit per order. Our free calculator does the sum, shows where each rupee goes and tells you the price that gives the margin you want.