How long do Shopify Payments payouts take?

Once a payment clears, the funds reach your bank in roughly one to three business days, though the exact timing depends on your country and bank. You choose the schedule in your payout settings, with daily, weekly, or monthly options. New stores sometimes see a slightly longer wait on the very first payout while the account is verified.

What is the difference between Shopify Payments and Shop Pay?

Shopify Payments is the processor that actually moves the money; Shop Pay is a faster checkout experience that runs on top of it. Shop Pay saves a shopper's details so they can buy in one tap on any Shopify store. You need Shopify Payments active for Shop Pay to work, but Shop Pay is not itself a separate processor.

Do I need a business bank account to use Shopify Payments?

You need a bank account in the country your store operates from, held in the business or account owner's name, so payouts have somewhere to land. A sole trader can often use a personal account, but a registered company should use its business account for clean bookkeeping. Prepaid cards and virtual-only accounts are not accepted.

Can I use Shopify Payments and PayPal at the same time?

Yes, and many stores do. Shopify Payments handles card transactions while PayPal appears as an additional express option at checkout. Offering both captures shoppers who prefer paying with PayPal over entering card details, and it does not disable or conflict with Shopify Payments.

Are Shopify Payments fees refunded when I refund an order?

No. When you refund a customer, the original processing fee you paid is not returned to you, so a refunded sale still costs you that percentage. This makes a high refund or return rate quietly expensive, which is worth factoring into pricing for categories where returns are common.

How do I test Shopify Payments before going live?

Shopify offers a test mode that simulates transactions without charging a real card, so you can confirm the checkout, taxes, and confirmation emails all work. Enable it in your payment settings, place a test order using the provided test card numbers, then switch it off before you start selling. You can also place one small real order and refund it as a live sanity check.

Shopify Payments: Fees, Setup, and Alternatives

Shopify Payments is Shopify's own built-in payment processor, the system that lets your store accept credit cards, debit cards, and digital wallets without wiring up a separate gateway. When you turn it on, card payments are handled start to finish inside Shopify: the checkout, the processing, and the payout to your bank. The headline reason it matters is money. Using Shopify Payments means you pay only the card processing rate, while using an outside gateway adds a second fee on top of it on every single order. This guide breaks down exactly what those fees are, which payment methods you get, how Shopify Payments compares to processors like Stripe and PayPal, and the specific cases where an alternative is the smarter call.

Most explainers stop at "it's Shopify's payment system." The useful questions are what you actually pay at each plan level, why a surprise percentage shows up when you use a third-party processor, and whether your country and business type can even use it. Those are the parts this guide spends real time on.

Key Takeaways

Shopify Payments has no monthly fee. You pay a per-transaction card rate that gets lower as you move up to higher Shopify plans.

Using a third-party gateway instead of Shopify Payments adds an extra platform fee of 0.2% to 2% per order, on top of that processor's own fees.

Shopify Payments is only available in a limited set of countries and bars certain high-risk business types. That eligibility, not preference, is the main reason to use an alternative.

What Is Shopify Payments and How Does It Work?

Shopify Payments is a payment processor baked directly into the platform, powered by Stripe's infrastructure but managed entirely inside your Shopify admin. Instead of signing up with an outside processor and connecting it, you enter your business and bank details under Settings > Payments, and card processing switches on. There is nothing to install and no separate merchant account to apply for.

When a customer pays, Shopify Payments authorizes the card, captures the funds, and deposits them to your bank on a payout schedule you control. Because the processor and the store are the same system, you see orders, refunds, and payouts in one place rather than reconciling between two dashboards. It also powers Shop Pay, Shopify's accelerated one-tap checkout, which measurably lifts conversion for returning shoppers. One practical difference from a traditional merchant account: there is no lengthy underwriting application before you can take your first payment, though Shopify can still review an account after the fact.

How to Set Up Shopify Payments

Activation takes a few minutes and happens entirely inside your admin. The steps are the same whether your store is new or already live:

Open the payments settings. Go to Settings > Payments and choose to activate Shopify Payments. If a different provider is already connected, you will be asked to switch.
Enter your business details. Provide your business type, address, and the product category you sell. This is what Shopify uses to confirm you are eligible.
Add banking information. Enter the bank account where payouts should land. It must be a full account in the store's operating country, not a prepaid or virtual card.
Verify your identity. Shopify may ask for an ID or documents to confirm the account owner, especially before the first payout clears.
Set your payout schedule and test. Choose daily, weekly, or monthly payouts, then place a small real order or use the test mode to confirm the whole flow works before you promote the store.

Shopify Payments Fees by Plan

Shopify Payments charges no monthly fee of its own. What you pay is a per-transaction processing rate, and that rate drops as you climb to a pricier plan. Here are the standard online card rates for US stores:

Plan	Online card rate	In-person (POS) rate	Third-party gateway fee
Basic ($29/mo)	2.9% + 30¢	2.6% + 10¢	2.0%
Grow ($79/mo)	2.7% + 30¢	2.5% + 10¢	1.0%
Advanced ($299/mo)	2.5% + 30¢	2.4% + 10¢	0.6%
Plus	2.25% + 30¢	Lower, negotiated	0.2%

Rates vary by country, so a UK or EU store sees different percentages, and some regions use a flat percentage with no fixed per-order cent charge. The pattern holds everywhere though: the card rate falls as the plan price rises, which is why high-volume stores eventually save more on processing than the higher monthly plan costs them. Processing fees are one line in a much longer bill, and our guide to how much Shopify costs lays out how they stack up against apps, themes, and the plan fee itself.

The Third-Party Transaction Fee Most Stores Miss

This is the fee that catches new merchants off guard. If you choose any processor other than Shopify Payments, Shopify charges its own extra fee on top of what that processor already takes. That platform fee is 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced, and 0.2% on Plus, applied to every order. So a store on Basic running PayPal might pay PayPal's rate plus another 2% to Shopify for the privilege of not using Shopify Payments.

The math usually favors Shopify Payments for that reason alone. The exception is when you genuinely cannot use it, or when a specialized processor saves you more than the extra fee costs. That is a real calculation, not a given, so run your own numbers before assuming an outside gateway is cheaper.

Supported Payment Methods

Turning on Shopify Payments gives you a wide set of methods out of the box, with no extra apps to install:

Credit and debit cards from the major networks: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover.
Shop Pay, the one-tap accelerated checkout that remembers a shopper's details across every Shopify store.
Digital wallets including Apple Pay and Google Pay, which cut mobile checkout friction sharply. If you want to enable one specifically, our walkthrough on adding Apple Pay to Shopify covers the setup.
Buy now, pay later through Shop Pay Installments, plus options like Afterpay and Klarna in supported regions.
Local and regional methods where available, so international shoppers can pay the way they expect to.

More payment choices at checkout generally means fewer abandoned carts, since a shopper who cannot pay the way they prefer often just leaves.

Shopify Payments vs Third-Party Gateways

The honest comparison comes down to three things: total cost, convenience, and eligibility. On cost, Shopify Payments almost always wins for a standard store because it dodges the extra platform fee. On convenience, it wins again, since there is one dashboard, one payout flow, and one support line rather than two systems to reconcile.

Outside gateways earn their place in specific situations: your country is not on Shopify Payments' supported list, your business type is restricted, you already have a processor with rates you negotiated, or you need a feature a specialized gateway offers. For most of those, the two most common alternatives are Stripe and PayPal, and both integrate cleanly even with the extra fee attached.

When to Use an Alternative Like Stripe or PayPal

Reach for an alternative when one of these is true. Your country is outside the roughly two dozen where Shopify Payments operates, in which case you have no choice. Your products fall into a restricted or high-risk category Shopify Payments does not support, such as certain regulated goods. Or you want a second option at checkout alongside Shopify Payments, which is a common and sensible setup, because offering PayPal as a backup to cards captures shoppers who trust it over entering card details.

Stripe is the usual pick for developers and stores that want deep customization or are in a country Shopify Payments skips. Our step-by-step guide on how to add Stripe to Shopify walks through the connection. PayPal is the usual pick for consumer trust and buyer familiarity, and our walkthrough on integrating PayPal into Shopify shows how to add it as an express option. You can run Shopify Payments for cards and PayPal as a wallet at the same time, and many stores do exactly that.

Common Issues to Watch For

A few things trip up stores once Shopify Payments is live:

Payout holds. New stores or a sudden spike in sales can trigger a temporary reserve or hold while Shopify verifies the account. Keep your business details accurate and respond to any verification request quickly.
Chargebacks. A disputed payment pulls the funds back plus a dispute fee. Clear product descriptions, a visible refund policy, and tracked shipping are the cheapest defense.
Refunds do not return the processing fee. When you refund an order, the card rate you already paid is not credited back, so frequent refunds quietly erode margin.
Eligibility changes. Shopify can review and restrict an account if your product mix shifts into a prohibited category, so check the supported-business rules before pivoting.
Currency conversion. If you sell in a currency your payout bank does not hold, a conversion fee applies on the way out, so match your payout currency to your pricing where you can.

Conclusion: Is Shopify Payments Right for You?

For most stores in a supported country, Shopify Payments is the straightforward choice: no monthly fee, one dashboard, every major payment method, and no extra platform charge eating into each sale. Weigh an alternative only when eligibility forces it or when a specialized processor genuinely out-saves the added fee. If you are still shopping for the mix of tools that handle checkout and payments on your store, our roundup of the best payment apps for Shopify covers the add-ons that extend what Shopify Payments does out of the box.

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Shopify Payments Explained: Fees, Setup, and Alternatives