# At $1M+/month in online sales, is staying on Advanced actually leaving money on the table by not upgrading to Plus?

Reviewed by Martin Dejnicki, Director of SEO & AI Search · facts verified October 7, 2026 · canonical: https://deploi.ca/shopify/faq/advanced-vs-plus-at-1m-per-month

## Short answer

Shopify Advanced at $1M a month leaves money on the table with a third-party processor or a funded Plus-only capability. On Shopify Payments, card mix decides, because Plus's published US rates save 25 basis points on standard cards and 15 on premium cards. The plan-fee gap is 19 to 22 basis points (Deploi arithmetic from [shopify.com/pricing](https://www.shopify.com/pricing), [shopify.com/plus/pricing](https://www.shopify.com/plus/pricing), October 2026).

- **Plan-fee gap:** $1,901 to $2,201 a month. Plus at $2,300 a month on a 3-year term or $2,500 on a 1-year term, against Advanced at $399 a month or $299 billed yearly (Deploi arithmetic from the figures above) ([Shopify, Pricing](https://www.shopify.com/pricing); [Shopify, Shopify Plus pricing](https://www.shopify.com/plus/pricing))
- **Third-party gateway fee:** 0.6% on Advanced, 0.2% on Plus. Worth $4,000 a month on $1M processed by a third party (Deploi arithmetic). Shopify Payments orders carry no such fee, except store credit and gift cards on stores created since 12 May 2025 ([Shopify, Pricing](https://www.shopify.com/pricing); [Shopify Help Center, Third-party transaction fees on your Shopify bills](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/your-account/manage-billing/billing-charges/types-of-charges/third-party-charges/third-party-transaction-fees))
- **Online card rates, Advanced vs. Plus:** Standard 2.5% vs. 2.25%; premium 3.1% vs. 2.95%. Each plus 30¢. Premium means business cards and American Express; international cards add 1% on both plans. Shopify says Plus card rates vary by country ([Shopify, Pricing](https://www.shopify.com/pricing); [Shopify, Shopify Plus pricing](https://www.shopify.com/plus/pricing))
- **Premium-card share that breaks even:** 30 to 60% of card volume. Published US rates save 25 basis points on standard cards and 15 on premium cards, against a 19 to 22 basis-point plan-fee gap on $1M of card sales (Deploi arithmetic from the figures above) (Deploi arithmetic)

## Deploi's call

At $1M a month, staying on Advanced leaves money on the table once a Plus-gated capability is funded or card-rate savings cover the $1,901 to $2,201 monthly gap. We score Plus BUY the year either happens (Deploi verdict, October 2026). Until then, CUSTOMIZE on Advanced and re-price Plus every twelve months, because rates and roadmaps move.

**BUY: Move to Plus when**

- A third-party gateway processes your orders: Shopify's fee drops from 0.6% to 0.2% ([shopify.com/pricing](https://www.shopify.com/pricing), October 2026), $4,000 a month on $1M (Deploi arithmetic).
- Your roadmap needs checkout user interface (UI) extensions on the information, shipping or payment steps.
- You need custom apps with your own Shopify Functions, such as a bespoke discount engine.
- You need more than 10 locations, or [more than 3 business-to-business (B2B) catalogs](https://deploi.ca/shopify/faq/advanced-3-catalog-limit-at-20m-gmv-b2b) alongside another Plus-only need ([shopify.com/pricing](https://www.shopify.com/pricing), October 2026).
- Premium cards stay under 30 to 60% of US card sales, so the published rates cover the plan fee (Deploi arithmetic).

**CUSTOMIZE: Stay on Advanced while**

- Premium cards pass 30 to 60% of card volume and no written quote closes the gap (Deploi arithmetic).
- Your roadmap is app-shaped: public apps with functions run on Advanced.
- The trigger is staff seats, reporting or a flash-sale tool alone.
- A replatform, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) cutover or peak lands in the same quarter.

## Which costs actually change between Advanced and Plus at $1M a month?

The plan fee and the online card rates move most of the cash between Shopify Advanced and Shopify Plus for one online store. A third-party payment gateway adds one more line, because Shopify charges its own fee, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus, on orders another processor handles. Most of the rest is a capability question, not a saving.

**Plus costs $1,901 to $2,201 more a month in plan fees, and card rates and the gateway fee decide the payback**

| Money line | Advanced | Plus | Worth a month at $1M online (USD) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Plan fee | $399 a month, or $299 billed yearly | $2,500 a month on a 1-year term, $2,300 on a 3-year term | $1,901 to $2,201 more on Plus |
| Online standard card rate | 2.5% + 30¢ | From 2.25% + 30¢ | Up to $2,500 saved on Plus |
| Online premium card rate (business cards, American Express) | 3.1% + 30¢ | 2.95% + 30¢ | $150 saved per $100,000 of premium-card sales |
| Third-party transaction fee | 0.6% | 0.2% | $4,000 saved if a third party processes it all |

Sources: [Shopify, Pricing](https://www.shopify.com/pricing); [Shopify, Shopify Plus pricing](https://www.shopify.com/plus/pricing). Verified October 7, 2026.

## Do retail stores or cross-border sales change the Advanced vs. Plus math?

Yes: in-store and cross-border sales carry their own fees, and each costs less on Shopify Plus than on Advanced. In-person cards cost 2.4% + 10¢ on Advanced against 2.3% + 10¢ on Plus. Point of sale (POS) Pro costs $89 a month per location on Advanced, while Plus “Includes 20 locations. Up to 200 with Shopify Payments” ([shopify.com/pricing](https://www.shopify.com/pricing), October 2026). Managed Markets, Shopify's merchant-of-record service for cross-border sales, charges 3.5% on Advanced and 3.25% on Plus ([Shopify international pricing](https://www.shopify.com/international/pricing), October 2026).

Each line is small, so the case rests on adding them up. Ten stores on POS Pro cost $890 a month on Advanced and nothing extra on Plus. They also fill all 10 of Advanced's locations, because Shopify counts “any physical place where you sell products” as one ([Shopify Help Center](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/inventory-and-locations/locations), October 2026). Managed Markets sales of $200,000 a month cost $500 a month more on Advanced. Together the two lines come to $1,390 a month, most of the $1,901 to $2,201 plan-fee gap, before any card-rate change (Deploi arithmetic).

## What card rate does a Plus merchant actually pay?

A Shopify Plus merchant in the United States starts from Shopify's published Plus rates: 2.25% + 30¢ for standard online cards ([shopify.com/pricing](https://www.shopify.com/pricing), October 2026). Premium cards (business cards and American Express) cost 2.95% + 30¢, in-person cards 2.3% + 10¢, and international cards 1% more. So 2.25% + 30¢ is where standard cards start, not the most a Plus merchant pays.

Other countries price differently: “Card rates vary by country,” and sales has “the most up-to-date rates for your location” ([shopify.com/plus/pricing](https://www.shopify.com/plus/pricing), October 2026). The Help Center adds that Shopify Payments rates “vary by plan type and market” ([Shopify Help Center](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/shopify-payments/onboarding/cost-of-shopify-payments), October 2026).

At $1M a month, the published US rates can repay Plus's extra plan fee on their own for a mostly standard-card mix (Deploi arithmetic). So [a negotiated Plus rate](https://deploi.ca/shopify/faq/custom-pricing-tier-between-advanced-and-plus) is upside, not a requirement.

Canada is different. Plus starts at C$3,400 a month against Advanced's C$517, a gap of at least C$2,883, while standard cards cost 25 basis points less on Plus (2.15% + 30¢ CAD against 2.4% + 30¢). At C$1M a month online, that cut saves at most C$2,500, so the published Canadian card rates alone do not repay the plan fee ([shopify.com/ca/pricing](https://www.shopify.com/ca/pricing), October 2026; Deploi arithmetic).

## Where does break-even land with and without a third-party gateway?

Break-even on Shopify Payments needs Shopify Plus to cut your card rate by 19 to 22 basis points at $1M a month, and a third-party gateway clears it before any rate talk.

*If you are on Shopify Payments.* Orders paid through Shopify Payments, Shop Pay, Shop Pay Installments, PayPal Express Checkout or manual methods carry no third-party transaction fee ([Shopify Help Center](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/your-account/manage-billing/billing-charges/types-of-charges/third-party-charges/third-party-transaction-fees), October 2026). One exception: on stores created on or after 12 May 2025, the part of an order paid with store credit or gift cards is charged the fee. So the third-party fee cut from 0.6% to 0.2% ([shopify.com/pricing](https://www.shopify.com/pricing), October 2026) is worth little to you. At the published US rates, Plus saves 25 basis points on standard cards and 15 on premium cards (business cards and American Express). So on $1M of card sales the saving clears break-even while premium cards stay under 30 to 60% of that volume, depending on term and billing (Deploi arithmetic). Sales outside Shopify Payments cards, such as PayPal, shrink that volume and the margin with it.

*If a third-party gateway processes your orders.* The 0.6% to 0.2% drop is 40 basis points, or $4,000 a month on $1M processed. That is roughly twice the plan-fee gap. In this case staying on Advanced measurably costs you money.

*Interactive calculator on the web page: Run the break-even on your numbers.*

## What does Plus buy that Advanced cannot at any price?

Shopify Plus buys your own core-step checkout extensions and your own Shopify Functions; Advanced cannot get either at any price.

**Advanced cannot get these Plus rows natively at any price**

| Capability | Advanced | Plus |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Checkout user interface (UI) extensions on the information, shipping and payment steps | No | Yes |
| Custom apps containing Shopify Function APIs | No | Yes |
| Business-to-business (B2B) catalogs | Up to 3 | Unlimited |
| Inventory locations | 10 | 200 |
| Application programming interface (API) rate limits | Up to 2x on select APIs | Up to 10x on select APIs |
| Free expansion stores | None | Up to 9 |

Sources: [Shopify, Pricing](https://www.shopify.com/pricing); [Shopify Help Center, Shopify Plus plan](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/intro-to-shopify/pricing-plans/plans-features/shopify-plus-plan); [Shopify developer docs, About Shopify Functions](https://shopify.dev/docs/apps/build/functions); [Shopify developer docs, Checkout UI extensions](https://shopify.dev/docs/api/checkout-ui-extensions/latest). Verified October 7, 2026.

The first two rows matter more than any fee line, because they decide what your roadmap can ship. The checkout row has [no workaround on Advanced](https://deploi.ca/shopify/faq/plus-upgrade-driver-15-staff-cap-vs-checkout). Shopify Functions let developers “customize the backend logic of Shopify”. Any plan can install public App Store apps with functions, but only Plus stores can use custom apps that contain Function APIs ([Shopify developer docs](https://shopify.dev/docs/apps/build/functions), October 2026). Your roadmap may hold a bespoke discount engine, a shipping rule nobody sells as an app, or a checkout field your enterprise resource planning (ERP) system needs. On Advanced, that roadmap cannot ship.

## When is upgrading the wrong move?

Upgrading to Shopify Plus is the wrong move when Advanced does the job, the fee will not pay back or the timing is off.

> **When not to do this**
> - **When premium cards pass 30 to 60% of card volume.** The published US card saving then falls short of the plan fee (Deploi arithmetic).
> - **When the roadmap is app-shaped.** Public apps with functions run on Advanced, so much of the supposed Plus list already installs.
> - **When the trigger is staff seats.** Collaborator accounts “don't count towards your store's user limit” ([Shopify Help Center](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/your-account/users/security/collaborator-accounts), October 2026), so agency and freelance Partner accounts do not use up Advanced's 15 staff seats.
> - **When the trigger is a flash-sale tool or support alone.** Plus-only [bot protection](https://deploi.ca/shopify/faq/advanced-vs-plus-bot-fraud-protection), [high-volume checkout](https://deploi.ca/shopify/faq/advanced-vs-plus-10k-checkouts-per-minute) and [Launchpad](https://deploi.ca/shopify/faq/launchpad-flash-sales-worth-plus-upgrade) serve flash sales and drops ([shopify.com/pricing](https://www.shopify.com/pricing), [Shopify Help Center](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/promoting-marketing/create-marketing/launchpad), October 2026). [Priority support](https://deploi.ca/shopify/faq/advanced-vs-plus-uptime-priority-support) helps only teams with an incident process.
> - **When the trigger is reporting.** Shopify Analytics' “main features are available to merchants on any Shopify subscription plan” ([Shopify Help Center](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/reports-and-analytics/shopify-reports), October 2026), so [the reporting gap](https://deploi.ca/shopify/faq/advanced-vs-plus-reporting-at-10m-30m-gmv) is narrow.
> - **In the same quarter as a replatform, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) cutover or peak.** A plan migration is cheap; one on top of three other cutovers is not.
> - **When nobody has priced the 3-year term against the 1-year term.** The difference is $200 a month, $7,200 across three years (Deploi arithmetic from [shopify.com/plus/pricing](https://www.shopify.com/plus/pricing), October 2026).

## Deploi's point of view

**What we've seen.** The merchants who regret the upgrade bought it on a rate story and never used a single Plus-gated capability. The merchants who regret staying spent their roadmap routing around the functions gate with apps, theme hacks and manual ops.

**Where we disagree.** The category answers this with a GMV threshold, usually somewhere between $1M and $2M a year, because a threshold is easy to put in a deck. A threshold is exactly the wrong shape of answer. Two merchants at identical revenue can have opposite correct answers depending on one fact: whether a third party touches their payments. We would rather give you the two arithmetic branches than a number you will misapply.

## When this answer changes

- Shopify changes the Advanced or Plus plan price, or the standard, premium or in-person card rates on its pricing page.
- Your premium-card share moves toward 30%, or more of your sales move to PayPal and other non-card methods.
- A third-party gateway starts processing part of your orders, so the 0.6% to 0.2% line starts to count.
- A Plus-only capability lands on a funded roadmap: core-step checkout extensions, custom Functions apps, more than 10 locations, or more than 3 B2B catalogs with another Plus-only need.
- Your store count or Managed Markets volume grows, so the $89 POS Pro location fee and the 3.5% against 3.25% Managed Markets fee start to add up.
- Shopify moves your account to the variable platform fee it describes for more complex, higher volume businesses.

## Follow-up questions

- [Does Advanced get the same 99.99% uptime positioning and priority support as Plus, or is that support-tier difference real?](https://deploi.ca/shopify/faq/advanced-vs-plus-uptime-priority-support)
- [What is the real gap between Advanced's default reporting and Plus's ShopifyQL/analytics tooling for a $10M-$30M brand?](https://deploi.ca/shopify/faq/advanced-vs-plus-reporting-at-10m-30m-gmv)
- [What's the real difference in bot/fraud protection tooling between Advanced and Plus at meaningful order volume?](https://deploi.ca/shopify/faq/advanced-vs-plus-bot-fraud-protection)
- [Is the Advanced-plan staff cap of 15 accounts the real reason mid-market brands upgrade to Plus, or is it usually the checkout features?](https://deploi.ca/shopify/faq/plus-upgrade-driver-15-staff-cap-vs-checkout)
- [If we're currently on Advanced and considering Plus mainly for Launchpad flash-sale scheduling, is that a strong enough reason on its own?](https://deploi.ca/shopify/faq/launchpad-flash-sales-worth-plus-upgrade)
- [Is it possible to negotiate a custom deal between Advanced and full Plus pricing, or is the plan ladder fixed with no in-between tier?](https://deploi.ca/shopify/faq/custom-pricing-tier-between-advanced-and-plus)
- [Is 'high-volume checkout' (10K+ checkouts/minute) ever relevant to a brand still deciding between Advanced and Plus, or is that purely an enterprise-scale concern?](https://deploi.ca/shopify/faq/advanced-vs-plus-10k-checkouts-per-minute)

## Sources

1. [Shopify, Pricing](https://www.shopify.com/pricing), checked October 7, 2026
2. [Shopify, Shopify Plus pricing](https://www.shopify.com/plus/pricing), checked October 7, 2026
3. [Shopify, Pricing for international sales tools and Shopify Managed Markets](https://www.shopify.com/international/pricing), checked October 7, 2026
4. [Shopify Help Center, Shopify Plus plan](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/intro-to-shopify/pricing-plans/plans-features/shopify-plus-plan), checked October 7, 2026
5. [Shopify Help Center, Shopify Payments fees](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/shopify-payments/onboarding/cost-of-shopify-payments), checked October 7, 2026
6. [Shopify Help Center, Third-party transaction fees on your Shopify bills](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/your-account/manage-billing/billing-charges/types-of-charges/third-party-charges/third-party-transaction-fees), checked October 7, 2026
7. [Shopify developer docs, About Shopify Functions](https://shopify.dev/docs/apps/build/functions), checked October 7, 2026
8. [Shopify developer docs, Checkout UI extensions](https://shopify.dev/docs/api/checkout-ui-extensions/latest), checked October 7, 2026
9. [Shopify Help Center, Managing sales events with Launchpad](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/promoting-marketing/create-marketing/launchpad), checked October 7, 2026
10. [Shopify Help Center, Shopify analytics](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/reports-and-analytics/shopify-reports), checked October 7, 2026
11. [Shopify Help Center, Collaborator accounts](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/your-account/users/security/collaborator-accounts), checked October 7, 2026
12. [Shopify Help Center, Locations](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/inventory-and-locations/locations), checked October 7, 2026
13. [Deploi Build vs. Buy, Advanced Shopify vs. Shopify Plus: When Is the Upgrade Worth It?](https://deploi.ca/shopify/build-vs-buy/shopify-plus-upgrade-decision), checked October 7, 2026, Deploi research
14. [Shopify, Pricing (Canada)](https://www.shopify.com/ca/pricing), checked October 7, 2026