Shopify Payments: What It Asks For and What It Costs

Shopify Payments is the part of a new store that decides whether you can actually take money — and it is the first step in setup that Shopify cannot simply switch on for you. It asks for identity documents and a bank account, it is not available in every country, and if it is not available in yours, it costs you a percentage of every order for as long as you sell.

Here is what it asks for, what it costs, and what happens when you cannot have it. Most of this comes from Shopify's own documentation, quoted and dated. One part comes from our own store, and we say clearly which is which.

The first question: is it even available where you are?

Shopify Payments works in a fixed list of countries. As of September 22, 2026, Shopify lists:

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hong Kong SAR, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

And the consequence, in Shopify's words:

"If your country isn't listed, or if Shopify Payments doesn't support your business category, then you need to use a third-party payment provider."

Source: Supported countries for Shopify Payments, read September 22, 2026.

This is what it looks like from the inside. Our test store is registered in Israel, which is not on that list. On its Payments page there is no Shopify Payments option at all — not a locked one, not a "set up" button. There is only "Payment providers — Providers that enable you to accept payment methods at a rate set by the third-party" with a Choose a provider button, and PayPal sitting under Additional payment providers, marked Setup incomplete.

If you are outside that list, that screen is what your store will look like, and the rest of this guide's cost section is the one that applies to you.

What Shopify asks for when it is available

Shopify and its banking partners collect this to satisfy financial-crime rules, so the list is not negotiable. Taking the United States as the example (US requirements, read September 22, 2026):

The bank account

"The bank account must be a full checking account with a bank in the United States in USD currency"

and it must be eligible for ACH transfers. Savings accounts, flex-currency accounts, wire-transfer-only accounts and money transfer services are not accepted.

The person

An account representative provides legal first and last names, date of birth, an SSN or ITIN (or a passport, for non-US residents in certain business structures), email, phone number, and a residential address that matches their government documentation.

The business

If the business has an EIN: the registered name exactly as filed with the IRS, the EIN itself, a business phone number, and the business address where operations actually happen.

Anyone else who owns a quarter of it

"list any other people who own 25% or more of the business equity on the account, and provide their name, date of birth, SSN or ITIN, home address, job title, and contact information."

Other countries have their own versions of this list. The shape is always the same: a real bank account, a real identifiable human, and a real registered business.

Verification: how it actually goes

You may be asked for personal identification, proof of address and business registration documents. Shopify's instructions are specific enough to be worth following exactly:

• Documents go through the secure banners in your Shopify admin — not email.
• They should be photographed rather than scanned, copied or screenshotted, and in colour, not greyscale.
• After upload, review can take up to 24 hours, and the account shows as pending until there is an answer.

Shopify also notes that in some regions you can complete a selfie verification instead of uploading documents, and says it has a higher success rate than manual document submission. If you are offered it, take it.

You must be at least 18. If you are younger, a parent or guardian sets up the account in their own name.

What it costs to not have it

This is the number most people miss. Shopify charges a fee on orders processed through a third-party payment provider, and it is set per plan. From Shopify's pricing page, read September 22, 2026:

That is charged by Shopify, on top of whatever your actual payment provider charges you. On $10,000 of monthly sales on Basic, the 2% is $200 a month — more than five times the plan fee itself.

It also changes which plan is cheapest. Compare the plan fee plus the percentage, not the plan fee alone:

Above roughly $6,600 a month, Grow costs less than Basic — purely because of the percentage. If you are selling outside Shopify Payments' country list, that crossover is the number to plan around.

With Shopify Payments, that extra percentage does not apply at all. That is the real reason the availability list matters.

The other thing it gates

Shopify's requirements for Shopify Catalog — the product feed that AI assistants like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot read — include this line among its account-standing conditions:

"Shopify Payments accounts must be in good standing"

We tested the catalog on our own store and it stayed at zero products, with several requirements unmet at once, so we cannot tell you from experience whether a merchant with no Shopify Payments account at all is excluded, or whether that line only applies to merchants who have one. Shopify does not spell it out, and we are not going to guess on your behalf. It is worth knowing the question exists before you assume AI distribution is open to every store. Our full test of those requirements is in what Shopify requires before ChatGPT can sell your products.

What to do, depending on where you are

In a supported country. Set up Shopify Payments during your first week, before you have orders waiting on it. Have the bank details, ID and business registration ready in one sitting; the 24-hour review is much less annoying before you are selling than after.

Outside the list. Pick a third-party provider and price the plan properly. Do not compare plans on the monthly fee alone — compare the fee plus the third-party percentage at the revenue you actually expect. If you expect real volume, the higher plan is often the cheaper one.

Not sure yet. Open the store, add products and test the flow. Payments is the step to complete when you have something worth selling, not on day one — nothing else in the setup depends on it.

How we put this together

The country list, the requirements, the verification instructions and the age rule are quoted from Shopify's Help Center, read on September 22, 2026 and linked above. The plan fees come from Shopify's pricing page the same day. We did not set up Shopify Payments, so nothing here describes that flow from experience, and we have not reproduced screens we did not see. What we do show is our own store's Payments page, which is what the setting looks like for a merchant in a country Shopify Payments does not cover.