What a sale really keeps after fees

You sold something for $50. The order notification says $50. A few days later the payout lands and it's a little less. Then the shipping label, the ad you ran and the cost of the item itself come out of that. So what did the sale really keep?

This guide walks through it one line at a time. We'll use a store on Shopify as the main example because its rates are published clearly, but the method is the same on any channel: start with the price, take off what the channel and the payment processor charged, then take off what you paid to make, ship and sell it.

The short answer

Kept = sale price − channel fees − payment processing − shipping you paid − ad spend for the sale − cost to make or buy it.

Your payout only covers the first two subtractions. The rest is on you to track, which is why sellers who track sales and expenses together see a different number from the one in their payout email.

Step 1: Know what the channel charges (and where it's published)

Fees change, and they vary by plan and country. Always check the channel's own pricing page and write down the date you checked. Here is what Shopify's official pricing page listed on Oct 10, 2026. These are US rates, in USD.

• Plan price (paid yearly): Basic $29/mo, Grow $79/mo, Advanced $299/mo. Paid monthly, the page lists Basic at $39, Grow at $105 and Advanced at $399.
• Online standard card rates with Shopify Payments: Basic "2.9% + 30¢", Grow "2.7% + 30¢", Advanced "2.5% + 30¢", Plus "2.25% + 30¢".
• Online international rates: "+ 1%" on every plan.
• Third-party transaction fees (when you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments): Basic "2%", Grow "1%", Advanced "0.6%", Plus "0.2%".

Shopify's page also notes that "Shopify Payments is available only in certain countries", so pricing and payment options differ depending on where your business is based.

If you take payments through Stripe instead, Stripe's own pricing page lists "2.9% + 30¢ per successful transaction for domestic cards" on standard US pricing, plus "1% + 30¢" for cross-border transactions.

Step 2: Work one sale through

Example (made-up round numbers, not real store data). A US store on Shopify Basic sells one item for $50.00 to a US customer, paid by card through Shopify Payments.

• Payment processing: 2.9% × $50.00 = $1.45, plus $0.30 = $1.75
• Third-party transaction fee: $0 (Shopify Payments is in use)
• After fees: $50.00 − $1.75 = $48.25

Now the costs the payout doesn't show:

• Shipping you paid: $6.00
• Ad spend for this sale: $4.00
• Cost to make or buy it: $12.00

Kept: $48.25 − $6.00 − $4.00 − $12.00 = $26.25, which is 52.5% of the $50.00 price.

Example, same sale with a third-party processor. Same store, same $50.00 sale, but the card is taken through Stripe at its standard US rate.

• Stripe: 2.9% × $50.00 = $1.45 + $0.30 = $1.75
• Shopify third-party transaction fee on Basic: 2% × $50.00 = $1.00
• After fees: $50.00 − $1.75 − $1.00 = $47.25
• Kept after the same $22.00 of costs: $25.25

One extra dollar on one sale looks small. Across a month of orders it is a line worth knowing about.

Step 3: Don't forget the costs that aren't per sale

The monthly plan price isn't charged per order, so it isn't in the per-sale number above. Keep it as its own line in your weekly or monthly review. Divide it across your orders if you want a rough per-order share, but label it as an estimate, because the share changes every time your order count does.

Why the payout number misleads

A payout is the channel's view of the sale: price minus what it took. It is accurate, and it is incomplete. It doesn't know what you paid for the label, the materials or the ad. That's why "my payout went up" and "I kept more" can be two different stories.

The fix isn't complicated. Use the same six lines for every sale, on every channel, and the numbers become comparable.

Try it on your own sale

The free calculator at lunithlabs.com/calculator does exactly the math above. You type in one sale price, your channel fees (a percent and/or a flat amount), payment processing (a percent and/or a flat amount), shipping you paid, ad spend for the sale and your cost to make or buy the item. It shows what the sale kept in dollars and as a share of the price, with each deduction listed. It runs in your browser and, per the page, nothing you type is stored. The page's own starting numbers are an example, not any channel's real fees, so swap in the rates from your own statement.

A few habits that keep the number honest

• Date your rates. Note the day you checked each fee page. When a rate changes, you'll know which sales used the old one.
• Use your statement, not memory. Your channel's statement shows what was actually charged, including international or currency add-ons.
• Keep ad spend tied to sales. If an ad brought in five orders, split its cost across those five.
• Review weekly. One sale tells you the shape. A week of sales tells you the trend.

When one sale becomes hundreds

Working out a single sale is easy. Doing it for every order, across every place you sell, is where it gets slow. Lunith Commerce OS is a business operating system that runs in Notion. It keeps each channel's fees on file, so every sale you log shows what it kept, by channel, in one place. It's $59.99, one time. You can see what's inside on lunithlabs.com.

Start with one sale today in the free calculator.