Shopify Payments, Shopify’s own integrated payment service, carried $81.4 billion of the $119.1 billion of gross merchandise volume (GMV) on Shopify in the third quarter, according to the 10-Q Shopify released on 3 November. That is a penetration rate of 68%, up from 65% a year earlier.
The 10-Q says Shopify Payments revenue rose $619 million from a year earlier, on $21.3 billion of additional GMV facilitated using Shopify Payments. That is about $2.91 of added revenue for every $100 of added Payments volume, by our arithmetic, against $2.99 a year earlier.
Business Pill · Switching Costs
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The key insight: By our arithmetic, Shopify added about $2.91 of Shopify Payments revenue for every $100 of added Payments volume in the third quarter, against $2.99 a year earlier, as Shopify Payments carried 68% of the $119.1 billion of GMV on Shopify.
The largest part of the rise in merchant solutions revenue, the 10-Q says, was “an increase in Shopify Payments revenue of $619 million, relating to payment processing and currency conversion fees.” It puts that down to a higher penetration rate and more GMV from merchants using the platform.
Payments GMV grew 35%, to $81.4 billion from $60.2 billion. Total GMV grew 29%, to $119,145 million from $92,013 million, per the release. The volume that did not run through Shopify Payments was $37.7 billion, against $31.8 billion a year earlier, by our arithmetic.
Merchant solutions revenue was $2,906 million, 78% of total revenue, against $2,145 million and 75% a year earlier. Subscription solutions revenue was $836 million. Over nine months the penetration rate was 68%, on $226.5 billion of Payments GMV, against 65% and $164.3 billion.
Gross merchandise volume on Shopify split by whether it ran through Shopify Payments, third quarter 2025 and 2026. Penetration rates and Payments GMV from Shopify’s 10-Qs; total GMV from the release. Other GMV is our arithmetic.Animated: Shopify Payments penetration rate by quarter, second quarter 2025 to third quarter 2026, as stated in Shopify’s 10-Qs; the fourth quarter of 2025 is our arithmetic from the 10-K.
Six Quarters of Penetration
Shopify’s filings give the rate quarter by quarter: 64% in the second quarter of 2025 ($56.6 billion), 65% in the third, 67% in the first quarter of 2026 ($67.1 billion), 68% in the second ($78.1 billion) and 68% in the third.
The 10-K gives 65.6% for 2025 as a whole, on $248.1 billion. By our arithmetic that leaves $83.8 billion of Payments GMV in the fourth quarter of 2025, out of $123.8 billion of GMV, or about 67.7%. The rate was unchanged at 68% between the second and third quarters of 2026.
The 10-K also gives adoption among merchants where Shopify Payments is available: North America 88%, APAC 89% and EMEA 83% at the end of 2025, each lower than a year earlier. It says: “Shopify Payments adoption decreased in 2025 as Shopify Payments expanded into more markets across the world. Shopify Payments penetration remains a better metric for assessing the overall growth of Shopify Payments.”
Revenue per Added Dollar of Volume
Shopify does not report Shopify Payments revenue on its own. Each 10-Q does give the year-on-year rise in it and the added Payments GMV behind it. Dividing one by the other gives, by our arithmetic, $2.94 per $100 in the second quarter of 2025 ($455 million on $15.5 billion), $2.99 in the third ($518 million on $17.3 billion), $2.93 in the first quarter of 2026, $2.92 in the second and $2.91 in the third.
That is a ratio of increases, not a take rate, and it includes currency conversion fees. The 10-Q also says gross profit margins on Shopify Payments “are typically lower than on subscription solutions due to the associated third-party costs of providing this solution.” Cost of merchant solutions was 48% of revenue in the quarter, against 47%.
The filing gives Shopify’s view of the trade-off: “We view Shopify Payments as beneficial to our operating margins, as it requires significantly less sales and marketing and research and development expenses than Shopify’s subscriptionbusiness.” Transaction and loan losses fell in the quarter, it says, on a $41 million decrease in losses related to Shopify Payments.
What the Risk Factors Say
Shopify’s 10-Q says: “There have been no material changes to the Company’s risk factors from those disclosed in the 2025 Form 10-K.” It adds no new risk factor this quarter.
Connecting the Coverage
Our related pieces on Shopify and commerce payments:
As we read the filing, the growth in Shopify Payments now comes more from volume than from new share: the penetration rate held at 68% from the second quarter to the third, while Payments GMV grew 35% from a year earlier.
As we read the five quarters of disclosures, the revenue each added dollar of Payments volume brings in has drifted down slightly, from $2.99 to $2.91 per $100 by our arithmetic, a ratio that includes currency conversion fees.
As we read the 10-K, Shopify itself points investors to penetration rather than adoption: adoption fell in every region in 2025 as Shopify Payments entered more markets.
Shopify 10-Q, third quarter 2026
“We view Shopify Payments as beneficial to our operating margins, as it requires significantly less sales and marketing and research and development expenses than Shopify’s subscriptionbusiness.”
Three Implications
FOR SHOPIFY Merchant solutions revenue was 78% of the total in the quarter, against 75% a year earlier, with Shopify Payments the largest driver, per the 10-Q.
FOR MERCHANTS Two-thirds of the volume on Shopify, 68%, now runs through Shopify’s own payment service rather than a third-party processor.
FOR PAYMENT PROCESSORS The GMV that did not run through Shopify Payments was $37.7 billion in the quarter, by our arithmetic, up from $31.8 billion.
The framework states: “Your product stops being the thing companies buy and becomes the thing other systems assume exists.”
As we read it, Shopify Payments is the default way money moves on two-thirds of Shopify’s volume. The framework was published in December 2025 and does not discuss Shopify.
What Is Not Established
Shopify does not disclose total Shopify Payments revenue, so its overall take rate on Payments volume cannot be computed from the filing. The $2.91 figure is ours and divides one year-on-year increase by another; currency moves and the mix of fees can shift it. The fourth-quarter 2025 rate is our arithmetic from the 10-K and the third-quarter 10-Q.
The 10-Q does not split Payments volume by country, channel or merchant size, and does not say how much of it came through AI agents. This piece does not draw on the earnings call.
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Shopify Payments carried 68% of the $119.1 billion of GMV on Shopify in the third quarter, up from 65%. The rise in Payments revenue the 10-Q reports works out at about $2.91 per $100 of added Payments volume, by our arithmetic, against $2.99 a year earlier.
A note on sourcing. This piece is based on Shopify’s 10-Q for the quarter to 30 September 2026 and its third-quarter press release, both published on 3 November 2026, and on Shopify’s earlier 10-Qs and its 10-K for 2025 on SEC EDGAR. Figures labelled as ours are our arithmetic. It does not draw on the earnings call. We did not contact Shopify.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
