- Short answer
- Yes — COD is one of the manual payment methods Shopify documents, switched on in Settings > Payments; surcharges and OTP checks need an app.
- Plan and country
- As of October 2026, no plan or country limit, except US stores whose sales tax Shopify manages (early access)
- What the native method skips
- No COD surcharge, no COD-specific order cap, no OTP or ID check in the manual-payments documentation
- Order status
- COD orders are marked as unpaid on the Orders page until you mark them paid yourself
- Shopify's cut
- No Shopify transaction fee applies to manual payment methods, COD included
Can you accept cash on delivery without an app?
Yes — and no app is involved. Shopify counts cash on delivery among its own manual payment methods: payments you arrange with the customer outside the checkout, like a bank transfer, not a card.
One exception: if Shopify manages your US sales tax (early access, for certain US stores opened after October 27, 2026), you can't accept manual payments, COD included, until you switch it to Self-directed.
Common types of manual payments include cash on delivery (COD), money orders, and bank transfers.
Switching it on stays inside Settings > Payments: open Manual payment methods, add one of the available methods from its menu, fill its Additional details and payment instructions, then activate it.
- Settings
- Payments
- Manual payment methods
The name is Shopify's, the wording is yours: Cash on Delivery (COD) is a reserved name a custom method cannot reuse, while the instructions the buyer reads are whatever you type. As of October 2026, Shopify's manual-payments documentation lists no plan or country limitation for COD beyond the Managed US sales tax exception above; the one method it does scope to a region is email money transfer, not COD.
What can't Shopify's native COD do?
The gap is not COD itself, but what surrounds it. Four things the native method skips:
- A COD surcharge — fixed or percentage.
- A COD-specific order-value cap or other eligibility conditions.
- OTP or ID verification before the order is confirmed.
- A COD-only rule that hides it by location, cart value, or product.
Shopify's manual-payments page describes none of this. A COD surcharge and an OTP or ID check are App Store territory, and so is hiding a payment method by country or cart total: Shopify documents that as a checkout-wide payment customization you install an app for, not as a COD setting. Its own Checkout Blocks app does it only on Plus.
What happens to a COD order in your admin?
A COD order is not a paid order. Shopify marks orders that accept manual payments as unpaid on the Orders page and documents a separate step for marking one paid once the cash is in hand. That reconciliation is yours: a COD order is never captured automatically, the way Shopify Payments captures a card by default.
The upside is on the fee line: Shopify charges no transaction fee on manual payment methods, COD included. Where third-party transaction fees do apply is a separate subject, covered in our gateway guide.
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