- Short answer
- Add a handling fee as a percentage, a fixed amount or both to a carrier-calculated shipping rate in your shipping settings.
- Flat rates
- No Handling fee field on the Help Center setup pages we read, October 10, 2026
- Two admin layouts
- Same fee in shipping profiles and shipping options by market; Shopify says most stores use profiles
- Both set
- Percentage first, then the fixed amount: $5.00 + 50% + $1.00 = $8.50
- Tax
- Some regions tax shipping and handling combined, but not shipping alone
Where do you add a handling fee in Shopify?
- Go to Settings > Shipping and delivery and open a shipping profile.
- Click Add shipping option, or open the … menu beside an existing rate and choose Edit shipping option.
- Set Rate type to Carrier or app calculated and choose the carrier or app.
- Under Handling fee, enter a percentage, a fixed amount or both.
On stores upgraded to shipping options by market, a calculated rate takes the same fee under Markets > your market > Shipping; Shopify says most stores still use shipping profiles.
Built-in carrier integrations from the Help Center's rates table work on all plans. Your own carrier account needs Advanced, Plus, or Grow with an extra monthly fee or annual billing.
How do a percentage and a fixed fee add up?
The fee can be a fixed amount, a percentage of the rate, or both. With both, the percentage comes first, so a $5.00 rate with 50% and $1.00 becomes $8.50: the percentage is not charged on the fixed part.
A negative value, such as -5% or $-2.50, discounts the rate instead. US merchants buying UPS labels through Shopify can use the fee to cover UPS surcharges missing from the checkout rate.
Is the handling fee taxed?
For the fee, Shopify's tax help and US tax setup page give three cases; whether shipping itself is taxed is a separate question.
- Shopify Tax recognizes the fee on carrier-calculated rates and applies the appropriate shipping tax; in some regions, shipping alone isn't taxable but shipping and handling combined is.
- Flat rates or no fee: your region's shipping tax rules decide.
- US, shipping tax set to When applicable (default) — an option for California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine and Maryland registrations: where a state taxes shipping and handling but not shipping alone, tax applies only once a handling fee is added.
This page was written by AI. Separate AI agents that did not write it check its figures and claims against official sources and test its links and interactive tools. A human editor sets the site's editorial direction, topics and rules and checks that pages are complete and display correctly, but does not check their facts or edit their text. Details may change — always confirm critical data at shopify.com.
Editorial Policy