Shippo’s pitch is disarming: free plan, no card, commercial carrier rates from label one. It’s true — and it’s also carefully bounded: 30 labels a month, one login, and a five-cent rule most people discover on their first invoice. Here’s the complete price map, the exact volume where free stops being enough, and the number that decides whether Pro pays for itself.
ship-audit.com is reader-supported: if you sign up through our links, we may earn a commission at no cost to you. It never changes our recommendations — we recommend Pirate Ship despite earning nothing from it, and this guide tells you when Shippo’s free tier is all you’ll ever need.
Shippo costs $0 to $199 per month in 2026, in three plans. Starter is genuinely free — up to 30 labels/month, one user, full access to Shippo’s discounted USPS/UPS/DHL rates, with one catch: a $0.05-per-label fee if you connect your own carrier accounts (waived entirely on Shippo’s rates). Pro runs in volume tiers from $17/month (up to 200 labels) through $29 at 500 and up to $199 for 10,000 labels — adding your own carrier accounts fee-free, branded tracking, and team logins, with a 30-day free trial and 10% off annually. Premier is the custom enterprise tier. The subscription is the small bill either way: postage is billed separately, pay-as-you-go. The decision math: on Shippo’s rates, free carries you to 30 labels; past that, $17/month is the cheapest paid subscription of any major platform — you’d recover it by saving about 6 cents per label at 300 labels/month, and the commercial-vs-retail gap runs far deeper than that.
| Plan (2026) | Monthly price | What you get — and what gates |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $0 — up to 30 labels/month | Full discounted rates (USPS Cubic included), unlimited store integrations, 1 user · $0.05/label only if you connect your own carrier accounts |
| Pro | $17 – $199 by volume tier ($17 up to 200 labels · $29 up to 500 · $199 up to 10,000) | Own carrier accounts with no per-label fee, branded tracking pages & emails, team logins · 30-day free trial · 10% off annual |
| Premier | Custom | Dedicated onboarding and account support for enterprise volume |
| Postage | Billed separately, pay-as-you-go | Charged when accumulated postage hits $100 or every 7 days — the subscription never includes postage |
Prices from Shippo’s official plan documentation and published pricing page, verified August 10, 2026, cross-checked against independent trackers. Tier boundaries shift occasionally — confirm your exact volume tier on goshippo.com before subscribing.
The Free Plan: What $0 Actually Buys (And Its Two Boundaries)
Starter is not a demo. You get Shippo’s full discounted carrier rates — the commercial tiers, USPS Cubic included — with unlimited store connections and no card required. For a store shipping under 30 orders a month, this is a complete shipping stack at zero subscription cost, and the rates are identical to what Pro users pay.
The two boundaries, stated plainly. First, the 30-label cap. It’s a hard monthly ceiling with one user login — worth knowing that veterans remember when free meant unlimited; the cap arrived in a later restructure, and it’s what turns Starter into a permanent home for small stores but only a test-drive for growing ones. Second, the five-cent rule: if you connect your own negotiated carrier accounts instead of using Shippo’s rates, Starter charges $0.05 per label. On Shippo’s rates, the fee never exists. The breakeven is mechanical: at roughly 340 labels/month through your own accounts, the accumulated nickels exceed Pro’s $17 — at which point the paid plan is literally cheaper than the free one.
Test your real rates on the free plan →
Pro: The Cheapest Paid Subscription in the Category
Pro’s entry price — $17/month for up to 200 labels — is the lowest paid tier among the major platforms: ShipStation’s equivalent starts at $29.99 with an API paywall above it, and at the 500-label step the gap widens to $29 (Shippo) versus $89.99 (ShipStation Standard) — a $732/year difference on published prices. What the upgrade unlocks beyond volume: your own carrier accounts with the per-label fee removed, branded tracking pages and notification emails, and team logins. The 30-day trial is genuinely free — downgrade before day 30 and nothing is charged — and annual billing takes 10% off.
Put the price in its real context: $17/month is about 57 cents a day for the machinery, while the rates behind it are where the money is. Our 2026 compilation measures the commercial-vs-default gap at 35–50% per label. On a $9 average label at 200 orders/month, closing even a third of that gap returns the subscription several times over in the first week of the month. That’s the arithmetic that makes Pro an easy yes for stores past the free cap — no urgency required, the numbers do the pushing.
What Shippo Doesn’t Charge For — And What It Does
No per-label transaction fee on Shippo’s rates, at any plan. No setup fee, no card for Starter, no charge for connecting stores. The bills that do exist: the subscription (if Pro), postage billed pay-as-you-go on its own cycle (charged when your accumulated postage reaches $100 or every 7 days), international address validation at $0.09 per address ($0.08 on Pro), and $0.01 per tracking number created outside Shippo via the API. Small print, small amounts — but on a pricing page, small print is the whole assignment.
What’s your 99% worth?
Run the free audit with your volume and package profile — it shows the monthly gap between your current rates and the commercial tiers Shippo unlocks. Takes 30 seconds, no signup.
Run Your Free Audit →The Verdict, By Volume
- Under 30 labels/month → Shippo Starter at $0 is a complete answer — though compare Pirate Ship (also free, no label cap, but USPS/UPS only; we earn nothing recommending it). The head-to-head.
- 30–200 labels/month → Pro at $17: the cheapest paid tier in the category, and the rates recover it in days. Start the 30-day free trial →
- 200–500 labels/month → Pro at $29 — versus $89.99 for the ShipStation equivalent. Unless you need multi-channel consolidation, keep the $732/year. The comparison.
- Own negotiated carrier accounts, any volume past ~340 → Pro beats Starter on price alone — the nickel fee sees to it.
- Multi-channel, 500+ with complex routing → this is where ShipStation’s higher subscription starts buying something real.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Shippo cost per month?
$0 on the Starter plan (up to 30 labels, one user), then Pro in volume tiers: $17/month up to 200 labels, $29 up to 500, scaling to $199 at 10,000. Premier is custom-priced for enterprise. Postage is always billed separately, pay-as-you-go. Annual billing takes 10% off Pro.
Is Shippo really free?
Genuinely, within its boundaries: 30 labels a month with full access to Shippo’s discounted commercial rates, USPS Cubic included, no card required. The one fee to know: $0.05 per label if you connect your own carrier accounts — never charged when you use Shippo’s rates.
Does Shippo charge per label?
Not on its own rates — no transaction fee at any plan. The $0.05 per-label fee applies only on the Starter plan when labels are purchased through your own connected carrier accounts; Pro removes it, which makes Pro mathematically cheaper than free past roughly 340 own-account labels a month.
Is Shippo cheaper than ShipStation?
On subscription, consistently: $17 vs $29.99 at entry, $29 vs $89.99 at the 500-label step — about $732/year of difference on published prices. ShipStation earns its premium when you need multi-channel order consolidation and deep automation; below that need, the gap is pure savings. ShipStation’s full pricing breakdown.
What’s the catch with Shippo’s pricing?
Three small-print items rather than a catch: the free plan’s 30-label cap (it was once unlimited — plan for the ceiling), the $0.05 own-carrier fee on Starter, and separate pay-as-you-go postage billing that can surprise cash-flow planning (charged at $100 accumulated or weekly). None changes the verdict; all three are worth knowing before the first invoice.