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How to charge a Cash on Delivery fee on Shopify, without Plus

By Flying Star Technologies. Updated 16 October 2026.

Cash on Delivery costs you more than a prepaid order: couriers usually add a handling charge, refused parcels cost shipping both ways, and the cash reaches you days late. Many stores want to pass a small part of that on as a COD fee. Shopify has no setting for it, so this guide covers the options that work without Shopify Plus.

Why Shopify has no COD fee setting

Cash on Delivery is a manual payment method in Shopify. You turn it on under Settings, Payments, Manual payment methods. A manual method only records how the buyer will pay. It cannot add a charge to the order. Editing checkout to add a fee line is a Shopify Plus feature, so Basic, Grow and Advanced stores need another route.

The manual way: a Cash on Delivery shipping rate

The fee can ride on delivery. In your shipping settings, add a rate called Cash on Delivery and set its price to your COD fee. You can add price-based conditions to make a few steps, for example one rate under ₹1,000 and another above it.

This works, but it has limits you will run into:

• The fee is fixed or banded by order value. A percentage of the basket is not possible.
• Zones follow countries and states, not individual pincodes, so you cannot exclude or include specific pincodes.
• You cannot make COD free for chosen products, vendors or product types.
• A buyer can pick a prepaid delivery rate and still choose the Cash on Delivery payment method. They pay no fee, and you pay the courier’s COD charge.

The proper way: rules plus a payment rule

Flying Star COD Rules covers the gaps. It keeps the delivery rate idea, which is why it works on every plan, and adds the rules around it:

1. You set the fee in the app: flat, percentage with a cap, or tiers by order value.
2. You create one shipping rate named Cash on Delivery, priced at your highest fee. Apps can only lower a rate, so the app discounts it down to the exact fee for each cart.
3. You add rules: minimum order, free COD above a value, pincode and country lists, and products, vendors or types that always ship COD free.
4. The app shows the Cash on Delivery payment method only when the buyer picked that delivery rate.

Set it up in about ten minutes

1. Install the app and pick a fee rule on its home page.
2. Use the simulator to try a small order and a large one.
3. Add a shipping rate named Cash on Delivery, priced at your highest fee, in Settings, Shipping and delivery. The setup guide links there.
4. Turn on Cash on Delivery under Settings, Payments, Manual payment methods.
5. Place a test order with the COD rate and confirm the fee on the order.

How much should the fee be?

Start from your courier’s rate card. The COD fee should at least cover the handling charge your courier adds to a COD parcel. Add a little for the cash reaching you late and for the occasional refused parcel. Keep it low enough that a buyer does not abandon the cart over it. A tiered fee that falls as the basket grows tends to read as fair.

For a full comparison of the three fee styles, read our guide to flat, percentage and tiered COD fees.

Next: Flat, percentage or tiered: which COD fee fits your store