A personalized order looks like one transaction, but up to four separate parties can charge you for it, on four different days, through four different accounts. This guide shows you who charges what, when, and where to find each amount. It is for any merchant who wants to know what a sale is actually worth before setting a price.
The short answer: the shopper pays you, and everyone else bills you. Composerie never sits between you and your print provider’s money, and never between you and your AI provider’s money.
The whole picture
Each of those four is a separate relationship, with its own account, its own payment method, and its own invoice. Only one of them, Composerie, appears on your Shopify bill.
What the shopper pays
The shopper pays the full price of your product at your Shopify checkout, including any add-on charges and shipping you set. That money is yours. It lands in your Shopify payout on your normal payout schedule, minus whatever Shopify charges you to process the payment.
Shopify’s payment processing rate is between you and Shopify. Composerie has no part in it and never sees it.
What Composerie charges
Two things, and both arrive on your Shopify bill rather than as a separate invoice:
- Your plan. A recurring subscription that keeps your account active. See pricing and the plan.
- A usage fee. Charged for billable personalized items. See usage fees explained.
The exact rate, meter and any tiers are shown in Shopify before you approve billing, and the Billing page mirrors those approved terms. Read approve Shopify billing for where that approval happens, and read your usage this period to see what counted and what Shopify has charged so far.
What your print provider charges
If the item is fulfilled by Printify, Printful or MerchOne, that provider charges you, on your own account with them, using the payment method you set up in their dashboard. The amount covers production and shipping for that item.
This charge does not pass through Composerie and does not appear on your Shopify bill.
When a provider confirms acceptance, Composerie can record its order id, quoted cost, and dispatch time for merchant review.
Read what your print provider charges you for how each provider bills, when the charge lands, and where to find the matching order in their dashboard.
What your AI provider charges
Composerie’s AI features run on your own provider account. You connect your own API key in Integrations, and the AI provider bills that key directly. Composerie meters the spend so you can cap it, but the money never moves through Composerie.
The part that surprises people: an AI generation is paid for when the shopper runs it, not when they buy. A shopper who tries five variations and leaves has still cost you five generations.
Read what AI generation costs and who pays for how to connect a provider, how to cap the spend per month and per product, and how to limit how many generations a single shopper can run.
When each charge lands
The order of the charges is not the order most people expect.
The gap between checkout and the start of making matters, because that is when your print partner takes payment rather than at checkout.
Cancellation requests may fail after production starts; confirm provider status and charges.
See cancel and refund an order for how to handle one.
What is left
Your margin on one item is what the shopper paid, minus the four charges above. Written out:
Margin = item price + add-ons − Shopify payment processing − Composerie usage fee − provider production and shipping − any AI spend on that design
Your plan is a fixed monthly cost rather than a per-item one, so it sits outside the per-item sum and is recovered across the whole month’s volume.
For the two amounts Composerie can show you directly, open the order and look at the Production section for the recorded provider cost, and open Settings, then Billing for the usage figures. The Shopify and AI amounts live in Shopify’s own reporting and in your AI provider’s dashboard.
Does Composerie take a cut of my sale?
Composerie charges a plan and a usage fee for billable personalized items, both through Shopify app billing on the terms you approved. It does not take a percentage of the sale price and does not handle your shopper's payment.
Does Composerie pay my print provider for me?
No. Your provider bills your own account with them, using the payment method in their dashboard. Composerie records what they invoiced so you can read it beside the sale.
I was charged by my AI provider for an order that never happened.
That is expected. AI generations are billed when a shopper runs them in the customizer, not at checkout. Set a monthly cap and a per-session limit if unconverted generations are adding up.
Where do I see all four amounts in one place?
You do not. Each party bills through its own account. Composerie shows its own usage on the Billing page and the recorded provider cost on the order, but the Shopify processing fee and the AI spend live in those two dashboards.
Which of these apply if I print the item myself?
Only the shopper payment, Shopify's processing, and Composerie's plan and usage fee. There is no provider charge on a self-print order, and no AI charge unless the design used AI.
Next
Read what your print provider charges you for the provider side in detail, or price a personalized product to put these numbers into a price.