How Shopify calculates your chargeback rate in 2026
On January 28, 2026, Shopify changed what counts in the chargeback rate it shows you. Disputes resolved automatically through Visa's Rapid Dispute Resolution now land in the number.
If you were enrolled in RDR, your rate moved that week without anything about your store changing.
What changed, and what the number now measures
Shopify's changelog for the update says the rate now covers all disputes, including those resolved through RDR, and that the revised metric appears across the admin, analytics, and notifications. The stated reason is "a more complete and consistent view of your chargeback risk."
There is a filter. Reports let you apply an RDR filter to see the previous calculation, which excluded RDR-resolved disputes, alongside the new one.
The changelog also says something worth holding onto: "There are no changes to how Shopify evaluates risk." The number you look at changed. The judgement behind it did not.
Shopify's chargeback monitoring documentation is explicit about the numerator: "Your chargeback rate is based on all disputes that customers open with their banks, not just for disputes that you lose."
The window is the last 90 days, rolling.
The threshold Shopify works to is 1.00%. The documentation describes account actions being released once your rate over the last 90 days falls below 1.00% and stays there for a further 30 days with at least one eligible transaction in the period.
Cross it and the consequences escalate in a familiar order: a notification, then a reserve held against your payouts, then enrolment in a network dispute resolution program.
What the help page does not spell out is the exact denominator, or how partial months and refunded orders are treated. If you are managing to the line, get that answer from Shopify support in writing rather than inferring it.
Why this number will not match your acquirer's
Your acquirer is running a different calculation, and it is the one with teeth.
Visa's Acquirer Monitoring Program uses a count-based ratio: fraud reports (TC40) plus disputes (TC15), divided by settled card-not-present transactions (TC05), assessed monthly. Visa's current fact sheet puts the excessive-merchant threshold at 150 basis points for the US, Canada, Europe and Asia Pacific as of April 1, 2026, with CEMEA on a different figure. The fact sheet also sets minimum monthly volumes before a merchant enters the program at all, so a small store can sit above the ratio and stay out of scope.
Four differences from Shopify's view, and each of them matters.
Brand scope. Shopify is counting disputes across every card brand on your Shopify Payments account. VAMP is Visa only.
Window. Shopify uses a rolling 90 days. Visa assesses each calendar month in isolation.
Threshold. 1.00% at Shopify, 150 basis points at Visa for most regions. Being comfortably under one line tells you very little about the other.
Consequence. Shopify can reserve your payouts. Visa's escalation path ends with your acquirer no longer being able to process your Visa volume.
| Shopify's chargeback rate | Visa's VAMP ratio | |
|---|---|---|
| Brand scope | All card brands on Shopify Payments | Visa only |
| Window | Rolling 90 days | Calendar month |
| Threshold | 1.00% | 150 bps most regions, 220 bps CEMEA |
| Consequence | Payout reserve, then program enrolment | Escalating fines, then loss of Visa processing |
Check the current fact sheet before relying on any figure here, including mine, and see Visa's VAMP thresholds for 2026 for the full breakdown by region. These thresholds have moved recently and vendor pages quoting the old ones are easy to find.
What the RDR toggle is actually telling you
RDR resolves a dispute at the pre-chargeback stage by refunding automatically against rules you configure. Shopify now counts those resolutions in the rate on your dashboard.
Visa does not count them the same way. The current VAMP fact sheet lists, among the ratio's additional criteria, that it excludes disputes resolved through pre-dispute solutions, contingent on the timing of the data extract.
So the toggle is genuinely useful, and it is measuring two different things.
The filtered view, with RDR excluded, is closer to what Visa will count as a dispute. The unfiltered view is closer to how much dispute pressure your store is generating in the first place, which is the number that tells you whether your operation is getting better or worse.
Watch both. A store whose unfiltered rate is climbing while the filtered rate holds steady is not improving. It is buying quiet with refunds, and paying for every one of them.
That pre-filing window is the only place the count itself can change, which is why we built pre-chargeback deflection into the platform rather than treating representment as the whole answer. Ethoca, RDR and CDRN all operate there.
The honest part
The rules in this article are dated July 2026 and several of them have moved twice in eighteen months. Anything with a date in it has a shelf life, including this page.
Shopify's 1.00% is Shopify's line. It is not a card network line, and clearing it is not the same as being safe with Visa or with your acquirer.
There is one genuinely unsettled piece, and I would rather flag it than paper over it. The fact sheet excludes disputes resolved through pre-dispute solutions, but excludes TC40 fraud reports only where they qualify for Compelling Evidence 3.0. On a fraud-coded dispute, that reads as the TC15 coming out while the TC40 stays in. Vendor blogs describe this inconsistently and I have seen it summarised three different ways. Read the current fact sheet, and if the distinction matters to your ratio, ask your acquirer to confirm how they are calculating it.
Frequently asked questions
Is Shopify's chargeback rate the same as my Visa VAMP ratio?
No. Shopify's rate covers every card brand on your Shopify Payments account over a rolling 90 days against a 1.00% line. VAMP is Visa-only, assessed by calendar month, against a 150 basis point line for most regions (220 for CEMEA). Clearing one tells you little about the other.
Do disputes resolved through Visa RDR count toward my Shopify chargeback rate?
Yes, since January 28, 2026. Shopify's changelog says the rate now covers all disputes, including those resolved through RDR. A filter in Reports lets you view the rate with RDR-resolved disputes excluded, alongside the new unfiltered number.
Does winning a chargeback lower my Shopify chargeback rate?
No. Shopify's own documentation says the rate is based on all disputes customers open with their banks, not just the ones you lose. Winning recovers the money. It does not remove the dispute from the count.
What happens if my Shopify chargeback rate goes above 1.00%?
Shopify's documentation describes an escalating sequence: a notification, then a reserve held against your payouts, then enrolment in a network dispute resolution program. Account actions are released once your rate stays below 1.00% for 30 days with at least one eligible transaction in that period.
The report to run
Open your disputes report and write down the rate twice: once with RDR included, once with it filtered out.
Then calculate a third number by hand. Visa disputes only, by calendar month, over settled card-not-present transactions. That is the closest thing you have to the ratio your acquirer is watching, and it is the only one of the three that comes with a letter.