How Much Does It Cost to Start Dropshipping? The Full 2026 Bill
Jordan Welch’s AI COM pitches “$0 ad spend to start,” with free organic videos on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. (aicom.co)
“Build your store with AI in 10 minutes + get my $4,997 AI commerce system for free,” the homepage adds.
His partner BuildYourStore.ai goes one better. “No credit card. Yours forever,” it promises.
Shopify’s own pricing page: “Try 3 days free, then $1/month for 3 months.”
So somewhere between $0 and a dollar. Cool. Now sit down.
Short answer: the store itself is cheap. The expensive part is everything you pay for before you know if anything works: ad tests, apps, tools and maybe a course. And most of those bills keep running whether you make a sale or not.
Why Most Dropshipping Courses Suck
How much does it cost to start dropshipping?
Real prices come from the companies’ own pages. Anything marked “reportedly” comes from a third party.
| Cost | What it runs | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify Basic | $39/mo billed monthly, or $29/mo billed yearly | Monthly |
| Shopify trial | 3 days free, then $1/month for 3 months | First months only |
| Card processing (Basic) | 2.9% + 30¢ per online sale | Every sale |
| Third-party payment provider | 2% transaction fee | Every sale |
| Domain | Free .store domain via BuildYourStore.ai, or buy your own | Yearly |
| Course (example: Viral Vault) | $67/mo per its sales page | Monthly |
| AI video ad tool (example: MakeUGC.ai) | Reportedly $49 to $119/mo (per ippei.com) | Monthly |
| Tool subscriptions overall | Reportedly “95 ish dollar” a month (one Reddit commenter) | Monthly |
| Ad testing budget | Your call. Nobody can tell you this number honestly. | Daily |
| Selling on TikTok Shop | 6% commission per sale, no setup fee | Every sale |
Look at the “How often” column. Almost nothing on it is a one-time cost. It’s a stack of small monthly bills plus one big variable bill, the ads, that you control and also can’t really control. Like a toddler with your car keys.
How much does a Shopify store cost?
Shopify’s US pricing page, checked November 12, 2026: Basic is $39/mo billed monthly or $29/mo billed yearly, Grow is $105/mo, Advanced is $399/mo.
On a made-up $30 sale, the 2.9% + 30¢ card fee is $1.17, on every order, including the ones that later get refunded.
Grudging concession: the $1 trial is a genuinely good deal for poking around. Set a calendar reminder for when it ends, like a gym membership you joined on January 2nd.
The “$0 to start” pitch
“Get a FREE AI-built Shopify store in minutes,” BuildYourStore.ai pitches. “Only 9 stores left! Get it now,” it warns.
Nine. Of a website. Somebody call the supply chain.
Then the FAQ: “You make 0 payments to BuildYourStore.ai… However, if you decide to continue using Shopify, you will need to pay for a Shopify plan directly with Shopify.”
So the store is free. Running it isn’t. It’s a free puppy, and Shopify sells the dog food. More in my BuildYourStore.ai review.
AI COM’s $4,997 system “for free” comes with its own admission: “The one thing that does cost money is the AI tool itself, and that is the whole catch.” The page doesn’t name the partner or the tool’s price.
“Free” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that headline. Full breakdown in my AI COM Academy review and AI dropshipping, explained.
Monthly costs that keep running whether you sell or not
Card fees and TikTok’s 6% only hit when you make a sale. Your Shopify plan, apps, course membership and running ads show up every month no matter what. It’s an HOA fee on a house that doesn’t have a roof yet.
If you’re in a program, read its refund rules before month one. Viral Vault’s refund page offers a 7-day no-questions-asked refund “only for your first payment.” Renewals are refundable for 24 hours. “All approved refunds will be subject to a 15% processing fee.”
Its “14-Day Action-Based Refund” requires, among other things, that you create a Shopify store and run ads to it. So even the refund path has a cover charge. Every term is on the Jordan Welch course cost page.
A realistic first-90-days budget worksheet
Viral Vault’s own FAQ says to expect “at least 2-3 months of hard work and education before being consistently profitable.” Going alone, “on average 6-12 months.”
So budget for at least three months, their best case. You fill in the blanks.
| Line item | Month 1 | Month 2 | Month 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify plan | $1 on the trial offer | $1 on the trial offer | $1 on the trial offer |
| Course membership (if any) | your number | your number | your number |
| Apps and AI tools | your number | your number | your number |
| Ad testing budget | your number | your number | your number |
| Test orders and samples | your number | your number | your number |
| Refunds and chargebacks | your number | your number | your number |
| Total spent | add it up | add it up | add it up |
After the trial, the Shopify line goes to $39 a month (or $29 billed yearly).
Now decide how much you’ll spend before you stop if month 3 still isn’t profitable. Write it down. Show it to a friend who will yell at you.
I’m not a lawyer or accountant, and this isn’t legal or tax advice. Sales tax, business registration and income tax on store profits are real costs too, so ask a pro in your state.
So, is the cost of dropshipping worth it?
The entry fee is low. The cost of finding out whether it works is not.
After three months of bills, if you stop paying for ads, what do you own? A Shopify theme, a product page and a supplier link a hundred other stores also have. You rented every visitor.
Still deciding? Read is dropshipping worth it? and how much dropshippers actually make, or my full Jordan Welch review.
Show Me Where I'd Put That Money
The place I’d point that money is digital real estate: websites that rank on Google and get rented to local businesses that want the phone calls. No ad bill per sale. No inventory. No refund inbox.
You searched what dropshipping costs, Google sent you here, and nobody paid a cent in ads for your visit. I’ll show you how it works in the video.
Q&A
- Q: How much does it cost to start dropshipping?
- A: Shopify Basic is $39 a month billed monthly, or $29 billed yearly. The real cost is the ad testing budget, plus apps, card fees and any course you join.
- Q: What are Shopify's transaction fees?
- A: On Basic, 2.9% + 30¢ per online card sale. Use a third-party payment provider and Shopify adds a 2% transaction fee on top.
- Q: Can you start dropshipping with $0?
- A: You can get a free store build, but BuildYourStore.ai's own FAQ says you'll still "need to pay for a Shopify plan directly with Shopify." Then come the ads, which are never free.
- Q: How much does Viral Vault cost?
- A: The sales page says "Just $67/m" with no contract. Trial and refund rules are on my Jordan Welch course cost page.
- Q: How much should I budget for ads?
- A: There's no magic number, so none gets invented here. Pick an amount you can lose completely without it touching your rent.
- Q: What would you spend that startup money on instead?
- A: The model I'd point you to has no ad bill per sale: a website that ranks on Google and gets rented to a local business. Watch this video and thank me later.