Reorder payment methods in Shopify checkout: PayPal first, cards last

In short

The order payment methods appear in at checkout is not something you can set in Shopify — no drag-and-drop, no “move up” arrow in the admin. What you control natively is only which providers are active. Changing the order takes a payment customization with a sort action (the Payment Customization Function’s paymentMethodMove), which sets a fixed order or one that depends on conditions. A useful side effect: whichever method ends up first is preselected at checkout.

The problem, in merchants’ words

Variations of “How can I reorder payment methods in my store’s checkout process?” and “How can I rearrange payment methods at checkout?” come up repeatedly in the Shopify Community. A related, just as common complaint is “Why is Paypal always preselected at checkout?” — merchants want whichever method they use most, or that has the lowest fees, at the top and preselected, not whatever position Shopify happens to put it in.

The native way in Shopify

There isn’t one. Settings › Payments shows Shopify Payments, additional providers (PayPal, Klarna, and others), and manual payment methods. Each one can be turned on or off. There’s no sort control there; the order at checkout follows Shopify’s own logic (Shopify Payments first, then other providers, then manual methods — with no guarantee of exact placement).

The only native lever is indirect: deactivating payment methods nobody uses. That shortens the list, but it doesn’t reorder it.

Where Shopify stops

• No sort setting in payment settings, on any plan.
• Checkout Blocks (Shopify’s own app) can reorder payment methods, but creating a payment customization there is limited to Shopify Plus. Manually-reordered methods display first, and everything else falls in after them — the same order for every customer.
• Wallets are fixed. Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other wallets in the express checkout area can be hidden but not moved. That limit applies to every app, Checkout Blocks included.

How a payment rule solves it

The payment customization gets an order — and optionally, conditions:

Always: PayPal to position 1, credit card to the last position.

What the customer sees: PayPal appears at the top and is preselected. Credit card sits at the bottom. Everything in between stays wherever Shopify places it.

Add conditions and the same mechanism becomes targeted:

Goal	Rule
PayPal first, credit card last	always → PayPal position 1, credit card last position
Invoice on top for B2B customers	customer tagged b2b → invoice position 1
Bank transfer preferred for large carts	cart total over a threshold → bank transfer position 1
A local method first for one country	shipping country matches → that method position 1
Cash on delivery on top for pickup orders	shipping method is “local pickup” → cash on delivery position 1

Technically, the rule runs on Shopify’s Payment Customization Function: Shopify passes the function the list of payment methods and the checkout context (cart, customer, shipping country, chosen shipping method), and the function replies with paymentMethodMove and a target position. That runs on Shopify’s own infrastructure, with no theme changes, on any plan.

Things to watch

• Position numbering depends on the app. Most count “position 1” as the very top of the list — check it in a test checkout rather than assuming.
• Combine sorting with hiding. If you hide PayPal above a cart total, decide what should move to the top for that case instead (bank transfer, for example).
• Wallets stay put. If Shop Pay sitting at the top of the express buttons is the issue, hiding is the only lever — and hiding only the express area is a Shopify Plus feature.
• Limit: up to 25 active payment customizations per store, shared across every app. This rule uses one.
• Test in a real checkout. Shopify’s test mode (Bogus Gateway or Shopify Payments test mode) shows the resulting order without processing a real payment.