Amazon FBA Fees in 2026: What Amazon Actually Takes (Our Numbers)

Most pages about Amazon FBA fees are a list of rate tables copied from Seller Central, often last year’s. They tell you what each fee is called. They never tell you the one thing a seller actually wants to know: how much of every sales dollar ends up with Amazon once all the fees land. We can answer that, because we have the settlement data.

We run a private-label Amazon store with more than $3M in lifetime sales, and we are the only seller on our listings. The numbers below come from Sellerise, the profit tool we pay for, alongside our own settlement reports. If you want a simpler dashboard, sellerboard is the alternative we recommend.

The short answer

• All Amazon fees together took about 30 cents of every sales dollar in our US account over the last 12 months.
• Add advertising and it was about 43 to 44 cents. Ads are not a fee, but they are the second-biggest cost after referral fees.
• Referral fees (about 14-15%) and FBA fulfillment fees (about 13%) are almost the whole fee bill. Storage, placement, coupons, and disposal together came to under 3%.
• 2026 brought three changes to plan around: a base FBA fee increase on 15 January, a 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge from 17 April, and holiday peak fees from 15 October 2026 to 14 January 2027.
• The fees you can actually shrink are storage, placement, low-inventory, aged inventory, and returns. Referral fees barely move.

Our real numbers: where the sales dollar went

US marketplace, the 12 full months from October 2025 to September 2026, from Sellerise and our settlement reports. Rounded on purpose: these are shares of product sales, not a per-product breakdown.

Two more lines matter for profit even though they are not Amazon fees. Refunds came to about 7% of sales, on a refund rate of about 7.5% of units. And after product cost, fees, ads, refunds, and promotions, our net margin was about 21%. Amazon also paid back a little over $3,000 in reimbursements over the same 12 months, which our reimbursements guide breaks down.

What the table says: if you price a product assuming Amazon takes “15% plus a fulfillment fee”, you are close on fees, then you get surprised by ads. Plan for something like 45 cents of each dollar going to Amazon in one form or another, and build your margin from what is left.

Selling plan: $39.99 a month or $0.99 an item

Amazon’s pricing page (checked 29 October 2026) lists two plans:

• Individual: $0.99 per item sold, plus selling fees.
• Professional: $39.99 per month, plus selling fees.

The arithmetic is simple. Past about 40 sales a month, Professional is cheaper. Amazon’s plan comparison also puts advertising, bulk listing tools, and the brand-building features behind Professional, so almost every FBA seller ends up on it. Our Seller Central page covers what the subscription unlocks.

Referral fees: the biggest line

Amazon takes a referral fee on every sale, as a percentage of the total price (including any shipping or gift wrap the buyer pays), or a minimum of $0.30 per item in most categories, whichever is greater. Most categories charge 15%. Some examples from Amazon’s schedule (checked 29 October 2026):

Ours ran at about 14-15% of product sales, which is what you would expect from a 15% schedule. Referral fees are the least negotiable cost on Amazon. The only real levers are category placement (make sure your product is in the right one, because the fee category can differ from where customers see it) and price thresholds in the tiered categories.

FBA fulfillment fees: the 2026 structure

The fulfillment fee covers picking, packing, shipping, customer service, and returns handling. Amazon now says it is based on the product’s price, weight, and dimensions. The price part is relatively new: products priced under $10 have had lower FBA rates since 2024, and the 2026 table splits fees further by price. Third-party summaries of the table describe a middle band from $10 to $50 and a higher band above $50; we could not confirm those band edges on a public Amazon page, so check your own Fee Preview.

Amazon’s own figure for the 15 January 2026 change was an average increase of $0.08 per unit, which it put at less than 0.5% of an average item’s price, after no increase in 2025. Amazon also said there would be no new FBA fee types in 2026. Your own change depends on your size tier and price, which is why the average is not much use for any single product.

For us, fulfillment fees came to about 13% of product sales. The cheapest way to cut this fee is packaging: a box that drops a product into a smaller size or weight tier saves on every unit, forever.

The 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge

On 17 April 2026 Amazon started adding a 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge to FBA fulfillment fees in the US and Canada, and to Remote Fulfillment with FBA. Multi-Channel Fulfillment and Buy with Prime followed on 2 May 2026. Amazon’s announcement estimated the US FBA impact at about $0.17 per unit on average, and calls it temporary while saying it will keep evaluating it. We could not find an announced end date.

Two practical points. It is 3.5% of the fulfillment fee, not of your sale price. And rate tables that predate April do not include it, so if you are modeling by hand, multiply the published fulfillment fee by 1.035. If you fill orders from other channels through FBA inventory, it hits those too; see our Multi-Channel Fulfillment guide.

Holiday peak fulfillment fees

Amazon’s announcement for this season, titled “Holiday 2026: Same fees, same eligibility, earlier deadlines”, sets the peak period from 15 October 2026 to 14 January 2027. Fulfillment fees are higher by an average of $0.32 per unit over non-peak rates, with the 3.5% surcharge on top. It covers FBA, Remote Fulfillment with FBA, MCF, and Buy with Prime. We are inside that window as you read this.

Monthly storage fees

Storage is charged monthly on the space your inventory takes up, based on your daily average volume in cubic feet. Rates are lower from January to September and higher from October to December. Amazon’s last public announcement of the standard-size off-peak rate set it at $0.78 per cubic foot from April 2024, and Amazon said 2025 rates would not change. We could not confirm the 2026 per-cubic-foot rates on a public Amazon page, so use the Monthly Storage Fees report in Seller Central for your real numbers.

Our storage, counting both FBA and AWD (storage, transport, and processing), came to about 2% of sales.

Aged inventory surcharge

On top of normal storage, Amazon charges a monthly aged inventory surcharge on items stored in a fulfillment center for more than 181 days. It is the fee that punishes over-ordering. Check the FBA Inventory page for units approaching that age, and decide early whether to discount them, move them, or remove them.

Low-inventory-level fee

Since April 2024, Amazon charges a per-unit fee on standard-size products when inventory runs low relative to sales, because thin stock stops it spreading units close to customers. Amazon’s guidance when it launched was simple: keep more than four weeks of inventory relative to sales and you avoid it. Amazon has added exemptions since launch, and it credits back fees caused by excessive inbound delays on its side, so check the current rules in Seller Central before you assume a product is covered.

So FBA fees squeeze you from both ends. Too little stock triggers this fee; too much triggers aged inventory. The target is a steady four to eight weeks of cover in FBA, with any buffer held somewhere cheaper.

Inbound placement service fee

Since March 2024, Amazon charges an inbound placement fee to spread your inventory across its network. If you ship to the minimal number of locations, you pay it. If you accept Amazon-optimized splits and send to several locations yourself, the fee is lower or zero. At launch Amazon put the average at $0.27 per unit for standard-size products and $1.58 for large bulky.

Ours ran under 0.2% of sales, close to nothing. We use Amazon Warehousing and Distribution (AWD) as upstream storage, and Amazon’s FBA page says AWD’s pricing “includes FBA inbound placement services” and has no seasonal surcharges. If you ship straight into FBA, compare the split options on every shipment; the cheapest-looking option often is not.

Returns processing fee

Amazon charges a returns processing fee on orders where it gives the customer free return shipping. Apparel and shoes have long had one. Since June 2024 it also applies to products with the highest return rates compared with others in their category. Our refunds ran at about 7% of sales; the best way to keep this fee away is a listing that sets honest expectations.

Removal, disposal, and liquidation

Amazon will send your inventory back, dispose of it, or liquidate it, for a per-item charge. Ours was about 0.3% of sales.

Prep and labeling: gone from 1 January 2026

Amazon’s notice to sellers was direct: starting 1 January 2026, it no longer offers prep and item labeling services for FBA shipments in the US store. That covers inventory sent through AWD and other Amazon inbound programs too. If you relied on Amazon to label units, that cost has moved to your supplier or a prep center, and it belongs in your landed cost.

Coupon and deal fees

Since 2 June 2025, Amazon’s coupon fee is $5 per coupon plus 2.5% of coupon sales, replacing the old $0.60 per unit redeemed. Best Deals and Lightning Deals outside peak events cost $70 per day plus 1% of deal sales, with the variable part capped at $2,000 per deal. For the 2026 holiday events, Amazon set the same fees as Prime Day: $100 per promotion plus 1.5% of promotional sales, capped at $5,000.

Our coupon fees came to about 0.4% of sales.

Advertising: not a fee, but the second-biggest cost

Advertising cost us about 13-14% of sales, which is more than fulfillment fees and nearly as much as referral fees. Our TACoS (ad spend divided by total sales) sat around 12.5%, and our ACoS (ad spend divided by ad-attributed sales) around 26%. About half of our units came through ads.

That is why a fee calculator that ignores ads gives you the wrong answer. Work out your break-even ACoS before you launch, so you know how much an ad-driven sale can cost before it loses money. Our free FBA profit calculator does that per SKU, right in your browser.

What changed in 2026

• 15 October 2025: Amazon announced the 2026 US fee changes, with at least 90 days’ notice.
• 1 January 2026: prep and item labeling services ended for US FBA shipments.
• 15 January 2026: FBA fees rose by an average of $0.08 per unit, with fees split further by price. No new FBA fee types.
• 17 April 2026: 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge on FBA fulfillment fees in the US and Canada.
• 2 May 2026: the same surcharge on Multi-Channel Fulfillment and Buy with Prime.
• 15 October 2026 to 14 January 2027: holiday peak fulfillment fees, an average of $0.32 per unit, surcharge on top.

How to keep FBA fees down

1. Check your size tier on your top products. A product measured into the wrong tier overpays on every order. If it is wrong, request a remeasure, and claim the overcharge (see our reimbursements guide).
2. Redesign the box before you reorder. Shaving the package into a smaller tier is the only permanent cut to fulfillment fees.
3. Run the price through the Revenue Calculator at a few price points. With price now part of the fee, a small price change can move the fee too.
4. Keep four to eight weeks of cover in FBA. Below that you risk the low-inventory-level fee; far above it you pay peak storage and, eventually, aged inventory.
5. Hold the buffer upstream. AWD has no seasonal storage surcharge, according to Amazon, and its pricing includes inbound placement.
6. Compare inbound split options on every FBA shipment rather than defaulting to the minimal split.
7. Clear slow stock before 181 days. A discount usually costs less than months of surcharge followed by a removal fee.
8. Run fewer, bigger coupons. The $5 fixed fee is trivial on a busy coupon and expensive on a quiet one.
9. Track fees as a share of sales every month. Our split above came from a profit tool, not a spreadsheet. Try Sellerise (10% off monthly plans for your first year through our link), or try sellerboard if you want a gentler dashboard (two-month free trial through our link).

Bottom line

Amazon’s fees took about 30 cents of every dollar we sold over the last year, and ads took another 13 to 14. Referral and fulfillment fees are most of that and barely move, so the work is in the small fees that grow when you stop watching: storage, placement, low-inventory, aged inventory, and returns. Know your own split. Pull a month of settlement data into our profit calculator spreadsheet, or let Sellerise or sellerboard do it daily, and check it again after every fee change Amazon announces.