On April 17, 2026, Amazon added a 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge to every FBA fulfillment fee in the US, and it has not said when the surcharge ends. That small line sits on top of a stack most new sellers underestimate. On a typical $24.99 product weighing about a pound, Amazon’s fees come to roughly $9.26 outside the holiday season and about $9.86 during it, or 37% to 39% of the sale, before you pay for the product, the freight to Amazon or a single ad.
Those totals come from one hypothetical listing that we itemized line by line using the 2026 US rate card, which is the schedule sellers should plan on until Amazon publishes its next change. The product: a boxed kitchen gadget, 9 by 6 by 3 inches, shipping weight just under 16 ounces, priced at $24.99 in a 15% category.
The receipt: one $24.99 sale, itemized
| Line | What it pays for | January to September | Oct. 15 to Jan. 14 peak |
|---|---|---|---|
| Referral fee (15%) | Listing on Amazon and taking payment | $3.75 | $3.75 |
| FBA fulfillment fee | Picking, packing, shipping to the buyer | $4.60 | $4.89 |
| 3.5% surcharge | Fuel and logistics, charged on the fulfillment fee | $0.16 | $0.17 |
| Inbound placement | Amazon spreading your shipment across its network | $0.40 (example) | $0.40 (example) |
| Monthly storage | 0.094 cubic feet held for about two months | $0.15 | $0.45 |
| Professional plan share | $39.99 a month spread over 200 units | $0.20 | $0.20 |
| Amazon’s total | $9.26 (37%) | $9.86 (39%) | |
| Left for you | Before product, freight, ads and tax | $15.73 | $15.13 |
Two lines are fixed by the category and the box. The rest move with your packaging, shipments and timing.
Line 1: a 15% referral fee nobody negotiates
Every seller pays the referral fee, FBA or not. Amazon charges the higher of a percentage of the total sale price or a per-item minimum, which is $0.30 in most categories. Most categories sit at 15%, though rates run from 8% to 45%, and clothing is tiered at 5%, 10% and 17% by price. Amazon kept its US referral percentages largely unchanged for 2026.
It is the price of the storefront, identical if you ship orders yourself. Check your exact category before sourcing: a 15% item and an 8% item at the same price are different businesses.
Line 2: fulfillment, where three-quarters of an inch is worth 64 cents
The fulfillment fee is the heart of FBA and the largest line on most bills. It depends on three things: the size tier, the shipping weight and the selling price band (under $10, $10 to $50, and over $50). Our gadget is large standard and falls in the 12-to-16-ounce row, so it pays $4.60 at $24.99.
Size tier matters more than most first-time sellers expect. Small standard covers packages up to 15 by 12 by 0.75 inches and 16 ounces. If the same gadget could ship flat in a mailer three-quarters of an inch thick, it would drop to $3.96 in the $10 to $50 band. That is 64 cents per unit, or $1,536 a year at 200 sales a month, for redesigning a box.
| Shipping weight | Small standard ($10 to $50) | Large standard ($10 to $50) |
|---|---|---|
| 4 to 8 oz | $3.45 to $3.54 | $3.95 |
| 8 to 12 oz | $3.68 to $3.78 | $4.20 |
| 12 to 16 oz | $3.91 to $3.96 | $4.60 |
| 1 to 1.25 lb | Not eligible | $5.04 |
| 2.75 to 3 lb | Not eligible | $6.67 |
Measure your own packaged unit rather than trusting a supplier’s spec sheet. Amazon bills on what its warehouse measures.
Line 3: the surcharge with no end date
The 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge is calculated on the fulfillment fee only, not on the sale price and not on the referral fee. On our $4.60 fee it adds 16 cents. Flow, a logistics company, puts the average at about $0.17 per US FBA unit. It also applies to Multi-Channel Fulfillment and Buy with Prime orders from May 2, 2026, and it stacks on the higher holiday rates.
None of the sources we checked found a published end date. Budget for it through 2027 and treat any removal as a bonus.
Lines 4 and 5: placement and storage, the two you can shrink
Inbound placement. When you send inventory, Amazon decides how many of its warehouses it lands in. If you choose the minimal-split option, shipping everything to one location, Amazon charges a per-unit placement fee to redistribute it. For a large standard item between 12 ounces and 1.5 pounds, that fee runs $0.24 to $0.50 depending on region; our receipt assumes $0.40. Small standard items under a pound pay $0.16 to $0.32. Choose Amazon’s optimized split and the fee is zero, but you ship to several warehouses yourself, and AMZ Prep notes each item needs at least five identical cartons or pallets to qualify. Price both options before you book.
Storage. Standard-size inventory costs $0.78 per cubic foot per month from January through September and $2.40 from October through December. Our gadget occupies 0.094 cubic feet, so it costs about 7 cents a month in spring and 23 cents a month in the fourth quarter. Two months of shelf time is trivial. A year is not, because of the aged-inventory surcharge covered below.
One more line some sellers expect but no longer get: Amazon stopped offering its own prep and labeling service in the US on January 1, 2026, according to FBA Tactics. You either label and bag units yourself or pay a prep center, and that cost belongs on your receipt too.
Charges that are not on this receipt, yet
Our example assumes stock that sells within two months and never runs low. Miss either and new lines appear. Clothing and shoes also pay a returns processing fee on every return.
Low-inventory-level fee: up to $0.97 a unit for running thin
Amazon charges this when your stock falls below 28 days of supply, measured per FNSKU since January 15, 2026, and only when both your 30-day and 90-day historical supply are under 28 days. For a large standard item up to 3 pounds, the fee is $0.97 per unit under 14 days of supply, $0.70 at 14 to 20 days and $0.36 at 21 to 27 days. Grocery is exempt.
Aged-inventory surcharge: from 5 cents to 74 cents on our gadget
Units older than 180 days pick up a monthly surcharge on top of storage. It starts at $0.50 per cubic foot for 181 to 210 days, which is about 5 cents on our 0.094-cubic-foot box, then steps up sharply: $5.45 per cubic foot at 271 to 300 days (about 51 cents), $6.90 per cubic foot or $0.30 per unit, whichever is greater, at 366 to 455 days (about 65 cents), and a new 2026 tier of $7.90 per cubic foot or $0.35 per unit beyond 455 days (about 74 cents). A slow mover can eat its own margin in storage.
The Individual plan: $0.99 a unit instead of $39.99 a month
Sellers on the Individual plan skip the $39.99 monthly fee and pay $0.99 per unit sold instead, with the same referral and FBA fees. The Professional plan becomes cheaper at about 41 units a month, and it is the plan you need for advertising and most growth tools.
Two costs we left off on purpose because they depend entirely on you: freight from your supplier to Amazon, and advertising. For many private-label sellers, ad spend per unit can rival the fulfillment fee. Our guide to budgeting ad spend backward from a customer uses the same logic.
Why the same sale costs 60 cents more in December
Holiday peak fulfillment fees apply from October 15, 2026 through January 14, 2027, averaging about $0.32 per unit above the regular rate according to Flow and Sifted. Our gadget’s fulfillment fee rises from $4.60 to $4.89, the surcharge follows it up by a penny, and storage triples to $2.40 per cubic foot. Together that adds 60 cents to the receipt. Standard rates return on January 15, 2027.
Timing is the lever. Stock sent in September to sell in November pays three months of fourth-quarter storage; stock that lands in late October and sells by Christmas mostly pays the higher fulfillment fee.
The $10 line that pays you to charge less
Because fulfillment fees now depend on price, a small price change can move you into a different band. For a one-pound large standard item, the fee is $3.78 under $10 and $4.60 from $10 to $50. Compare two prices for the same product:
| Priced at $9.99 | Priced at $10.49 | |
|---|---|---|
| Referral fee (15%) | $1.50 | $1.57 |
| Fulfillment plus surcharge | $3.91 | $4.76 |
| You keep, before product cost | $4.58 | $4.16 |
The higher price earns 42 cents less per sale. The same cliff exists at $50: AMZ Prep’s example shows a 12-ounce large standard item paying $4.20 at $49.99 and $4.46 at $50.01. If your target price sits just above either line, test just below it.
For 2027, nothing new has been published for the US as of early November 2026 in the trade sources we checked. Last year’s changes were announced October 15, 2025 and took effect January 15, 2026, so watch Seller Central’s fee-change announcements through the winter.
Questions sellers ask after their first settlement report
Is there an Amazon FBA monthly fee?
There is no separate monthly subscription for FBA itself. You pay the selling plan fee, $39.99 a month for Professional or $0.99 per unit sold on the Individual plan, plus per-unit FBA fees and monthly storage based on the space your inventory occupies.
How much does it cost to start Amazon FBA?
Amazon’s fixed charge is small: the $39.99 Professional plan fee, or nothing up front on the Individual plan. Most of the startup money goes to your first inventory order, packaging, prep and labeling, freight to Amazon’s warehouses and launch advertising, all of which depend on your product. FBA fees are deducted as units sell.
Does the 3.5% surcharge apply to referral fees?
No. It is calculated only on the FBA fulfillment fee, and since May 2, 2026 also on Multi-Channel Fulfillment and Buy with Prime fulfillment. Referral fees are not affected.
Are FBA fees the same for apparel?
No. Apparel has its own fulfillment and holiday peak rate tables, and clothing and shoes pay a returns processing fee on every return, while most other categories pay only above a return-rate threshold. Check the apparel table before pricing clothing.
Where can I see my exact Amazon FBA fees?
Amazon’s Revenue Calculator in Seller Central estimates fees for a specific ASIN, and the Fee Preview report lists the fulfillment fee Amazon has assigned to each of your SKUs. Compare that size tier with your own measurements, since a mismeasured package can put a product in a costlier tier.
Other numbers to run before your first shipment
- Shopify plans compared by monthly sales, if you sell direct as well
- What it costs to start a business at three budget levels
- Google Ads cost, budgeted backward from a customer
- Vending machine startup costs, another small retail play
- Postage stamp prices, for sellers who ship some orders themselves
- The complete guide to small business startup costs for 2027
A five-step test before you order inventory
- Measure and weigh one fully packaged unit, then find its size tier and row on the fulfillment table.
- From your target price, subtract the referral fee for your category and the fulfillment fee times 1.035.
- Subtract about 50 cents for placement and a couple of months of storage, more for bulky items or a fourth-quarter launch.
- Subtract your landed product cost, prep and freight to Amazon.
- Look at what is left. If it cannot pay for advertising and still leave a profit you would be happy with, change the price, the packaging or the product before you place the order, not after.
Pricing method: prices were researched in November 2026 for 2027 planning and may change. Fee figures reflect the 2026 US rate card and surcharges as reported by AMZ Prep, FBA Tactics, Nova Data, Flow, Sifted and Sellerboard; the $24.99 product is a hypothetical example, not a real listing. Confirm current rates in Seller Central and consult an accountant for tax questions. See our disclaimer.
