Amazon FBA fees explained: referral, fulfillment, storage and the rest
Selling through Fulfillment by Amazon means Amazon stores your stock, packs each order, ships it and handles returns. In exchange you pay a stack of fees. Some depend on the price, some on the size and weight of the product, some on how long it sits in the warehouse. Knowing which is which is what lets you tell a good product from a busy one that makes no money.
Referral fees and plan prices below come from Amazon’s pricing page, checked October 9, 2026.
1. The selling plan
- Individual: $0.99 for every item sold, no monthly fee.
- Professional: $39.99 a month, no per-item fee.
Professional is cheaper once you sell more than about 40 items a month, and it is needed for advertising and most brand tools. If you plan to sell more than a few dozen units a month, it is the one to pick. Spread over your monthly sales, it is usually a few cents a unit.
2. The referral fee
Amazon’s commission on each sale. It is a percentage of the total the buyer pays, including any shipping or gift wrap they paid for, and the percentage depends on the category. In most categories there is a minimum of $0.30 per item.
| Category | Referral fee |
|---|---|
| Home and kitchen, toys, sports, tools, office, pet | 15% |
| Beauty, health and personal care; baby | 8% up to $10, 15% above |
| Clothing and accessories | 5% up to $15, 10% from $15.01 to $20, 17% above |
| Consumer electronics, computers | 8% |
| Electronics accessories | 15% on the first $100, 8% on the rest |
| Jewelry | 20% on the first $250, 5% on the rest |
| Furniture | 15% on the first $200, 10% on the rest |
| Everything else | 15% |
Two kinds of rule hide in that table. In beauty, baby and clothing, the price decides one rate for the whole price: a $25 shirt pays 17% on all $25. In jewelry, furniture and electronics accessories, the rates apply to parts of the price: a $300 ring pays 20% on $250 and 5% on the other $50, so $52.50.
Books, music, video and video games also pay a closing fee per item.
3. The fulfillment fee
What Amazon charges to pick, pack and ship one unit. It depends on the product’s size tier (small standard, large standard, large bulky and so on), its shipping weight, and for some items its price. Bigger and heavier means a higher fee, and a product just over a size or weight limit can cost noticeably more than one just under it.
Amazon publishes the full rate card in Seller Central and changes it from time to time. Rather than copy a table that may be out of date, get the exact fee for your product from Amazon’s Revenue Calculator or the fee preview on your listing. It includes any surcharge in force at the time.
When sourcing a new product, ask the supplier for the packed dimensions and weight early. Shaving a centimetre off the box can drop it into a cheaper tier.
4. Storage
Amazon charges monthly storage for the space your stock takes up, measured in cubic feet. The rate is higher from October to December, when warehouse space is tight.
To turn it into a cost per unit:
storage per unit = cubic feet per unit × monthly rate × months in stock
A small item that sells within a month costs a few cents. A bulky one that sits for six months can cost more than its profit. Stock that has been in the warehouse a long time also attracts an extra aged-inventory surcharge.
5. The fees people forget
- Low-inventory fee: if your stock runs low compared with your sales, Amazon can add a per-unit fee. Running out costs twice: the lost sales and the fee.
- Inbound placement fee: depends on how you split shipments into Amazon’s warehouses. Letting Amazon choose the split often avoids it.
- Returns processing in some categories, and removal or disposal fees if you take stock back out.
- Advertising: not an Amazon fee as such, but most FBA products need sponsored ads to sell. Count it per unit.
A worked example
A $24.99 kitchen gadget, Home and kitchen category, Professional plan, 300 sold a month. The Revenue Calculator shows a fulfillment fee of $4.20 (yours will differ). Product cost $6.50, $0.80 per unit to get it to Amazon, storage about $0.10 a unit.
| Item | Working | Per unit |
|---|---|---|
| Referral fee | 24.99 × 15% | $3.75 |
| Fulfillment | from Amazon | $4.20 |
| Storage | estimate | $0.10 |
| Plan | 39.99 ÷ 300 | $0.13 |
| Amazon fees | $8.18 | |
| Product + inbound | 6.50 + 0.80 | $7.30 |
| Profit | 24.99 − 8.18 − 7.30 | $9.51 |
That is a 38% margin before ads and a 130% return on the money spent on stock. Add $2 per unit of advertising and the margin falls to 30%. It is still a healthy product, but you can see how quickly a cheaper or heavier one would not be.
Using this when you pick products
- Get the real fulfillment fee before you order stock, not after.
- Put the price, category and fees into the Amazon FBA calculator, including a realistic ad cost per unit.
- Decide your own minimum margin and ROI, and stick to them.
- Plan stock so you neither run out (low-inventory fee, lost ranking) nor overstock (storage, aged-inventory fees). The reorder point calculator helps with timing; add Amazon’s receiving time to your lead time.