Most Amazon sellers know their price and their product cost. Far fewer know exactly what’s left after Amazon’s fees, and that number decides everything else: how much you can spend on ads, whether a discount makes sense, and whether a product is worth selling at all.
This guide is for brands selling on Amazon that want a clear view of their real margin. It covers every fee you’re likely to pay, where to find your exact numbers, and how to turn them into a ceiling for advertising.
The short version
- Two fees take the biggest share on most products: the referral fee (a percentage of the price) and the FBA fulfillment fee (per unit, by size and weight).
- Storage, returns, inbound placement and low-inventory fees are smaller but add up, especially in the fourth quarter.
- Your exact fees are in Seller Central. Amazon updates them regularly, so check before you set a price.
- What’s left after fees and product cost is your contribution margin. Divided by price, that’s your break-even ACoS: the most you can spend on ads per sale.
In this guide
- The Amazon Fee Stack
- Where to Find Your Exact Fees
- From Price to Contribution Margin
- Your Advertising Ceiling
- Fees Hiding in Plain Sight
- Raise the Price Instead of Cutting Costs
- FAQ
1. The Amazon Fee Stack
These are the fees most FBA sellers pay. Amazon publishes the current rates on its fee pages and changes them most years, so the table explains how each fee works. The 2026 changes are listed below it.
| Fee | How it’s charged | What drives it |
|---|---|---|
| Selling plan | Monthly subscription for a Professional account | Fixed |
| Referral fee | Percentage of the sale price, with a minimum per item | Your category. Most categories charge around 15%; some charge less, some more |
| FBA fulfillment fee | Per unit shipped by Amazon | Your product’s size tier and shipping weight |
| Monthly storage fee | Per cubic foot of inventory in Amazon’s warehouses | Volume stored and the time of year; higher October to December |
| Aged inventory surcharge | Extra storage charge on units held a long time | How long units sit unsold |
| Inbound placement fee | Per unit, when sending inventory to Amazon | How many warehouses you split your shipment across |
| Low-inventory-level fee | Per unit, when your stock runs low relative to sales | Days of supply in Amazon’s warehouses |
| Returns processing fee | Per returned unit, in some categories | Your return rate |
| Advertising | What you spend on ads | Your bids and budgets |
For most products, the referral fee and the FBA fee together take the largest share of the price. Advertising is often next, which is why the ad budget has to come out of what’s left after fees, not out of the price.
What Changed in 2026
Amazon announced its 2026 US changes in October 2025. The ones that matter most for margin:
- January 15, 2026: FBA fulfillment fees rose by an average of $0.08 per unit. Amazon said referral fees would not go up, and it added no new FBA fee types.
- April 17, 2026: a 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge on FBA fulfillment fees, about $0.17 per unit on average. Amazon calls it temporary but has given no end date.
- October 15, 2026 to January 14, 2027: holiday peak fulfillment fees, on average $0.32 per unit more than the rest of the year. A small standard item like a phone case goes from $2.49 to $2.68; a large standard item like a T-shirt goes from $6.14 to $6.53. The 3.5% surcharge applies on top.
If your break-even ACoS is tight, rerun the numbers for the fourth quarter. A few cents per unit on fees comes straight out of what you can spend on ads.
2. Where to Find Your Exact Fees
You don’t need to calculate fees by hand. Amazon shows them:
- Fee preview. In Seller Central, under your inventory reports, the fee preview lists the estimated referral and FBA fee for each of your products.
- Revenue Calculator. Amazon’s free calculator: enter a product, price and cost to see fees and estimated profit per unit.
- Payments and transaction reports. Show the fees actually charged, order by order, including storage and other charges.
Check them before you set a price, again before the fourth quarter, and whenever Amazon announces fee changes.
3. From Price to Contribution Margin
Contribution margin is what’s left of each sale after the product cost and Amazon’s per-unit fees, before advertising. It’s the number that matters most.
Contribution margin = price – product cost – referral fee – FBA fee – other per-unit fees
Here’s an illustrative example for a product that sells for $30. Your own numbers will differ; use your fee preview.
| Line | Amount | Share of price |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $30.00 | 100% |
| Product cost, including shipping to Amazon | –$7.50 | 25% |
| Referral fee (15% in this example) | –$4.50 | 15% |
| FBA fulfillment fee | –$5.50 | 18% |
| Storage and other fees, averaged per unit | –$0.50 | 2% |
| Contribution margin | $12.00 | 40% |
Of a $30 sale, $12 is left to pay for advertising, overheads and profit. Product cost is only a quarter of the price. Amazon’s fees take more.
Amazon Fee and Margin Calculator
Take the referral and FBA fee from the fee preview in Seller Central. The defaults are the $30 example above.
4. Your Advertising Ceiling
Your contribution margin sets the most you can spend on ads for each sale without losing money:
Break-even ACoS = contribution margin ÷ price
In the example, $12.00 ÷ $30.00 = 40%. If your ACoS goes above 40%, every ad-driven sale loses money. Below it, each one makes some.
When we don't yet have a brand's product costs, we assume a 25% break-even ACoS as a cautious starting point until real numbers come in.
From break-even, we set a target ACoS below it, depending on whether the product's job is profit, steady growth or winning rank. How to set that target, with 2026 benchmarks from 198 US brands, is in What Is a Good ACoS on Amazon? How to turn it into bids is in our bidding and budget strategy.
Not sure what’s left after Amazon’s fees? We'll look at your account and show you where the margin is going. You decide what to do with it. Get my free audit
5. Fees Hiding in Plain Sight
Some fee problems don't show up until you look for them.
- The wrong category. Your category sets your referral fee. A publisher of cruising guides and log books had its products in the wrong categories, and its fees were rising. Re-categorizing was the first step. Sales went from $2,700/Month to over $24,500/Month, and TACoS fell from about 21% to 12%. Read the case study
- Packaging that bumps the size tier. A few millimeters can move a product into a higher FBA tier. Check the dimensions Amazon has on file against the real package.
- Too much stock, or too little. Excess stock raises storage and aged-inventory charges. Too little can trigger low-inventory fees. Plan inventory against both.
- Split shipments. Inbound placement fees depend on how you send inventory. Compare the options when creating a shipment.
6. Raise the Price Instead of Cutting Costs
Fees are mostly fixed per unit, so a higher price goes almost straight to margin. A $3 price increase on the $30 product above, with the referral fee rising by 45 cents, lifts contribution margin from $12.00 to $14.55 and break-even ACoS from 40% to 44%.
Price increases work best once a listing has earned them with reviews, images and rank:
- An education brand had to sell at a discounted $32 to compete. Once ads had built enough sales and rank, it stopped promotions and raised the price to $39.99, and sales grew to 50 units a day. Read the case study
- A kitchen products brand got new images and Premium A+ content, which gave the founder the confidence to raise her price by 65% while sales volume kept growing. Read the case study
Profit is the measure that counts. A health brand we worked with grew profit from $70K/Month to $128K/Month by cutting wasted ad spend and letting the budget flow to search terms that performed. Read the case study Another account went from losing about $1K a month to making $11K a month within two months, as TACoS fell from 35.23% to 24.97%.
7. FAQ
It depends on the category, size and price. For many FBA products, the referral fee and fulfillment fee together take a third or more of the price. Check your exact figures in the fee preview in Seller Central.
A percentage of the sale price that Amazon charges on every order, set by category. Most categories charge around 15%, with a minimum per item.
Subtract product cost, the referral fee, the FBA fee and other per-unit fees from the price to get contribution margin. Then subtract advertising and overheads to get profit.
Up to your break-even ACoS on each ad-driven sale: contribution margin divided by price. Across the whole account, ad spend as a share of total sales (TACoS) should stay below your margin.
Yes, usually at least once a year, and storage fees rise in the fourth quarter. Recheck your fees whenever Amazon announces changes.
Related Guides
- 12 Amazon PPC Mistakes We Find in Almost Every Account Audit
- Amazon PPC Management Pricing: How Agencies Charge
- Amazon Listing Optimization: 5 Steps to Higher Conversions
- What Is Amazon PPC? A Beginner's Guide to Amazon Ads
Chris Rawlings is the founder of Sophie Society and an Amazon Ads Verified Partner. Sophie Society manages $5M/Month in Amazon ad spend and has worked with 800+ brands.
