Amazon Seller Fees Explained:
What Amazon Takes and What You Keep

Individual vs Professional selling plan

Before you list a single product, you need to choose a selling plan. This is the first cost decision every Amazon seller faces.

The math is simple: if you sell more than 40 items per month, the Professional plan costs less than the Individual plan (40 × $0.99 = $39.60, essentially the same as $39.99 but with far fewer restrictions). If you're serious about Amazon selling, start with Professional. The inability to win the Buy Box alone makes Individual impractical for most categories.

Referral fees by category

The referral fee is Amazon's take on every sale. Unlike eBay's "final value fee," Amazon calls it a referral fee, and it's calculated as a percentage of the total selling price (including shipping if you charge it). Every category has a different rate, and most have a minimum referral fee of $0.30.

The range is significant. Selling Amazon device accessories at 45% referral fee is nearly impossible to be profitable unless your margins are enormous. Electronics at 8% is much more workable. Category selection is a real strategic decision on Amazon, not just an organizational choice.

FBA fulfillment fees

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) means Amazon stores, picks, packs, and ships your products. You pay fulfillment fees per unit. In exchange, your products are Prime-eligible, which can dramatically increase conversion rates.

FBA fulfillment fees are based on the product's size tier (determined by its dimensions and weight when packaged):

FBA fees cover picking, packing, and shipping. they don't cover storage. You pay storage fees separately. And the "weight" Amazon uses for fee calculation is dimensional weight or actual weight, whichever is greater. A lightweight but bulky item can be placed in a larger size tier than you'd expect.

FBA also includes customer service handling and returns processing. When a customer returns a product, Amazon processes it. You pay a returns processing fee on certain categories with high return rates.

Storage fees

If your inventory sits in Amazon's fulfillment centers, you pay monthly storage fees. These are calculated per cubic foot of space your inventory occupies.

The October–December spike is significant. Amazon triples storage rates during the holiday season. Sellers who overstock slow-moving inventory in Q4 face steep storage charges on top of the higher fulfillment activity.

Aged inventory surcharge

Amazon also charges an aged inventory surcharge for items that have been in a fulfillment center for more than 365 days. This surcharge can be $1.50–$6.90 per cubic foot on top of standard storage fees. Slow-moving Amazon inventory becomes expensive quickly. Amazon periodically offers inventory removal promotions where sellers can remove aged inventory for free. watch for these.

Other fees and programs

Amazon Advertising

Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display ads are pay-per-click. You set bids; Amazon charges when someone clicks. Advertising Cost of Sales (ACoS). what you spend on ads as a percentage of ad-attributed revenue. varies widely. Competitive categories easily see 30–50% ACoS. Factor this into your margin calculations if you plan to advertise.

Refund administration fee

If a customer returns an item and Amazon refunds the buyer, Amazon keeps the lesser of $5.00 or 20% of the referral fee as a refund administration fee. So you don't get a full referral fee refund on returns.

High-volume listing fee

For sellers with more than 1.5 million active ASINs, Amazon charges a $0.001/month per ASIN fee. Irrelevant for most sellers but worth knowing if you're planning a very large catalog.

FBA inventory removal and disposal

If you want to remove inventory from Amazon's fulfillment centers, you pay a removal fee ($0.97–$13.05 per unit depending on size) or a disposal fee ($0.97–$13.05 per unit). You can't pull inventory out for free.

FBM vs FBA: which is cheaper?

Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM) means you ship orders yourself. You pay the referral fee and plan fee but not FBA fulfillment or storage fees. You pay your own shipping.

The tradeoff isn't just cost. it's also Buy Box competitiveness. FBA sellers generally have a significant advantage in winning the Buy Box over FBM sellers. FBM can work well for:

• Large, heavy, or fragile items where FBA fees are prohibitively high
• Slow-moving items where storage fees would accumulate
• Custom or made-to-order products that can't be warehoused in advance
• Sellers with their own efficient fulfillment operation (SFP. Seller Fulfilled Prime. if you qualify)

For most standard consumer goods in competitive categories, FBA is necessary to be competitive. For specialty, handmade, or niche items with less competition, FBM can work well.

Real math: what you actually keep

Let's model a concrete example. A seller is listing a handmade candle in the Home & Kitchen category, selling at $28. The candle weighs 1 lb packaged, and they're using FBA.

Amazon takes roughly $9.60 from the $28 sale. about 34%. Before you even count the cost of materials, packaging, and inbound shipping to Amazon's warehouse, your margin is $18.40. If your cost of goods is $8, you're left with $10.40. a 37% margin before advertising spend.

Now factor in advertising. If you spend 20% ACoS (aggressive but achievable), that's $5.60 in ad spend attributed to this sale. Your true net margin is $4.80. about 17% of the original sale price.

This is why Amazon works best for products with strong unit economics: either high selling prices relative to COGS, or very low manufacturing costs that leave enough room after fees. Low-margin products rarely work on Amazon at scale.

Frequently asked questions

Comparing fees? Read our guides on Etsy fees explained and eBay fees explained.