Amazon seller fees per unit in 2026: every fee, and what is left of a $24 sale

A bottle of hand soap sells for $24 on Amazon. The customer pays, the unit ships, and the money comes back to you in pieces.

Two pieces are large and arrive with the sale. The rest are small, and several land months later, in a month with nothing to do with that sale.

So a product can look healthy in the month it sold, then cost more once every fee has posted.

Amazon’s fees per unit start with two big ones. The referral fee is a share of the sale price, and the rate depends on the product’s category. The FBA fulfillment fee (FBA is Fulfillment by Amazon, where Amazon stores and ships your stock) is a flat charge set by size, weight and price. Smaller fees hit only in some months or on some products. Advertising comes on top.

Every rate below comes from Amazon’s own pages as of September 2026. Amazon posts fee changes ahead of time, and in 2026 it added one mid-year. Check the linked page before you rely on any number here.

The fees that can hit one unit

These are US rates for items that are not apparel or dangerous goods, which have their own rate cards.

Referral fee

The referral fee is Amazon’s commission. Amazon takes whichever is greater: a percentage of the total sales price, or a per-item minimum. The total sales price includes shipping and gift wrap charges, but not tax.

Rates vary by category. Computers pay 8%. Home and Kitchen pays 15%. Amazon Device Accessories pay 45%. Some categories step down with price. Beauty, Health and Personal Care charges 8% at $10 or less and 15% above $10. Most categories have a $0.30 minimum. A product’s fee category can differ from the one shoppers see.

FBA fulfillment fee

The FBA fulfillment fee covers picking, packing and shipping the order. It is set by three things:

• Size tier. Small standard is up to 16 oz and 15 x 12 x 0.75 inches. Large standard is up to 20 lb and 18 x 14 x 8 inches (product size tiers).
• Shipping weight. For large standard, it is the greater of the real weight and the dimensional weight. Dimensional weight is the box volume in cubic inches divided by 139.
• Price band. Under $10, $10 to $50, or over $50.

The 2026 rate card charges $5.04 for a large standard item of 1 to 1.25 lb priced from $10 to $50. From October 15, 2026 to January 14, 2027, the peak rate for the same item is $5.34.

Since April 17, 2026, Amazon applies a 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge to fulfillment fees. Amazon says it is calculated on the fulfillment fee, not the sale price, and averages $0.17 per unit for US FBA. Amazon says it applies to peak rates too. The Revenue Calculator shows the exact amount for your product.

Low-inventory-level fee

The low-inventory-level fee is added to the fulfillment fee when you run short. It applies when stock covers less than 28 days of recent sales. Both the 30-day and the 90-day measures must be under 28 days. For large standard items up to 3 lb it is $0.36, $0.70 or $0.97 per unit, rising as cover falls.

Exemptions include new Professional sellers in their first 365 days, grocery, and products that sold fewer than 20 units in the past 7 days. Since January 15, 2026, supply is measured per FNSKU (the barcode Amazon uses for your unit in its warehouses), not per parent product.

Monthly storage fee

The monthly storage fee is charged on the average cubic feet your stock takes up each day. For standard-size items it is $0.78 per cubic foot from January to September and $2.40 from October to December.

Some sellers also pay a storage utilization surcharge. Amazon lists four conditions, and all must be true:

• You have a Professional selling account.
• Your first shipment to a US Amazon warehouse was more than 365 days ago.
• Your average daily stock in that size tier is 25 cubic feet or more.
• Your storage utilization ratio for that size tier is above 22 weeks. That is your average stored volume divided by your average shipped volume over the past 13 weeks, counted in weeks.

The surcharge applies only to stock stored more than 30 days.

Aged inventory surcharge

The aged inventory surcharge is added to storage for units held 181 days or more. It starts at $0.50 per cubic foot and climbs steeply. From 271 days it is $5.45 per cubic foot. Past 455 days it is $7.90 per cubic foot or $0.35 per unit, whichever is greater.

Inbound placement fee

The inbound placement service fee pays Amazon to spread your stock across its warehouses. Ship to one location and a large standard item of 12 oz to 1.5 lb costs $0.24 to $0.50. Ship to five or more locations, with at least five identical cartons or pallets per item, and there is no fee. Which options you are offered depends on your products and Amazon’s space.

Returns processing fee

The returns processing fee hits products that come back more often than their category allows. The return rate counts units shipped in a month that come back within that month or the next two. You pay only on returns above the threshold: 5.5% in Beauty, Health and Personal Care, 8.1% in Home and Kitchen. Apparel and shoes pay on every return. Products that shipped fewer than 25 units in the month are exempt.

Refund administration fee

When you refund a customer, Amazon credits back the referral fee, minus a refund administration fee. That fee is the lesser of $5 or 20% of the referral fee.

The ones people forget: coupons, deals and ads

• Coupons. Amazon charges $5 per coupon plus 2.5% of sales on redeemed coupons, with the variable part capped at $2,000. This is on top of the discount itself. Returns do not get it back.
• Deals. A Lightning Deal or Best Deal costs $70 per day plus 1% of sales outside peak events, charged even if the deal sells nothing. Peak events cost more.
• Advertising. Sponsored Products charge per click, at a bid you set. Divide the month’s ad spend by units sold to get a per-unit cost.

Worked example: one $24 bottle of hand soap

Illustrative numbers only. That bottle of hand soap sells through FBA. Packed, it measures 7.5 x 3 x 2.5 inches and weighs 1.1 lb. That makes it large standard. Its dimensional weight is about 0.4 lb, so the real weight sets the band: 1 to 1.25 lb. Say its fee category is Beauty, Health and Personal Care.

Here is one unit sold in July 2026, at Amazon’s rates as of September 2026. We read the surcharge as 3.5% of the fulfillment fee. Check the Revenue Calculator for your own product.

The returns allowance covers two fees, not the lost sale. A 6% return rate means 6 of every 100 units come back. Each costs a $0.72 refund administration fee, or $0.04 per unit sold. The threshold is 5.5%, so 0.5 extra returns per 100 units pay $3.70 each, or $0.02 per unit sold. The refunded $24 itself comes off net revenue.

Now sell the same bottle in November. The peak fulfillment fee is $5.53 with the surcharge, and two peak months of storage cost $0.16. What is left drops to $11.85. If both measures of cover also fall under 14 days, a $0.97 low-inventory-level fee takes it to $10.88. The product did not change. The calendar and the stock level did.

Which fees belong in contribution margin, and which in COGS

COGS (cost of goods sold) should be the landed cost of the product: factory price plus packaging, freight, duties and prep. See our guide to calculating COGS and landed cost.

Amazon’s fees belong in contribution margin, the money left after every cost that comes with each sale. In our contribution margin guide, referral, fulfillment, storage, returns and promotion fees sit in CM2, the margin after fees. Ad spend sits in CM3, the margin after ads.

Two fees need a decision:

• Inbound placement sits close to inbound freight. Some brands put it in landed cost, others in fulfillment. Practice varies. Pick one place and keep it there.
• Storage and aged inventory surcharges are charged on stock, not on sales. We recommend spreading them over units sold in the month they cover.

Where to see what you were actually charged

Amazon’s pricing page says Revenue Calculator results “are estimates only.” Actual charges show up in the Payments Transaction View, the SKU Economics report and the settlement report. The settlement lists every fee taken from each payout and ties to your bank deposit.

Where it goes wrong

Estimating fees from a calculator instead of the settlement

A calculator shows one product’s rate card on one day. When Amazon’s measurements differ from yours, Amazon uses its own. That can move a product into a higher band. And low-stock and returns fees never show up in a one-off estimate.

Storage and returns fees posted in a later month

June’s storage posts in July. The returns processing fee for June’s shipments posts in September. Placement fees post 45 days after Amazon receives the stock. Take fees in the month they post, and June looks better than it was. Book each fee back to the month it covers, and label recent months as not final.

Fee changes mid-year

A fee card built in March 2026 is already wrong. The 3.5% surcharge began on April 17, adding about $0.18 to our soap’s fulfillment fee. Peak rates begin October 15. Amazon announced the 2026 changes on October 15, 2025, with at least 90 days’ notice. Date every rate you use.

Size tier changing after a packaging change

Say a 3-pack of soap bars ships in a slim 0.7-inch box at 14 oz. That is small standard, at $3.91 in the $10 to $50 band. A new gift box 1.2 inches thick makes it large standard, at $4.60 if its dimensional weight stays under a pound. That is $0.69 more per unit, before the surcharge, from a design decision. Price the fees before you sign off on new packaging.

How to set up a per-unit fee view

1. Find each product’s fee category and size tier. Manage Inventory shows the fee category under estimated fees. The Monthly Storage Fees report shows size tier.
2. Build a dated fee card. List each product’s referral rate, fulfillment fee, surcharge and peak rate, with the date and the Amazon page used.
3. Pull charged fees from settlement every month. Map each fee type to its own line, not to “other”.
4. Book late fees back to their month. Storage to the month stored, returns fees to the shipment month, placement to its shipment.
5. Compare charged to estimated for each product. A lasting gap is usually a size tier, a low-stock fee or a returns fee.
6. Watch the triggers. Cover under 28 days, stock nearing 181 days old, a return rate near its threshold, and any Amazon fee announcement.

Do one thing this week. Set last month’s settlement fee lines against your own fee card, product by product. Where they disagree is margin you were not counting.

Synthesis labels every Amazon number with its revenue basis (settlement, orders or store gross sales), its period and its caveats, such as “this month is still in flight”. When two figures for the same metric and period disagree by more than 5%, the answer is flagged instead of one being quietly picked.