Amazon Seller Fees in 2026: Every Official Number for Subscriptions, Referrals, FBA and Storage
Last updated: September 2026
30% to 45% of your sale price. That is the realistic total deduction Amazon takes from a typical physical-product seller once you add the subscription, the category referral fee, the per-unit minimum, and fulfillment through FBA — and the first number every new seller gets wrong. The official pages state the parts plainly enough: $0.99 per item sold on the Individual plan with no monthly subscription, or $39.99 per month on the Professional plan, plus a referral fee starting at 8% in consumer electronics and running to 15% in home and kitchen (with a $0.30 minimum per item), plus fulfillment and storage fees scaled by weight, size and season. What Amazon does not state anywhere is the total. This guide puts every official 2026 figure on one page, then computes a full margin example on a real product so you can see the number you will actually live with — not the 2020 figures still ranking in most fee roundups.
The confusion is structural, not accidental. Amazon splits its fee information across three separate pages — plans and referral fees on one, fulfillment costs on another, new-seller credits on a third — and most third-party articles either republish outdated tables or mix numbers from different marketplaces. The result is predictable: a seller calculates margin on incomplete figures, discovers the difference in the first settlement report, and spends the next quarter repricing. Below, every cost line is broken down exactly as published in September 2026, followed by a complete worked example and the five mistakes that consume new-seller margins fastest.
The Master Fee Table: Everything Amazon Deducts from One Seller
Before the details, here is the table that replaces ten open browser tabs — the seven line items that make up the full cost of selling, all from the official 2026 pages:
| Item | Official amount | When it is charged | Practical note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Individual plan | $0.99 per item sold | On each sale | No monthly subscription — fits sellers under 40 units/month |
| Professional plan | $39.99 per month | Monthly, fixed | Becomes cheaper than Individual above ~40 units/month |
| Referral fee (most categories) | 8% – 15% of sale price, $0.30 minimum | On each sale | Depends on product category — detailed table below |
| Media closing fee | $1.80 per item | On books, music, video sales | Added on top of the referral fee |
| FBA fulfillment fee | Scaled by price, weight and size | On each sale | Covers picking, packing, shipping, customer service, returns |
| Monthly storage | Per cubic foot occupied | Monthly | Rises during the October–December quarter |
| Aged inventory surcharge | Kicks in after 181 days | Monthly after threshold | New-seller storage and returns credits offset it temporarily |
Three of these seven items scale with actual sales; the rest are fixed or periodic. That distinction is exactly what breaks naive margin math — evaluating "the Amazon percentage" as one number guarantees a wrong answer.
Referral Fees: The Real Percentage by Product Category
The referral fee varies more than any other line, and the official table covers dozens of categories. The figures below are the examples actually published on the official pricing page — enough to understand the entire pricing logic:
| Category | Official rate | Computed on a $25 product |
|---|---|---|
| Home & Kitchen furniture | 15% | $3.75 fee |
| Consumer Electronics | 8% | $2.00 fee |
| Jewelry | 20% up to $250, 5% above | $300 product: $50 on first $250 + $2.50 on remaining $50 = $52.50 |
| Most other categories | Per official table, $0.30 minimum | Very cheap items pay the minimum, not the percentage |
The logic is consistent: high-ticket and bulky categories earn lower rates (electronics at 8%), while everyday home categories carry the top percentages. The $0.30 minimum is the trap that quietly consumes cheap products — on a $2 item it equals 15% of the price by itself, doubling the effective rate a seller assumed from the category table.
Add the media closing fee to that picture: any book, music or video item carries an extra $1.80 per unit. A used-book seller pricing at $5 pays the 15% referral ($0.75) plus $1.80 closing — Amazon takes $2.55 of the $5 before any shipping cost exists in the conversation.
Source: Amazon Selling Partners
$0.99 Plan or $39.99 Plan? The Exact Breakeven
The first question every new seller asks is which plan to choose. The answer is pure arithmetic. The Individual plan charges $0.99 on every unit sold; the Professional plan charges $39.99 per month regardless of volume. Breakeven: divide $39.99 by $0.99 and you get 40.4 units per month.
- Selling 20 units/month? Individual costs $19.80 — Professional would cost $39.99. Stay individual.
- Selling 60 units/month? Individual costs $59.40 — Professional costs $39.99. Switch immediately and save $19.41/month.
- At 200 units/month: $198 versus $39.99 — a $158 monthly gap, or $1,896 per year paid for nothing if you sit on the wrong plan.
But the arithmetic is only half the decision. The Professional plan is also the entry requirement for advertising on listings, export tools, advanced reporting, and most growth programs — none of which open on Individual. If you are building a brand rather than clearing inventory, the monthly fee pays for itself before you ever reach the breakeven volume.
FBA Fulfillment and Storage: How the Fees Actually Work
Fulfillment by Amazon is not priced as one number. The official page names three factors: product price, weight, and dimensions. The single fulfillment fee covers picking from the shelf, packing, shipping to the customer, customer service, and returns processing — a full replacement for a warehouse and a logistics team.
What most beginners miss are the fees attached around the fulfillment fee itself:
- Monthly storage — calculated on the cubic footage your inventory occupies. Rates rise seasonally, and the October–December quarter carries the highest pricing as every seller stocks up simultaneously.
- Aged inventory surcharge — inventory sitting in Amazon warehouses past 181 days starts incurring an additional monthly charge. Amazon does not want to be your long-term warehouse.
- Returns processing fees — every return carries processing cost, and high-return categories (sized apparel, electronics) pay for their return rates.
- Removal and disposal fees — pulling stranded inventory back out, or disposing of it, is charged per unit.
Two programs meaningfully offset these costs and deserve enrollment from day one. The first, FBA New Selection, grants free storage and free returns on your new listings, with automatic enrollment within 90 days of your first offer. The second, AWD (Amazon Warehousing and Distribution), is pay-as-you-go storage with no seasonal surcharges that automatically redistributes inventory toward fulfillment centers instead of letting it pile up in one location until the 181-day surcharge finds it.
The inbound side can be cheaper than most sellers realize. The official new-seller credits include $100 toward Partnered Carrier shipments, $200 in fulfillment credits through Amazon Global Logistics, and $400 toward inbound placement costs. These are published offers on the official FBA page, available once per new seller account — plan your first shipments so the credits get fully used rather than expiring unused.
Source: Amazon Selling Partners
Fully Computed Example: A $24.99 Product Selling 100 Units per Month
To turn the tables into a concrete picture, here is a complete margin calculation for a representative product: a kitchen accessory priced at $24.99, in the Home & Kitchen category (15% referral), selling 100 units per month on the Professional plan:
| Line | Calculation | Monthly amount |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Fixed | $39.99 |
| Referral fee | 100 × $24.99 × 15% | $374.85 |
| Gross revenue | 100 × $24.99 | $2,499.00 |
| Remaining before fulfillment and storage | $2,499 − $374.85 − $39.99 | $2,084.16 |
Notice the correct way to read this: Amazon has already taken 16.6% of revenue at this point (referral plus subscription) — not "15%." Adding the FBA fulfillment fee for a small standard-size unit — which the official calculator estimates before you ever list a product — typically pushes the total deduction to 30%–45% of the sale price depending on weight. That is the number your supplier cost, inbound shipping and profit margin must fit under — not the category percentage being shared around in seller forums.
The official tool for this calculation is the Revenue Calculator, free through Seller Central: enter any competitor's ASIN and see its actual fees before you manufacture or source a similar product. The Fee Preview report inside your account itemizes your own actual fees for the trailing period. Sellers who base decisions on those two tools instead of forum folklore start ahead of most of their competition.
One more line belongs in the total for sellers on the UK marketplace: VAT. If you sell to UK customers, value-added tax is not a footnote — it is a mandatory cost line, and non-resident sellers face registration rules with no turnover grace period. Our complete guide to UK VAT registration for non-resident Amazon sellers explains when registration becomes obligatory and what it costs — read it before your first UK sale, not after.
Sultan's Story from Jeddah: A $4,800 Lesson in Minimums and Aging Stock
Sultan, a seller from Jeddah who started in early 2025, imported phone cases at a $1.80 purchase cost and listed them at $3.99, assuming a "guaranteed" 55% margin. His first month closed at 340 units sold and roughly zero profit. The cause was double. First, the $0.30 referral minimum represented 7.5% of his price — double what sellers assume on cheap categories. Second, the aged inventory surcharge hit him in month seven: he had shipped a single batch equal to six months of sales, and the inventory crossed the 181-day threshold while sales crawled through the low season.
The fix he implemented — the same fix every serious seller applies after the first bruise — had three parts: raising the price to $6.99 with a redesigned product that justified it, splitting shipments into small monthly batches through AWD instead of one giant delivery, and opening the Revenue Calculator before every new sourcing decision. Eight months later he sold fewer units (210) and kept more than double the profit. The lesson is not "raise your prices" — it is: compute every line before you buy inventory, not after.
If you are where Sultan was — reviewing a pricing plan or a cost structure before committing budget — Truescho's consulting team works through these numbers with sellers session by session, so the tuition gets paid once instead of twice.
The Five Mistakes That Consume New-Seller Margin
- Computing on "the percentage" alone — the category rate is not the deduction: subscription, per-item minimum, closing fees and storage all join the equation.
- Staying on the Individual plan past 40 units/month — a silent annual loss exceeding $1,500.
- Six months of inventory sitting in FBA — the 181-day surcharge is designed to punish exactly this. Small, frequent shipments win consistently.
- Ignoring storage seasonality — a cubic foot in November costs more than in February; "stocking up early" can cost more than it saves.
- Skipping the Revenue Calculator before sourcing — every number in this guide is verifiable against your own product in two minutes on the official tool; skipping it means choosing blind numbers over documented ones.
Are Amazon's Fees Worth It in 2026?
The honest answer depends on your true margin after every line — not on "the Amazon percentage." A product above $15 in an 8% category with a supplier cost that leaves 40%+ after all deductions is an excellent business that builds assets. Competing on $4 products with thin sourcing margins loses to Amazon's seven line items every time, at any volume.
The fair comparison is also not "Amazon versus free." It is Amazon versus your next-best alternative: an independent store that needs hosting, payment processing, customer service and its own returns operation. For that route, our comparison of the best hosting for a small e-commerce store covers the infrastructure side, and our guide to cutting international transfer fees with Airwallex handles the stage after your first thousand dollars of profit. For the direction of the market itself, our analysis of Google's AI shopping entry sketches how marketplace competition shifts over the next two years.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Amazon take per sale in 2026?
Three core charges apply to every sale: the referral fee (8% in consumer electronics, 15% in home and kitchen, with a $0.30 per-item minimum), the FBA fulfillment fee scaled by size and weight, and either $0.99 per item on the Individual plan or the $39.99 monthly Professional subscription. US-marketplace sales tax is collected on top where applicable. The realistic combined total is 30%–45% of the sale price on a typical physical product.
Is selling on Amazon free?
Registering on the Individual plan carries no monthly subscription, but it is not free: $0.99 per item sold plus the category referral fee. The Professional plan at $39.99/month removes the per-item fee and unlocks advertising and growth tools. There is no genuinely free third path — anyone claiming otherwise is selling a course, not a fact.
What is the difference between the Individual and Professional plans?
Individual ($0.99 per item) suits sellers moving fewer than 40 units a month who do not need advanced tools. Professional ($39.99 monthly flat) becomes cheaper above roughly 40 units and unlocks advertising, advanced reports, export tools and growth programs. The practical rule: start Individual while validating a market, switch to Professional the moment sales stabilize above 35–40 units.
How do I check FBA fees for my product before selling it?
Use the official Revenue Calculator in Seller Central: enter your own ASIN or a similar competitor product and it returns the full fee stack — referral, fulfillment and storage — with projected net profit. The Fee Preview report inside your account itemizes your actual historical fees line by line. Pricing before consulting these two tools is guessing, not calculating.
What is the aged inventory surcharge and when does it apply?
An additional monthly charge on units stored in Amazon warehouses longer than 181 days, designed to push sellers into turning inventory rather than using FBA as permanent storage. Avoid it with small frequent shipments (AWD makes this easier), monthly monitoring of inventory age in Seller Central reports, and clearance discounts before the threshold rather than after.
Do FBA fees include storage?
No — fulfillment fees cover picking, packing, shipping, customer service and returns for each unit sold. Storage is billed separately, monthly, per cubic foot occupied, with higher rates in the October–December quarter, plus the aged inventory surcharge after 181 days. Budget storage as its own line from day one.
Is the Professional plan worth $39.99 per month?
Arithmetically, yes above 40 units sold per month. Strategically, it is often worth it earlier: advertising, buy-box eligibility tools, advanced reports and export capabilities are gated behind Professional, and brand builders need those long before hitting breakeven volume. Pure arithmetic says 40 units; brand strategy frequently says month one.
Are Amazon's fees the same in every country?
The fee structure — subscription, referral, fulfillment, storage — exists on every Amazon marketplace, but the rates and amounts differ by marketplace, and regions such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE publish their own local fee schedules. The figures in this guide come from the official US pages; if your primary marketplace is amazon.sa, amazon.ae or another regional store, pull its local pricing page before running your numbers.
Your Next Step: Calculate Before You Pay
The number to leave this page with is not "the Amazon percentage" — it is an equation with seven lines: subscription, category referral, per-item minimum, media closing where relevant, fulfillment scaled to your weight, storage scaled to your volume, and the aged-inventory clock. Open the official pricing page, then the Revenue Calculator, and plug in your own product. If the result is positive after every line, you are looking at a business that can scale. If it is negative, you just saved yourself the first loss before it happened.
And because most losses in this market happen in the gap between "read" and "applied," the fastest route to correct execution remains a session with someone who has run the numbers on live accounts: book a consultation with Truescho and start your first month in the market with a transparent equation instead of surprises.
Sources
- Official Amazon seller pricing page — plans, referral fees and the rates used throughout this guide
- Official Amazon FBA page — fulfillment cost components, storage programs and new-seller credits
- Official Revenue Calculator for sellers — the pre-sourcing fee tool