Amazon FBA Fees Explained | What Does It Cost to Sell on Amazon FBA?
What They Are, How Much They Cost, and How to Calculate Them Correctly
If you’ve ever looked into selling on Amazon FBA, you’ve probably heard a vague warning about “fees.”
What most guides never tell you is which fees exist, how they stack together, and how quickly they can erase profit if you don’t model them correctly.
Understanding Amazon FBA fees is not optional. It’s the difference between building a profitable business and unknowingly selling at a loss.
This guide breaks down:
what Amazon FBA fees actually are
how Amazon FBA costs show up in real businesses
how to calculate Amazon FBA fees accurately
and why most sellers underestimate them
At the end of this page, you’ll find an Amazon FBA fees calculator that lets you run the math properly before you commit capital.
What Are Amazon FBA Fees
Amazon FBA fees are the costs Amazon charges you to use their fulfillment infrastructure, customer base, and platform.
When you sell through FBA, Amazon handles storage, picking, packing, shipping, returns, and customer service. Every one of those services has a cost.
The mistake most sellers make is thinking about fees individually instead of as a system. Fees compound. Margins disappear slowly, then all at once.
The Core Amazon FBA Costs You Need to Know
Here are the major categories of Amazon FBA fees that affect profitability.
1. FBA Fulfillment Fees
This is the fee Amazon charges to pick, pack, and ship each unit.
Fulfillment fees depend on:
product size tier
package weight
package dimensions
Small differences in packaging can push a product into a higher size tier, dramatically increasing Amazon FBA costs per unit.
This is one of the most common margin killers.
2. Amazon Referral Fees
Amazon charges a referral fee on nearly every sale. This is essentially Amazon’s commission for letting you sell on their platform.
Referral fees are typically a percentage of the retail price and vary by category.
This fee comes straight off the top, before you account for fulfillment, ads, or cost of goods.
3. Advertising Costs
Almost every product selling on Amazon FBA requires advertising, especially at launch.
Advertising spend is not technically an Amazon FBA fee, but it is a real cost of selling on Amazon FBA and must be included when calculating profitability.
Ignoring ad spend is one of the fastest ways to believe a product is profitable when it isn’t.
4. Inventory Storage Fees
Amazon charges monthly storage fees based on how much space your inventory occupies in their warehouses.
Storage costs depend on:
cubic footage
time of year (peak vs non-peak)
standard vs oversize items
These fees are small per unit, but they compound quickly if inventory turns slowly.
5. Inbound Placement and Transportation Fees
When you send inventory into Amazon’s network, you may incur:
inbound placement fees
transportation fees if you use Amazon-partnered carriers
These fees often get overlooked in early calculations, even though they affect landed cost per unit.
6. Removal and Return Processing Fees
If inventory needs to be removed from FBA, Amazon charges a removal fee.
Returns also carry processing fees. While returns are unavoidable, high return rates quietly destroy margins over time.
A healthy business plans for returns instead of pretending they won’t happen.
7. Aged Inventory Surcharges
If inventory sits too long, Amazon penalizes you.
Once inventory crosses certain age thresholds, storage fees increase sharply. In extreme cases, storage costs can exceed the product’s cost of goods.
This fee exists to force sellers to manage inventory responsibly.
8. Coupon Redemption Fees
Running coupons on Amazon triggers an additional per-redemption fee, on top of the discount itself.
Coupons can increase conversion, but they must be modeled carefully. Otherwise, they reduce profit more than expected.
Why Amazon FBA Fees Feel Overwhelming
When sellers first see the full list of Amazon FBA fees, the reaction is often the same:
“How does anyone make money?”
The answer is margin discipline.
Amazon FBA is unforgiving if your gross margin is weak. Fees do not scale down just because your product economics are thin.
Gross Margin Is the Real Constraint
Gross margin is the difference between your retail price and your landed cost of goods.
If your gross margin is too low, no optimization can save you. Ads, listings, and reviews cannot overcome bad math.
As a general guideline:
70 percent gross margin is healthy
60 percent can work with discipline
50 percent and below becomes extremely difficult
Most sellers who struggle with selling on Amazon FBA fees are not being “overcharged.” They are under-marginized.
The Two Levers That Control Profitability
There are only two levers that meaningfully improve profitability on Amazon FBA.
Increase Retail Price
Higher retail prices increase margin, but only if:
product quality supports the price
listing quality supports the price
return rates stay stable
Price increases without infrastructure usually backfire.
Lower Landed Cost of Goods
Lowering cost of goods improves margin, but quality has a floor.
Cut too far and:
reviews drop
returns rise
conversion falls
The goal is not cheapest. The goal is highest quality at the lowest sustainable cost.
Why You Need to Calculate Amazon FBA Fees Before Launch
Most sellers calculate fees after they order inventory.
That is backwards.
You should calculate Amazon FBA fees at the idea stage, before you commit capital. This includes:
referral fees
fulfillment fees by size tier
storage assumptions
advertising assumptions
landed cost of goods
This is the only way to know if a product can support profit.
Use the Amazon FBA Fees Calculator Below
At the bottom of this page, you’ll find an Amazon FBA fees calculator designed to do this math properly.
It lets you:
estimate Amazon FBA fees per unit
see profit before and after ads
understand how package size and weight affect costs
scale unit economics into total revenue and profit
Whether you already know your product or are still estimating, the calculator helps you answer the most important question:
Does this product actually make money after Amazon takes its cut?
If you want to sell on Amazon FBA profitably, this is where every decision should start.
How to Use the Amazon FBA Fee Calculator
This calculator is designed to answer one question clearly:
Does this product make money on Amazon after all real costs are included?
Most people only look at price and manufacturing cost. That is how they end up surprised later. Amazon profitability lives in the gaps between fees, logistics, and advertising. This tool forces those numbers into the open.
You can use it whether you already have a product in mind or you are just estimating ideas.
Step 1: Product Context
This section sets the assumptions Amazon uses to charge you fees.
Do you know the product?
If you already know what you want to sell, select “Yes.” This keeps pricing and packaging inputs visible.
If you are still exploring ideas, the calculator can still estimate fees without locking you into a product.
Category
Amazon referral fees vary by category. Selecting the correct category gives you a realistic referral fee estimate.
Product description
Optional. This helps you keep track of what you are modeling, especially if you are testing multiple ideas.
Referral fee %
This is Amazon’s commission for letting you sell on their platform.
Most categories sit around 15%, but some are higher or lower. This fee is taken directly from revenue.
Step 2: Price and Cost Inputs
This is where unit economics begin.
Retail price
The price a customer pays on Amazon. Every other number in the calculator works backward from this.
COGS (landed)
Your true cost per unit. This should include manufacturing, freight, duties, and any per-unit logistics costs.
If you only enter factory cost, your profit will be overstated.
TACoS %
This is your Total Advertising Cost of Sale.
It represents how much of your revenue you expect to spend on ads. The calculator uses this to estimate profit after ads, not just before.
Storage season
Amazon storage fees change throughout the year.
Off-peak is cheaper. Peak season is significantly more expensive. This matters more than most sellers realize.
Step 3: Package Weight and Dimensions
Amazon does not charge fulfillment fees based on guesswork. They charge based on size tier.
Packaged weight
The actual shipping weight of the product in its packaging.
Packaged dimensions
Length, width, and height of the boxed product. These determine dimensional weight and size tier.
Use dimensional weight
Amazon charges based on whichever is greater: actual weight or dimensional weight.
Turning this on reflects how Amazon actually bills most products.
Once these fields are filled out, the calculator determines your Amazon size tier and billable weight automatically.
Step 4: Calculate
When you click Calculate, the calculator does three things instantly:
Determines your Amazon size tier
Applies the correct FBA fulfillment and storage fee logic
Breaks profitability down line by line
This is where most sellers finally see the full picture.
Profitability Breakdown Explained
This section shows per-unit math, starting at revenue and subtracting costs one by one.
Retail price
What the customer pays.
Referral fee
Amazon’s percentage cut of the sale.
FBA fulfillment fee
What Amazon charges to pick, pack, ship, and handle the order.
Monthly storage (per unit)
Your share of Amazon warehouse storage costs.
COGS (landed)
What it actually costs you to produce and deliver the product.
Profit before ads
What is left before advertising spend.
Ads (TACoS %)
Estimated ad spend per unit based on your TACoS assumption.
Profit after ads
What the business actually earns per unit.
This is the number that matters.
Scale Breakdown Explained
This section answers a different question:
What happens if this product actually sells?
You can adjust units sold to see how one good decision or one bad decision scales over time.
Total revenue
Retail price multiplied by units sold.
Total profit before ads
Gross operating profit before advertising.
Total ad spend
Total dollars spent on ads at your assumed TACoS.
Total profit after ads
What the business keeps after everything.
This turns a product idea into a forecast, not a guess.
What This Calculator Is Really For
This tool is not meant to make Amazon look easy.
It is meant to make the economics honest.
If a product does not work here, it will not work in the real world.
If it does work here, it is worth deeper analysis.
Use it to eliminate bad ideas quickly, stress-test good ones, and understand where margin is actually created or destroyed.
At the bottom of this page, you can run as many scenarios as you want.
If you want help interpreting the results or turning a profitable model into a managed Amazon business, that is the next step.
