Amazon fees and margin by category
Two questions decide whether a category is worth selling in: what Amazon takes out of every sale, and what is left once your own product cost is paid. Nova measured both across its own panel of Amazon sellers over July to August 2026, and the answers are further apart than the published rate cards suggest.
Data as of 2026-09-09. Source: Nova first-party panel, methodology.
This page is the data hub: the full tables, the measurement window and the downloadable dataset. If you want the same numbers written up with strategy around them, the Amazon profit margins by category guide covers how to read them against your own catalogue, and the FBA profit margins guide covers what to do when a category is tighter than you expected.
How to read this data
Category attribution comes from the Amazon BSR display group, a field that was backfilled progressively: it covers 3.3% of sales in October 2025 and 76.5% in August 2026. This is a July to August 2026 snapshot at roughly 70% category coverage, not a twelve-month trend. Coverage improves every month.
Category names are normalised across marketplace languages, so Home & Kitchen here includes its German, French, Spanish, Italian and Dutch equivalents, and the same applies to the others.
The two tables rest on different panels, so the same category can show a different total take in each. Read each table on its own terms and do not subtract one from the other.
Categories where the sample was too thin or too concentrated to publish responsibly are not shown.
What Amazon takes in each category
Amazon's total take runs from 27.3% of sales in Home & Kitchen to 39% in Grocery. That is the sum of referral commission, FBA fulfilment, storage, inbound placement and the other Amazon-charged lines, measured against sales.
The difference is fulfilment, not the referral fee
Category guides usually compare Amazon referral fee percentages. On real seller data that is the part that barely moves: referral commission sits between 12.8% and 16.5% of sales across every category here, a spread of under four points. FBA fulfilment runs from 10% in Home & Kitchen to 22.5% in Grocery, more than double. If you are choosing what to sell on Amazon, the decisive variables are unit size, weight and how many units ship per order, because those set the fulfilment fee.
What Amazon takes, by category
Percent of sales, except refund rate which is a share of units and inbound placement which is basis points of sales. July to August 2026.
| Category | Amazon take | Referral | FBA fulfilment | Storage | Inbound placement | Refund rate | Discount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grocery | 39.0% | 12.8% | 22.5% | 1.61% | 36 bp | 1.76% | 2.82% |
| Office Products | 38.4% | 14.4% | 21.3% | 0.89% | 67 bp | 2.16% | 1.42% |
| Toys & Games | 32.2% | 14.6% | 14.2% | 1.75% | 29 bp | 4.23% | 0.95% |
| Industrial & Scientific | 31.7% | 14.4% | 14.6% | 0.99% | 51 bp | 3.21% | 1.29% |
| Health & Personal Care | 30.2% | 13.9% | 15.1% | 1.01% | 21 bp | 2.28% | 4.05% |
| Clothing & Accessories | 30.1% | 16.5% | 13.0% | 1.28% | 31 bp | 9.87% | 0.93% |
| Sports & Outdoors | 28.8% | 14.1% | 12.5% | 0.97% | 30 bp | 5.93% | 1.87% |
| Home & Kitchen | 27.3% | 14.4% | 10.0% | 1.58% | 40 bp | 6.11% | 0.45% |
Percentages are of sales, except the refund rate which is a share of units and inbound placement which is in basis points of sales. Panel: the wider panel of Amazon sellers, with no cost of goods requirement.
Which categories carry the highest returns
The Amazon return rate is a category property before it is a listing problem. It ranges from 1.76% of units in Grocery to 9.87% in Clothing & Accessories, a spread of more than five times, which is wider than any fee gap in the same table. In sizing-driven categories the returns line, not the fee line, is what decides the unit economics.
What is left before advertising
Amazon profit margin only means something once your own cost of goods is in the picture. On the narrower panel of sellers who maintain cost of goods in Nova, margin before advertising ranges from 15% of sales in Grocery to 35.5% in Clothing & Accessories. Everything you spend on ads comes out of that number, so in the tighter categories a mid single digit ACOS target is not conservative, it is the whole budget.
What is left after Amazon and cost of goods, before advertising
Percent of sales, margin stated before advertising. July to August 2026.
| Category | Amazon take | Cost of goods | Margin before advertising |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clothing & Accessories | 32.4% | 16.8% | 35.5% |
| Health & Personal Care | 32.7% | 28.5% | 28.0% |
| Home & Kitchen | 34.5% | 32.0% | 21.2% |
| Grocery | 44.0% | 34.7% | 15.0% |
All figures are a share of sales, and margin is stated before advertising. Panel: the narrower panel of Amazon sellers who maintain cost of goods in Nova.
These figures may be republished with attribution to Nova first-party panel and a link to the methodology page.
See these numbers for your own catalogue
Nova reads every Amazon fee line straight from Seller Central and shows net profit per unit, per SKU, per marketplace. Compare your own take rate against the category above.