Amazon Seller Central fees: the full 2026 breakdown
Every fee a third-party seller can incur in Seller Central, where each one shows up, and how to reconcile net per unit across 40+ fee types.
Claude
Gemini
ChatGPTSeller Central is free to open. Selling on Amazon is not. Between the seller plan, referral fees, FBA fulfillment, storage, and the long tail of inbound, removal, low-inventory, and aged-inventory surcharges, there are 40+ distinct fee types A third-party seller can incur. Most of them are buried in different reports inside Seller Central, which is why so many sellers can describe their revenue precisely and their profit only vaguely. This guide is the full 2026 breakdown: what each fee is, where it shows up, and how to find your net of all of it. From the brand managers and agencies we work with, the brands that come out ahead are the ones with disciplined weekly reviews, not the cleverest tactics. From the brand managers and agencies we work with, the brands that come out ahead are the ones with disciplined weekly reviews, not the cleverest tactics.
Does Amazon Seller Central cost money?
Seller Central, the portal itself, is free. What costs money is the seller plan attached to it and the fees Amazon takes on each transaction.
- Individual plan: $0.99 per item sold, no monthly fee. Sensible if you sell fewer than 40 units a month.
- Professional plan: $39.99 per month, no per-item fee. Required for advertising, Brand Registry features, bulk listing tools, and any volume.
On top of the plan, every order incurs a referral fee (most categories: 15% of the total price), and if you fulfill through FBA you also pay fulfillment and storage Fees. Everything else is situational.
The seven fee families inside Seller Central
1. Referral fees
A percentage of the total price (item + shipping + gift wrap) Amazon takes on every order, regardless of fulfillment method. Most categories are 15%. Notable exceptions: Consumer Electronics 8%, Computers 8%, Cell Phone Devices 8%, Personal Care Appliances 15% to 8% tiered, Amazon Device Accessories 45%. There is also a $0.30 minimum per item.
2. FBA fulfillment fees
Charged per unit shipped when Amazon picks, packs, and delivers. Tiered by size and weight. 2026 rates start around $3.22 for small standard items and scale to $9.73+ for large standard items over 3 lbs. Oversized fees scale steeply with dimensional weight. Full breakdown in our 2026 FBA fee changes guide.
3. FBA storage fees
Monthly charge per cubic foot of inventory at Amazon's fulfillment centers. Two tiers: standard months (Jan to Sep) and peak months (Oct to Dec, roughly 3x the standard rate). On top of that, aged inventory surcharges Kick in at 181, 271, 331, and 365+ days. See FBA storage fees explained.
4. Inbound and placement fees
Since 2024, Amazon charges inbound placement fees when sellers ship to fewer than the optimal number of fulfillment centers. The fee can be avoided by accepting Amazon's optimized placement, but that splits inventory across more locations. There's also an inbound defect fee for missing, mislabeled, or excess units in a shipment.
5. Low-inventory-level fee
Introduced April 2024, kicks in when historical days of supply drops below 28 days. Calculated against the unit and applied during fulfillment. Functionally a penalty for running too lean on best-sellers.
6. Returns, removal, and disposal
FBA customer returns trigger a returns processing fee in some categories (Apparel, Watches, Jewelry, Shoes, Handbags, plus high-volume returners across all categories in 2026). Removal orders cost roughly $1.00 to $2.10 per unit depending on size. Disposal orders are cheaper but you lose the inventory.
7. Advertising spend
Sponsored Products, Brands, Display, and Sponsored TV are not transaction fees but pay-per-click ad spend. They sit in Advertising → Billing → Invoices, not in the Payments report, which is one of the reasons reconciling true profit from Seller Central alone is hard.
Get More Amazon Seller Tips
Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly insights, strategies, and market updates.
Where each fee actually shows up in Seller Central
The fee data is fragmented by design
No single report shows you all 40+ fee types in one place. That's the root cause of profit ambiguity for most sellers.
| Fee | Where to find it |
|---|---|
| Referral fees | Payments → Transaction View, per-order breakdown |
| FBA fulfillment fees | Payments → Transaction View; per-SKU forecast in Inventory → Manage FBA Inventory |
| Storage fees | Reports → Fulfillment → Monthly Storage Fees (posts after the 15th) |
| Aged inventory surcharge | Reports → Fulfillment → Aged Inventory Surcharge |
| Inbound placement fees | Inventory → Send to Amazon, shipment-level cost preview |
| Low-inventory-level fee | Reports → Fulfillment → Low-Inventory-Level Fee |
| Removal / disposal | Reports → Fulfillment → Removal Orders |
| Ad spend | Advertising → Billing → Invoices (separate billing system) |
How to actually know your net per unit
The Seller Central path: download the Settlement Report (14 days), download Storage Fees (monthly), download Ad Invoices (monthly), reconcile in a spreadsheet, join to your COGS file by SKU, subtract refunds, account for reimbursements. Doable for a single ASIN, painful at scale.
The faster path: a profit analytics layer that ingests Seller Central via SP-API, joins all 40+ fee types automatically, and shows net per unit, per SKU, per marketplace, per account, hourly. Nova does this, starting at $29/mo across 200+ Amazon metrics. Or, if you just need a quick estimate, run the free FBA profit calculator.
Worked example: net per unit on a $24.99 standard-size SKU
Headline revenue and net per unit are almost never the same number. The gap between them is where most sellers lose track of profitability. Walking through a single SKU end to end shows where every dollar goes.
Assumptions
Small standard-size kitchen accessory. Sale price $24.99. Category referral fee 15%. FBA fulfillment $3.86. COGS (landed) $5.50. Monthly storage allocated per unit $0.18. PPC allocated per unit sold $2.10. Return rate 6% with $1.50 return processing.
| Line | Amount | Running net |
|---|---|---|
| Sale price | +$24.99 | $24.99 |
| Referral fee (15%) | -$3.75 | $21.24 |
| FBA fulfillment | -$3.86 | $17.38 |
| Storage allocation | -$0.18 | $17.20 |
| PPC allocation | -$2.10 | $15.10 |
| Returns reserve (6% × $1.50) | -$0.09 | $15.01 |
| COGS | -$5.50 | $9.51 |
Headline revenue
$24.99
What Seller Central's Sales Dashboard shows.
Net per unit
$9.51
After all 40+ fee types, ads, and COGS.
Net margin
38%
Healthy. Most FBA SKUs land at 15% to 25%.
The Sales Dashboard says you made $24.99. You actually made $9.51. The difference is not noise. It is the gap that decides whether a SKU funds growth or quietly bleeds working capital.
Storage fees: standard vs peak math
Storage fees are the most under-modeled cost on the average seller's P&L because they shift seasonally and compound with aged inventory. The math is simple, but the impact is large.
| Period | Standard-size rate (per cu ft) | Oversize rate (per cu ft) |
|---|---|---|
| Jan to Sep (off-peak) | ~$0.78 | ~$0.56 |
| Oct to Dec (peak) | ~$2.40 | ~$1.40 |
A SKU sitting on 1,000 cubic feet of inventory for 12 months pays roughly $700/mo for nine months and $2,400/mo for three. That's $13,500 a year in storage alone, before aged-inventory surcharges layer on. Days of Inventory is the leading indicator. Watch it. FBA inventory tracking Surfaces it hourly per SKU.
Aged inventory surcharge tiers
On top of monthly storage, Amazon charges an aged-inventory surcharge once units have sat at a fulfillment center for 181 days or more. The rate scales steeply.
| Days at fulfillment center | Approximate surcharge (per cu ft, per month) |
|---|---|
| 181 to 270 | +$0.50 |
| 271 to 330 | +$4.00 |
| 331 to 365 | +$6.90 |
| 365+ | +$10.00 |
Why this fee kills slow-mover catalogs
A SKU stuck at 365+ days pays roughly $10 per cubic foot per month on top of Standard storage. For dimensional categories (cookware, sports gear), the all-in monthly cost per unit can exceed the COGS. The break-even decision (discount, bundle, removal, or disposal) needs to be made by day 150, not day 365.
Reimbursements: the fees Amazon owes back
Not every fee on your settlement is final. Amazon issues reimbursements for lost, damaged, and overcharged events: warehouse-damaged inventory, lost shipments, customer-return mismatches, weight or dimension misclassifications. Industry estimates put reimbursement-eligible events at roughly 1% to 3% of FBA revenue, and most of them are never claimed.
- Where they show up: Payments → Transaction View, filtered by type "Reimbursement".
- Claim window: 60 to 540 days depending on the event. Past the window, the money is gone.
- Common missed claims: Inbound shipment shortages, customer-returned units never returned to inventory, fee overcharges where Amazon's dimensions disagree with the actual unit.
Automating reimbursement reconciliation is one of the highest-ROI moves a seller can make. A profit analytics layer that audits every fee against the catalog manifest can flag eligible claims within hours, not months. Nova surfaces reimbursement-eligible events automatically alongside the rest of the P&L.
Keep reading
Ready to Transform Your Amazon Business?
Join thousands of successful sellers who use Nova Analytics to make data-driven decisions and maximize their profits.
Continue Learning
Explore more expert insights to grow your Amazon business
Amazon Seller Fees Explained 2026: Every Fee in One Place
Referral fees, FBA fulfillment, storage, inbound placement, returns, advertising, and 10 more. The complete reference guide to every Amazon seller fee with current rates.
How to Reduce Amazon FBA Fees: 12 Proven Strategies for 2026
Cut your Amazon FBA costs by 15-30% with these 12 actionable strategies. Optimize inbound placement, reduce storage fees, and improve profit margins using proven tactics.
Amazon Prime Day 2026 Profit Playbook
40% of sellers lose money on Prime Day despite record revenue. Here's how to select the right SKUs, set PPC guardrails, and calculate real profitability after the event.