Important

Fees & Costs

Amazon FBA storage fee overhaul now live, corridor tightens H2

Max

7/3/2026

7 min

Summarize with AI

COO at Nova Analytics

Max leads operations at Nova Analytics, helping Amazon sellers optimize their business performance through data-driven insights and strategic automation.

Quick Summary

Effective July 1, 2026: standard storage moves to $0.87 per cubic foot Jan-Sept and $2.40 per cubic foot Oct-Dec
Aged-inventory surcharge trigger tightens from 271 to 180 days; $1.50 per cubic foot per month between 180 and 270 days
Long-term storage climbs toward $6.90 per cubic foot after 365 days
Action: rebuild the storage bill from the ASIN up, cull units crossing 180 days before Sept 30, tighten days of cover to 30 to 45 on stable ASINs, watch the low-inventory-fee tradeoff

Nova surfaces every Amazon fee, refund, and margin shift in your live P&L, across 21 marketplaces. Explore the live P&L

What changed on July 1

Amazon's revised FBA storage fee schedule took effect July 1, 2026, and Ecommerce Times reported the same day that the change is already forcing mid-market brands to rerun their inventory math for the back half of the year (Ecommerce Times, July 2, 2026 and companion storage-tiering piece, July 2, 2026).

Three changes matter for FBA operators. Monthly storage rates for standard-size units move to $0.87 per cubic foot from January to September and $2.40 per cubic foot from October to December, up from $0.76 and $2.10 respectively. The aged-inventory surcharge now triggers at 180 days rather than 271, with units between 180 and 270 days paying $1.50 per cubic foot per month on top of base storage. Long-term storage surcharges follow the same tightened aging window and can escalate to $6.90 per cubic foot after 365 days (Webgility 2026 long-term storage update). The low-inventory-level fee, unchanged in mechanics, still bites at under 28 days of cover, so brands now sit inside a narrower optimal band on both ends.

Marketplace Pulse analysts, quoted by Ecommerce Times, call this the "corridor problem": too much inventory triggers storage and aged-inventory fees; too little triggers the low-inventory fee. The corridor was already tight in 2025. In H2 2026, it is roughly half as wide.

Key numbers

Standard storage (Q4)

$2.40

Per cubic foot, Oct to Dec, up from $2.10

Aged-inventory trigger

180 days

Down from 271. Adds $1.50 per cubic foot per month between 180 and 270 days

Long-term ceiling

$6.90

Per cubic foot after 365 days

Timeline

Key Dates & Deadlines

May 29, 2026

Fee schedule confirmed

Amazon publishes the revised H2 storage schedule in Seller Central.

Jun 2026

Tool providers ship updates

Perpetua, Helium 10, Jungle Scout, and Viral Launch push storage cost simulators and aged-inventory risk scores.

Jul 1, 2026

New rates live

Higher per-cubic-foot rates, tighter aged-inventory window, and tightened long-term storage rules all take effect.

Aug and Sep 2026

Q4 replenishment window

Buying decisions in these two months determine the size of the Q4 storage bill.

Who gets hit hardest

Segment	Why the H2 change bites	First lever to pull
Home goods, furniture, kitchen	Bulky ASINs, longer sell-through cycles, and higher cubic-foot exposure per SKU.	Cull the slowest 20% of the catalog before Sept 30; route survivors through Amazon Outlet or a 3PL.
Seasonal apparel	Aging cliff at 180 days now overlaps with normal season-end residuals.	Run aggressive coupons or Lightning Deals in August, not November, to clear before the surcharge kicks in.
Cross-border brands using placement services	Inbound placement fees stack on top of higher storage; the total inbound-plus-storage cost per unit is what actually moved.	Model inbound-plus-storage as a single line, not two, before repricing.
Low-margin commodity ASINs	The corridor problem eats the last few points of contribution margin.	Decide honestly which ASINs still belong in FBA and which should convert to FBM.

What to do this week

1
Rebuild the storage bill from the ASIN up
Apply the new $0.87 and $2.40 per-cubic-foot rates plus the tighter aged surcharge to every ASIN by size tier and current age band. Do not rely on an old cost-per-unit estimate.
2
Identify units that will cross 180 days before Sept 30
Anything sitting since Q1 or early Q2 is the first liquidation candidate. Removal is $0.97 per standard unit versus the new $1.50 per cubic foot per month aged surcharge.
3
Rerun days-of-cover targets by cohort
The old 60 to 90-day buffer no longer pays for itself. Tighten to 30 to 45 days on stable ASINs and keep a higher buffer only where stockout cost exceeds the storage delta.
4
Split the P&L by fulfillment channel weekly
Track storage cost as a share of Amazon revenue by SKU cohort in Profit & Loss. When a cohort crosses a threshold, that is the trigger for a removal order or FBM conversion.
5
Watch the low-inventory-level fee tradeoff
Aggressively tightening cover to dodge storage fees pushes fast movers under the 28-day threshold. Model the low-inventory fee before every buy.

Related coverage

Nova guide: Amazon FBA storage fees - the full breakdown of the 2026 fee card and cubic-foot math.
2026 FBA fee increases - context on the full year's fee cycle.
Inbound placement fees - the other cost line that stacks on top of the new storage rates.
Low-inventory-level fee - the other end of the corridor problem.

How Nova helps

When storage economics move mid-year, the brands that hold margin are the ones that reprice per-SKU and per-cohort the same week, not the ones that discover the damage at month close.

Profit & Loss - reconciles 40+ Amazon fee types at SKU level so the H2 storage bill lands on the ASINs actually driving it.
FBA Inventory - days-of-cover, aged-inventory bands, and removal cost per SKU in one view.
Custom Breakdowns - group ASINs by size tier, age band, and category so removal, price, and channel decisions run against a real cohort P&L.
Winners & Losers - flag the ASINs where the H2 storage change moved contribution margin the most.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about this topic

Standard-size monthly storage moved to $0.87 per cubic foot (January to September) and $2.40 per cubic foot (October to December). The aged-inventory surcharge now triggers at 180 days rather than 271, adding $1.50 per cubic foot per month for units between 180 and 270 days. Long-term storage surcharges follow the same tightened window and can climb toward $6.90 per cubic foot after 365 days.

The optimal inventory band has narrowed on both ends. Too much inventory triggers higher storage plus the earlier aged-inventory surcharge; too little inventory triggers the low-inventory-level fee under 28 days of cover. Sellers now sit inside a much tighter operating band and need real demand forecasting rather than static buffers.

Rebuild the storage bill from the ASIN up using the new rates, identify units that will cross 180 days before September 30 and liquidate or remove them, rerun days-of-cover targets by cohort (tighter on stable ASINs), split the P&L by fulfillment channel weekly, and always model the low-inventory-fee tradeoff before every buy.

Verified Sources

All information verified from official Amazon sources and trusted industry analysts as of publication date.

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