How much does Amazon take? Referral and FBA fees by price
Amazon takes a referral fee of about 15% of the sale price in most categories, and if you use FBA it also charges a fulfilment fee of roughly $3.15 to $9.61 per unit depending on size and weight, plus a $39.99 per month Professional selling plan fee spread across everything you sell. On a $35 sale of a large-standard-size item, that comes to $5.25 in referral fee and $5.52 in FBA fulfilment — $10.77 total, or 30.8% of the sale price, taken before you have paid a cent for the product itself. The percentage is not fixed: Amazon's total cut is 46.5% on a $10 item and 18.8% on a $250 item, because the fixed-dollar fulfilment fee shrinks as a share of price while the referral percentage stays flat.
What Amazon takes at every price point
This is the table most sellers are actually looking for. All rows use the standard 15% referral rate and a typical FBA fulfilment fee for a product likely to sell at that price. The last column is what lands in your account before you subtract product cost.
| Sale price | Referral fee (15%) | Typical FBA fee | Amazon's total cut | Cut as % of price | You receive |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10.00 | $1.50 | $3.15 | $4.65 | 46.5% | $5.35 |
| $15.00 | $2.25 | $3.65 | $5.90 | 39.3% | $9.10 |
| $20.00 | $3.00 | $3.90 | $6.90 | 34.5% | $13.10 |
| $25.00 | $3.75 | $4.55 | $8.30 | 33.2% | $16.70 |
| $35.00 | $5.25 | $5.52 | $10.77 | 30.8% | $24.23 |
| $50.00 | $7.50 | $6.05 | $13.55 | 27.1% | $36.45 |
| $75.00 | $11.25 | $6.62 | $17.87 | 23.8% | $57.13 |
| $100.00 | $15.00 | $6.92 | $21.92 | 21.9% | $78.08 |
| $150.00 | $22.50 | $7.56 | $30.06 | 20.0% | $119.94 |
| $250.00 | $37.50 | $9.61 | $47.11 | 18.8% | $202.89 |
The shape of that table is the single most useful thing to understand about selling on Amazon. Under about $15, fulfilment eats a third of everything you charge, which is why cheap, light, low-priced products are the hardest place to make FBA work. Above about $50 the fulfilment fee becomes almost incidental and the referral percentage dominates. Run your own price against the Amazon FBA Profit Calculator to see the same breakdown with your actual product cost included.
Storage is deliberately left out of that table because it depends on how long a unit sits. Add it and the numbers move by cents for small items and by dollars for big ones — covered below.
Amazon referral fees by category: the 8% to 45% spread
Most sellers assume 15% and most sellers are right, because the majority of categories sit there. But the range runs from 8% to 45%, and picking the wrong assumption at the sourcing stage can be the difference between a product that works and one that quietly loses money on every unit.
| Category | 2026 US referral rate |
|---|---|
| Consumer Electronics, Computers, Cell Phone Devices | 8% |
| Full-Size Appliances, Base Equipment Power Tools | 8–12% |
| Automotive & Powersports, Industrial & Scientific | 12% |
| Home & Kitchen, Toys & Games, Sports, Pet Products, Office | 15% |
| Books, Music, Video, DVD | 15% |
| Beauty, Health & Personal Care, Grocery (above $10–$15) | 15% |
| Clothing & Accessories (items $20 and above) | 17% |
| Jewelry (on the portion up to $250) | 20% |
| Gift Cards | 20% |
| Amazon Device Accessories | 45% |
Several categories are tiered rather than flat. Clothing charges 5% under $15, 10% between $15 and $20, and 17% at $20 and above. Beauty, Health & Personal Care, and Baby Products charge 8% on items priced at $10 or less and 15% above that. Jewelry charges 20% up to $250 and 5% on the portion beyond. Furniture charges 15% up to $200 and 10% above. Verify your specific category against Amazon's published schedule before you commit to a purchase order — these tier boundaries move.
Here is what the spread costs in dollars on an identical $40 item carrying a $4.55 fulfilment fee:
| Referral rate | Referral fee | Amazon's total cut | Cut as % of price | You receive |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8% | $3.20 | $7.75 | 19.4% | $32.25 |
| 15% | $6.00 | $10.55 | 26.4% | $29.45 |
| 17% | $6.80 | $11.35 | 28.4% | $28.65 |
| 20% | $8.00 | $12.55 | 31.4% | $27.45 |
| 45% | $18.00 | $22.55 | 56.4% | $17.45 |
Between the 8% categories and the 45% one there is $14.80 per unit on the same $40 price. At 500 units a year that is $7,400 of difference created by nothing but a category code.
FBA fulfilment fees by size tier in 2026
Amazon measures each unit fully packaged, then places it in a size tier, then charges by shipping weight within that tier. Shipping weight is the greater of actual weight and dimensional weight for larger items, so a light but bulky product is billed as though it were heavy.
| Size tier | Limits | Weight band | 2026 US fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small standard | 15 × 12 × 0.75 in, up to 16 oz | 2 oz or less | $3.06 |
| Small standard | 2–4 oz | $3.15 | |
| Small standard | 4–6 oz | $3.24 | |
| Small standard | 6–8 oz | $3.33 | |
| Small standard | 8–12 oz | $3.43–$3.53 | |
| Small standard | 12–16 oz | $3.60–$3.65 | |
| Large standard | 18 × 14 × 8 in, up to 20 lb | 4 oz or less | $3.68 |
| Large standard | 4–8 oz | $3.90 | |
| Large standard | 8–12 oz | $4.15 | |
| Large standard | 12–16 oz | $4.55 | |
| Large standard | 1–1.25 lb | $4.99 | |
| Large standard | 1.5–1.75 lb | $5.52 | |
| Large standard | 2–2.5 lb | $6.05 | |
| Large standard | 2.5–3 lb | $6.62 | |
| Large standard | 3 lb and above | $6.92 + $0.08 per additional 4 oz | |
| Large bulky | up to 50 lb | any | $9.61 base |
A 5 lb large standard unit therefore costs $6.92 plus eight increments of $0.08, which is $7.56. A 10 lb unit costs $6.92 plus twenty-eight increments, which is $9.16. Apparel, dangerous goods and low-price programme items run on separate schedules. Treat everything here as a planning figure and confirm against Amazon's current rate card before pricing.
How half an inch changes your FBA fee
Size tiers are cliffs, not slopes. Crossing one costs real money and it usually happens by accident, in packaging, after the product has already been ordered.
| Product state | Measurement | Tier | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| As designed | 14.5 × 10 × 0.7 in, 15.5 oz | Small standard | $3.65 |
| After adding a bubble mailer and insert | 14.5 × 10 × 0.9 in, 17 oz | Large standard, 1–1.25 lb | $4.99 |
| Difference per unit | $1.34 |
Two-tenths of an inch of packaging and an ounce and a half of insert cost $1.34 per unit. At 1,000 units a year that is $1,340 — real money, created entirely by a decision nobody tracked. The 0.75 inch small-standard height limit is the one that catches most sellers, because it is far tighter than people expect and includes the poly bag, the insert card and any air pillow.
Three things pay for themselves here: measure the packaged unit rather than the bare product, check the dimensions Amazon has recorded against your own measurements after the first shipment lands, and request a re-measure if Amazon's cubiscan disagrees with you. Amazon bills from its own measurement, not yours.
Storage fees, Q4 surcharges, and aged inventory
Monthly storage is charged on the average daily volume your inventory occupies, in cubic feet. Standard-size rates in 2026 are around $0.78 per cubic foot from January through September and around $2.40 per cubic foot from October through December. That Q4 rate is more than three times the base rate, and it applies for the three months when most sellers hold the most stock.
| Unit size | Cubic feet | Jan–Sep, per month | Oct–Dec, per month | Aged surcharge at 271–300 days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 × 6 × 2 in | 0.0625 | $0.05 | $0.15 | $0.24 |
| 12 × 9 × 3 in | 0.1875 | $0.15 | $0.45 | $0.71 |
| 18 × 14 × 8 in | 1.1667 | $0.91 | $2.80 | $4.43 |
For a small unit, storage is genuinely a rounding error — five cents a month. For a full large-standard box it is $0.91 a month rising to $2.80 in Q4, which on a $35 product is most of a percentage point of margin per month of sitting still.
The aged inventory surcharge is where storage turns dangerous. It starts at 181 days and steps up sharply: roughly $0.50 per cubic foot at 181–210 days, $1.50 at 241–270 days, $3.80 at 271–300 days, and about $6.90 per cubic foot once a unit passes 365 days. A large-standard box that has sat for a year is being charged over $8 a month to exist. Slow movers do not merely tie up cash — they actively bill you. There is also a low-inventory-level fee applied when your on-hand cover runs too thin relative to demand, and a storage utilisation surcharge for sellers holding far more volume than they sell, both of which reward keeping stock levels close to actual sell-through.
The $39.99 Professional plan: when it pays for itself
There are two account types. Individual costs nothing monthly and charges $0.99 per item sold. Professional costs $39.99 per month and charges no per-item fee. Referral and FBA fees are identical on both.
| Units sold per month | Individual plan cost | Professional plan cost | Better choice |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | $9.90 | $39.99 | Individual, by $30.09 |
| 25 | $24.75 | $39.99 | Individual, by $15.24 |
| 40 | $39.60 | $39.99 | Individual, by $0.39 |
| 41 | $40.59 | $39.99 | Professional, by $0.60 |
| 100 | $99.00 | $39.99 | Professional, by $59.01 |
| 300 | $297.00 | $39.99 | Professional, by $257.01 |
Break-even units per month = $39.99 ÷ $0.99 = 40.39, so the 41st unit is the one that tips it.
Cost is not the whole decision. Professional unlocks the Buy Box, bulk listing, Amazon advertising, restricted categories and API access — so most sellers who intend to grow should take it well before unit 41 and treat the $39.99 as a fixed cost. Spread across 300 units it is 13 cents a unit; across 10 units it is $4.00 a unit, which on a $10 product is 40% of the price. If you are still testing, stay on Individual.
The $0.30 minimum referral fee on cheap items
Amazon applies a floor of $0.30 to the referral fee. Below a certain price the percentage becomes irrelevant and you simply pay thirty cents.
| Sale price | 15% of price | Referral actually charged | Effective referral rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| $0.99 | $0.15 | $0.30 | 30.3% |
| $1.50 | $0.23 | $0.30 | 20.0% |
| $2.00 | $0.30 | $0.30 | 15.0% |
| $3.00 | $0.45 | $0.45 | 15.0% |
At a 15% referral rate the floor binds on anything priced under $2.00. Combine a $0.30 minimum referral with a $3.06 fulfilment fee and a sub-$2 FBA item is losing money before you count the product. This is the arithmetic behind the whole category of sellers who bundle: two units at $7.99 pay one fulfilment fee, not two.
What a return actually costs you
Returns are the fee category sellers most consistently underestimate, because three separate charges stack on one returned unit.
First, when you refund a buyer Amazon keeps a refund administration fee of 20% of the referral fee, capped at $5.00. Second, the original FBA fulfilment fee is not refunded. Third, in apparel and shoes — and in any category whose return rate exceeds Amazon's published threshold — a returns processing fee roughly equal to the fulfilment fee is charged on the return itself.
| Item price | Referral at 15% | Refund administration fee |
|---|---|---|
| $35 | $5.25 | $1.05 |
| $100 | $15.00 | $3.00 |
| $200 | $30.00 | $5.00 (capped) |
| $500 | $75.00 | $5.00 (capped) |
Take a $35 apparel item at the 17% clothing rate with a $5.52 fulfilment fee. A normal sale on a $8.00 product with $1.50 of inbound freight nets $13.53, a 38.66% margin and 142.42% ROI. Now price in returns:
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Refund administration fee (20% of $5.95 referral) | $1.19 |
| Original fulfilment fee, not refunded | $5.52 |
| Returns processing fee | $5.52 |
| Direct cost of one return | $12.23 |
| Spread across a 10% return rate | $1.22 per sale |
| Net profit after returns | $12.31 |
| Margin after returns | 35.17% |
| ROI after returns | 129.58% |
A 10% return rate costs nearly three and a half points of margin, and that assumes the unit comes back sellable. If it does not, add the landed cost of the unit on top. Apparel routinely returns at 20–30%, which is why the category's 17% referral rate understates its real cost by a wide margin. If you also charge buyers a restocking fee on your own non-Amazon channels, the Restocking Fee Calculator works out what that recovers.
FBA vs FBM on the same $35 sale
Fulfilled by Merchant means you hold the stock and ship each order yourself. You pay no fulfilment fee and no storage fee, but you pay postage, packaging and your own time.
| Line | FBA | FBM |
|---|---|---|
| Sale price | $35.00 | $35.00 |
| Referral fee (15%) | $5.25 | $5.25 |
| FBA fulfilment fee | $5.52 | — |
| Monthly storage | $0.50 | — |
| Your own postage + packaging | — | $7.40 |
| Product cost | $8.00 | $8.00 |
| Inbound freight to Amazon | $1.50 | — |
| Net profit | $14.23 | $14.35 |
| Margin | 40.66% | 41.00% |
| ROI on cash committed | 149.79% | 93.18% |
On profit alone FBM wins by twelve cents, which is a rounding error. The ROI figures diverge because the calculator measures return against product cost plus whatever you enter in the shipping field, and for FBM that field carries $7.40 of outbound postage rather than $1.50 of inbound freight.
The real decision is not this table. FBA units carry the Prime badge and convert substantially better, which usually matters more than twelve cents. FBM wins clearly for heavy or bulky items where the fulfilment fee balloons, for slow sellers where storage and aged surcharges compound, and for anything you can ship cheaply from an area with good regional rates. Many sellers run both, using FBM as overflow when FBA stock runs out. There is a full breakdown in Amazon FBA vs FBM.
Why ROI, not margin, should decide what you buy
Margin tells you what share of the sale price you keep. ROI tells you how hard your cash is working. They routinely disagree, and when they do, ROI is the one that determines how fast your business grows, because you can only buy as much inventory as your bank balance allows.
Margin = net profit ÷ sale price
ROI = net profit ÷ cash invested per unit
Annualised ROI = ROI × (12 ÷ months to sell through)
Three real products, each with a 15% referral fee:
| A: $35 item | B: $60 item | C: $22 item | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Landed unit cost | $9.50 | $18.00 | $7.00 |
| Referral fee | $5.25 | $9.00 | $3.30 |
| FBA fee | $5.52 | $6.05 | $3.90 |
| Net profit per unit | $14.73 | $26.95 | $7.80 |
| Margin | 42.09% | 44.92% | 35.45% |
| ROI per turn | 155.05% | 149.72% | 111.43% |
| Months to sell through | 3 | 12 | 1.5 |
| Inventory turns per year | 4.0 | 1.0 | 8.0 |
| Annualised ROI | 620.21% | 149.72% | 891.43% |
| Break-even sale price | $17.67 | $28.29 | $12.82 |
Product B has the best margin and the worst outcome. Product C has the worst margin, the worst per-unit ROI and the highest annualised return, because the same $7 of cash comes back eight times a year instead of once. Judged on margin you would buy B. Judged on how quickly your money returns to be spent again, C is nearly six times better.
That gap is exactly what the Amazon ROI Calculator exists to expose — it takes your price, landed cost, referral rate, FBA fee and expected months to sell, and returns per-unit ROI, annualised ROI, cash recycled per year and the break-even price below which the product stops earning. It is new on the site and it is the tool to reach for before a purchase order, not after.
Two cautions. Fast turns only help if you can restock in time, so a 1.5-month sell-through paired with a 90-day supplier lead time means stockouts, not compounding. And annualised ROI assumes you actually redeploy the cash; money sitting in the bank between buys earns nothing.
Getting your landed cost right first
Every figure above depends on one input that sellers get wrong more often than any other: what the unit truly cost you delivered. The supplier invoice is not the landed cost. Add ocean or air freight, customs duty, harbour and merchandise processing fees, customs broker charges, drayage, prep and labelling, and the inspection you paid for. A $6.00 factory price frequently lands at $9.50 or more, and that is the number ROI is measured against.
Work it out properly with the Landed Cost Calculator before you plug anything into the FBA math. Getting it wrong by $2 on a $35 product moves ROI by roughly 30 percentage points, which is more than any fee decision in this article.
Once the landed cost is solid, three checks are worth running. Use the Profit Margin Calculator to confirm the margin you are pricing to. Use the Break-Even Calculator to find how many units cover your fixed costs including the $39.99 plan fee. And if you are running Sponsored Products, the Break-Even ROAS Calculator tells you the ad return below which each sale costs you money — Amazon advertising is a fee too, just one you choose.
If you sell on more than one channel, the Marketplace Fee Comparison puts Amazon side by side with eBay, Etsy and Walmart on the same order, and the full cross-platform dataset is in Online Marketplace Seller Fees Statistics.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Amazon take per sale?
In most categories Amazon takes 15% of the sale price as a referral fee. If you use FBA, add a fulfilment fee of about $3.15 to $9.61 depending on size and weight. On a typical $35 large-standard item that is $5.25 plus $5.52, or $10.77 total, which is 30.8% of the sale price. On a $100 item the same structure takes $21.92, or 21.9%.
What percentage does Amazon take from sellers?
Between 8% and 45% as a referral fee, depending on category. Consumer electronics and computers pay 8%. Most categories — home, kitchen, toys, sports, pets, beauty above $10 — pay 15%. Clothing over $20 pays 17%, jewelry pays 20% on the first $250, and Amazon Device Accessories pays 45%. There is also a $0.30 minimum referral fee, which binds on anything priced under $2.00 at the 15% rate.
Is Amazon FBA worth it in 2026?
It depends on unit economics, not on FBA in the abstract. On a $35 item costing $9.50 landed, FBA leaves $14.23 of profit at a 40.66% margin and 149.79% ROI, and the Prime badge lifts conversion enough to usually beat self-fulfilment. FBA works badly for items under about $15, for heavy or bulky products where the fulfilment fee balloons, and for slow sellers that trip the aged inventory surcharge past 181 days.
How do I calculate Amazon ROI?
Divide net profit per unit by the cash you actually invested per unit — landed product cost plus prep, but not Amazon's fees, because those come out of the buyer's payment rather than your bank account. A $35 item with $9.50 landed cost, a $5.25 referral fee and a $5.52 FBA fee nets $14.73, which is 155.05% ROI. Then multiply by 12 divided by months to sell through to annualise it. The Amazon ROI Calculator does all of it including break-even price.
Do I need the $39.99 Professional plan?
Only above roughly 40 units a month on cost grounds, since the Individual plan charges $0.99 per item and $39.99 divided by $0.99 is 40.39 units. But Professional also unlocks the Buy Box, Amazon advertising, bulk listing and restricted categories, so most sellers who intend to grow should take it earlier and treat it as a fixed cost.
What happens to Amazon's fees when a customer returns an item?
Amazon refunds the referral fee but keeps 20% of it as a refund administration fee, capped at $5.00. The original fulfilment fee is not returned. In apparel and shoes, and in any category over Amazon's return rate threshold, a returns processing fee roughly equal to the fulfilment fee is charged as well. On a $35 apparel item that stacks to $12.23 per return, which at a 10% return rate costs $1.22 on every sale.
All rates on this page are 2026 US rates for standard, non-dangerous-goods products, and are planning figures rather than quotes. Amazon revises its referral, fulfilment and storage schedules regularly, and several categories use price-tiered rates that shift at specific thresholds. Confirm your exact numbers against Amazon's current published fee schedule in Seller Central before committing to a purchase order, then run them through the Amazon FBA Profit Calculator and the Amazon ROI Calculator. For the wider picture on what fees do to a catalogue, see How to Reduce Seller Fees and Hidden Costs That Eat E-commerce Profit.