Amazon FBA Profit Calculator

A $35 product sold through Amazon FBA nets $14.23 in 2026. Amazon takes $11.27 of that sale price — a $5.25 referral fee at the standard 15% rate, a $5.52 fulfilment fee for a large-standard unit, and $0.50 of monthly storage — which is 32.2% of the price before you have paid for anything yourself. Subtract $8.00 of product cost and $1.50 of inbound freight and you keep $14.23: a 40.66% margin and a 149.79% ROI on the $9.50 of cash tied up in every unit.

Margin and ROI decide whether a product is worth buying, and they disagree more often than sellers expect. This guide covers the full seller economics: every fee in the stack, how category and size tier move it, what storage, returns and advertising remove, and why ROI should drive a purchase order. For Amazon's cut price point by price point, see how much does Amazon take.

What does Amazon actually take from an FBA sale?

Four charges land on every unit and they behave differently. Referral is a percentage, so it scales with price. Fulfilment is a flat per-unit charge set by size and weight. Storage is billed by volume and time. Product cost and inbound freight are cash you spent months earlier.

Line	Amount	Share of sale price
Sale price	$35.00	100%
Referral fee (15%)	−$5.25	15.00%
FBA fulfilment fee (large standard, 1.5–1.75 lb)	−$5.52	15.77%
Monthly storage	−$0.50	1.43%
Total Amazon fees	−$11.27	32.20%
Product cost	−$8.00	22.86%
Inbound freight to Amazon	−$1.50	4.29%
Net profit	$14.23	40.66%

Fulfilment costs 15.77% of this sale price — slightly more than the referral fee — but it is exactly $5.52 whether the item sells for $20 or $60. That is why price is such a strong lever on Amazon: move this listing from $35 to $40 and you add $5.00 of revenue against only $0.75 of extra referral fee, so $4.25 reaches the bottom line. Net profit becomes $18.48, margin 46.20% and ROI 194.53% on the same $9.50 of cash. The Amazon FBA Profit Calculator recalculates every row above as you type.

Amazon referral fees by category in 2026: the 8% to 45% spread

Most sellers assume 15% and most are right, because the majority of categories sit there. The published range runs from 8% to 45%, and assuming wrong at the sourcing stage is the difference between a product that funds the next purchase order and one that quietly loses money.

Category (2026, US)	Referral rate	Fee on a $35 sale	Net profit	Margin	ROI
Consumer Electronics, Computers, Cell Phone Devices	8%	$2.80	$16.68	47.66%	175.58%
Automotive, Industrial & Scientific, Base Power Tools	12%	$4.20	$15.28	43.66%	160.84%
Home & Kitchen, Toys, Sports, Pet, Office, Books	15%	$5.25	$14.23	40.66%	149.79%
Clothing & Accessories ($20 and above)	17%	$5.95	$13.53	38.66%	142.42%
Jewelry (up to $250), Gift Cards	20%	$7.00	$12.48	35.66%	131.37%
Amazon Device Accessories	45%	$15.75	$3.73	10.66%	39.26%

Only the category code changes across those rows — same $9.50 landed cost, same $5.52 fulfilment fee — and it swings net profit from $16.68 to $3.73.

Several categories are tiered rather than flat, which is where mistakes come from. Clothing charges 5% under $15, 10% from $15 to $20 and 17% at $20 and above — so $19.99 and $20.00 are not a cent apart, they are 7 percentage points apart. Beauty and Baby charge 8% at $10 or less and 15% above; Jewelry 20% up to $250 and 5% beyond; Furniture 15% up to $200 and 10% above. Confirm your exact category and price tier against Amazon's current schedule before a purchase order, because those boundaries move.

FBA fulfilment fees by size tier, and the half-inch that costs $1.34

Amazon measures the unit fully packaged, assigns it a size tier, then charges by shipping weight within it. Shipping weight is the greater of actual and dimensional weight for larger items, so a light but bulky product is billed as though it were heavy.

Size tier	Packaged limits	Shipping weight	2026 US fee
Small standard	15 × 12 × 0.75 in, up to 16 oz	2 oz or less	$3.06
Small standard		12–16 oz	$3.65
Large standard	18 × 14 × 8 in, up to 20 lb	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		2.5–3 lb	$6.62
Large standard		3 lb and above	$6.92 + $0.08 per extra 4 oz
Large bulky	up to 50 lb	any	$9.61 base

A 9 lb large-standard unit is $6.92 plus twenty-four increments of $0.08, or $8.84. Apparel, dangerous goods and low-price programme items run on separate schedules.

Tiers are cliffs, not slopes, and the 0.75 inch small-standard height limit is tighter than most people expect — it includes the poly bag, the insert card and any air pillow. Take a $19.99 product costing $5.00 with $0.75 of inbound freight and 8 cents of storage:

Packaged as	Tier and fee	Net profit	Margin	ROI
14.5 × 10 × 0.7 in, 15.5 oz	Small standard, $3.65	$7.51	37.57%	130.61%
14.5 × 10 × 0.9 in, 17 oz	Large standard, $4.99	$6.17	30.87%	107.30%

Two-tenths of an inch of packaging and an ounce and a half of insert cost $1.34 per unit — 6.7 points of margin and 23 points of ROI, on a product nobody changed. At 1,000 units a year that is $1,340. Measure the packaged unit, check Amazon's recorded dimensions against your own after the first shipment lands, and request a re-measure if the cubiscan disagrees; Amazon bills from its measurement, not yours.

Storage fees, Q4 surcharges and the aged inventory trap

Monthly storage is charged on the average daily volume your stock occupies: about $0.78 per cubic foot from January through September and about $2.40 per cubic foot from October through December. That is more than triple, applied in the three months when most sellers hold the most inventory.

A 12 × 9 × 3 inch box is 0.1875 cubic feet. Here is what one costs to keep, per month, as it ages:

Inventory age	Base storage	Aged surcharge	Total per month
0–180 days, Jan–Sep	$0.15	—	$0.15
0–180 days, Oct–Dec	$0.45	—	$0.45
181–210 days	$0.15	$0.09	$0.24
241–270 days	$0.15	$0.28	$0.43
271–300 days	$0.15	$0.71	$0.86
365 days and over	$0.15	$1.29	$1.44

Fifteen cents a month is a rounding error, which is why sellers ignore storage and get hurt by it. The aged surcharge is the real mechanism: it begins at 181 days and steps up to roughly $6.90 per cubic foot past a year. A unit that has sat twelve months is billed $1.44 a month to exist — 4.11% of a $35 sale price, for doing nothing. Amazon also charges a low-inventory-level fee when cover runs thin, and a utilisation surcharge for holding more volume than you sell.

The $39.99 Professional plan and the 41-unit break-even

There are two selling accounts. Individual costs nothing monthly and charges $0.99 per item sold. Professional costs $39.99 per month with no per-item fee. Referral and FBA fees are identical on both.

Units sold per month	Individual plan	Professional plan	Cheaper option
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
250	$247.50	$39.99	Professional, by $207.51
500	$495.00	$39.99	Professional, by $455.01

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 argument. Professional unlocks the Buy Box, bulk listing, advertising, restricted categories and API access, so anyone intending to grow should take it well before unit 41. Spread across 100 units it is 40 cents each, dropping the $35 example to $13.83 net, 39.51% margin and 145.58% ROI. The Break-Even Calculator shows how many units cover it and your other fixed costs.

The $0.30 minimum referral fee and why cheap FBA products fail

Amazon applies a floor of $0.30 to the referral fee. Below a certain price the percentage stops mattering and you simply pay thirty cents.

Sale price	15% of price	Referral charged	Effective referral rate
$0.99	$0.15	$0.30	30.30%
$1.49	$0.22	$0.30	20.13%
$2.00	$0.30	$0.30	15.00%
$3.00	$0.45	$0.45	15.00%

At 15% the floor binds under $2.00. In an 8% category it binds under $3.75; at 45%, only under $0.67.

The floor is rarely the real problem though — the flat fulfilment fee is. Sell a $1.99 item costing $0.40 with 5 cents of inbound freight and a $3.06 small-standard fee and you lose $1.84 on every sale, a −92.46% margin, before any advertising. Bundle four at $7.99, pay one $4.15 fulfilment fee instead of four $3.06 ones, and the same product nets $0.80 at 44.44% ROI. That is why multipacks dominate the cheap end of Amazon: one order pays one fulfilment fee whatever is inside.

What a return actually costs an FBA seller

Returns are the fee sellers most consistently understate, because up to three charges stack on one unit. Amazon keeps a refund administration fee of 20% of the referral fee, capped at $5.00. The original fulfilment fee is not refunded. And in apparel, shoes and any category whose return rate exceeds Amazon's threshold, a returns processing fee roughly equal to the fulfilment fee is charged on the return.

On the $35 example that is $1.05 of refund administration plus the $5.52 fulfilment fee already paid — $6.57 per return. On a $35 apparel item at the 17% rate with a returns processing fee, it is $1.19 + $5.52 + $5.52 = $12.23.

Return rate	Cost per unit sold, 15% category	Cost per unit sold, apparel with processing fee
5%	$0.33	$0.61
10%	$0.66	$1.22
15%	$0.99	$1.83
25%	$1.64	$3.06
30%	$1.97	$3.67

A 10% return rate takes the $35 unit from $14.23 to $13.57 — margin 38.77%, ROI 142.84%. Apparel returning at 25% loses $3.06 per unit sold, which is why that category's 17% referral rate understates its true cost. All of it assumes the unit comes back sellable; when it does not, add the full landed cost. If you charge a restocking fee on your own channels, the Restocking Fee Calculator shows what it recovers.

FBA vs FBM on the same product

Fulfilled by Merchant means you hold the stock and ship each order yourself: no fulfilment fee, no storage fee, but you pay postage, packaging and your time. Two products, run both ways:

Line	$35 item, FBA	$35 item, FBM	$79.99 item (9 lb), FBA	$79.99 item (9 lb), FBM
Sale price	$35.00	$35.00	$79.99	$79.99
Referral fee (15%)	$5.25	$5.25	$12.00	$12.00
FBA fulfilment fee	$5.52	—	$8.84	—
Monthly storage	$0.50	—	$1.10	—
Your postage and packaging	—	$7.40	—	$11.50
Product cost	$8.00	$8.00	$22.00	$22.00
Inbound freight to Amazon	$1.50	—	$3.20	—
Net profit	$14.23	$14.35	$32.85	$34.49
Margin	40.66%	41.00%	41.07%	43.12%
ROI on cash committed	149.79%	93.18%	130.36%	102.96%

On the light item FBM wins by twelve cents, a rounding error. On the 9 lb item it wins by $1.64, because the fulfilment fee grows with weight while a regional ground rate does not grow as fast. The ROI columns move the other way in both cases: with FBM the outbound postage is cash committed per unit, so the same profit is earned against a larger investment base.

None of which is the real decision. FBA units carry the Prime badge and convert substantially better, and a few points of conversion outweigh $1.64 many times over. FBM wins on heavy or bulky items, on slow sellers where aged surcharges compound, and as overflow when FBA stock runs out.

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 ROI is what sets growth rate, 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 products, all at a 15% referral rate:

	A: $28.99 item	B: $89.00 item	C: $16.49 item
Landed cost + inbound	$7.20	$33.50	$4.65
Referral fee	$4.35	$13.35	$2.47
FBA fee + storage	$4.75	$8.22	$3.71
Net profit per unit	$12.69	$33.93	$5.66
Margin	43.77%	38.12%	34.32%
ROI per turn	176.25%	101.28%	121.72%
Months to sell through	2	9	1.5
Inventory turns per year	6.0	1.3	8.0
Annualised ROI	1,057.50%	135.04%	973.76%
Annual profit on $5,000 of capital	$52,875	$6,752	$48,688

Product B earns the largest profit per unit — $33.93 against $5.66 — and is the worst product on the list. The same $5,000 of working capital returns about $6,752 a year in B and about $48,688 in C, because C's cash comes back eight times a year instead of 1.3. Judged on per-unit profit you would buy B every time.

That gap is what the Amazon ROI Calculator exists to expose. New on the site, it takes price, landed cost, referral rate, FBA fee and months to sell, and returns per-unit ROI, annualised ROI, cash recycled per year and the break-even price. Fast turns only compound if you can restock in time, and annualised ROI assumes you redeploy the cash.

All of it depends on one input sellers get wrong more than any other: what the unit truly cost delivered. Take 1,000 units at $5.20 with $1,150 of freight, $80 insurance, 6.5% duty on the CIF value and $175 of brokerage — duty is $417.95, the shipment totals $7,022.95, and the landed cost is $7.02 a unit, 35% above the invoice price. Price the $28.99 product off $5.20 and you think you are earning $14.69 at 282.50% ROI; off the true $7.02 you earn $12.87 at 183.33%. A $1.82 error moved ROI by 99 percentage points, more than any fee decision on this page. Settle it in the Landed Cost Calculator first.

How advertising changes every number above

Sponsored Products is a fee too — just one you choose. It comes out of the same $14.23 the fee stack left, and is usually the largest line after Amazon's cut.

Ad spend per unit sold	ACOS	Net profit	Margin	ROI
$0.00	0%	$14.23	40.66%	149.79%
$2.00	5.71%	$12.23	34.94%	128.74%
$4.00	11.43%	$10.23	29.23%	107.68%
$7.00	20.00%	$7.23	20.66%	76.11%
$10.00	28.57%	$4.23	12.09%	44.53%
$14.23	40.66%	$0.00	0.00%	0.00%

Break-even ACOS is simply your contribution margin: 40.66% here. Spend more per sale and the unit loses money. Break-even ROAS is $35.00 ÷ $14.23 = 2.46, and the most you can pay to acquire an order is $14.23. Both come out of the Break-Even ROAS Calculator, which also gives the ROAS needed to hit a target margin rather than zero.

Fee decisions and ad decisions are therefore the same decision. Dropping a size tier by $1.34 does not just add $1.34 of profit — it raises break-even ACOS by nearly four points, which buys more aggressive bidding and faster turns.

What a real FBA month looks like

Per-unit figures flatter the business, because account-level costs are missing. Here is a month at 300 units of the $35 product, with a 10% ACOS and a 5% return rate.

Line	Monthly	Per unit	% of revenue
Revenue (300 × $35)	$10,500.00	$35.00	100%
Referral fees (15%)	−$1,575.00	−$5.25	15.00%
FBA fulfilment fees	−$1,656.00	−$5.52	15.77%
Storage	−$150.00	−$0.50	1.43%
Product cost	−$2,400.00	−$8.00	22.86%
Inbound freight	−$450.00	−$1.50	4.29%
Calculator net profit	$4,269.00	$14.23	40.66%
Professional plan	−$39.99	−$0.13	0.38%
Advertising at 10% ACOS	−$1,050.00	−$3.50	10.00%
Returns at 5%	−$98.55	−$0.33	0.94%
Real net profit	$3,080.46	$10.27	29.34%

A 40.66% per-unit margin is a 29.34% business, and the 149.79% headline ROI is 108.09% once account costs come out. None of it appears in a per-unit fee calculation, which is why sellers who model only the unit are surprised by their bank balance. Check the target with the Profit Margin Calculator; if you sell on more than one channel, the Marketplace Fee Comparison puts the same order through Amazon, eBay, Etsy and Walmart, and how to reduce seller fees covers the levers channel by channel.

Common mistakes

Assuming 15% without checking the price tier. Clothing at $19.99 pays 10% and at $20.00 pays 17%. Beauty flips from 8% to 15% at $10. A cent either side of a boundary changes the referral fee by dollars.

Measuring the product instead of the package. Amazon bills the tier of the fully packaged unit including the poly bag, insert and dunnage. Two-tenths of an inch across the 0.75 inch height limit cost $1.34 a unit above — 23 points of ROI.

Treating the supplier invoice as the cost. Freight, duty, insurance and brokerage added 35% to a $5.20 invoice price. ROI is measured against the landed number, and a $1.82 error moves it further than any fee here.

Modelling returns as cost-neutral. A refunded unit costs the non-refunded fulfilment fee plus 20% of the referral fee, and in apparel a returns processing fee on top. At a 25% return rate that is $3.06 per unit sold.

Leaving advertising out of the unit economics. A 10% ACOS is $3.50 on a $35 sale — a quarter of the profit the fee calculator showed. Break-even ACOS equals contribution margin, so know it before you set a bid.

Choosing products on per-unit profit. The highest-margin product above returned $6,752 a year on $5,000 of capital against $48,688 for the lowest-margin one. How to price products for profit works the same trade-off from the pricing side.

Related calculators

• Amazon ROI Calculator — per-unit and annualised ROI, cash recycled per year, and the break-even price
• Landed Cost Calculator — freight, duty, insurance and brokerage folded into a true unit cost
• Break-Even ROAS Calculator — the ad return below which each Amazon sale costs you money
• Profit Margin Calculator — check the margin you are pricing to once every cost is in
• Marketplace Fee Comparison — Amazon against eBay, Etsy, Walmart and Shopify on the same order
• Break-Even Calculator — units needed to cover the $39.99 plan fee and your fixed costs