Amazon FBA Fees Explained: What You Really Pay Per Sale

The five fee types

1. Referral fee — Amazon's commission on each sale. 8–15% of the selling price depending on category. Books and electronics 8%; most categories 15%; jewellery up to 20%.
2. FBA fulfilment fee — covers picking, packing, shipping to the customer. Based on product size and weight. $3–$8 per unit for small standard; $8–$20+ for oversized.
3. Monthly storage fee — charged for the cube feet your inventory occupies. $0.83/cu ft Jan–Sep, $2.40/cu ft Oct–Dec (peak season).
4. Long-term storage fee — surcharge on inventory sitting in Amazon's warehouses for over 180 days, then 365 days. $1.50–$6.90/cu ft on top of standard storage.
5. Returns / disposal fees — Amazon charges for processing returns, disposing of unsellable stock, or removing stock back to you. $0.30–$1.20 per unit typically.

The optional-but-essential fees

• Advertising (Sponsored Products / Brands). Not technically a fee but functionally required to get visibility. Typical ACOS (Advertising Cost of Sale) is 15–35% of revenue from ads.
• Professional Seller account. $39.99/month flat (USA). Required above 40 sales/month.
• Inbound shipping to Amazon's fulfilment centres. You pay this; it's your cost of getting stock to them.

A worked example: $29.99 skincare product

Standard-size beauty product, 8oz bottle, sold via FBA in the US.

The same product sold direct (not via FBA) at $24.99 might net more: no referral fee, no FBA fulfilment, but you handle shipping and customer service yourself. The trade-off is volume — Amazon FBA gets you discoverability.

How to minimise FBA fees

• Get into the "small standard" size band. The fulfilment-fee jump from small standard to large standard is significant. Shrink your packaging if you're close to the boundary.
• Move inventory through fast. Long-term storage fees kick in at 180 days. Reduce reorder quantities if stock is sitting.
• Don't over-stock before peak. Q4 storage rates are 3× the rest of the year.
• Manage ACOS aggressively. Ads are the biggest cost on most listings. Negative keywords, dayparting, and pausing under-performers can cut ACOS 20–40%.

VAT / sales tax

US marketplace facilitator laws mean Amazon collects and remits sales tax on your behalf in nearly all states — you don't see it. UK and EU sellers face VAT directly: Amazon charges VAT on the selling price, you remit it if VAT-registered. SA: VAT applies on standard-rated digital goods sold to SA buyers.

Run your own numbers

Use the Ecommerce Profit Calculator with the Amazon FBA preset (15% platform fee pre-filled) plus your shipping, ads, and product cost to see true per-unit profit.

Bottom line

• Amazon FBA fees typically take 30–50% of the selling price.
• Referral (8–15%), fulfilment ($3–$8), storage, and ads are the four major buckets.
• Aim for ≥30% net margin per unit to survive returns, ad cost spikes, and seasonality.
• Manage inventory turnover to avoid long-term storage and peak-season storage premiums.