Amazon FBA Profit Calculator — Referral, Fulfillment & Storage Fees (2026)
Amazon takes three separate cuts from an FBA sale: a referral fee of 8–45% by category, a fulfillment fee set by the packed size and weight, and monthly storage. On a $29.99 Home & Kitchen item weighing 12 oz, that is $4.50 referral, $5.37 fulfillment and $0.15 storage — leaving $10.95 profit after a $7.5 product cost. Rates below follow Amazon's published US rate card effective 2026-01-15.
| Sale price | $29.99 |
|---|---|
| Referral fee (15.0%) | −$4.50 |
| FBA fulfillment fee — Large standard | −$5.37 |
| Storage (2 mo) | −$0.15 |
| Professional plan, amortised | −$0.27 |
| Product cost | −$7.50 |
| Ship to Amazon | −$0.85 |
| Prep, labels & other costs | −$0.40 |
| Size tierFits within 18 x 14 x 8 in and weighs 20 lb or less. | Large standard |
| Billable weightDimensional weight (18.65 oz) exceeded the actual weight, so Amazon bills the larger figure. | 22.65 oz |
| Net profit per unit | $10.95 |
Dimensional weight is driving your fulfillment fee. Shrinking the package is worth more than shaving grams off the product.
How the Amazon FBA fee calculation works
Three Amazon charges apply to every FBA sale, and they are calculated from three different things. Getting a profit estimate right means getting all three right, because they do not move together.
The referral fee
A percentage of the total sales price, set by category. Most categories are 15%. The outliers matter: Amazon Device Accessories is 45%, Consumer Electronics and Computers are 8%, and several categories are banded by price. Clothing & Accessories charges 5% below $15, 10% from $15 to $20, and 17% above $20 — so a $20.99 shirt pays $3.57 while a $19.99 shirt pays $2.00. A minimum referral fee of $0.30 applies per item in most categories.
Two categories work differently again. Jewelry charges 20% on the first $250 and 5% on the portion above it — a genuinely marginal calculation, not a banded one. Applying 20% to the whole price of a $600 piece overstates the fee by $105. This calculator applies the marginal method where Amazon does and the banded method where Amazon does, which is the main reason its numbers differ from simpler tools.
The fulfillment fee, and why dimensional weight decides it
The fulfillment fee is not a percentage. It is a lookup: Amazon determines a size tier from the packed dimensions, then reads a fee from a weight table for that tier. The weight it uses is billable weight, and above the small-standard tier that is the greater of the actual weight and the dimensional weight, plus packaging.
This is where estimates fall apart. A pillow weighing 14 oz in a 16 × 12 × 6 inch box has a dimensional weight of 1,152 ÷ 139 = 8.29 lb. Amazon bills it as an 8.29 lb item, not a 14 oz one — a fulfillment fee difference of several dollars per unit. For light, bulky products, reducing the box by an inch in each direction is worth far more than shaving weight off the product.
Storage
Charged monthly per cubic foot, and it roughly triples in the fourth quarter. Standard-size inventory costs $0.78 per cubic foot per month from January to September and $2.40 from October to December. Oversize is $0.56 and $1.40. Slow-moving stock sitting through Q4 is the version of this that surprises people.
A worked example with real numbers
A 9 × 6 × 3 inch kitchen product, 12 oz, sold at $29.99
Cost from the supplier is $7.5, inbound freight is $0.85 a unit, and prep is $0.4. It sells in Home & Kitchen and sits in the warehouse about 2 months before selling.
Step 1 — size tier. The packed dimensions are 9 × 6 × 3 in, which exceeds the small-standard envelope of 15 × 12 × 0.75 in on the height, so it lands in Large standard. Dimensional weight is (9 × 6 × 3) ÷ 139 = 1.17 lb = 18.65 oz. Actual weight is 12 oz, so billable weight is the dimensional figure plus 4 oz of packaging = 22.65 oz.
Step 2 — the three fees.
| Charge | How it is worked out | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Referral fee | 15% of $29.99 | $4.50 |
| FBA fulfillment | Large standard table at 22.65 oz | $5.37 |
| Storage | 0.0938 cu ft × $0.78 × 2 months | $0.15 |
| Professional plan | $39.99 ÷ 150 units | $0.27 |
| Total Amazon fees | $10.29 | |
| Product cost | from supplier | $7.50 |
| Inbound + prep | freight and labels | $1.25 |
| Net profit | $10.95 |
Step 3 — what that means. Net margin is 36.5% and ROI on the $8.75 you laid out is 125%. The break-even sale price is $17.11 — below that the product loses money on every unit, which is the number to keep in mind before matching a competitor's price cut.
Who this is for
Anyone deciding whether a product is worth sourcing, and anyone auditing why a product that looked profitable in a spreadsheet is not. It is most useful at two moments: before you place a first order with a supplier, and when a competitor drops their price and you need to know how far you can follow them.
It is also the fastest way to see whether packaging is your problem. Enter your current box dimensions, then enter dimensions an inch smaller in each direction. If the fulfillment fee drops, you have found money that costs nothing but a conversation with your supplier.
What this does not account for
Stated plainly, because a profit estimate that quietly omits costs is worse than no estimate:
- Advertising. PPC is usually the largest single cost after Amazon's own fees, and it is not modelled here at all. A product at 20% margin in this calculator may be at 5% after ACoS.
- Returns and refunds. Amazon refunds the referral fee but keeps a portion, and the fulfillment fee is generally not returned. Categories with 15–30% return rates behave very differently.
- Inbound placement, low-inventory-level, and aged-inventory fees. All are situational and all are real. See the first FAQ.
- Sales tax and income tax. Marketplace facilitator rules mean Amazon collects and remits sales tax in every US state, so it does not touch your margin — but income tax on the profit does. Use the self-employment tax calculator for that layer.
- Currency conversion if you are paid into a non-USD account.
Sources and dates
Every rate in this calculator comes from Amazon Seller Central's own published fee pages for the US marketplace, listed in full below with the date they were last checked. Amazon revises the FBA rate card at least annually and has made mid-year changes; if a figure here disagrees with what Seller Central shows you today, trust Seller Central and tell us so it gets fixed.
Questions people actually ask about this
Why is my actual Amazon fee higher than this calculator says?
Four charges sit outside this estimate and catch sellers out in roughly this order of frequency:
- Inbound placement service fee — charged since 2024 when you send inventory to a single receiving centre instead of splitting the shipment across several. Splitting shipments reduces or removes it.
- Low-inventory-level fee — applies when your historical days of supply falls below Amazon's threshold for a size tier.
- Aged inventory surcharge — kicks in past 181 days in a fulfilment centre and rises steeply after 271 days.
- Returns processing fee — charged in high-return categories, notably Apparel and Shoes, on returns above the category threshold.
If your real fee is higher and none of those apply, the usual culprit is dimensional weight — see the size tier section above.
Does the referral fee apply to the shipping the buyer pays?
Yes, when you are a seller-fulfilled merchant setting your own shipping price. Amazon calculates the referral fee on the total sales price, which includes the item price plus any shipping or gift-wrap charges you collect. For FBA orders on Prime this rarely bites, because shipping is bundled into the item price and there is no separate shipping charge to be taxed twice.
What is the minimum referral fee?
$0.30 per item in most categories. On anything under about $2 the minimum is what you actually pay rather than the percentage. On a $1.50 item in a 15% category the percentage would be $0.23, so Amazon charges $0.30 — an effective rate of 20%. The calculator flags this when it happens.
Is the Professional plan worth $39.99 a month?
It pays for itself at about 40 units a month. The Individual plan charges $0.99 per item sold with no monthly fee, so the two cost the same at 40 units ($39.99 ÷ $0.99 ≈ 40). Below that, Individual is cheaper. Above it, Professional is — and Professional is also required for advertising, Buy Box eligibility, and bulk listing, which most sellers need well before they hit 40 units.
What margin should I be aiming for on FBA?
There is no universal answer, but the constraint most sellers work to is that net margin after all Amazon fees and landed cost needs to clear roughly 15–20% before advertising, because advertising then consumes a large share of what is left. A product showing 8% margin in this calculator before you have spent a cent on PPC is usually not viable. Use the break-even price figure to see how much room you have before a price war makes the product a loss.
Does this handle FBM (merchant fulfilled) instead of FBA?
Partly. Set the fulfillment inputs so the FBA fee is not applied — leave the dimensions at zero and put your own pick, pack, and postage cost into the "Prep & other" field. The referral fee is identical between FBA and FBM, so that part of the calculation holds either way.
Where these numbers come from
These rates have not yet been verified against the live source. They were seeded from published rate cards and are shown here for structure. Check the platform's own fee page before pricing anything.
Rate schedule version 2026.2, effective .