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Selling on Amazon typically costs between 8% and 15% in referral fees per sale, depending on your product category, plus fulfillment and account fees on top. Whether you're launching an eCommerce website or learning how to sell on Amazon, understanding the full cost breakdown upfront will help you protect your margins. Wix integrates eCommerce stores with Amazon, eBay and Google marketplaces, making it easy to manage all your sales channels from one place.
This guide walks you through every Amazon selling fee, from mandatory charges to optional upgrades, with tips on how to reduce your costs.
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TL;DR: how much does it cost to sell on Amazon
Selling on Amazon costs $0.99 per item sold on an Individual plan or $39.99 per month on a Professional plan, plus a referral fee on every sale and per-unit fulfillment charges if Amazon ships your orders. What you actually pay depends on your product category, the size and weight of each package and whether you or Amazon handles fulfillment.
Cost | What you pay |
|---|---|
Selling plan | $0.99 per item sold on the Individual plan, or $39.99 per month on the Professional plan |
Referral fee | A percentage of the total sales price set by category, with a $0.30 minimum in most categories |
Media closing fee | $1.80 per media item sold |
FBA fulfillment | Per unit, based on size tier, shipping weight and price band |
FBA storage | Monthly, based on your daily average volume in cubic feet, higher in the last quarter |
Mandatory Amazon fees
Account fees: cost varies
When learning how to sell on Amazon, the first step is to select a plan. You can choose from one of two seller plans.
Individual plan ($0.99 per item sold): Best for merchants who sell fewer than 40 items a month. You may choose this if you’re just looking to test the waters and sell one or two key products to begin with. However, you won’t benefit from the same reach or efficiencies as you would with a Professional plan.
Professional plan ($39.99 per month): Best for any serious merchant looking to sell on Amazon. By signing up for the Professional plan, you become eligible to compete for the featured offer, plus gain access to many tools within Seller Central. Note: you can drop down to an individual plan at any time.
With the Individual plan, you won’t pay a monthly fee. However, you will pay Amazon $0.99 (USD) for every unit you sell. So, if you sell 200 units on Amazon, you’ll pay $198 (200 x $0.99) back to Amazon.
The break-even point between the two plans sits at about 40 units a month. Below that the per-item charge costs less than the subscription, and above it the subscription wins.
With a Professional plan, you’ll pay $39.99 per month no matter how many units you sell. You also get access to many premium features, including sponsored ads, sales analytics reports and essential inventory and listing tools.
For both, you’ll be subject to additional selling fees as noted below.
Referral fees: what Amazon takes on each sale
You don’t get access to Amazon’s gigantic audience for free. Each time you sell an item on Amazon, you pay a referral fee. Think of it as a commission that you pay to Amazon for the privilege of selling to its customers.
Referral fees are charged as a percentage of an item’s total sales price (TSP), which includes the item price, shipping cost and any gift-wrapping charges. Referral fees vary by category. Most categories sit at 15%, some drop to 8% and a few run well above that.
A few examples:
Automotive and powersports - 12%
Backpacks/handbags/luggage - 15%
Clothing and accessories - 5% up to $15, 10% from $15 to $20, 17% above $20
Footwear - 15%
Home and Kitchen - 15%
Pet supplies - 15%, except 22% for veterinary diets
Toys and games - 15%
While most referral fees are flat percentages, some categories (like baby products, beauty products and grocery items) take a tiered approach based on an item’s TSP. For instance, a baby product with a TSP of $10 or less is subject to an 8% referral fee, while a baby product with a total sales price above $10 is subject to a 15% referral fee.
The opposite is true for categories such as appliances, electronic accessories, fine art, furniture and jewelry. For furniture, you’ll pay a 15% referral fee for products with a TSP up to $200. But that fee goes down to 10% for furniture products with a TSP greater than $200.
All categories also carry a minimum referral fee. It’s $0.30 in almost every category, with fine art the main exception at $1.00. View the full list of referral fees by category here.
Media items carry one more charge on top of the referral fee. Books, DVDs, music, software, video games and video game consoles all pay a closing fee of $1.80 per item sold.
An intro to how fulfillment works on Amazon
When it comes to fulfillment on Amazon, you get two choices:
Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA): Amazon will store your products in their fulfillment centers and pick, pack and ship them for you. Amazon will also handle customer service and returns.
Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM): You store, pack, label and ship your products on your own.
FBA is the most popular choice by far. FBA products gain the highly coveted "Prime" status on their listings, giving you a major competitive advantage in terms of ranking or winning the Buy Box and the ability to offer expedited shipping to millions of Prime users. However, because Amazon does the work for you, you will be subject to multiple fees.
Amazon FBA fulfillment fees: charged per unit by size, weight and price
For any item enrolled in FBA, you pay a fulfillment fee each time Amazon ships a unit to a customer. Three things set the rate. The size tier your packaged product falls into, its shipping weight and which of three price bands the item sells in. Anything under $10 gets a discounted rate, items from $10 to $50 sit in the middle band and anything above $50 pays the most, because Amazon applies extra handling to those orders.
Shipping weight is not always the number on your scale. For large standard items and anything bulkier, Amazon charges on whichever is greater, the unit weight or the dimensional weight. A light product in a big box gets billed like a heavy one.
Small standard (non-apparel), non-peak rates
Any non-apparel item with a maximum size of 15” x 12” x 0.75”. Fees are charged on unit weight.
Shipping weight | Under $10 | $10 to $50 | Over $50 |
|---|---|---|---|
2 oz or less | $2.43 | $3.32 | $3.58 |
2+ to 4 oz | $2.49 | $3.42 | $3.68 |
4+ to 6 oz | $2.56 | $3.45 | $3.71 |
6+ to 8 oz | $2.66 | $3.54 | $3.80 |
8+ to 10 oz | $2.77 | $3.68 | $3.94 |
10+ to 12 oz | $2.82 | $3.78 | $4.04 |
12+ to 14 oz | $2.92 | $3.91 | $4.17 |
14+ to 16 oz | $2.95 | $3.96 | $4.22 |
Non-peak rates. Peak rates apply from mid-October through mid-January, plus a 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge.
Large standard (non-apparel), non-peak rates
Any non-apparel item with a maximum size of 18” x 14” x 8”.
Shipping weight | Under $10 | $10 to $50 | Over $50 |
|---|---|---|---|
4 oz or less | $2.91 | $3.73 | $3.99 |
4+ to 8 oz | $3.13 | $3.95 | $4.21 |
8+ to 12 oz | $3.38 | $4.20 | $4.46 |
12+ to 16 oz | $3.78 | $4.60 | $4.86 |
1+ to 1.25 lb | $4.22 | $5.04 | $5.30 |
1.25+ to 1.5 lb | $4.60 | $5.42 | $5.68 |
1.5+ to 1.75 lb | $4.75 | $5.57 | $5.83 |
1.75+ to 2 lb | $5.00 | $5.82 | $6.08 |
2+ to 2.25 lb | $5.10 | $5.92 | $6.18 |
2.25+ to 2.5 lb | $5.28 | $6.10 | $6.36 |
2.5+ to 2.75 lb | $5.44 | $6.26 | $6.52 |
2.75+ to 3 lb | $5.85 | $6.67 | $6.93 |
3+ to 20 lb | $6.15 plus $0.08 per 4 oz over 3 lb | $6.97 plus $0.08 per 4 oz over 3 lb | $7.23 plus $0.08 per 4 oz over 3 lb |
Non-peak rates, with the same peak period and surcharge as above.
Apparel carries its own rate card. The gap is smaller than sellers expect on light items and wider on heavier ones. A 2 oz apparel item in the middle price band runs $3.51 against $3.32 for non-apparel, and a 4 oz large standard apparel item runs $4.30 against $3.73. Dangerous goods sit on a separate and higher rate card again.
Products priced under $10 also receive Low-Price FBA rates automatically, averaging $0.86 less per unit than the figures above. If you are planning fourth-quarter inventory, budget against the peak rates rather than these.
Amazon FBA inventory storage fees: starting at $0.56 per cubic foot
On top of fulfillment fees, Amazon charges a monthly storage fee for the space your inventory takes up in its fulfillment centers. The charge is calculated on your daily average volume in cubic feet, measured on the fully packaged unit, and it climbs sharply in the last quarter of the year when warehouse space is tightest.
Two components make up the bill. Every seller pays a base rate set by size tier and time of year. Slow-moving inventory can also trigger a storage utilization surcharge, which is where storage costs quietly get expensive.
Size tier | January to September | October to December |
|---|---|---|
Standard-size | $0.78 per cubic foot | $2.40 per cubic foot |
Oversize | $0.56 per cubic foot | $1.40 per cubic foot |
Dangerous goods, standard-size | $0.99 per cubic foot | $3.63 per cubic foot |
Dangerous goods, oversize | $0.78 per cubic foot | $2.43 per cubic foot |
Storage utilization surcharge
Amazon compares how much inventory you hold against how much you ship over a rolling 13 week window. Hold more than 22 weeks of supply and a surcharge lands on top of your base rate for every unit that has been sitting longer than 30 days. It applies once you have a Professional account, your first shipment landed more than a year ago and you average at least 25 cubic feet of daily volume. Newer and smaller sellers pay the base rate only.
Storage utilization ratio | Standard-size | Oversize |
|---|---|---|
Below 22 weeks | No surcharge | No surcharge |
22 to 28 weeks | $0.44 | $0.23 |
28 to 36 weeks | $0.76 | $0.46 |
36 to 44 weeks | $1.16 | $0.63 |
44 to 52 weeks | $1.58 | $0.76 |
Over 52 weeks | $1.88 | $1.26 |
At the top band, a standard-size product stored through the holiday quarter costs $4.28 per cubic foot each month against the $2.40 a fast-moving seller pays for the same space.
Other FBA fees to be aware of
Perhaps one of the biggest knocks against Amazon FBA is the number of other potential fees you could be paying. These fees could be triggered by various situations, such as if your products aren’t properly prepped for Amazon’s fulfillment centers. Other fees worth knowing about include the following.
Aged inventory surcharge
Amazon charges this on top of your monthly storage fee for any unit that has been sitting in a fulfillment center for 181 days or longer. It is assessed from an inventory snapshot taken on the fifteenth of each month, and inventory age is counted first in, first out across the whole network, so a unit you just shipped is deducted from your oldest stock rather than your newest.
Inventory age | Surcharge |
|---|---|
181 to 210 days | $0.50 per cubic foot |
211 to 240 days | $1.00 per cubic foot |
241 to 270 days | $1.50 per cubic foot |
271 to 300 days | $5.45 per cubic foot |
301 to 330 days | $5.70 per cubic foot |
331 to 365 days | $5.90 per cubic foot |
366 to 455 days | $6.90 per cubic foot or $0.30 per unit, whichever is greater |
456 days or more | $7.90 per cubic foot or $0.35 per unit, whichever is greater |
The first three bands exclude clothing, shoes, bags, jewelry and watches. Note the jump between 270 and 271 days, where the rate more than triples. That cliff is the strongest argument there is for clearing slow stock before it reaches it.
Returns processing fee
How this works depends on what you sell. Apparel and shoes pay the fee on every customer return with no threshold. Every other category pays only on returns that push a product above its own return rate threshold, which Amazon sets by fee category. Your return rate is the share of a month's shipped units that come back during that month and the two months after it. Products that shipped fewer than 25 units in a month are exempt.
Category | Return rate threshold |
|---|---|
Toys and games | 4.7% |
Office products | 4.4% |
Media | 5.1% |
Beauty, health and personal care | 5.5% |
Home and kitchen | 8.1% |
Baby products | 9.3% |
Pet products | 10.2% |
Consumer electronics | 11.2% |
Backpacks, handbags and luggage | 12.8% |
The fee itself runs from $1.65 per unit on the lightest apparel to $5.00 and up on heavier standard-size items, scaling with size tier and shipping weight the same way fulfillment fees do. The threshold structure means a high-return product can look profitable on paper and lose money in practice.
Removal, disposal and liquidation
You can have Amazon ship unsold inventory back to you or dispose of it, and both cost the same per unit. Sellers usually place these orders to escape the aged inventory surcharge before stock crosses the next age band.
Shipping weight | Standard-size | Bulky and extra-large |
|---|---|---|
0 to 0.5 lb | $0.84 | $3.12 up to 1 lb |
0.5+ to 1 lb | $1.53 | $3.12 |
1+ to 2 lb | $2.27 | $4.30 |
2+ to 4 lb | $2.89 plus $1.06 per lb over 2 lb | $6.36 |
4+ to 10 lb | $2.89 plus $1.06 per lb over 2 lb | $10.04 |
Over 10 lb | $2.89 plus $1.06 per lb over 2 lb | $14.32 plus $1.06 per lb over 10 lb |
There is a third option. Liquidation hands the stock to a liquidation partner instead, and Amazon takes a 15% liquidations referral fee on the recovery value plus a processing fee starting at $0.25 per unit. It recovers less than a clean sale but more than a disposal order.
Inbound placement and inbound defect fees
Amazon charges an inbound placement service fee for spreading your inventory across fulfillment centers when you send it to a single location. Standard-size rates run from $0.14 to $1.90 per unit depending on size, weight and region. Ship to five or more locations yourself with matching cartons and the fee drops to zero. Separately, shipments that never arrive, arrive late or land at the wrong location carry an inbound defect fee averaging $0.60 per unit.
Multi-Channel Fulfillment orders
FBA can also fulfill orders that come from your own store or another sales channel, at higher rates than Amazon orders. A single-unit standard delivery starts at $7.34 for the smallest items and $7.56 for large standard items. The per-unit rate drops steeply as order size grows, so a four-unit order of the same small item costs $3.64 per unit. Expedited two-day delivery costs more again, and the fuel and logistics surcharge applies here too. Some sales channels prohibit fulfilling their orders through FBA, so check the rules before routing orders this way.
Amazon FBM fees
If you’re a Professional Amazon seller, you can set your own shipping rates (except for products in the media category) and cover the cost of shipping in your product price.
However, sellers with an Individual plan must use Amazon’s set shipping rates for all products. For instance, if you sell a book to a customer, the customer will be charged $3.99 (per Amazon’s rate sheet) for domestic standard shipping. If shipping ends up costing more than $3.99, you’ll have to cover the difference.
Optional and additional Amazon selling fees
Amazon Ads: cost varies
Amazon Ads put your products into paid placements across the marketplace. These ads are pay-per-click, meaning you only pay when someone clicks. What you spend depends on the keywords you bid on and the daily budget you set, so this is one of the few lines on your bill you control directly.
Premium account services: hands-on help from an account manager
Amazon offers a Strategic Account Services (SAS) Core program that connects you with an account manager, who can provide personalized tips on how to scale your business on the marketplace. As a SAS Core member, you get early access to new or beta programs, alongside tactical support. Amazon no longer publishes SAS Core pricing, so you need to request a quote through Seller Central.
Rental book listing fee: $5 per rental
If you choose to rent out textbooks on Amazon, you will have to pay a rental book service fee of $5 per rental.
High-volume listing fee: $0.001 per SKU
Amazon charges $0.001 per SKU per month to cover the cost of cataloging large inventories, and waives the fee on the first 1.5 million SKUs. Every SKU across every category counts toward that allowance regardless of when it was created or whether it has ever sold. A catalog of 1.6 million SKUs pays $100 a month on the 100,000 above the allowance.
Refund administration fee: $5 or 20% of referral fee (whichever is less)
When you refund a customer for an order they have already paid for, Amazon returns the referral fee minus a refund administration fee, which is the lesser of $5.00 or 20% of the referral fee. Refund a $10.00 item in a category with a 15% referral fee and the referral fee is $1.50, so the refund administration fee is $0.30.
An example of an Amazon bill
Fees are easier to judge against a real order than against a rate card. Marketplace costs vary widely, and the cost of selling on Etsy works out differently again. Here is how a single Amazon sale breaks down.
Let’s say you’re a Professional Plan seller using Amazon FBA. You’re selling felt letter boards for kids that measure 10 inches by 10 inches (when packaged) and weigh 0.5 pounds. The boards cost you $5 to make, and you sell them on Amazon for $25 under the Toys & Games category. So, your customer pays $25 for a board, gets fast and free shipping thanks to Prime, so the total sales price Amazon calculates its fee on is $25.
At the end of the transaction, your bill will look something like this:
Description | Amount |
|---|---|
Item price | $25 |
Referral fee (15%) | -$3.75 |
FBA fulfillment fee (flat rate) | -$4.20 |
Cost to ship to Amazon | -$0.30 |
FBA storage cost (Jan - Sept) | -$0.01 |
Cost of goods sold (COGS) | -$5.00 |
Net profit from sale | $11.74 (46.96%) |
Amazon's Revenue Calculator gives you the exact fulfillment and referral charges for a specific product before you commit to it. Enter the category, price, dimensions and weight, then compare the FBA estimate against the cost of shipping the order yourself.
Is it cheaper to sell on your own website than on Amazon
Selling on your own website removes the per-sale commission but replaces it with a monthly platform cost and payment processing on every order, so which one costs less comes down to your volume and your margin rather than the platform itself. A marketplace charges you most in the months you sell most. Your own store charges roughly the same whether the month is quiet or a record.
Comparison | Selling on Amazon | Selling on your own store |
|---|---|---|
Cost per order | Referral fee set by product category, plus fulfillment charges | Payment processing on the transaction |
Fixed monthly cost | Selling plan subscription | Platform plan and domain |
Traffic | Built-in shopper demand, with advertising to stay visible | You build it through SEO, email and social |
Customer data | Held by the marketplace | Yours to keep and market to |
Branding | A listing layout shared with every other seller | Full control of the storefront |
Channel risk | Policy and account changes sit outside your control | You own the channel |
The practical answer for most sellers is not one or the other. A marketplace listing buys reach, and your own store protects margin on the customers who already know you. Wix eCommerce lets business owners sell products, services, bookings, courses, memberships and donations from one platform, no plugins required. That keeps the fixed side of the equation predictable as you add revenue streams, instead of stacking a subscription for every new thing you want to sell. You can build an online store and run it alongside your marketplace listings rather than choosing between the two.
2 ways to save on your Amazon selling fees
Two thresholds decide whether storage stays cheap. Keep your storage utilization ratio under 22 weeks to avoid the surcharge on top of your base rate, and clear stock before it passes 270 days in a fulfillment center. Amazon lets you submit a removal or disposal order up to the fourteenth of the month and the unit escapes that month's surcharge even if it has not physically left yet.
01. Join the Brand Referral Bonus Program
If you’re a brand owner, make sure to join Amazon’s Brand Registry. Among the many perks of enrolling yourself in the registry, you can earn a bonus on any sales made through non-Amazon marketing efforts. Here’s how the Brand Referral Bonus Program works like this. You embed an Amazon-provided link to any non-Amazon marketing assets. If a customer clicks on that link and makes a purchase from you within 14 days, you’ll earn, on average, 10% back on your referral fee. The exact bonus rate depends on your product category and the number of sales generated.
02. Watch your inventory levels
One of the best ways to avoid long-term storage fees or other inventory mishaps is by having a reliable system for tracking, forecasting and managing inventory. If your online store is powered by Wix eCommerce, you can use built-in inventory management tools to automatically and accurately sync inventory across all of your sales channels.
The bottom line: know the money coming in and out of Amazon
Amazon can be a great addition to your channel mix, but as with every third-party marketplace, it comes at a price. On Amazon you face the following.
Tighter margins
Fluctuating fees
Lots of competition, especially around price
Less control over your branding
Our top tip is to stay on top of your costs and treat Amazon as a supplement to your online store, where you retain total control over your fees and user experience. Start an online store with a hassle-free platform like Wix eCommerce, and take advantage of all its built-in tools for catalog management, inventory management, price management, SEO and more. Keep in mind that there are fees no matter where you sell, whether you're selling on eBay or selling on Facebook Marketplace.
Did you know? Wix enables omnichannel eCommerce by connecting online stores to marketplaces, social commerce platforms and in-person point-of-sale systems from a single dashboard.
How much does it cost to sell on Amazon FAQ
Can you sell on Amazon for free
Selling on Amazon is never completely free, but you can start without a monthly subscription by choosing the Individual plan and paying $0.99 for each item you sell. You still pay a referral fee on every sale, and fulfillment charges on top of that if Amazon ships your orders. The only cost you avoid is the monthly plan fee.
What percentage does Amazon take from each sale
Amazon takes a referral fee set by your product category, and most categories sit at 15% of the total sales price. A few are lower, some are tiered so the rate changes at set price points, and a small number run much higher. Most categories also carry a minimum referral fee, which matters on low-priced items where the percentage works out to less than the floor.
Is the referral fee calculated on the price including tax
The referral fee is calculated on the total sales price, which is the item price plus any shipping and gift wrap charges you collect. Sales tax is not part of that figure. Sellers often overestimate their fees by including tax in the calculation.
Do you still pay Amazon fees when a customer returns an item
Amazon refunds most of the referral fee when you refund a customer, but it keeps a refund administration charge, so a refunded order still costs you something. If the order was fulfilled by Amazon, a returns processing charge can apply as well. Returns are rarely cost-neutral, which is why high-return categories need wider margins.
Is FBA cheaper than shipping orders yourself
FBA is usually cheaper per unit than comparable premium carrier options, but it adds storage, returns and inventory-related charges that self-fulfillment does not. The answer depends on how fast your inventory sells. Fast-moving, compact products tend to come out ahead with FBA, while slow-moving or bulky stock can lose money to storage charges before it ever ships.
Do you need to choose between Amazon and your own online store
You do not have to choose, and most established sellers run both. An Amazon listing gives you reach, and your own store gives you the margin, the customer data and control over the brand. Wix integrates eCommerce stores with Amazon, eBay and Google marketplaces, making it easy to manage all your sales channels from one place.
