Amazon FBA Fees Explained (Updated for 2025) 

Amazon FBA Fees Explained

What Are Amazon FBA Fees?

Amazon’s Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) program allows sellers to store products in Amazon’s fulfillment centers. Amazon picks, packs, ships, and handles customer service for these items. In return, sellers pay a variety of fees. These fees impact your profit margins—so understanding and managing them is essential to staying profitable in 2025.
FBA simplifies logistics dramatically for sellers, but the convenience comes at a cost, which can add up if not monitored. As Amazon expands its network, fee structures become more dynamic—making it even more important for sellers to stay informed throughout the year.

Types of FBA Fees

Fulfillment Fees

Charged per unit sold, these cover picking, packing, shipping, and customer service.

  • Standard-size items: Varies based on weight and dimensions.
  • Oversize items: Higher fees due to additional handling.

These fees often fluctuate during peak season, so sellers should account for possible surcharges during Q4. Ensuring that product dimensions are accurately updated can also prevent sudden fee jumps.

Storage Fees

Amazon charges monthly fees for storing your inventory in its fulfillment centers.

  • Standard storage fees: Charged per cubic foot.
  • Aged inventory surcharge: Additional fees apply to units stored for 181+ days.

Seasonal inventory planning becomes crucial here—sending in too much stock can significantly increase storage costs, especially during high-demand months when storage rates are higher.

Referral Fees

Amazon charges a percentage of the item’s selling price, usually 8%–15%, depending on the product category.
Some categories also have minimum per-item fees, which can affect low-priced products. Reviewing your category placement regularly ensures you aren’t misclassified into a higher-fee category.

Returns Processing Fees

If you sell in categories with free returns, Amazon charges a fee for return processing—typically equivalent to the original fulfillment fee.
Frequent returns can dramatically impact margins, so optimizing product descriptions and packaging can help reduce return rates.

Other Miscellaneous Fees

  • Removal fees (to return inventory back to you)
  • Disposal fees (to discard inventory)
  • Labeling & prep service fees.

Unplanned service fees can also occur if your products arrive without proper prep or if barcodes are missing. For the most updated and detailed fee charts, refer to Amazon’s official FBA fee schedule.

2025 Updates to Amazon FBA Fees

Amazon updates its fee structure annually.
Here’s what changed in 2025:

  • Increased Fulfillment Fees: An average increase of 4.5% across categories.
  • Expanded Aged Inventory Surcharges: Now includes inventory stored over 180 days instead of 270.
  • New Low-Inventory-Level Fee: Sellers who frequently understock may incur additional fees.
  • Dimensional Weight Pricing Adjustments: Certain SKUs are now priced using dimensional weight rather than actual weight.

These updates place a greater emphasis on inventory accuracy and forecasting—poor planning can now trigger multiple fee types at once.

Hidden Costs and Common Pitfalls

Even experienced sellers can miss these common fee traps:

  • Unexpected dimensional weight charges.
  • Fees for unplanned prep/labelling services.
  • Penalties for stranded or unsellable inventory.
  • Fee increases not reflected in profit calculations.

Another commonly overlooked factor is long-term storage during year-end, where Amazon significantly increases rates for slow-moving stock.

Tips to Reduce FBA Costs

  • Optimize packaging: Smaller, lighter packages reduce fulfillment fees.
  • Manage inventory levels: Avoid overstocking and aged inventory.
  • Use FBA calculator tools: Estimate profitability before listing.
  • Bundle products smartly: Reduce per-unit fees through value packs.
  • Track changes in real-time: Stay updated as fees evolve.

Performing regular audits of product dimensions and ensuring proper prep before sending items to FBA can also help avoid unnecessary charges.

How SentryKit Helps You Stay on Top of Fee Changes

SentryKit monitors product changes that can impact your FBA costs, including:

  • Changes in product dimensions or weight.
  • Alerts for new FBA fee rules affecting your ASINs.
  • Inventory-level tracking to avoid aged inventory surcharges.
  • Buy Box loss alerts that may indicate price or fee issues.

With SentryKit, you can act before small changes turn into major fee surprises. It functions like a real-time monitoring system that ensures you never miss critical updates affecting your profit margins. While you can’t avoid all Amazon fees, you can prevent losses from listing errors or hijackers. SentryKit offers affordable tools — see pricing.

Conclusion

FBA fees are an unavoidable part of selling on Amazon—but they don’t have to eat into your profits. By staying informed about 2025 fee updates and leveraging tools like SentryKit, you can protect your margins and grow sustainably.

Want to stay ahead of Amazon fee changes? Try SentryKit – 1 ASIN Free Forever.