Amazon Seller Fees 2026: Referral, FBA and Monthly Fees With Real Examples

Selling on Amazon in 2026 costs a referral fee of 5% to 45% of the price, set by category, plus either $0.99 per item sold on the Individual plan or $39.99 a month on Professional. On a $25 Home and Kitchen item, the marketplace fees come to $4.74 per sale on Individual, before any FBA fulfillment or storage charge.

Amazon publishes these figures on its selling pricing page, where we read both plans, the referral table and the media closing fee on October 10, 2026. Amazon's FBA page describes fulfillment and storage charges without listing per-unit rates, so this guide does not quote them.

Amazon fees at a glance

The plan fee and the referral fee do different jobs. The referral fee grows with revenue, so in a flat-rate category like Home and Kitchen a $100 sale pays four times the referral of a sale at a quarter of that price. The plan fee grows with item count, so the right plan depends on how many units you sell.

The selling plans: the break-even is 41 items

Individual charges $0.99 each time an item sells. Professional costs $39.99 a month whatever you sell, and the referral fee and other selling fees still apply to each sale. The two plans cost about the same at 40 items a month.

At 40 items, Individual comes to $39.60, which is cheaper than Professional. At 41 items it comes to $40.59, so Professional is cheaper from there on. At 50 items a month, Individual costs $49.50 against the Professional fee, a gap of $9.51 a month. A seller moving 15 items a month pays $14.85 on Individual, well under the Professional fee. The plan question is mostly a volume question, so answer it from recent sales, not from a launch forecast.

Referral fees: the category sets the bill

The referral fee is a percentage of the total price or a minimum amount, whichever is greater. Amazon's table runs from 5% to 45%, and several categories have tiers inside them. The same product can land in a different band depending on its price.

Clothing and Accessories shows the tiering best: 5% up to $15, 10% from $15 to $20, and 17% above $20. A clothing item at $25 pays $4.25 in referral, against $3.75 in Home and Kitchen at a flat 15%. That $0.50 gap is worth checking before you price a clothing line.

Low-fee categories reward careful pricing. Consumer Electronics charges 8%, so a $100 consumer electronics item pays $8.00 in referral, or $8.99 with the Individual plan fee added. At the other end, Amazon Device Accessories sits at 45%, the highest rate on the page.

The $0.30 minimum only bites on cheap sales. In a 15% category it applies below a $2 sale price, and in the 5% clothing band below $6.

FBA versus FBM: the shipping line is what changes

Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) means Amazon stores, picks, packs and ships each order. Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM) means you do all of that. Amazon's referral table is organized by category rather than by fulfillment method, so the examples here apply the same referral percentage to both. What changes is who carries the logistics cost.

On FBA, Amazon charges a per-unit fulfillment fee set by the product's size tier, weight and dimensions. It also bills storage every month by the cubic foot your inventory takes up, and adds a charge for inventory stored longer than 181 days. The revenue calculator linked from Amazon's FBA page estimates the fee for a given product. Put that number into the test below.

On FBM, you pay postage and packing on every unit. Call that cost P. The comparison reduces to one test: FBA is cheaper when Amazon's fulfillment fee plus your storage share comes to less than P.

Here is the test with an illustrative input. Suppose your own postage and packing costs $6.00 a unit. That figure is an assumption to show the arithmetic, not a market rate, so replace it with your carrier's quote. That sale costs $4.74 in marketplace fees either way. The FBM total is $4.74 plus $6.00, or $10.74. The FBA total is the same marketplace fee plus Amazon's fulfillment fee and storage, so FBA only wins if those two together come to less than $6.00.

Toolradar data: Toolradar, the software directory we run, evaluated 43 shipping and fulfillment tools for its October 2026 ranking, and 30% of them offer a free, freemium or open-source plan. For FBM sellers, that is the category to check before choosing a label and postage tool. Once the per-order math is set, order management systems and inventory management software handle the rest of the FBM workflow.

Marketplace fees on the same item

The table prices one sale with no shipping charge, on each platform's own published rates.

On this item, Amazon on Individual costs $0.94 more per sale than eBay, and the gap narrows to $0.75 on Professional at 50 items. The difference comes from the plan fee and the 15% against 13.6% rate, not from any Amazon-specific penalty. Etsy's total is lowest on paper, but it runs on its own marketplace with its own buyers, so its row is a fee comparison, not a channel recommendation. Every row leaves out shipping, ads and promotions.

The costs sellers miss

• Media closing fee. Books, DVDs, music, software and video carry a $1.80 closing fee per item on top of the referral fee. On a $12 book that fee is a large share of the sale, so price media listings with it in mind.
• Monthly storage. FBA bills storage by cubic foot every month, so inventory that sits idle keeps costing money. Check your daily average volume against what you actually sell.
• Aged inventory. Stock held longer than 181 days carries an extra charge on top of storage, so slow-moving stock costs more than its storage line shows.
• The minimum referral. The $0.30 floor per item is small, but it takes a bigger share of low-priced sales. Below $2 in a 15% category, the floor charges more than the percentage would.

Pricing backward from the margin you need

Fees work in reverse too. If you want $20.00 left on a Home and Kitchen item after Amazon takes its referral and the Individual fee, solve 0.85 x price - $0.99 = $20.00. That makes the price $20.99 divided by 0.85, which is $24.69, so list at $24.70 to clear the target. That figure leaves out cost of goods, postage and any FBA fees, so read it as the lowest sale price that clears the $20.00 after Amazon's fees, not as a finished margin.

Should you move to Professional?

Under 41 items a month, Individual is cheaper on the plan line. From 41 items, Professional wins, and every extra unit widens the gap. Run the count for the last three months before you switch, because a single busy month can make Professional look cheaper than it will be in a normal one.

FAQ

How much does it cost to sell on Amazon in 2026?

Individual charges a per-item fee and Professional charges a flat monthly fee, and both add the category referral fee. For a Home and Kitchen item at 15%, Amazon takes the referral plus the Individual fee before any FBA fulfillment, storage or postage.

What is Amazon's referral fee?

A percentage of the total price set by category, from 5% to 45%, with a $0.30 minimum per item in most categories. Clothing is tiered at 5% up to $15, 10% from $15 to $20, and 17% above $20.

Is Amazon Professional worth its monthly fee?

Only from 41 items a month on the plan fee alone. At 50 items it saves $9.51 a month against Individual. This guide does not cover Professional's other features.

How much are FBA fees on Amazon?

Fulfillment fees depend on size tier, weight and dimensions. Storage is billed monthly by cubic foot, and inventory held longer than 181 days costs extra. This guide does not quote per-unit rates, because Amazon's FBA page does not publish them. Amazon's revenue calculator estimates the fee for a given product.

Is selling on Amazon cheaper than eBay or Etsy?

On the $25 example, Amazon is not the cheapest. eBay costs $3.80 per sale, against $4.74 on Individual and $4.55 on Professional at 50 items. Etsy's total is lower again at $2.63 plus a $0.20 listing fee, but it is a different marketplace, so the fee line is only one input.

Do media items cost extra on Amazon?

Yes. Books, DVDs, music, software and video pay a $1.80 closing fee per item on top of the referral fee, so price media listings with that fee included.

How we checked

We read Amazon's selling pricing page at sell.amazon.com/pricing on October 10, 2026, for both plans, the referral table and the media closing fee. We read eBay's selling fees page for its final value and per-order fees on the same date. Etsy's figures come from our Etsy seller fees guide, which checked Etsy's fee and payments policy on September 25, 2026, so that row may be out of date. The worked examples apply the published percentages and per-item fees to a sale with no shipping charge, and the $6.00 postage figure is an illustrative input. This guide is by Louis Corneloup, founder of Toolradar and Dupple.

Cite this: Retailpresso, "Amazon Seller Fees 2026: Referral, FBA and Monthly Fees With Real Examples", October 2026.

Sellers on Amazon who also sell elsewhere can compare the same fee stack with our Etsy seller fees guide and Shopify pricing. For the tools behind the margin math, start with best Amazon seller tools, Helium 10 vs Jungle Scout, Helium 10 review and AI for Amazon sellers. Jungle Scout and ShipStation are both tracked on Toolradar, and our best shipping software roundup covers the FBM side.

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