A simplified estimate: read this first
Amazon's fee schedule runs to dozens of pages and changes at least once a year. This calculator models the two fees every FBA seller pays on every sale, the referral fee and the FBA fulfilment fee, for standard-size items in common categories. It deliberately leaves out storage, inbound placement, low-inventory, returns and seasonal surcharges, because they depend on your inventory behaviour rather than the item. Use it to screen products quickly, then verify the exact figures in the Revenue Calculator in Seller Central before you buy stock.
At a glance
- Models the two fees on every FBA sale: referral and fulfilment.
- Referral is a percentage of price by category, with a $0.30 minimum.
- Fulfilment is a flat fee set by size tier and shipping weight.
- Storage, placement, returns and advertising are excluded; add an allowance in other costs.
The two fees
referral fee = max(price × category rate, $0.30) fulfilment fee = fixed fee for the size tier and weight band profit per unit = price − referral − fulfilment − cost of goods − inbound shipping − other costs
Referral fee. Amazon's commission for the sale. Most categories are 15% of the selling price; consumer electronics and computers are 8%; automotive is 12%. A few categories are tiered by price: clothing is 5% on the portion up to $15, 10% from $15 to $20 and 17% above; grocery and beauty are 8% below a threshold and 15% above; jewelry and watches charge a high rate on the first few hundred dollars and a low rate beyond. Every category has a $0.30 minimum per item.
| Category | Referral rate |
|---|---|
| Most categories | 15% |
| Consumer electronics, computers | 8% |
| Automotive | 12% |
| Clothing | 5% up to $15, 10% from $15 to $20, 17% above |
| Grocery, beauty | 8% below a threshold, 15% above |
| Jewelry | 20% up to $250, 5% above |
FBA fulfilment fee. What Amazon charges to pick, pack and ship one unit. It is set by size tier, small standard (up to 16 oz and 15 × 12 × 0.75 in) or large standard (up to 20 lb and 18 × 14 × 8 in), and within the tier by shipping weight, the greater of the unit weight and its dimensional weight, rounded up. A 12 oz small-standard item costs about $3.53 to fulfil; a 1.5 to 2 lb large-standard item about $5.42.
Worked example: a $30 kitchen gadget
Price $30.00, category "most categories" (15%), small standard, 12 oz packaged.
Referral 15% × $30 = $4.50. FBA fulfilment for small standard 10 to 12 oz = $3.53. Total Amazon fees $8.03, or 26.8% of the price.
With cost of goods $8.00 and inbound shipping $1.00, profit is $30 − $8.03 − $9.00 = $12.97 a unit: a 43% margin and 144% return on the $9 you put in.
Worked example: why cheap items struggle
A $1.50 item in the same category would owe 15% × $1.50 = $0.23, but the $0.30 minimum applies. Add the smallest fulfilment fee of $3.06 and Amazon's fees are $3.36, more than double the price. Items under about $8 rarely work under standard FBA unless they qualify for the low-price FBA rate or are sold in multipacks.
Reading the result
- Net profit per unit is what remains after Amazon's two fees and your own costs. Negative numbers are shown in red.
- Margin is profit divided by the selling price, the figure to compare with your other products.
- ROI on cost is profit divided by what you paid to get the unit into Amazon's warehouse (goods, inbound shipping, other). It tells you how hard your capital is working: 100% ROI means each dollar invested comes back as two.
- The fee share in the headline is the proportion of the price Amazon keeps; 25 to 35% is typical for standard-size items.
What is missing and how to account for it
Put an estimate of these into the other costs field so the profit figure stays honest:
- Monthly storage. Roughly $0.78 per cubic foot per month from January to September and about three times that in the fourth quarter. For a shoebox-sized item turning over monthly this is a few cents; for slow sellers it adds up.
- Inbound placement fee. Charged per unit when you send stock to a single location rather than letting Amazon split it; often $0.20-$0.70 for standard sizes.
- Low-inventory-level fee. Applies when you hold less than about four weeks of stock relative to sales.
- Returns processing. Charged in apparel and shoes, and for products with high return rates.
- Advertising. Most new listings need sponsored ads to rank; sellers commonly budget 10 to 20% of price.
- Professional selling plan. $39.99 a month regardless of sales.
There are also things this calculator cannot know: the exact dimensional weight of your packaging, whether your product is classified as dangerous goods, apparel or oversize, and mid-year fee changes. Each of those moves the fulfilment fee, sometimes by several dollars.
Using the result
Screen products in this order: first check that the item price is high enough for the fixed fees to be a small share (usually $20 and above); then confirm the margin after the two modelled fees is comfortably above 30%; then subtract a realistic allowance for storage, advertising and returns; and finally run the exact dimensions and weight through Seller Central's Revenue Calculator. A product that only works on the optimistic numbers will not survive a fee increase or a competitor's price cut.