About this calculator
Selling on Amazon FBA has a long list of fees — referral, FBA pick-pack-ship, storage, advertising, returns, optional services. Even with a healthy-looking gross margin, the after-all-fees profit can be surprisingly thin. This calculator models all the major fees so you know what actually hits your bank account per unit.
Amazon’s fee structure
- Referral fee — 15% of sale price (most categories). Some categories higher: clothing 17%, jewelry 20%, electronics 8%.
- FBA pick-pack-ship — $3.06–$7.50+ depending on size and weight. Updated annually in February.
- Storage — $0.83/cubic foot/month standard, $2.40 in Q4. Long-term storage fees kick in after 6+ months.
- Inbound shipping — your cost to ship to Amazon’s warehouses.
- Advertising (PPC) — variable, often $2–10 per unit sold for competitive categories.
- Returns — Amazon’s lenient return policy means returns are higher than DTC. 5–15% return rate depending on category.
Healthy Amazon margins
After all fees, target 25–35% net margin for a sustainable Amazon business. Below 20% is fragile — annual fee increases or competitor price wars can wipe it out. Above 40% is exceptional and usually means a differentiated product or category position.
ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sales)
ACoS = Ad spend / Ad-attributed revenue. The Amazon-specific version of ROAS. Sustainable ACoS depends on margin: at 30% gross margin (after Amazon fees), break-even ACoS is 30%. New launches can run higher (40–60%) to gain rank; mature listings should be 15–25%.
The fee creep problem
Amazon raises fees almost every year. From 2018 to 2024, average FBA fees increased ~40%. The implicit message: Amazon is the customer, and the seller is the product. Smart sellers build a margin cushion AND a brand that can transition to DTC/Shopify if Amazon economics deteriorate.