Amazon referral fees by category (2026)

Every sale on Amazon pays a referral fee, whether you ship it yourself or use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). Amazon works it out as a percentage of the total sales price, which is the item price plus any shipping and gift wrap the buyer pays. You pay the percentage or the category's per-item minimum, whichever is greater.

The category that sets the fee is Amazon's fee category for the product. Amazon notes it can differ from the category the product is shown in on the store, so check the fee Seller Central shows for your listing.

Professional sellers pay $39.99 a month on top of referral fees; sellers on the Individual plan pay $0.99 for each item sold instead. FBA sellers also pay a fulfillment fee per unit, covered in the Amazon FBA fee calculator.

These are Amazon's US rates as published on October 15, 2026. Where a category has a price threshold, the table says whether the rate applies to the whole price or only to the part of the price in each band (marked *).

Pet Supplies charges 15% except veterinary diets, which pay 22%. Fine Art's bands are based on sales proceeds, and its minimum is $1.00. Merchant Fulfilled Services covers services offered through Amazon Local Selling, not products.

There are three kinds of rate, and they give very different answers near a threshold.

one rate:         fee = total price × rate
whole-price band: fee = total price × the rate for the band the price falls in
portion bands:    fee = each part of the price × that band's rate, added up
then:             fee = the greater of the fee and the category minimum

Whole-price bands. Beauty, Health and Personal Care charges 8% at $10 or less and 15% above. A $9.00 item pays $0.72. A $12.00 item pays 15% of the whole $12.00, $1.80, not 15% of the $2 above the threshold. Baby Products and Grocery work the same way; Clothing has three bands, at $15 and $20.

Portion bands. Compact appliances charge 15% on the first $300 and 8% on the rest. A $400 appliance pays 15% × $300 + 8% × $100 = $53.00. A $500 furniture item pays 15% of the first $200 and 10% of the other $300: $60.00.

Minimums. A $1.00 item in Home and Kitchen would pay $0.15 at 15%, so it pays the $0.30 minimum instead. Grocery has no minimum, so a $1.00 grocery item pays $0.08.

Whole-price thresholds create a gap. In Beauty, Health and Personal Care, moving from $9.99 to $10.49 raises the referral fee from $0.80 to $1.57, so the higher price keeps less per unit after the referral fee. FBA fees also step up at $10, because the rate cards have separate columns for items under $10 and $10 to $50.

That doesn't mean every price should sit under $10. It means the price-to-profit line has steps, and a price just above a threshold needs enough room to cover them. Run both prices through the fee calculator before you choose, then see the monthly result after ads with the Amazon profit calculator.

Referral and FBA fees come out of every sale before ads, which is why they set how much an ad can cost. Take the price, subtract the product cost and Amazon's fees, and what's left is your margin before ads. One divided by that margin is your break-even ROAS: ads below it lose money on each sale. The break-even ROAS calculator does the arithmetic, and what is ACoS? explains how the same margin becomes your break-even ACoS.

The other half is knowing which sales ads actually cause. Reported ROAS counts sales from shoppers who would have bought anyway. Comparing sales in regions with and without ads shows the difference; see how lift is calculated.

The rates themselves aren't negotiable, but a few things change what you pay:

• The right fee category. If Amazon has your product in the wrong fee category, the rate can be wrong too. Check the fee category Seller Central shows for each listing.
• Brand Referral Bonus. Brand-registered sellers earn a credit on sales from shoppers they send to Amazon from outside, such as Meta ads. The Brand Referral Bonus calculator shows what it's worth.
• Price thresholds. In whole-price categories, pricing well clear of a threshold avoids paying the higher rate on the whole price for a few cents of extra revenue.