Fees · Q4 2026

Amazon’s 2026 peak fulfillment fee, and what it should change about your Q4 reorder

From October 15, 2026 to January 14, 2027, every FBA unit that leaves an Amazon fulfillment center is charged at a higher rate card. Here are the dates, the per-unit rates by size tier as Amazon published them, how to carry the fee into your unit economics, and why sending stock in early does not get you out of it. Rates were read from Amazon’s own pages on September 30, 2026.

What the peak fulfillment fee is

The FBA fulfillment fee is the per-unit charge for picking, packing and shipping an order from Amazon’s network. It depends on three inputs: the product’s size tier, its shipping weight, and which price band it sits in (under $10, $10 to $50, or over $50).

The holiday peak fulfillment fee is not an extra charge stacked on the normal one. For about three months Amazon replaces the rate card with a higher one: same tiers, same bands, higher numbers.

For 2026, Amazon’s help page puts the window at October 15, 2026 to January 14, 2027, and says it applies to FBA, Remote Fulfillment with FBA into Canada and Mexico, Multi-Channel Fulfillment and Buy with Prime. This post covers the US FBA rate card only.

Amazon’s seller announcement describes the 2026 peak rates as the same per-unit increase over non-peak as last year, averaging $0.32 per unit. Nobody ships the average unit; your increase depends on where each SKU sits on the table below.

The 2026 rates by size tier

These rows are taken from the US “excluding apparel” tables on Amazon’s 2026 US FBA fulfillment fee changes help page, in the $10 to $50 price band. Both columns exclude the 3.5% surcharge. The page has every weight band, plus apparel and dangerous-goods tables; look your own SKUs up there.

Two patterns: the increase grows with size, from under twenty cents to over a dollar. And where a row carries a per-pound or per-4-oz add-on, only the base moves, so a heavy bulky item pays the same $1.04 increase as a light one.

On the rows checked here the increase did not depend on price band: the lightest small standard item goes from $2.43 to $2.62 under $10 and from $3.58 to $3.77 over $50, the same $0.19. An item priced at exactly $10 or $50 gets the $10 to $50 rates.

The surcharge goes on top

Since April 17, 2026, a 3.5% fuel and logistics-related surcharge applies to US FBA fulfillment fees, peak fees included. The tables are printed without it, so:

Fee you actually pay = rate-card fee × 1.035

On the large standard 12+ to 16 oz row, that works out to $4.60 × 1.035 = $4.76 before the window and $4.89 × 1.035 = $5.06 inside it. The surcharge-inclusive increase is about $0.30 rather than the $0.29 shown in the base rate card; on bulky items $1.04 becomes about $1.08. (Rounded to the cent; Amazon does not state its rounding, so expect the odd one-cent difference against your fee report.)

The rule that decides everything: the fee is charged at ship-out

This is the most useful line on Amazon’s page, and it sits in the FAQ. Fulfillment fees are calculated and charged when shipments leave fulfillment centers. An order placed on October 14 that ships on October 15 pays the peak rate.

The fee is attached to the customer shipment, not your inbound shipment. A unit that arrived at Amazon in August and ships to a customer on November 20 pays the peak rate. A unit that arrived on November 1 and ships on January 20 does not.

You cannot pre-pay the peak fee by shipping inventory in early. The only units that avoid the peak rate are customer shipments that leave the fulfillment center outside the peak window.

Where it goes in your unit economics

Landed cost is what it costs to get a sellable unit to its intended location: goods, freight, duty, brokerage, insurance, inbound prep. (The method is in how to calculate landed cost per unit.) The FBA fulfillment fee is not part of that figure. Leave landed cost alone and carry the peak fee as a per-unit selling cost that depends on the date the unit ships out.

For planning, that gives you two numbers per SKU for Q4 instead of one:

1. Contribution per unit outside the window = price − landed cost − referral and other selling costs − (non-peak fee × 1.035).
2. Contribution per unit inside the window = the same, with the peak fee × 1.035.

Landed cost comes from your purchase and freight records; the two fees from Amazon’s tables or its Revenue Calculator, which Amazon says now shows peak rates; the split of units between windows from your own forecast.

Worked example (invented SKU)

A large standard item weighing 14 oz, priced at $24.99, so in the $10 to $50 band. The price, landed cost, other selling costs and forecast below are invented so you can check the arithmetic. The two fees are the Amazon rates from the table above, with the 3.5% surcharge applied.

The $0.30 increase reduces the non-peak $5.73 contribution by about 5.2%. Now apply the forecast. Say (invented) 560 units ship in the first two weeks of October and 5,040 ship between October 15 and January 14:

At non-peak rates all the way through, the same 5,600 units would have cost $26,656.00 in fees. The peak window adds 5,040 × $0.30 = $1,512.00 to this SKU’s Q4, and that figure is driven entirely by how many units ship inside the window. To budget it, multiply your forecast units inside the window by the surcharge-inclusive increase for each SKU’s tier. The $0.32 average is not a substitute for that.

What it should, and should not, change about the reorder

Sending more inventory early does not avoid the fee

The fee does not change the demand or lead-time math, and sending extra units early does not reduce it. It can still change the economic decision on thin-margin SKUs (next section). Since the peak fee is charged at ship-out, getting stock in earlier or in larger lots does not change what any unit pays. Rerun the example with 1,000 extra units sent in early October “before fees go up”. Customers still buy the same 560 units in early October and 5,040 in the window, so the fee bill stays at $28,168.00. The extra 1,000 units add cash tied up in stock (1,000 × the invented $8.50 = $8,500), storage for as long as they sit, and the risk that they are still there in February.

Sending stock early is still right for a different reason, availability, covered in Q4 starts in August.

For reference, Amazon’s 2026 holiday announcement lists Black Friday and Cyber Monday arrival deadlines of October 14 for Amazon Warehousing and Distribution, October 21 for FBA shipments using minimal shipment splits, and October 28 for Amazon-optimized splits. All three fall after the peak fee starts; they are about availability, not the fee.

It should change which SKUs you look at

Where the peak fee does bite is on SKUs whose margin was already thin:

• Bulky items. A $1.08 increase including surcharge on a SKU earning $3 a unit is more than a third of its contribution. Check those before committing to a deep holiday discount on top.
• Low-priced items in the $10 to $50 band. A $10.99 small standard item of 2 oz or less pays a $3.51 peak fee: the base fulfillment fee alone is about a third of its price, before the surcharge. Work out contribution at the peak rate before counting on those units for volume.
• Near-zero SKUs. If contribution is close to zero at the peak rate, reorder for the demand you can serve profitably.

The fee changes the margin side of the reorder, not the timing side. For how fee inputs feed a reorder quantity more generally, see Amazon FBA fees in 2026 and your reorder quantity.

The honest caveat

This is Amazon’s published rate card on one date, and Amazon can revise a fee page. Two things can move a SKU to a different row with no change to the schedule: remeasured weight or dimensions, which change its tier, and a price move across $10 or $50, which changes its band. The scope is US FBA excluding apparel and dangerous goods; MCF, Buy with Prime and Remote Fulfillment have their own tables. Check your own SKUs’ fees in October, not only a table read in September.