On October 22, 2025, Amazon sent sellers an email with the subject line: “Update to U.S. Referral and Fulfillment by Amazon Fees for 2026.” Most sellers filed it away. The sellers who read it carefully had 90 days to adjust pricing, audit inventory, and find 3PL partners before the changes hit. The sellers who ignored it are still absorbing the cost.

Here is exactly what the October 2025 announcement contained, what took effect and when, and which seller profiles are paying the most as a result.

What the October 2025 Announcement Actually Said

Amazon’s October 2025 announcement covered four categories of change:

1. Fulfillment fee increases effective January 15, 2026. Average increase of $0.08 per unit across standard-size products. Higher increases for products priced above $50, averaging $0.31 per unit. The announcement framed this as the first increase since 2024, noting no changes in 2025.

2. Inbound placement fee structure changes effective January 15, 2026. The fee tiers for minimal, partial, and optimized shipment splits were updated. Sellers sending to a single warehouse continue to pay the highest per-unit placement fee.

3. Low inventory level fee threshold change. The minimum historical days of supply required to avoid the low inventory fee shifted from 28 days to 35 days. Sellers who calibrated their reorder triggers to the 28-day threshold were now triggering the fee without knowing it.

4. FBA Prep and Labeling Services discontinuation effective January 1, 2026. Amazon stopped offering prep and labeling services at fulfillment centers. Sellers who relied on Amazon to bubble wrap, bag, or label products had to find alternatives before January 1.

What the announcement did not mention: the 3.5% fuel surcharge that arrived April 17, 2026. That was a separate announcement, separate timing, and stacked on top of everything above.

The Double Stack – Peak Fees Then Permanent Increases

The October announcement created a two-phase cost increase that most sellers did not fully model.

Phase 1 – Peak fulfillment fees: October 15, 2025 through January 14, 2026. Amazon charges higher per-unit fulfillment fees during Q4 every year to cover increased holiday operating costs. For 2025, peak fees added approximately $0.35 per unit on standard-size products. These were temporary but applied to every unit sold during the highest-volume selling period of the year.

Phase 2 – Permanent fee increase: January 15, 2026. The temporary peak fees ended and the permanent increases took effect immediately. Sellers went from elevated peak fees to a new permanent baseline with no recovery period in between.

A seller paying $4.57 in base fulfillment in September 2025 paid $4.92 in peak fees from October through January. On January 15 they moved to a new permanent baseline of approximately $4.75 base plus fuel surcharge $4.92 total once April’s surcharge arrived.

The net result: from September 2025 through mid-2026, fulfillment cost per unit increased continuously with no month where fees were lower than the month before.

Who Got Hit Hardest

Not all sellers felt the October 2025 changes equally. Three profiles absorbed disproportionate impact.

Sellers with products priced above $50. The January 2026 fee increase averaged $0.31 per unit for this price tier — nearly four times the $0.08 average across all products. A seller with 10 SKUs all priced above $50 and shipping 1,000 units per month absorbed an additional $310 per month in fulfillment fees from January alone, before the fuel surcharge.

Sellers who relied on Amazon FBA Prep. The discontinuation of FBA Prep effective January 1, 2026 forced sellers to either prep products themselves or find a 3PL. Amazon was charging approximately $0.55 per unit for prep services. Most 3PLs charge $0.75 to $1.00 per unit for equivalent prep plus the additional inbound shipping cost to route through the 3PL first. Sellers who acted in November and December 2025 locked in 3PL contracts before capacity tightened. Sellers who waited until January faced limited availability and higher rates.

Sellers running lean inventory. The low inventory threshold shift from 28 to 35 days of supply meant reorder triggers calibrated to 28 days were now consistently triggering the low inventory level fee. This fee applies to every unit sold while below threshold meaning high-velocity SKUs with tight inventory generated the highest penalties.

Products that were marginal before October 2025 — sitting at CAUTION on the margin decision — moved to NO-GO after the fee stack landed. The FBA Fee Calculator runs the full P&L including the 2026 fee structure so you can check where each SKU sits today.

FBA Prep Discontinuation – The Operational Change Most Sellers Underestimated

Amazon’s FBA Prep and Labeling Services allowed sellers to send unprepared inventory directly to fulfillment centers and pay Amazon to bubble wrap, poly bag, or label each unit on arrival. Effective January 1, 2026, Amazon stopped offering this service in the US.

The cost impact was not just the per-unit prep cost. It was the operational disruption:

Sellers who shipped directly from overseas suppliers to Amazon had to add a domestic stop at a prep center, increasing transit time and adding inbound freight cost.

Sellers who used Amazon prep as a quality control checkpoint had to build their own inspection process or pay a 3PL to do it.

The timing announced in October, effective January 1 gave sellers approximately 70 days to find, vet, and onboard a 3PL. For sellers with high SKU counts or international supply chains, 70 days was tight.

The practical cost increase from FBA Prep discontinuation ranges from $0.20 to $0.45 per unit depending on product type and 3PL rates, on top of the fulfillment fee and fuel surcharge increases.

The Full Fee Stack After October 2025

For a large standard-size product (1.5 lbs) priced at $29.99 in Home and Kitchen category, here is what the fee stack looked like before and after the October 2025 announcement:

Fee	September 2025	Mid-2026
Referral fee (15%)	-$4.50	-$4.50
FBA fulfillment fee	-$4.86	-$5.04
Fuel surcharge (3.5%)	$0	-$0.18
FBA Prep (if used)	-$0.55	$0 (discontinued)
3PL prep replacement	$0	-$0.85
Low inventory fee (if triggered)	variable	higher threshold
Total fulfillment cost	-$5.41	-$6.07

That is a $0.66 per unit increase on fulfillment cost alone for a seller who used FBA Prep and now uses a 3PL. At 1,000 units per month: $660 per month in additional cost.

For the complete 2026 fee breakdown including all fee types and the fuel surcharge, the Amazon FBA Fees Explained article covers every fee category with current rates.

What to Audit Right Now If You Have Not Recalculated Since October 2025

If your pricing and margin targets were set before October 2025, they are based on a fee structure that no longer exists. Run this audit:

Step 1: Check your low inventory threshold. Pull the historical days of supply report in Seller Central for your top 20 SKUs. If any are below 35 days, you are paying the low inventory fee on every unit sold. Adjust reorder points immediately.

Step 2: Recalculate fulfillment cost per unit. Base fee plus 3.5% fuel surcharge plus any prep cost. Compare to what you used in your original margin calculation. If your model used pre-January 2026 rates, the gap is real.

Step 3: Check the $50 price tier. If any products are priced at $47 to $52, model the fee impact both above and below $50. The fee increase above $50 may make a price reduction to $49.99 net-positive on margin despite lower revenue.

Step 4: Run a GO/NO-GO check on every SKU. Products that were marginal before October 2025 need to be re-evaluated. The FBA Fee Calculator runs COGS, inbound shipping, PPC, and all current fees against your target margin and returns a GO, CAUTION, or NO-GO decision per product.

Rates verified June 19, 2026. See changelog.

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FAQ

What did Amazon announce in October 2025 for FBA sellers?

Amazon’s October 22, 2025 announcement covered four changes effective in early 2026: fulfillment fee increases averaging $0.08 per unit (higher for products above $50), inbound placement fee structure updates, a low inventory threshold shift from 28 to 35 days of supply, and discontinuation of FBA Prep and Labeling Services effective January 1, 2026. A separate 3.5% fuel surcharge was announced and took effect April 17, 2026.

When did the October 2025 FBA fee changes take effect?

Peak fulfillment fees applied October 15, 2025 through January 14, 2026. FBA Prep and Labeling Services ended January 1, 2026. Permanent fulfillment fee increases and placement fee changes took effect January 15, 2026. The fuel surcharge took effect April 17, 2026.

Who was most affected by the October 2025 FBA fee changes?

Three seller profiles absorbed the most impact: sellers with products priced above $50 (average fee increase of $0.31 per unit versus $0.08 average), sellers who relied on Amazon FBA Prep services (forced to find 3PL alternatives at higher per-unit cost), and sellers running lean inventory (low inventory threshold shift from 28 to 35 days triggered fees on high-velocity SKUs).

How do I check if the 2026 fee changes made my FBA products unprofitable?

Run a full P&L on each SKU using current 2026 rates including the base fulfillment fee, 3.5% fuel surcharge, referral fee, storage estimate, inbound placement, and COGS. The FBA Fee Calculator does this automatically and returns a GO, CAUTION, or NO-GO decision based on your target margin. Products that were CAUTION before October 2025 should be re-evaluated — many have moved to NO-GO under the current fee structure.