The referral fee is the core tax
Amazon’s primary seller fee is the referral fee — a category-based percentage of the sale price, 15% for most categories, with electronics at 8%, clothing at 17% and jewelry topping 20%. Unlike every fashion marketplace above, the referral fee applies to the item price with shipping-and-handling included when you charge them — Amazon taxes the full checkout. On the default $29.99 sale at 15%: $4.50. There is no separate payment-processing line (it is inside the referral concept) — but there is the plan fee, which is where small sellers get surprised.
Individual vs Pro: the $0.99 cliff
Individual plan sellers pay $0.99 per item sold; Pro plan sellers pay $39.99 a month and nothing per item. The break-even is 40 sales a month — below it, Individual is cheaper; above it, Pro pays for itself and then some. What the plan choice actually signals: Amazon gates meaningful selling tools (advertising depth, buy-box competitiveness on certain listings, API access) behind Pro, so the $0.99 is less a fee than a toll on casual participation. Run the calculator both ways on your monthly volume: a seller moving 60 units at $25 average pays $59.40 of per-item fees on Individual versus a flat $39.99 on Pro — a $19.41 monthly gift back for clicking one setting.
FBA changes the cost column, not the fee column
Fulfillment by Amazon adds a per-unit fulfillment fee (size-and-weight based, typically $3-8 for standard items) plus storage — but it does not change the referral percentage. The calculator handles it through the fulfillment-cost field: enter your FBA fee or your own label cost and the net profit line is honest either way. The strategic point resellers miss: FBA’s fee buys Prime badge and buy-box eligibility, which on Amazon is closer to a traffic gate than a perk — a merchant-fulfilled offer without Prime on a competitive ASIN can sit invisible regardless of price. Like every marketplace decision here, it is arithmetic plus audience: FBA fee versus the velocity you lose without the badge.
A worked example: the retail-arbitrage toy
Bought at clearance for $9, sells at $29.99 in a 15% category. FBA fulfillment $5.80. Referral $4.50. Amazon’s take: $10.30 — 34% of revenue, which is the number that shocks eBay-and-Poshmark sellers looking at Amazon for the first time. Net after $14.80 of cost: $4.89 — a 16% margin that survives only because the sourcing was exceptional. The reverse field shows the discipline: to clear $8 on this cost structure the item must list at $33.85. This is why Amazon arbitrage lives and dies on buy cost: at a $4 sourcing cost the same sale nets $9.89; at $9 it nets $4.89; at $13 it is a loss. The fee table is fixed and steep — your only lever is the buy.
Where Amazon sits for a reseller
At 15-20% referral plus fulfillment, Amazon is the most expensive mainstream venue on this site — and still unavoidable for certain inventory, because its buyer intent (model-number search, Prime expectations) converts commodity items nothing else can move. The professional pattern: Amazon for new-condition, barcoded, replenishable goods where Prime visibility wins the buy box; the fashion and vintage lanes stay on the zero-to-13% platforms. Run the fee calculator per product line before choosing lanes — the spread between channels on the same item routinely exceeds the entire sourcing margin, which makes channel selection the highest-leverage decision in modern reselling.
Last verified October 11, 2026. Platform fees change — always confirm against the platform’s official fee page before pricing decisions. Estimates for planning only; every calculation runs in your browser and nothing is stored.