← Amazon FBA vs FBM calculator
Sellers search for “Amazon peak storage fees” in late summer because the referral fee is not the decision. Both a September inbound and a January inbound usually pay the same category referral and the same fulfillment fee. The gap is what the unit pays to sit through October, November, and December.
Amazon bills FBA storage by cubic foot per month. January through September is the off-peak rate. October through December is the peak rate — several times higher on the same box. A shipment that arrives in late August and sells through slowly pays one off-peak month and then peak months. The same units sent in January pay the lower rate for the whole stay.
On a one-cubic-foot example held three months, with two of those months in peak — $0.87 off-peak and $2.40 peak, 200 units — waiting until January keeps $3.06 more per unit, $612.00 on the shipment. That is only storage. Referral, fulfillment, inbound freight, and cost of goods stay where they are. Peak storage alone wipes leftover on that listing after about 4.5 October–December months.
| Stay | Storage / unit | Storage on shipment | FBA leftover | vs January |
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Rates change by size, account, and year. This page does not publish Amazon’s live storage schedule. Paste the cubic-foot rates from your current fee preview. Complementary to aged-inventory removal (an age surcharge on leftover units) and to expected returns (a mix on completed sales). The same listing lives on the Amazon FBA calculator.
The calculator is arithmetic, not advice. It does not recommend a ship date, and it does not claim a shipment is cheaper after Amazon reprices storage.
October through December is billed at a higher storage rate per cubic foot than January through September. On a one-cubic-foot example held three months with two of those months in peak — $0.87 off-peak and $2.40 peak, 200 units — waiting until January keeps $3.06 more per unit, $612.00 on the shipment. That gap is only storage. Referral, fulfillment, inbound freight, and cost of goods stay. The page does the arithmetic from the rates you enter; it does not recommend a ship date.
Divide leftover before storage by the peak cubic-foot charge. On the same $29.99 example that is about 4.5 October–December months. Aged-inventory removal is a different question: that is an age surcharge on leftover units, not a seasonal rate.