On April 2, 2026, Amazon told sellers that a 3.5% fuel and logistics-related surcharge will be added to fulfillment fees — 3.5% of the fulfillment fee, not the sale price, averaging about $0.17 per unit for U.S. FBA orders.
The surcharge starts April 17, 2026, for Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) in the U.S. and Canada and for Remote Fulfillment with FBA from the U.S. into Canada, Mexico, and Brazil. It starts May 2, 2026, for Buy with Prime in the U.S. and Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) in the U.S. and Canada. Amazon describes it as temporary, tied to fuel price spikes since the Iran-related energy volatility, and calculated on each seller's base fulfillment fee after Amazon's January 2026 fee increase.
The Math
Amazon's example: a base fulfillment fee of $5.04 × 3.5% = $0.18 surcharge. Amazon's own estimate for the average U.S. FBA unit is $0.17. That $0.17 is not on the product margin — it is on the fulfillment leg, so it hits every unit shipped via FBA regardless of sale price.
For a seller shipping 3,000 FBA units a month at $5.04 base, the surcharge is ~$529/month or ~$6,350/year — before the existing FBA fee increase, inbound placement fees, and the USPS 8% package surcharge starting April 26 plus UPS/FedEx fuel surcharges that are also rising.
What to Do Now
- Re-price on landed fulfillment cost, not base. Add 3.5% to every FBA fee in the pricing model now, and treat it as variable fulfillment cost, not as a temporary variance.
- Separate the surcharge in the ledger. Book the base FBA fee and the 3.5% surcharge as distinct lines — the surcharge is temporary and will be removed or adjusted, so its history should be traceable, not blended.
- Watch for removal timing. Amazon has not given an end date. Monitor Seller Central announcements weekly; a removal will be a margin recovery, not a price cut, unless you pass it through.
Simplify Your Financial Management
A 17-cent surcharge per unit is invisible on one order and $6,000 a year on a 3k-unit route — and Amazon applies it to the fee, not the price, so the P&L hides it if you book net. Beancount.io keeps every FBA fee and every surcharge in plain-text, version-controlled accounting — so fulfillment cost is auditable per unit, not just per payout. Get started for free and keep your Amazon fees as transparent as your sales.
