If you sell on Amazon using FBA, your fulfilment costs are about to go up. From 17 April 2026, Amazon will apply a 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge to all FBA fees in the US and Canada - adding roughly 17 cents per unit on top of what you already pay.

‍

The trigger is rising fuel prices driven by the US-Iran conflict, and Amazon is following UPS, FedEx, and the major carriers in passing those costs down the chain. For most sellers, this is a margin squeeze arriving at exactly the wrong time.

‍

This blog breaks down exactly what the surcharge means for your numbers, your options, and how to make a clear-headed decision about what to do next.

‍

What Exactly Is Changing and When?

Amazon announced the surcharge on 2 April 2026. It applies to the fulfilment fee portion of your FBA costs - not the sale price of your product.

‍

  • 7 April 2026 - FBA fulfilment fees in the US and Canada, plus Remote Fulfillment with FBA (shipping from the US to Canada, Mexico, and Brazil)
  • 2 May 2026 - Buy with Prime and Multi-Channel Fulfilment (MCF) in the US and Canada

Amazon has not announced an end date, which means planning around this as a permanent cost change is the prudent approach.

‍

How to Calculate the Real Impact on Your Business?

‍

The 3.5% figure sounds small, but the effect on your margins depends on your unit economics. Take your current monthly FBA fulfilment fees and multiply by 1.035. The difference is your additional monthly cost. For example:

‍

  • If you pay $5,000/month in FBA fees today, the surcharge adds $175/month
  • If you pay $20,000/month, you're looking at $700/month extra
  • If you pay $50,000/month, that's $1,750/month or $21,000 over a year

‍

The real pressure comes at low margins. If you're running a 15% net margin on a $30 product, that's $4.50 profit per unit. A $0.17 surcharge wipes out 3.8% of your profit per unit. At 100 sales a day, that's over $500 in lost profit every month from a single product, without changing anything about how you run your business.

‍

Where to find your FBA fee total: In Seller Central, go to Reports → Payments → Fee Preview. This gives you a breakdown of fulfilment fees by ASIN, so you can see exactly which products are most exposed to the surcharge.

‍

Use the calculator below to find out exactly what the surcharge costs you.

Free Calculator
Amazon's 3.5% fuel surcharge kicks in April 17. Use our calculator to see exactly what it adds to your monthly costs.
Step 1 — How would you like to calculate?
Tip: daily sales × 30 = monthly units
Fill in the fields above to see your result
Working capital for Amazon sellers
Front-load your inventory before costs rise further
Uncapped provides flexible financing from $10K to $5M for e-commerce businesses. No personal guarantee. Decision in 24 hours.
Apply for financing →

Source: Amazon

‍

It's Not Just Amazon Increasing Its Prices

Amazon's surcharge isn't the only cost going up. FedEx and UPS both raised fuel surcharges in March, meaning sellers are now paying more to ship inventory into fulfilment centres and more to ship orders out.

‍

Costs are rising in both directions. Getting inventory into Amazon costs more. Getting orders out costs more. For thin-margin businesses, that's a double squeeze - pressure on both sides of the same transaction, and that's where the real damage accumulates.

‍

Three Ways to Protect Your Amazon FBA Margins

‍

  1. Reprice strategically. Passing some of the cost increase on to customers is the most straightforward response but it's not risk-free. For price-sensitive products, even a small increase can hurt conversion and erode the volume gains you're trying to protect. Test price changes on your most exposed ASINs before applying them broadly.
  2. Audit your lowest-margin products first. Not all products will feel the surcharge equally. Pull your fee-to-revenue ratio by ASIN in Seller Central and identify which products are now borderline unprofitable. These may be candidates for price increases, switching to FBM, or discontinuation.
  3. Hedge against rising fuel prices. One way to get ahead of further increases is to front-load your inventory now. Deploying working capital to place a larger order today locks in your current cost base before fuel prices, carrier surcharges, or Amazon's fees have the chance to move against you again. With no end date on the surcharge and fuel prices still elevated, this is one of the few levers sellers have to protect their margins proactively.

‍

On that last point - many sellers don't act because the capital isn't available when they need it. Uncapped's fixed term loans and line of credit are built for exactly this kind of situation: short-cycle inventory financing where you need to move quickly. Decisions in 24 hours, no personal guarantee required.

‍