Amazon referral fee: what it is and how much you pay (by category)
The referral fee is the fee you hear about most when you try to work out what it costs to sell on Amazon, and also the one with the most confused numbers floating around. Here is the simple version: what it is, how it is calculated, how much you actually pay by category, and why it is not the same thing as FBA fees or the closing fee.
The referral fee is the percentage Amazon takes on every sale by a third-party seller. It is calculated on the total sale price, is usually around 15% but varies by category (roughly 7% to 45%), with a minimum of about $0.30 per item. It is separate from the selling plan subscription and from FBA fulfilment costs.
What the Amazon referral fee is
The referral fee is the commission Amazon charges on each item sold on the marketplace by a third-party seller. It is how Amazon gets paid for putting you in front of millions of buyers: it is charged only when a sale happens, and it is owed by anyone who sells, regardless of which plan you are on or whether you use Amazon’s fulfilment.
It is important to separate it from the selling plan subscription. The subscription ($39.99 a month for Professional, or $0.99 per item for Individual) is what you pay to have the account. The referral fee is a percentage that triggers on every sale. They are two different things that add up, and confusing them is the first mistake people make when working out margins.
How it is calculated: a percentage of the total price
The point most people miss is that the referral fee does not apply only to the product price, but to the total sale price, the full amount the buyer pays. That includes the item price, any shipping charged to the customer, and gift wrap.
In practice, if you sell an item for $30 with $5 of shipping charged to the buyer, the percentage is calculated on $35, not $30. It is a detail that changes the maths, especially on products with significant shipping, and it is one reason your real margin is almost always lower than you expect.
How much you pay: the percentage by category
The standard referral fee, for most categories, is around 15%. But it varies a fair amount by product category, roughly 7% to 45%, with the most common categories sitting between 8% and 15%. Try the calculator below, then check the examples table.
How much referral fee do you pay?
Pick the category, enter the price, and see the fee (with the $0.30 minimum applied).
Indicative estimate. Category percentages are examples and may vary or be tiered; the minimum referral fee is usually $0.30 per item. Always verify the exact rate for your category in Seller Central.
Here are some real examples of how the percentage changes by category:
| Category | Indicative referral fee |
|---|---|
| Home & kitchen, Sports, Toys | 15% |
| Clothing & accessories | 17% (lower on low-price items) |
| Consumer electronics, computers | 7-8% (often tiered) |
| Health & personal care | 8% above $10 |
| Jewelry | ~20% up to a threshold, then lower |
The percentages shift slightly between sources and Amazon updates them over time, so for the exact number in your category the official Amazon fee schedule is always the source of truth.
The $0.30 minimum per item
On almost all categories Amazon applies a minimum referral fee of $0.30 per item. That means if the calculated percentage works out below $0.30, you still pay $0.30. It bites hardest on low-price products: on a $2 item the 15% would be $0.30, but on a $1 item the minimum kicks in and becomes a third of the price. It is one of the reasons very cheap products struggle to make money on Amazon. For media products (books, music, video) the minimum can be zero.
Referral fee, closing fee, and FBA: three different things
Confusing these three is the most common costing mistake, so let us line them up. The referral fee is the percentage on the sale, owed by every seller. The closing fee is a separate flat amount, applied only to media products (books, DVDs, music, video games), added on top of the referral fee. FBA fees, finally, are the fulfilment charges (pick, pack, ship, and storage), based on the product’s weight and size, and owed only by sellers who use Fulfilment by Amazon.
In other words: you always pay the referral fee, the closing fee only on media, and FBA fees only if you use FBA. The sum of these, plus any plan subscription, is the real cost of selling. If you want to see all the numbers put together on a concrete example, they are in my guide to Amazon selling fees.