Amazon adding temporary surcharge on sellers starting April 17
Rising fuel and logistics costs are behind a temporary charge to third-party sellers using Amazon fulfillment services.
Starting April 17, 2026, a 3.5% fuel and logistics-related surcharge will be applied to fulfillment fees across the online giant's hosted Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) distribution service in the U.S. and Canada, the company said in a post on the Amazon Seller Central portal. The surcharge will also be applied to the Remote Fulfillment with FBA service from the U.S. into Canada, Mexico and Brazil.
"Elevated costs in fuel and logistics have increased the cost of operating across the industry," the company said in the post. "We have absorbed these increased costs so far. However, similar to other major carriers, when costs remain elevated, we implement temporary surcharges on our fulfillment fees to recover a portion of the actual cost increases we are experiencing."
Starting May 2, the surcharge will take effect for Buy with Prime in the U.S. and the hosted Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) service in the U.S. and Canada, which enables sellers to leverage the Amazon fulfillment network to pick, pack, ship and deliver their orders from select channels beyond Amazon.com
“Similar to other major carriers, when costs remain elevated, we implement temporary surcharges on our fulfillment fees to recover a portion of the actual cost increases we are experiencing,” Amazon said. “Due to the work we have already done together to lower costs, this surcharge is meaningfully lower than other major carriers.”
The surcharge will be calculated on seller fulfillment fees rather than the sale price of their items. On average, Amazon says this equates to $0.17 per unit for U.S. FBA shipments, though the amount will vary based on item size and dimensions. Amazon seller tools have been updated to reflect the surcharge and provide both the per-unit impact and the full business impact for a seller’s FBA products.
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In the post, Amazon said it also understands the surcharge will affect sellers’ business and it will continue to evaluate the situation as conditions evolve.
Amazon did not directly mention the ongoing Iran conflict the post, but presumably rising fuel costs and supply chain disruption caused by the military activity in the Persian Gulf area are the primary factors. The company has applied temporary third-party fulfillment surcharges over the years, often to cover short-term increases in costs caused by factors such as holiday sales rush periods.
