← Amazon FBA vs FBM calculator
Sellers search for “FBA vs FBM” because the referral fee is not the decision. Both fulfillment-by-Amazon and merchant-fulfilled listings usually pay the same category referral percentage. The gap is everything around it.
FBA adds a size-tier fulfillment fee, inbound to an Amazon warehouse, and monthly storage while the unit sits. Prime shipping is Amazon’s problem after that. FBM skips those Amazon fulfillment costs and replaces them with the label, packaging, and time you pay to ship the order yourself.
On a typical mid-price example — a $29.99 home-and-kitchen unit, 15% referral, a large-standard fulfillment default, $1.20 inbound, one month of storage, and a $4.75 merchant label — one path can keep several dollars more than the other. That difference is often larger than the referral-rate gap between categories.
Rates change by size tier, season, category, and account. This page does not publish Amazon’s live schedule. Open the Amazon FBA vs FBM calculator, enter the numbers from your current fee preview, and compare both paths on one listing — including the maximum you can pay for the unit before it loses money. Returns change the comparison. A unit that comes back usually refunds the referral and keeps the outbound pick fee — Do Amazon returns wipe FBA profit? mixes that leftover at the rate you type.
The calculator is arithmetic, not advice. It does not recommend FBA or FBM, and it does not claim a listing is profitable after you switch.
Neither is always cheaper. Both paths usually pay the same category referral percentage, so the decision is everything around it: FBA adds a size-tier fulfillment fee, inbound to an Amazon warehouse, and monthly storage while the unit sits, while FBM replaces those with the label, packaging, and time you pay to ship the order yourself. On a $29.99 home-and-kitchen unit at a 15% referral, one path can keep several dollars more than the other, and that gap is often larger than the referral-rate difference between categories.
Yes. A unit that comes back usually refunds the referral fee but keeps the outbound pick fee, so the path that sees more returns loses more than a completed-sale comparison shows. Enter your own return rate before treating either path as the winner.