Amazon FBA 2026 Rule Changes Sellers Must Know

1. What Actually Changed

Amazon rolled out a stack of policy and fee changes between mid-2024 and mid-2026 that most sellers haven't fully internalized. Some are small. A few are large enough to change which products are profitable to source.

I'll go through them in order of impact on a typical OA/RA seller. Skip ahead to the sections that hit your business hardest.

"We are one week away from 2025 and you know with everything that is changing, Amazon is, things are changing all the time. Today I'm going to share with you my game plan." Chris, How To Start & Scale Amazon FBA to $10k/month in 2025

2. Change 1: FBA Fulfillment Fee Increases

Amazon raised FBA fulfillment fees in January 2024 and again in February 2025. The cumulative impact on a typical Small Standard unit is roughly $0.40 higher than 2023 levels. On a Large Standard unit it's roughly $0.60-$0.90 higher.

For OA sellers running 30 percent net ROI on average, this is a real margin hit. A product that was a 32 percent ROI in 2023 might be 26 percent in 2026 with no other inputs changing. The threshold below which you should walk away from a buy moved up by about $0.50 per unit.

What to do: rerun your floor math. If your minimum buy threshold was "$5 net profit per unit" in 2023, it should be "$5.50 to $6 net profit per unit" in 2026. Full breakdown of every Amazon FBA fee for 2026.

3. Change 2: The Low Inventory Level Fee (LILF)

Introduced April 2024. Applies when your forecasted weeks of cover drops below specific thresholds. Adds $0.09 to $0.89 per unit on top of your fulfillment fee.

Most sellers don't realize this fee is hitting them until they audit Q1 fee reports. The fee shows up roughly 4 weeks after the trigger event. It doesn't show on the FBA calculator. RevSeller and SellerAmp have started adding it as a flag.

What to do: ship deeper initial batches per ASIN. Stock 25-30 units of a winning replenishable instead of 10. The carrying cost of extra units is almost always less than the LILF over a portfolio.

4. Change 3: Inbound Placement Service Fee

Amazon's free option for inbound shipments now requires you to split shipments across multiple warehouses. If you want to send everything to one warehouse, you pay $0.27-$0.49 per unit for the convenience.

Impact varies by batch size:

• Under 50 units: paid single-warehouse is usually cheaper because of carrier consolidation.
• 50-200 units: depends on origin. Run the math both ways for the first few shipments.
• Over 200 units: free split shipment is almost always cheaper.

Shipping plan tutorial including the placement decision.

5. Change 4: Storage Fee Restructure for Q4

Q4 storage fees (October-December) jumped from roughly $2.40 per cubic foot per month for standard size to a tiered structure based on your historical sell-through. Sellers with strong sell-through pay the base $2.40. Sellers with slow sell-through pay surcharges.

The penalty hits hardest on inventory aged 60+ days that didn't sell during Q4. Combined with the long-term storage surcharge for inventory aged 181+ days, slow-moving inventory in Q4 can cost $1.50-$3 per unit in storage alone.

What to do: hard cutoffs on liquidating slow-movers before October 1. If a unit has been in Amazon for 60 days and isn't selling, drop the price 25 percent or pull it for FBM/eBay.

6. Change 5: IPI Score Thresholds

The Inventory Performance Index thresholds tightened in 2025. The score below which Amazon caps your inventory rose from 400 to 500. Sellers with scores in the 400-500 range that were previously fine now hit caps.

The IPI score is built from four factors: excess inventory percent, sell-through rate, stranded inventory percent, and in-stock rate. The biggest lever for OA sellers is usually excess inventory percent (units sitting too long).

What to do: monitor your IPI score weekly. If you drop below 550, take action immediately. How to improve your IPI score.

7. Change 6: Brand Approval Tightening

Amazon's brand restriction lists expanded significantly in 2024-2026. Categories that used to be open (Toys, Beauty, Grocery) now require approval. Brands that used to be open are now restricted. The shortcut methods that used to work (Best Buy invoices, dropshipped retailer invoices) are mostly dead.

The good news: legitimate ungating still works. Invoices from real distributors, brand approval letters from manufacturers, and the Amazon-to-Amazon ungating method all still pass the gate.

"Today you are going to learn the easiest and fastest way to get ungated which is using the Amazon to Amazon method. Amazon is actually a wholesaler. They have a whole section of the website that is just for wholesale which is business.amazon.com." Chris, The ULTIMATE Ungating Strategy: Amazon to Amazon Method

What to do: read the ungating master guide and process 3-5 ungating applications a month proactively. The brands you unlock now are the inventory you can source 6 months from now.

8. Change 7: Returns Processing Fee Expansion

Amazon expanded the returns processing fee to additional categories in 2025. Apparel and shoes were already subject. New additions include certain electronics, home goods, and some toys.

The fee equals your FBA fulfillment fee per returned unit. If your unit's fulfillment fee is $5.40, a return costs you $5.40 in addition to the refund. For high-return categories like apparel (8-12 percent return rate), this fee can eat 4-7 percent of revenue.

What to do: avoid apparel and shoes as a beginner OA seller. If you do source them, model an extra 5 percent fee into your ROI calculation as a returns reserve.

9. Change 8: Amazon Account Verification Got Stricter

The seller account verification process now includes a live video call with an Amazon agent for new accounts (and sometimes existing accounts that change critical info like business entity type). The call is 5-10 minutes and most sellers pass on first try if they're a real person with real documents.

If you switch from sole proprietor to LLC mid-business, expect a re-verification round that pauses your account for 24-72 hours. Plan the switch for a slow sourcing week. LLC vs sole proprietor breakdown.

10. Change 9: New Commingling Default

In 2025 Amazon shifted the default labeling option in new ASIN creation toward stickered (FNSKU) instead of commingled. Existing sellers can still opt into commingling, but new sellers default to stickered.

This is a quality move by Amazon. Commingled inventory historically caused most of the IP claim issues for OA sellers (your unit gets pulled from a pool that includes another seller's lower-quality units, and a customer complaint hits your account). Stickered eliminates that risk.

What to do: always label with FNSKU. Don't opt into commingling even if Amazon offers it. The $0 savings isn't worth the IP risk.

11. Change 10: API Throttling and Tool Compatibility

Amazon throttled its API more aggressively in 2025, which affects third-party tools (repricers, sourcing software, scanners). Some tools that were rock-solid in 2023 now lag by 30-60 minutes on price updates.

What to do: re-evaluate your repricer monthly. The leader in 2023 (Aura) is still strong but Bqool and SellerAmp Live have closed the gap. Test for actual price-change responsiveness on your top 10 ASINs. How to use a repricer for OA.

12. What Hasn't Changed

The model itself hasn't changed. Buy products cheap from one place, list them at a higher price on Amazon, profit on the spread. The execution layer got harder. The fundamental opportunity is the same size or bigger because the tourist competition thinned out.

What hasn't changed:

• 30 percent net ROI is still the floor.
• Keepa is still the source of truth on pricing.
• Sourcing speed and consistency still beat fancy tools.
• The 14-day cash gap on payouts is still the same.
• Q4 still moves more volume than any other quarter.

13. The 2026 Seller's Checklist

If you're operating an Amazon business in 2026, run through this monthly:

1. IPI score above 550? Check Seller Central dashboard.
2. Stranded inventory under 3 percent? Pull the report.
3. Inventory aged 60+ days liquidated or about to be?
4. Ungating applications in flight on at least 2 brands?
5. Repricer tested for responsiveness on top ASINs?
6. FBA fee report reconciled against your projections?
7. Q4 prep started by August 1?

Hit all 7 monthly and you're operating cleanly. Miss 3+ and you're leaking money to the new fee structure.

14. Next Steps

Read these next:

1. Every Amazon FBA fee for 2026
2. How to improve your IPI score
3. How to get ungated on Amazon
4. Is Amazon FBA still profitable in 2026?
5. The how to start Amazon FBA pillar