$4.50
referral fee on a $30 unit at a 15% category rate
3.5%
fuel and logistics surcharge on US and CA fulfilment fees, since April 17, 2026
$1.17
Shopify Basic card processing on a $30 order, 2.9% plus 30 cents
Key takeaways
- The Professional selling plan is $39.99 a month and the referral fee is typically 8% to 15% of the total sale price, by category.
- A 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge has applied to US and Canada fulfilment fees since April 17, 2026, around $0.17 per unit on average.
- Holiday peak fulfilment fees run from October 15, 2026 to January 14, 2027.
- Units past 181 days pay an aged inventory surcharge, from $0.50 to $7.90 per cubic foot under the tiers in force since January 16, 2026.
- On a $30 unit, 15% referral is $4.50. Shopify Basic card processing is $1.17, and the rest is what you pay to be found.
Amazon FBA and Shopify are not two versions of the same business. On Amazon FBA you rent demand and logistics and pay for them per sale. On Shopify you rent software and buy your own demand. That is the whole comparison, and the cost structure follows from it.
What Amazon FBA charges you
Three charges apply to every FBA seller, and they are per sale, not flat.
- Professional selling plan: $39.99 per month. One flat fee, regardless of volume.
- Referral fee: a percentage of the total sale price, set by category and typically in the 8% to 15% band. It applies whether you fulfil with FBA or yourself.
- FBA fulfilment fee: per unit, by size tier. Amazon's 2026 update to US referral and FBA fees averaged $0.08 more per unit from January 15, 2026, with no new fee types. Read your own rate in the Revenue Calculator, because it moves with dimensions and weight, not with price.
On top of those, three charges that only show up once you are operating:
- A fuel and logistics-related surcharge of 3.5% on fulfilment fees in the US and Canada since April 17, 2026, which Amazon estimates at an average of $0.17 per unit for US FBA.
- Holiday peak fulfilment fees from October 15, 2026 to January 14, 2027.
- Monthly storage, plus an aged inventory surcharge once a unit passes 181 days in the network. Under the tiers in force since January 16, 2026 that runs from $0.50 per cubic foot at 181 to 210 days up to $7.90 per cubic foot, or $0.35 per unit, past 456 days.
What Shopify charges you
Shopify's costs are flat plus card processing. Published figures put Basic at $39 per month billed monthly or $29 annually, Grow at $105 or $79, and Advanced at $399 or $299, with Shopify Payments online card rates of 2.9% plus 30 cents on Basic, 2.7% plus 30 cents on Grow and 2.5% plus 30 cents on Advanced. These are secondary figures: confirm them on Shopify's own pricing page before you model with them.
What Shopify does not charge you is a cut of the sale for sending you the buyer, because it does not send you the buyer. That cost is real, it just lands in your ad account instead of your settlement report.
The same $30 unit, both ways
Take one unit sold at $30.
Amazon FBA. A 15% referral fee is $4.50. Add your size tier's fulfilment fee, plus 3.5% of that fee as the surcharge, plus storage for the days the unit sat. The $39.99 plan spreads across everything you sell that month. You pay nothing to be found.
Shopify Basic. Card processing at 2.9% plus 30 cents is $1.17. Add $39 a month, spread over your volume, and your own pick, pack and postage. Then add the cost of getting that buyer to the page. At a $10 cost per acquired order you are past the Amazon number; at $2 you are well under it.
That is the decision, and it is not about fees. It is about whether you can buy attention for less than Amazon's referral fee charges you for it.
Which one fits your case
- You have a product and no audience. FBA. The referral fee is the cheapest customer acquisition you will find, and FBA handles storage, picking and returns.
- You have an audience, a brand or repeat purchase. Shopify. You keep the margin Amazon would take, you own the customer record, and subscription or bundle economics work.
- Low price, high weight. Run the numbers before anything else. Fulfilment fees are per unit and indifferent to your price, so what Amazon actually takes per sale rises as your price falls.
- Slow movers. FBA punishes them specifically through storage and the aged inventory surcharge. Shopify does not care how long a box sits in your own unit.
Most sellers past a certain size run both: Amazon for discovery, their own store for repeat buyers. The two cost models are different enough that the same SKU can be profitable on one and not the other, which is why the answer is a spreadsheet and not a preference.
Before you choose, price your own unit properly: every FBA charge and the date it applies, and then how to calculate FBA profit with the fulfilment and storage lines included.
Sources
- Amazon Selling Partners: Update to US referral and Fulfillment by Amazon fees sellingpartners.aboutamazon.com
- Amazon Seller Central: Fuel and logistics-related surcharge, FBA, MCF and BWP in US and CA sellercentral.amazon.com
- Amazon Seller Central: Holiday 2026, same fees, same eligibility, earlier deadlines sellercentral.amazon.com
- Amazon Seller Central: Aging Inventory Action Plan (Angie_Amazon) sellercentral.amazon.com
- Shopify pricing breakdown (secondary source, pending confirmation on shopify.com) demandsage.com
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