As the holiday season ramps up, so does the pressure on Amazon’s vast fulfillment network. For sellers using Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), this period—spanning November through mid-January—represents both the highest sales potential and the highest operational costs.
To manage the seasonal surge in volume, Amazon has continued its Holiday Peak Fulfillment Fee program, first introduced in 2022. In 2025, this fee structure remains a critical factor for FBA sellers to understand, as it directly affects profitability during the most competitive selling months of the year.
In this blog, we’ll break down the Amazon holiday peak fulfillment fees for 2025, with a clear view of how they vary by product size, category, and shipping weight. Whether you're a high-volume seller or just beginning your FBA journey, knowing these fees in advance is essential for accurate cost forecasting, inventory planning, and maintaining margins during peak season.
What is the Amazon Holiday Peak Fulfillment Fee?
The Amazon Holiday Peak Fulfillment Fee is a seasonal surcharge applied to Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) orders during the busiest shopping period of the year—typically from mid-October to mid-January. First introduced in 2022, this fee helps Amazon offset the increased costs of labor, transportation, and warehouse operations during the holiday peak season.
Amazon describes this surcharge as being in line with those applied by other major carriers. The fee is designed to cover the heightened cost of fulfillment and delivery services driven by the seasonal surge in online shopping volume.
In 2025, this fee remains a key consideration for sellers. Whether you sell small standard-size items or oversized goods, this FBA holiday fee can affect your unit economics, especially when margins are already tight due to promotions and competitive pricing.
Understanding how the Amazon peak season fee works—and planning for it—is essential to protecting your profitability during the high-volume Q4 season.
Amazon Holiday Peak Fulfillment Fees for 2025 (By Size, Category & Hazmat)
Amazon’s 2025 Holiday Peak Fulfillment Fees will apply from October 15, 2025, through January 14, 2026, impacting sellers who use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) for standard-size, oversize, and dangerous goods (hazmat) SKUs. These fees are designed to cover increased operational and transportation costs during the peak holiday season, similar to what major shipping carriers implement.
Standard-Size Items Fee
For standard-size items, the peak fee varies based on weight. Small standard units up to 16 oz will incur an additional $0.25 per unit, while large standard units up to 1 lb are charged $0.35. Units between 1 and 2 lbs face a $0.50 fee, between 2 and 3 lbs is $0.75, and items over 3 lbs are charged $1.00. These fees apply to everyday products like small electronics, books, cosmetics, and home essentials.
Oversize items Fee
For oversize items, fees are significantly higher due to the increased cost of handling and shipping. Small oversize units will incur a $1.50 fee, medium oversize items are charged $2.75, large oversize products are subject to a $3.85 fee, and special oversize items will cost $6.50 per unit. These include larger items such as TVs, furniture, sports equipment, and bulk-packaged goods.
Dangerous Goods (hazmat) Fee
For Dangerous Goods (hazmat), which include items like batteries, aerosol sprays, or chemical cleaning agents, Amazon has a distinct surcharge. The holiday peak fulfillment fee for standard-size hazmat items is $0.40 per unit, while oversize hazmat units incur a $1.00 fee. These fees reflect the added safety, compliance, and handling requirements involved in storing and shipping hazardous materials within Amazon’s fulfillment network.
Regardless of category, these seasonal fees can impact your margins—especially for fast-moving or low-priced SKUs. FBA sellers are advised to revisit their holiday pricing strategy, assess product-level profitability, and consider optimizing packaging dimensions or shifting SKUs where necessary to stay competitive without eroding margins.
Amazon FBA monthly storage fee during peak season
During the peak season, sellers tend to increase inventories sent to the fulfillment centers owing to the holiday season demand. So, during the peak season, Amazon also increases its monthly storage fees between October to December. Here’s a detailed breakdown of FBA monthly charges:
Dangerous goods storage fee during peak season: For standard-sized dangerous goods, the monthly storage fee is $3.63 per cubic foot, and for oversized products, the storage fee is $2.43.
UPS and FedEx peak season surcharge
Similarly, during the peak season every year, two of the biggest shipping carriers in the U.S. – UPS and FedEx – announce their holiday surcharges. This year, FedEx updated its rates for FedEx express and ground services. The surcharge ranged from $1.35 to $6.95 for the FedEx ground package and $2.40 to $7.40 for the FedEx express package.
UPS has announced its peak surcharge for certain domestic and international shipments, effective from October 1, 2023, through January 13, 2024. Unlike FedEx, UPS did not publish the specific increase in rates but only published an overview of the average rate increases.
How to Reduce the Impact of Amazon Holiday Peak Fulfillment Fees
Amazon’s holiday peak fulfillment fees are non-negotiable—but that doesn’t mean sellers are powerless. Smart FBA sellers take a proactive approach to minimize these additional costs without sacrificing customer experience or sales velocity. Here are key strategies to reduce the impact of these seasonal fees:
1. Optimize Product Dimensions and Packaging
Amazon bases FBA fees on size tiers, so even minor adjustments to your packaging can drop a product into a lower tier and reduce both regular and peak fees. Review your top-selling SKUs and explore options like vacuum sealing, box resizing, or using polybags instead of cartons. A half-inch difference could mean saving $0.50+ per unit during the holiday period.
2. Prioritize Lightweight, High-Margin Products
Focus your Q4 inventory strategy around products that are light, compact, and profitable. Small standard-size products incur lower peak fees and are easier to ship and stock in bulk. Avoid pushing low-margin, heavy items unless they’re high-velocity winners with strong conversion rates.
3. Leverage Amazon Warehousing & Distribution (AWD)
If you’re using Amazon’s upstream AWD network, you can hold inventory closer to demand zones and better control when inventory enters FBA during peak windows. This gives you more flexibility around restocking and can reduce last-minute expedited shipments that inflate costs.
4. Diversify with FBM or 3PL Fulfillment
Not every SKU needs to go through FBA—especially during Q4. For bulkier items or lower-turnover products, consider using Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM) or a third-party logistics (3PL) partner. This not only avoids peak FBA fees but also gives you more pricing flexibility during sales events.
5. Bundle Strategically
Creating multipacks or product bundles helps offset fulfillment fees across multiple units, increasing your average order value while reducing the per-item cost of FBA. Just make sure bundles are pre-kitted before sending them into Amazon, so they qualify as a single unit.
6. Use Inventory Performance Index (IPI) Data to Improve Turns
A high IPI score ensures better storage access and reduced long-term fees, which can amplify cost savings during the holiday season. Review slow movers and identify SKUs that should be discounted, removed, or rotated out before peak fees kick in.
7. Forecast Sales and Ship Smart
Avoid last-minute inbound shipments that force you into air freight or higher-cost logistics options. Use historical Q4 sales data to forecast demand accurately, stagger shipments well in advance of October 15, and aim to fully stock your top SKUs before fee implementation begins.
How to Budget and Forecast for Amazon’s Holiday Fees in Q4
Planning for Q4 without accounting for Amazon’s holiday peak fulfillment fees can derail even the most seasoned sellers. To stay profitable, FBA businesses need to budget proactively and align inventory, marketing, and fulfillment strategies with these temporary cost changes. Here’s how to build a data-backed Q4 budget that withstands fee fluctuations:
1. Analyze Historical Q4 Performance
Start with a deep dive into your past Q4 metrics. Focus on:
- Units sold by SKU
- Average fulfillment cost per unit
- Seasonal velocity changes
- Returns and refund trends
This gives you a baseline to model expected demand and fee impact per SKU—especially useful if you’re selling items that hit peak velocity in November–December.
2. Calculate the Fee Differential Per Unit
Determine the exact cost increase due to holiday peak fees for each FBA-fulfilled SKU. For example:
- A large standard-size unit with a regular fee of $4.15 may now cost $4.95 during peak season.
- That $0.80 increase, multiplied over thousands of units, could cut into your margins significantly.
Incorporate this per-unit delta into your pricing strategy and profit forecasting so you're not blindsided by margin compression.
3. Reassess Advertising and Promotion Spend
Don’t allocate Q4 ad spend in isolation. If your margins are thinner due to holiday fees, you may need to:
- Reduce bidding on low-margin items
- Focus campaigns on high-margin or fee-resilient SKUs
- Bundle ad performance data with updated COGS to calculate real ROI
4. Build Fee Scenarios into Your P&L Forecasting
Create multiple Q4 budget scenarios:
- Baseline (normal fulfillment fees)
- Peak season (Oct 15 – Jan 14 rates)
- Worst-case (e.g., excess inventory penalties, returns surge)
This layered approach helps you understand the financial swing that holiday fees might create—and prepares you to act quickly.
5. Use Inventory Planning Tools or Forecasting Software
If you’re scaling, consider tools like Amazon’s Inventory Performance Dashboard, restock suggestions, or third-party forecasting platforms. These tools can simulate sell-through, inventory health, and replenishment costs with peak fees factored in.
6. Plan Cash Flow Around Payment Delays
Even if your sales spike in Q4, FBA fee deductions and Amazon's payout cycles can create short-term cash flow gaps. Adjust your budget to:
- Delay non-essential purchases
- Secure short-term working capital
- Negotiate flexible payment terms with suppliers or 3PLs
Conclusion
Preparation is vital as the holiday season approaches and the demand for online shopping surges. Equipped with the knowledge of Amazon’s updated holiday peak fulfillment fee and the associated monthly storage fees, you can plan your FBA operations effectively, provide exceptional customer service, and make the most out of this exciting, albeit challenging, time of the year.
How can e-commerce operators prepare for peak season?
How a business handles its warehouse operations during the peak season can make or break a company. It’s no secret that order volume during the peak season skyrockets, and e-commerce operators must be prepared months ahead to tackle the peak season issues. For example, a surge in customer orders can strain the complete order fulfillment and processing systems, leading to delays, errors, and potentially dissatisfied customers. Furthermore, it is essential for e-commerce operators to balance stock levels to meet increased demand without overstocking or running out of popular items, which requires precise inventory management.
Other major challenges that e-commerce operators face during the peak season are logistics and ecommerce shipping problems, limited warehouse space, labor shortages, outdated warehouse management systems, etc.
Hopstack provides all the necessary tools that a fulfillment function needs to manage a high volume of orders in this period and solve all the bottlenecks associated with fulfilling the orders. Businesses can achieve 100% efficiency and accuracy in high-volume pick, pack, and ship operations with Hopstack's e-commerce fulfillment software.
FAQs
How much more does the holiday fee add per unit?
The increase depends on the item’s size and category. For example, a standard-size item could incur an additional $0.20 to $0.80 per unit, while oversized and dangerous goods may see a $1.50+ increase per item. It’s essential to check the rate chart for your specific SKUs.
Are all FBA products subject to the holiday peak fee?
Most FBA items are affected, including standard-size, large standard-size, oversized, and dangerous goods. However, non-peak categories like apparel and footwear may have separate fee schedules or exceptions—always review Amazon's official documentation for details.
Does Amazon apply holiday fees to seller-fulfilled orders?
No. The holiday peak fulfillment fee applies only to FBA orders, not to seller-fulfilled or FBM (Fulfilled by Merchant) shipments. However, sellers using FBM may face their own carrier surcharges or delays during the peak season.
Can I pass these holiday fees onto customers?
Yes, many sellers adjust their pricing during Q4 to maintain margins. However, this must be balanced against customer expectations and competitor pricing, especially during high-volume shopping events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
How can I minimize the impact of holiday fulfillment fees?
Strategies include prioritizing high-margin SKUs, consolidating shipments, leveraging bundling to reduce per-unit fulfillment costs, and using fee simulations in your pricing and profit forecasting.
