How to avoid Amazon's aged inventory surcharge (formerly long-term storage fees)

Aged stock is a slow leak. Nothing breaks the day a unit turns 181 days old, so nobody notices until the charge lands in the settlement report and units are nearing the expensive tiers.

What changes on February 1, 2027?

Amazon's 2027 US fee overview says the aged inventory surcharge and the storage utilization surcharge both end on February 1, 2027, replaced by one age-based monthly fee. Its unified monthly storage fee page (both checked November 6, 2026) puts standard-size goods at $0.78 per cubic foot up to 180 days, $2.78 at 181-270 days and $6.68 at 271-365 days from January to September. Stock just past six months pays the most extra: $1.50 per cubic foot more at 181-210 days. So clear what you can before February, and keep the 181-day line in your alerts. We set the old and new rates side by side, with a worked example, in what replaces the aged inventory surcharge. Everything else on this page covers the rules in force until January 31, 2027.

What is Amazon's aged inventory surcharge?

It is the current name for what sellers still call long-term storage fees: per Amazon's aged inventory surcharge page (checked October 22, 2026), a monthly charge on FBA units that have been in Amazon's fulfillment network 181 days or longer, on top of the normal monthly storage fee.

Three mechanics matter:

• The 15th is snapshot day. Amazon assesses unit age on the 15th of every month and usually posts the charge between the 18th and 22nd.
• Age is first-in, first-out across the network. Each unit sold or removed comes off your oldest stock, whichever unit physically shipped, so faster sales retire aged units.
• Volume drives the bill. The surcharge is priced per cubic foot (length × width × height in inches, divided by 1,728); the two oldest tiers also have a per-unit rate, and Amazon charges whichever is higher.

How much is the aged inventory surcharge in 2026?

US rates in effect from January 16, 2026, from Amazon's 2026 US fee changes summary (checked October 22, 2026):

*Clothing, shoes, bags, jewelry and watches are excluded from the first three tiers.

The line to watch is 270 days. The rate more than triples there, so a SKU you could have cleared with a small discount at day 240 costs real money by day 280. In Amazon's example, an 11 × 8 × 2 inch toy (0.102 cubic feet) costs about $0.56 a month at 300 days, and 20 of them past 456 days cost $16.12, because the cubic-foot charge beats the per-unit total of $7.00.

Which receipt dates cross a surcharge tier at the next three snapshots?

Amazon counts age per unit from when it entered the fulfillment network, first in, first out. Working back from each snapshot date gives the receipt dates that matter (approximate by a day; the age columns in FBA Inventory are the exact count):

Subtract the units you expect to sell before each snapshot from the oldest receipts first; what remains in a column is what will be charged at that tier. Peak season makes November and December the costly months: a 0.102 cubic foot standard-size unit in the 271-300 day tier costs about $0.24 in base storage ($2.40 per cubic foot from October to December) plus $0.56 in surcharge, roughly $0.80 a month, close to the one-time $0.84 disposal fee for a unit up to 0.5 lb (rates checked October 22, 2026).

What else makes an FBA storage bill high?

Two things besides aged stock. Every seller pays the monthly storage fee, which rises in peak season: for standard-size, non-dangerous goods it is $0.78 per cubic foot from January to September and $2.40 from October to December.

Eligible sellers also pay the storage utilization surcharge. Amazon divides average daily stored volume by average daily shipped volume over the past 13 weeks, per size tier, to get a ratio in weeks. It applies if you have a Professional account, first shipped to a US fulfillment center over 365 days ago, average at least 25 cubic feet in that size tier, and the ratio is above 22 weeks. For standard-size items it adds $0.44 per cubic foot at 22-28 weeks, up to $1.88 at 52 weeks or more, on inventory older than 30 days. Units pending removal are left out of the ratio, and Amazon uses the ratio on the last day of the month for that month's surcharge. Products that Amazon Warehousing and Distribution auto-replenishes can be waived from it when 70% or more of their FBA units were auto-replenished over the past 13 weeks. Aged stock inflates this ratio, so clearing it lowers both charges (rates checked October 22, 2026).

How do you spot at-risk units before the 15th?

Amazon's FBA Inventory page flags ASINs that are, or will be, subject to the surcharge within 60 days. To act on it, track per SKU:

1. Units on hand in each age bucket.
2. Daily sell-through at current price and ad spend.
3. Days until the next one, two and three snapshot dates.

Because sales come off the oldest stock first, units at risk are those that will be 181 days or older on snapshot day, minus what you will sell before then. If that number is positive, you have a decision to make now, not on the 14th.

Which action costs least: price, promotion, ads, removal or liquidation?

Weigh the surcharge for the months a unit would otherwise sit against each option's cost:

• Price cut. Cheapest when the SKU still has margin and demand responds to price.
• Amazon Outlet deal. Needs a discount of at least 20%, a Professional plan, a customer rating of 4+ stars, and a new-condition ASIN rated 4+ stars (or unreviewed) with inventory that has been in fulfillment centers 90+ days. Deals run two weeks, then the ASIN waits 60 days. Submissions can stay pending or be declined, and you cannot cap units sold, so submit early. Outlet adds no deal fee, but Amazon tells sellers to remove pricing rules first: a repricer that pushes the price back above the deal price can get the deal canceled.
• Ad shift. Move budget from SKUs about to stock out to SKUs that are aging. See inventory-aware ad spend.
• Removal or disposal. Under Amazon's 2026 removal and disposal fee changes, from January 15, 2026, a standard-size unit up to 0.5 lb costs $0.84 to remove or dispose of, and $1.53 up to 1 lb. Special-handling items, which can include apparel, shoes, watches and jewelry, start at $3.12. File by 11:59 p.m. PT on the 14th.
• Liquidation. Liquidators pay a gross recovery value of roughly 5% to 10% of what the item is worth. Amazon keeps 15% of that plus a processing fee from $0.25 per unit, so the net can be negative. Dangerous goods, recalled items and anything with an expiration date are not eligible, and Amazon currently lists jewelry and face masks as ineligible too. Storage charges stop on submission, a confirmed order cannot be canceled, and the net recovery value should reach your account within 90 days. All fee and program terms above were checked October 22, 2026; Amazon changes them often, so recheck before acting.
• Another channel. Multi-Channel Fulfillment ships FBA stock to orders from your other storefronts when a SKU sells faster there.

Also check your automated removal settings: a 1 to 12 month window plus a disposition (return, liquidation or disposal). If they are unset or disabled, Amazon applies a mandatory removal to sellable units past 270 days, and without a return address those units are donated, recycled or disposed of. With the setting enabled, Amazon's page (checked October 22, 2026) also lists removal of units past 365 days and of units of ASINs that have not sold for six or more consecutive months and are over 180 days old, so a slow seasonal SKU can leave the network before its season comes back. For supplements, cosmetics, food and pet products, expiry runs on a separate clock from age, and our expiry date and lot tracking recipe flags lots that will not sell before their date.

How does Growth OS flag aging stock weeks ahead?

Ecomsellertool Growth OS is deployed on your own Seller Central account, and its inventory and reporting data can be set up to run this check every month, projecting unit age and sales per SKU to the next three snapshots.

For each at-risk SKU it can price the options against the surcharge and queue the one you approve through pricing sync, margin-aware advertising (the approach behind Amazify) or a removal order. The same data feeds replenishment and the inventory and replenishment agent, so the next purchase order matches real sell-through.

Where to start

Pull your last three Aged Inventory Surcharge reports. If the total keeps rising, the gap usually sits upstream in forecasting, not cleanup. Then start with the free 24-hour diagnostic in the Ops Gap Diagnostic: connect Amazon with Login with Amazon, no password shared, and get a report of what is going wrong within 24 hours of connecting, on business days. We only read data; we never change listings, prices, stock or ads. Aged stock and storage fees are part of the report when they rank. Rather not connect? The free Quick Scan works from uploaded reports. The paid Deep Diagnostic maps every gap and what closing it would take.

If this monthly aging check lives in a spreadsheet that someone rebuilds before every snapshot, we can automate it as a single workflow, with removals and price cuts still approved by your team.