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 is Amazon's aged inventory surcharge?

It is the current name for what sellers still call long-term storage fees: 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:

Unit age	Surcharge per month
181-210 days	$0.50 per cubic foot*
211-240 days	$1.00 per cubic foot*
241-270 days	$1.50 per cubic foot*
271-300 days	$5.45 per cubic foot
301-330 days	$5.70 per cubic foot
331-365 days	$5.90 per cubic foot
366-455 days	$6.90 per cubic foot or $0.30 per unit, whichever is greater
456 days or more	$7.90 per cubic foot or $0.35 per unit, whichever is greater

*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.

What else makes an FBA storage bill high?

Two things besides aged stock. Every seller pays the base 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. Aged stock inflates this ratio, so clearing it lowers both charges.

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.
• Ad shift. Move budget from SKUs about to stock out to SKUs that are aging. See inventory-aware ad spend.
• Removal or disposal. 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. Storage charges stop on submission.
• 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. 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.

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, 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. The free Quick Scan in the Ops Gap Diagnostic estimates your top three operations gaps in dollars from uploaded Amazon reports, aged stock and storage fees included when they rank. The paid Deep Diagnostic maps every gap and what closing it would take.