Amazon FBA Changes in 2026: The Complete Reference
2026 brought some of the biggest shifts to Amazon FBA in years, and for sellers importing from overseas the stakes are higher than ever. This is a single, plain-language reference to every major change: what it is, when it took effect, and what it means for your costs. Bookmark it, and link to it if it helps your readers.
Amazon stopped prepping inbound inventory on 1 January 2026, so stock must arrive shelf-ready.
Aged-inventory surcharges now start at 181 days.
Q4 storage roughly triples.
IPI thresholds tightened and restock limits returned.
Reimbursements are now based on your manufacturing cost, not retail.
What's in this guide
1. Amazon ended inbound FBA prep
The single biggest change: as of 1 January 2026, Amazon no longer preps your inventory when it arrives at a fulfillment center. Units must show up already labeled to FNSKU, poly-bagged where required, bundled correctly, and compliant with category rules. Anything that does not is rejected or charged back. For sellers who relied on Amazon to tidy up inbound shipments, that safety net is gone. Prep now has to happen before the stock reaches Amazon, either by you or a dedicated prep partner.
2. Aged-inventory surcharges start at 181 days
Amazon continues to push hard against slow-moving stock. Aged-inventory surcharges now begin at 181 days in a fulfillment center and climb the longer inventory sits, on top of standard monthly storage. For a seller importing in bulk to keep freight cheap, this is a direct penalty on holding months of stock inside FBA. The practical defense is to keep only a few weeks of cover in FBA and hold the rest elsewhere.
3. Q4 storage fees roughly triple
Monthly FBA storage fees rise sharply in the fourth quarter, historically to around three times the off-season rate for standard-size units. Q4 is exactly when nervous sellers overstock ahead of the holidays, so the fee lands at the worst possible time. Sending a full container straight to FBA in October means paying peak storage on everything that has not yet sold.
4. IPI thresholds tightened
The Inventory Performance Index, Amazon's measure of how efficiently you use FBA, has become stricter, with the threshold pushed higher and storage allowances trimmed. Fall below it and Amazon can cap how much you are allowed to send in. A low IPI can quietly throttle your entire business, so keeping stored inventory lean and sell-through healthy now matters more than ever.
5. FBA reimbursements now use manufacturing cost
When Amazon loses or damages your inventory, reimbursements are now calculated from your manufacturing (sourcing) cost rather than your retail price, and claims run on a filing window measured in weeks. That means lower payouts and less time to act. Keeping clean records of what each unit actually cost to make is now essential to getting fairly reimbursed.
6. Marketplace facilitator tax is standard
Marketplace facilitator laws mean Amazon and Walmart now collect and remit US sales tax on your behalf in the large majority of states. This simplifies collection, but it does not remove your own filing and compliance obligations, and foreign-owned US entities still face federal reporting like Form 5472. Assuming the marketplace handles everything is a common and costly mistake.
7. What this means for overseas sellers
Taken together, the 2026 changes reward sellers who prep correctly before FBA, hold bulk inventory in cheap storage, and feed Amazon in small batches. They punish the old habit of shipping everything straight into FBA and hoping. For a seller importing from India or elsewhere, the winning setup is a US prep-and-storage base that labels goods to spec, holds the buffer at low cost, and drip-feeds FBA in line with real sales. That structure sidesteps most of the new penalties at once.
If you found this useful as a reference, you are welcome to cite or link to it. We keep it current as Amazon's policies evolve.