There is a second peak fee, and it is not storage. Fulfillment costs more from October 15 too.

Key takeaways

• Amazon's July 7, 2026 announcement: holiday peak fulfillment fees apply from October 15, 2026 to January 14, 2027 — the same window as the previous two years — with the same per-unit uplift as last year, averaging $0.32 per unit in the US (about CAD $0.39 in Canada).
• The 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge applies on top of the peak fee. Same $0.32 headline as 2025; larger bill, because the base fee rose in January and the surcharge did not exist last peak.
• It covers four programs: Fulfillment by Amazon, Remote Fulfillment with FBA, Multi-Channel Fulfillment and Buy with Prime. Shopify orders fulfilled through MCF pay it.
• The fee is charged on ship date. Anything leaving a fulfillment center on or after October 15 pays peak; the window closes two weeks after New Year, so January clearance is fulfilled at peak rates.
• The same announcement tightened inbound deadlines: October 21 for minimal-split FBA shipments ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The placement decision now has a cut-off attached.

Everyone covers the Q4 storage spike. Almost nobody covers this one. It’s charged on every unit you actually sell, not on the ones that sit, and if your peak goes well that makes it the larger of the two.

01What Amazon announced

The holiday announcement was posted to Seller Central on July 7, 2026. The terms:

Item	2026 holiday terms
Window	October 15, 2026 to January 14, 2027; non-peak rates resume January 15
Programs	FBA, Remote Fulfillment with FBA, Multi-Channel Fulfillment, Buy with Prime
Uplift	Same per-unit increase over non-peak as last year; average $0.32 per unit (US), CAD $0.39 (Canada)
Surcharge	3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge applies on top of peak fees
Basis	Charged by ship date, on the size tier and weight of each unit
Tools	Peak rates loaded into the Revenue Calculator, Profit Analytics and Fee and Economics Preview
AWD	Off-peak storage pricing extended to October 31 for AWD inventory auto-replenished into FBA

The average conceals a per-tier range. Per-tier example uplifts on Amazon’s help page run from roughly $0.19 for the lightest small-standard units to about $2.81 for large oversize, as reported by Eightx; your own figure is on the Fee Preview report.

02Same headline, bigger bill

The uplift is unchanged from last year. The unit cost is not, and the reason is what sits underneath it:

2025 peak unit cost = 2025 base fee + peak uplift
2026 peak unit cost = (2026 base fee + peak uplift) × 1.035

Take a large standard unit with a $6.00 base fee in 2025 that rose to $6.10 in January. Last peak: $6.00 + $0.40 uplift = $6.40. This peak: ($6.10 + $0.40) × 1.035 = $6.73. A seller who filed the July announcement under “no change” is short 33 cents on every unit, before storage. Illustrative fees; the shape is the point.

03Why the dates matter more than the amount

It opens October 15, before Prime Big Deal Days and the Black Friday block, and two weeks before most sellers think of peak as starting.

It closes January 14. Everything you sell in the first fortnight of January — exchanges, and the post-Christmas clearance most sellers run to shift peak overstock — is fulfilled at peak rates. That interacts badly with the removal decision: a seller clearing unsold peak inventory through January promotions is discounting and paying peak fulfillment on every unit that moves.

It is charged on ship date, not order date. An order placed on October 14 that ships on the 15th pays peak.

04The full peak cost picture

Four charges rise across the same period and none replaces another:

Charge	Window	Effect
Peak fulfillment fee	15 Oct – 14 Jan	+$0.32 per unit average, by tier
Fuel and logistics surcharge	Year-round, no end date	3.5% of the fulfillment fee including the peak uplift
Peak storage	1 Oct – 31 Dec	$0.78 → $2.40 per cubic foot standard; $0.56 → $1.40 oversize
Advertising	Prime Day and Q4	CPCs materially higher; see the PPC benchmarks guide

Plus deal and coupon fees where you participate — see the deals guide — and the cash timing covered in the peak season cost stack. A seller modeling Q4 on storage alone is modeling one of four.

05The inbound deadlines

The same announcement moved the calendar earlier. Amazon’s fulfillment centers prioritize receiving in September and October and switch to order processing in November; inventory arriving late loses the Prime badge for the events it was meant to serve.

Date	Deadline
October 20, 2026	Black Friday Week and Cyber Monday deal submission closes
October 21, 2026	FBA inbound deadline for minimal-split shipments (Black Friday / Cyber Monday)
October 28, 2026	Last of the published inbound windows (AWD and optimized splits run later than minimal splits)

Confirm the dates for your account under Seller Central > Inventory > Shipments > Send to Amazon, where the holiday cut-off is shown against each placement option. The practical consequence: the inbound placement decision has a deadline in Q4, and missing the minimal-split cut-off forces you into whichever option is still open rather than the one your arithmetic chose.

06What to do

• Add the peak uplift and the surcharge to Q4 unit economics, in contribution margin per unit sold — not in the storage model. Different line.
• Check MCF volume. If you fulfil Shopify or other channels through Amazon, the peak fee and the surcharge land there too, and neither shows up in Amazon marketplace reporting.
• Reconsider January clearance. Either clear before Christmas or wait until January 15. The fortnight in between is the worst of both.
• Diarize October 15, not November 1. Anything you want fulfilled at standard rates ships before the fifteenth.
• Book the minimal-split deadline of October 21 now if that is the placement option your arithmetic prefers.

Run it on your own figures. The margin and break-even calculator takes price, cost of goods, referral rate, fulfillment fee, returns and ad spend and returns net profit per unit, net margin and the maximum ACOS the product can carry. Nothing is stored and nothing leaves your browser.

Two dates go in your calendar today: October 15, when the fee starts, and October 21, when the minimal-split door closes. Everything else in this guide follows from those two.

Frequently asked

When does the 2026 peak fulfillment fee apply?

October 15, 2026 through January 14, 2027, per Amazon's July 7, 2026 announcement. Non-peak rates resume on January 15, 2027. The uplift averages $0.32 per unit in the US, unchanged from last year.

Is this the same as the Q4 storage increase?

No. Storage roughly triples from October 1 to December 31 and is charged on inventory held. This is a per-unit fulfillment fee charged on units shipped, over a longer window.

Does the fuel surcharge apply during peak?

Yes. Amazon's announcement states the 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge applies on top of holiday peak fulfillment fees.

Does it affect Multi-Channel Fulfillment?

Yes. The fee covers Fulfillment by Amazon, Remote Fulfillment with FBA, Multi-Channel Fulfillment and Buy with Prime. Orders you fulfil for other channels through Amazon carry it.

Is it charged on order date or ship date?

Ship date. Any unit leaving a fulfillment center on or after October 15, 2026 pays the peak rate, whenever it was ordered.

What are the inbound deadlines?

Amazon published a October 21, 2026 deadline for minimal-split FBA shipments ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, with deal submission closing October 20. Your account-specific cut-offs are shown in Send to Amazon.

Sources

1. Holiday 2026: same fees, same eligibility, earlier deadlines (window October 15, 2026 to January 14, 2027; four programs; average $0.32 per unit; 3.5% surcharge on top; rates in Revenue Calculator and Fee Preview), Amazon Seller Central, Seller Forums announcement, July 7, 2026 Primary source accessed 2026-09-04
2. Peak season fulfillment fees: 2025–26 holiday window (October 15, 2025 to January 14, 2026, for comparison), Amazon Seller Central, Seller Forums announcement, August 2025 Primary source accessed 2026-09-04
3. Fuel and logistics-related surcharge: FBA, MCF, and BWP in US and CA (3.5% from April 17, 2026), Amazon Seller Central, Seller Forums announcement, April 2, 2026 Primary source accessed 2026-09-04
4. Amazon freezes 2026 holiday seller fees, cuts inbound windows shorter (deal submission closes October 20; minimal-split inbound deadline October 21; inbound windows September 2 to October 28), PPC Land Secondary accessed 2026-09-04
5. 2026 holiday peak FBA fulfillment fees for USA and Canada (CAD $0.39 Canadian average; non-peak rates resume January 15, 2027), AMZ Prep Secondary accessed 2026-09-04
6. Amazon's 2026 holiday fees: the real stack behind $0.32 (per-tier example uplifts $0.19 to $2.81 from the Seller Central help page; charged on ship date), Eightx Secondary accessed 2026-09-04