The long-term storage fee is Amazon's additional monthly charge on FBA inventory that has been in its fulfillment centers for an extended period. Amazon now calls it the aged inventory surcharge and applies it on top of the regular monthly storage fee, in tiers that begin once a unit has been stored for more than 180 days and rise at further age bands. It is assessed on a set day each month against the inventory age report, per unit or per cubic foot, whichever is greater in the applicable tier.
Why it matters
The surcharge turns a slow seller into a loss-maker. A unit that costs a few cents a month in standard storage can cost many times that once it crosses 180 days, and the charge repeats every month until the unit sells or is removed. Because the fee is on top of standard storage, which itself roughly triples from October through December, aged stock heading into Q4 is the most expensive inventory a seller holds.
It is also a signal. Units approaching 180 days are units the market has not wanted at the current price with the current listing, and the decision about them, discount, advertise, bundle, remove or liquidate, is better made at day 120 than day 181.
What moves it
- Inventory age, tracked per unit on the Inventory Age report and the FBA Inventory dashboard, with the days until the next surcharge shown.
- Sell-through, which is the only thing that resets the clock without a removal order.
- Removal and liquidation options, which have their own per-unit fees but stop the monthly charge.
- Inbound timing. Sending a year of stock at once guarantees some of it ages past 180 days.
How we use it
The Inventory Age report is reviewed monthly, and any SKU with units projected to cross 180 days before they sell is put on the excess-stock playbook: a coupon or price test first, a Sponsored Products push if the margin allows, then a removal or liquidation order for whatever remains. The goal is inventory back to 60 to 90 days of cover before the surcharge starts, not after.