How every line is calculated

Data sources

Referral fee percentages and minimum per-item fees are read directly from Amazon's own published schedules. Nothing is inferred, scraped or interpolated.

The calculation, line by line

Each marketplace is computed independently in its own currency. Only the comparison at the end converts anything.

1. Revenue after tax

Germany: net = list price ÷ 1.19. German list prices are VAT inclusive, so the VAT is stripped out first.

United States: net = list price. Sales tax is charged to the buyer on top of your price and is not part of your revenue. Listing a higher price to cover the estimated German VAT is a different, much bigger error — the VAT was never yours to keep.

2. Referral fee

referral = max(net × category rate, minimum fee), where the minimum is $0.30 on Amazon.com and €0.30 on Amazon.de.

The category rate is applied to net, not to the shelf price, because that is what Amazon does on European stores. For categories that tier by price there are two distinct behaviours, and the difference matters:

• Whole-price tiers (clothing, beauty, grocery, vitamins, baby) pick one rate for the entire order based on where the price falls. Crossing the threshold re-prices everything — that is the cliff described on the break-even page.
• Marginal tiers (electronics accessories, furniture, jewellery, watches, auto) charge each price slice at its own rate, like income tax. A €300 furniture item is charged 15% on the first €200 and 10% on the remaining €100.

3. Fulfilment

net profit = net revenue − referral fee − fulfilment fee − landed cost − returns

Why we ask you for the fulfilment fee instead of guessing it

This is the single most common way Amazon margin calculators mislead people.

FBA fulfilment fees are not published per category. They are determined by your product's size tier, its unit weight, its dimensional weight, its price band, and — from 2026 — a fuel and logistics surcharge that applies from April in Europe. Two products in the same category can differ by several dollars per unit based on millimetres of packaging.

Most free calculators quietly pick a midpoint and print a confident number anyway. That number is wrong for most inputs, and it is wrong in the direction that makes a bad SKU look viable.

So Keeprate prefills a reference value — for the US, the large standard-size rate at four ounces or less in the $10–$50 band, which is $3.97; for Germany, a reference standard parcel around €3.20 — and asks you to replace it with the real number from Seller Central. It takes about fifteen seconds and it is the difference between a model and a guess.

How returns are modelled

returns cost = return rate × (fulfilment fee + landed cost)

This is deliberately pessimistic. It assumes a returned unit costs you the fulfilment fee twice and that the goods themselves are not recoverable. In practice some returns are resellable, so the real cost is often a little lower. We chose the conservative version because a margin model that flatters you is worse than no model.

What is not modelled

None of the following appear in the output, and any of them can be large enough to change a decision:

• Monthly professional selling plan (€39 / $39.99), or the $0.99 / €0.99 per-item plan
• Advertising, coupons and deals
• Monthly and long-term storage fees, and the aged-inventory surcharge
• Inbound placement and low-inventory-level fees
• Prep centre, labelling, and removal or disposal costs
• The low-price FBA tiers available on items under €20 in Europe and under $10 in the US
• Currency risk beyond the single exchange rate you enter
• Amazon's 1.5% fuel and logistics surcharge on European fulfilment from 17 April 2026 — fold it into your fulfilment input if you want it included

The tool answers one specific question: given a shelf price and a cost base, what does each marketplace return per unit before advertising and overhead. It is not a full P&L.

Currency

Your landed cost is entered in US dollars. For the German store it is converted at the rate you supply, because your supplier invoices you in one currency regardless of which storefront sells the unit. Profit is computed natively, then converted back for the comparison sentence so the two figures are comparable.

Update log

• 29 October 2026 — First publication. US and German referral schedules as published for 2026, including the 5%/10% clothing reduction, the new German household-goods tier, and the April 2026 European fuel surcharge note.

Corrections

If a rate here disagrees with your Seller Central fee preview, Seller Central is right and this page is wrong. Send the category and marketplace and it will be fixed and dated in the log above.