What Happened to Amazon’s LTSF? The 2026 Guide to Aged Inventory Surcharges
TL;DR
Amazon's aged inventory surcharge, formerly called the long-term storage fee or LTSF, now starts at day 181 and escalates through eight age tiers. The January 2026 update raised the per-unit minimum on inventory older than 365 days from $0.15 up to $0.30 or $0.35 depending on age.
If you are searching for "Amazon LTSF" and the language no longer matches what you remember, you are not crazy. Amazon changed the terminology a few years ago. The old long-term storage fee is now part of a broader aged inventory surcharge structure that hits earlier and stings harder. As of January 16, 2026, the most punishing tier got more expensive.
This guide walks through what happened, what the current 2026 fee schedule looks like, and what to actually do before stale FBA inventory eats your margin.
Jump to the section you need:
What Was Amazon's LTSF?
LTSF stood for long-term storage fee. For years, sellers used the term as shorthand for Amazon's extra penalty on inventory that overstayed its welcome in FBA.
Most of us mentally bucketed LTSF as a 365+ day problem. The familiar rate was $6.90 per cubic foot per month or $0.15 per unit per month, whichever was greater. That gave sellers a comforting belief: as long as inventory turned over inside a year, you were probably fine.
That mental model is what got people in trouble. Amazon was already pushing the start of the penalty earlier when they renamed the fee. They have kept tightening the screws since.
What Is It Called Now?
Amazon's current official term is "aged inventory surcharge." It was previously known as the long-term storage fee or LTSF. The new name is more accurate because the surcharge now applies across multiple age buckets, not only very old inventory.
If you are reading a fee statement, an Amazon Seller Central help page, or a fee announcement, it will say aged inventory surcharge. People still talk about LTSF in seller groups, and that is fine. Just know the official term has changed.
What Actually Changed?
Two big shifts happened over time. First, Amazon expanded the old one-year LTSF mindset into an aged inventory surcharge structure that starts much earlier, with the 2023 fee changes introducing surcharge tiers before the old 365-day mark. Second, the 2026 update made the post-one-year tiers more expensive, especially for small, dense, low-margin products. Amazon laid out the original expansion in its 2023 U.S. referral and FBA fee update and has tightened the schedule since.
Here is the side-by-side:
| Old LTSF mindset | Current aged inventory surcharge reality |
|---|---|
| Name: long-term storage fee / LTSF | Aged inventory surcharge |
| Seller perception: a 365+ day problem | Starts at 181 days |
| Fee structure: simple, easy to ignore | Eight age buckets, escalating rates |
| One-year penalty: $6.90 per cu ft or $0.15 per unit | 366 to 455 days at $6.90 per cu ft or $0.30 per unit, then 456+ days at $7.90 per cu ft or $0.35 per unit |
| Operational implication: clean up stale inventory eventually | Manage inventory age continuously |
The headline change for 2026 is in that last row. The per-unit minimum on inventory older than a year used to be $0.15 per unit per month. Now there are two tiers and the floor doubled or more.
Current 2026 Aged Inventory Surcharge Rates
Here is the full 2026 U.S. schedule, pulled from Amazon's aged inventory surcharge help page:
| Inventory age | 2026 aged inventory surcharge |
|---|---|
| 181 to 210 days | $0.50 per cu ft per month |
| 211 to 240 days | $1.00 per cu ft per month |
| 241 to 270 days | $1.50 per cu ft per month |
| 271 to 300 days | $5.45 per cu ft per month |
| 301 to 330 days | $5.70 per cu ft per month |
| 331 to 365 days | $5.90 per cu ft per month |
| 366 to 455 days | $6.90 per cu ft per month or $0.30 per unit per month, whichever is greater |
| 456+ days | $7.90 per cu ft per month or $0.35 per unit per month, whichever is greater |
Note: Amazon’s 181 to 270 day aged inventory surcharge tiers exclude clothing, shoes, bags, jewelry, and watches. Those categories begin aged inventory surcharge exposure at later tiers. Always confirm the current category-specific rules in Seller Central.
These fees are charged in addition to your regular monthly FBA storage fees, not instead of them.
For context, standard-size monthly FBA storage in 2026 runs $0.78 per cubic foot from January through September and $2.40 per cubic foot from October through December. Oversize and large bulky rates differ, so confirm your exact rate in Seller Central. Aged inventory surcharge stacks on top of those base rates.
Stop guessing at fee changes.
Subscribe for monthly Amazon FBA inventory breakdowns. Practical math, real fee schedules, no fluff.
Why the 2026 Change Matters
Effective January 16, 2026, Amazon raised the rates on inventory aged 366 days or more. The 366-to-455 day tier moved to $6.90 per cubic foot or $0.30 per unit, whichever is greater. The brand-new 456+ tier sits at $7.90 per cubic foot or $0.35 per unit, whichever is greater.
For small, dense, low-priced products, the per-unit minimum is the part that hurts. The old $0.15 per unit floor was already painful for low-margin SKUs. Doubling it to $0.30, then escalating again to $0.35 for inventory older than 15 months, can wipe out the remaining profit on a stale ASIN faster than most sellers expect.
The bigger lesson: stale inventory is no longer something you can afford to address only when you "get around to it." It compounds.
Example: How Aged Inventory Surcharges Can Wreck Margin
Pretend you have 500 units of a product that has been sitting in FBA for 456+ days. The per-unit surcharge applies at $0.35 per unit per month.
500 × $0.35 = $175 per month in aged inventory surcharge alone.
Annualized, that is $2,100 per year, every year, until you do something about it. And that is before regular monthly storage, ad spend to clear it, discounting, removal fees, or the opportunity cost of capital tied up in unsellable units.
For a low-margin SKU doing modest volume, $2,100 a year in aged inventory surcharge can flip the SKU from "barely profitable" to "actively losing money." The math gets worse the longer you wait, because next month's fee runs again.
What Sellers Should Do Before Inventory Hits 181 Days
The cheapest aged inventory surcharge is the one you never trigger. Build a rhythm:
- Review FBA inventory age monthly, by SKU.
- Set internal review thresholds at 120, 150, 180, 270, and 365 days.
- Separate true slow movers from seasonal inventory before deciding what to do.
- Compare the cost of holding, discounting, liquidating, and removing for each stale SKU.
- Avoid sending excess slow-moving units into FBA in the first place.
- Use AWD, a 3PL, or your own warehouse for overflow when it makes sense.
- Reforecast demand using actual sales velocity, not wishful thinking.
- Lower reorder quantities or pause replenishment for stale C items.
- Protect your A items, but stop overfunding long-tail SKUs that never earned the buy. ABC analysis is the easiest way to draw that line.
Action at 120 days is cheap. Action at 365+ days is expensive and often involves liquidation pricing, removal fees, or both.
Removal, Discount, Liquidation, or Hold?
When a SKU crosses one of your review thresholds, you have four options. None of them is "do nothing."
- Discount if real demand exists and the price elasticity is reasonable. Run a coupon, a Lightning Deal, or simply lower the listing price for a window.
- Liquidate if the margin is already gone and storage will keep compounding. Amazon's Liquidations program or an off-Amazon clearance buyer is often better than feeding the storage fee meter.
- Remove if the product has a path elsewhere, can be bundled, or might be relaunched later in a different season.
- Hold only if there is a real, dated demand event coming, like a true seasonal peak or a marketing push that has been scheduled and resourced.
The trap is hoping. Aged inventory surcharge is recurring, so "I will deal with it next month" is a decision to pay another fee.
How This Connects to Replenishment Planning
Aged inventory surcharge is usually not a storage problem. It is a replenishment planning problem that shows up at the storage fee statement.
Common root causes I see:
- Reordering on a flat sales average without excluding stockouts and promo spikes.
- Ignoring seasonality and ordering Q4 quantities into Q1.
- Buying to a supplier MOQ instead of to demand.
- Treating every SKU the same instead of running ABC or XYZ logic.
- Routing all inventory directly to FBA instead of staging some upstream.
- Not tracking inventory age by SKU, only at the account level.
- Letting C items quietly consume FBA capacity that A items need.
Fix any of those upstream and you reduce the chance that a SKU crosses 181 days in the first place. Sharper reorder points and a real excess inventory review process do most of the heavy lifting. If you'd rather not maintain those formulas in a spreadsheet, our free reorder point calculator returns a SKU-specific trigger in seconds.
The Profit Hawk Take
Profit Hawk helps Amazon-focused brands manage inventory around real demand, lead time, stockout risk, and replenishment policy. Aged inventory surcharge is exactly the type of fee you can avoid by forecasting demand more accurately, setting smarter reorder points, and dropping blanket replenishment rules across every SKU.
If you are still managing FBA inventory in a spreadsheet, start by adding age-based review thresholds at 120, 180, 270, and 365 days. That alone will save you money. But if you are running dozens or hundreds of SKUs, this should not be a manual cleanup project every time fees show up. The work belongs in your replenishment process, before stale stock becomes a fee problem.
FAQ
Does Amazon still charge LTSF?
Amazon's current official term is aged inventory surcharge. It was previously known as the long-term storage fee or LTSF. The penalty did not go away. It was renamed, expanded, and made more granular.
When does Amazon's aged inventory surcharge start?
It starts once units have been stored in FBA for 181 days or more. Before 181 days, you only pay regular monthly FBA storage fees.
What changed in 2026?
Effective January 16, 2026, Amazon updated rates for inventory aged 366 days or more. Inventory aged 366 to 455 days is charged $6.90 per cubic foot or $0.30 per unit, whichever is greater. Inventory aged 456+ days is charged $7.90 per cubic foot or $0.35 per unit, whichever is greater.
Is the aged inventory surcharge separate from monthly FBA storage fees?
Yes. Aged inventory surcharge is added on top of regular monthly FBA storage fees. It is not a replacement.
Should I remove inventory before 181 days?
Not automatically. But you should review every SKU before it crosses 181 days and compare the cost of holding, discounting, liquidating, and removing. Doing nothing is the worst of those options.
How do I avoid aged inventory surcharge?
Forecast demand more accurately, avoid over-ordering to supplier MOQs, reduce replenishment on slow movers, stage excess inventory outside FBA when appropriate, and review inventory age before it crosses 181, 270, and 365 days.
