Amazon Shipping Publishes Its 2026 Peak Season Demand Surcharges — $0.75 Per Package, $11.90 Additional Handling, $117.50 Large Package and $590 Extra Heavy at the November 22 to December 26 Peak, Running October 25, 2026 Through January 16, 2027
Amazon Shipping — Amazon's standalone parcel carrier for seller-fulfilled orders, not FBA — has published its 2026 peak season demand surcharge schedule. The surcharges run from October 25, 2026 through January 16, 2027 in three tiers, with the highest rates between November 22 and December 26. At the peak tier the per-package demand surcharge is $0.75, Additional Handling is $11.90, the Large Package fee is $117.50 and the Extra Heavy Package fee is $590. The shoulder tiers on either side sit at $0.50, $8.75, $96.25 and $530. Amazon states these amounts are additional to your contracted rates and apply automatically during the listed dates, with no action required from existing shippers. Supply Chain Dive's coverage notes the 2026 fees are higher than last year's holiday fees. This is a separate cost line from the FBA holiday peak fulfillment fee, which starts earlier on October 15, and Amazon's 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge introduced in April 2026 still applies on top.
Real-World Impact
A seller shipping 800 standard Amazon Shipping parcels a week pays $0.75 x 800 = $600 per week in demand surcharge alone during the November 22 to December 26 peak tier, versus $0.50 x 800 = $400 per week in the shoulder tiers. If 30 of those weekly parcels also trip Additional Handling, that adds $11.90 x 30 = $357 per week at the peak rate against $8.75 x 30 = $262.50 in the shoulder tiers. A single Extra Heavy parcel shipped during the peak tier costs $590 in surcharge on top of the contracted rate.
Key Points
- Three date tiers: October 25 to November 21, 2026; November 22 to December 26, 2026 (peak of peak); and December 27, 2026 to January 16, 2027
- Per-package demand surcharge: $0.50 in the two shoulder tiers, $0.75 during November 22 to December 26
- Additional Handling fee: $8.75 in the shoulder tiers, $11.90 during the peak tier
- Large Package fee: $96.25 in the shoulder tiers, $117.50 during the peak tier
- Extra Heavy Package fee: $530 in the shoulder tiers, $590 during the peak tier
- Amazon states the demand surcharges are additional to your contracted rates and apply automatically on the listed dates — existing Amazon Shipping customers do not need to opt in or take action
- Supply Chain Dive reports the 2026 amounts are pricier than last year's holiday fees for Amazon Shipping
- At the peak tier, Amazon Shipping's per-package demand ($0.75), Additional Handling ($11.90) and Large Package ($117.50) amounts match the top of UPS's published 2026 peak ranges — the differentiator is Amazon Shipping's separately listed Extra Heavy Package fee
- This is an Amazon Shipping carrier fee, distinct from the FBA holiday peak fulfillment fee that begins October 15, 2026 — a seller can be exposed to both across different parts of the catalog
- Amazon's 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge, in place since April 2026, continues to apply on top of these peak amounts
What You Should Do Now
- 1Put October 25 in your cost model as the start date — it is later than the FBA peak fee start of October 15 and later than the UPS and FedEx handling-fee start dates in late September, so the Q4 cost increases arrive in waves rather than all at once
- 2Pull your Amazon Shipping parcel mix and separate it into standard, Additional Handling, Large Package and Extra Heavy buckets, then price each bucket at the peak-tier amount rather than applying a blended average
- 3Re-measure and re-weigh your top seller-fulfilled SKUs against the Additional Handling, Large Package and Extra Heavy thresholds — dropping a package below a threshold avoids a fee worth up to $590 per parcel at peak
- 4Model the 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge on top of the peak amounts, since it did not expire when the peak schedule was published
- 5Compare the peak-tier Amazon Shipping cost per order against FBA fulfillment plus the October 15 FBA holiday peak fee for the same units, and decide before late October which SKUs are cheaper to move into FBA for the season
- 6Reprice or adjust shipping charges on affected FBM offers before October 25, because the surcharges apply automatically with no notice period once the window opens