FBA vs FBM, with your time priced in
Amazon's own comparison quietly assumes your fulfilment labour is free. It is not: every FBM order carries a label, packaging, the minutes to pick and pack it, and the return shipping you absorb. This calculator puts both channels on one table with the same product economics — same referral fee, same product costs, same ads and returns assumptions — so the difference you see is purely the fulfilment channel: Amazon's fulfillment fee, placement and storage against your label, materials and time.
Handling time is minutes per order × your hourly rate — the line home-based sellers most often leave at zero and then wonder why FBM "profits" never reach the bank. FBA's side uses the full stack from the Amazon FBA Calculator, including the fuel surcharge and placement.
Worked example
At the defaults — a $24.99 item, $6.25 labels and ten minutes of $18-an-hour handling — FBA nets about $4.05 per unit against FBM's $0.92: the label plus handling alone outweigh the fulfillment fee. Sellers with negotiated carrier rates or batch-picking routines will see the gap narrow or flip — which is exactly why your numbers, not a generic verdict, drive this page.
How to use this calculator
- Enter the product once — both columns share its price, category and costs.
- Measure the package for the FBA side; time yourself honestly for the FBM side (a week of orders, averaged).
- Use your real label cost — account rate, not the retail counter price.
- Read the monthly difference at your volume: small per-unit gaps become rent money at scale, and the reverse is also true.