Amazon FBA · restocking · storage rates read November 8, 2026
Restocking calculator: how many units to send, and what the excess costs in storage
How many units to send, the day you would run out, and what the shipment costs you in storage every month. Every number here is yours: the arithmetic is ours, and the only published figure is Amazon's storage rate.
Units to send
460
That is 660 units of cover minus 200 on hand and 0 in transit.
Cover 44 days: 30 lead + 14 safety.
Runs out 21 November 2026, 13 days from 8 November 2026 if nothing arrives.
Hold 460 units: $22.60 a month January to September, $69.55 in October to December.
0.063 cu ft at $0.78 / $2.40 a cubic foot, read 8 November 2026, valid until 31 January 2027.
The three numbers, and which one bills you
A restock decision has two ways to be wrong, and only one of them sends an invoice. Send too little and you lose sales you never see: a stockout does not appear on any statement. Send too much and Amazon charges you for the space every month until it sells — at a rate that is 3.1× higher in October to December than in January to September, because the peak rate is $2.40 a cubic foot against $0.78 the rest of the year.
That asymmetry is why the units-to-send figure is the least useful of the three on its own. A shipment of 460 units of a 0.063 cubic-foot item costs $22.60 a month to hold in the quiet season and $69.55 in October to December. If you are ordering for 44 days of cover in September, part of that shipment will be sitting in the peak window — which is a reason to send less, more often, and to know the number before you book the freight.
What one unit costs you to sit there
A per-unit storage figure is small enough to look like nothing, which is why it is worth printing in the shape that makes it real. For the 0.063 cubic-foot item in the example above:
| When | Per unit, per month | Per 1,000 units, per month |
|---|---|---|
| January to September | 4.9¢ | $49.14 |
| October to December | 15.1¢ | $151.20 |
That is the whole argument for ordering in smaller, more frequent shipments: a thousand units held through the October to December window costs $151.20 in storage alone, against $49.14 in the quiet season — before the utilisation surcharge, and before the aged inventory surcharge that starts at 181 days. Neither of those is included here, and both are reasons the real bill is higher than this table, never lower.
What the answer is made of
| Step | How it is calculated |
|---|---|
| Cover needed | Lead time + safety days = 44 days in the example above |
| Units to cover it | Daily sales × cover, rounded up — half a unit is a unit |
| Units in stock and coming | On hand + already in transit, both counted against the cover |
| Units to send | The difference, and never less than zero: “you are already covered” is a real answer |
| Run-out date | Stock on hand ÷ daily sales, added to November 8, 2026 — ignores in-transit stock, because we never asked when it lands |
| Monthly storage | Units × cubic feet per unit × the published rate for the season |
Rounding up is not pedantry. At 10.1 units a day, 44 days of cover is 444.4 units, and this page says 445 — because a plan that rounds down runs out a day early, and the day it runs out is the day the fee is zero and the listing is dark.
What this page does not know
- It is not Amazon's restocking advice. No document we hold states what cover Amazon recommends; the blueprint marks this tool's evidence as unverified, and the page does not fill that gap with an opinion.
- Your in-transit stock has no arrival date here. It counts towards cover, and it is excluded from the run-out projection, and the page says which is which rather than blending them.
- Sales are one flat daily rate. Seasonality, promotions and spikes are invisible to a division.
- Storage is the base monthly rate only. The utilisation surcharge and the aged inventory surcharge are separate fees with their own pages, and adding them here would make this number disagree with the storage invoice.
- The storage rates have an end date: January 31, 2027. After that this page needs re-reading, not re-assurance.
Where the storage rate came from
Storage rates: Seller Central — $0.78 per cubic foot per month in January to September, $2.40 in October to December, for standard-size units, read on November 8, 2026, valid until January 31, 2027. Everything else on this page is arithmetic on what you typed: no fee table is used to compute the unit count, and none is used for the run-out date. The rate is per cubic foot per month, which is how Amazon states it — never per unit, and never averaged across the two seasons.
Questions this page gets asked
How many days of stock should I send to Amazon?
That is your decision, not ours. This page computes the units your cover needs, from two numbers you choose: your supplier lead time (30 days in the example above) and the safety days you want to hold on top of it (14). We hold no Amazon document that recommends a cover level, so we do not name one.
Why does the tool ask for dimensions?
Because the third answer is a monthly bill. Storage is charged per cubic foot per month, so the units you send cost $22.60 a month in January to September and $69.55 in October to December at the rates we hold. Without dimensions the page still tells you how many units — it just cannot price them.
What rate does it use for storage, and is it current?
Amazon's published rate for standard-size units: $0.78 per cubic foot per month in January to September and $2.40 in October to December, read on November 8, 2026. The published rates are valid until January 31, 2027; after that the figure needs re-reading, and we say so rather than quietly keeping it.
Does it include storage utilisation surcharges or aged inventory?
No. This prices the plain monthly storage rate only. Storage that sits long enough also attracts a utilisation surcharge and, after 181 days, an aged inventory surcharge — both are on their own pages, and folding them into a restock answer would make the number drift from the one Amazon invoices.
Why does the run-out date ignore stock that is already on the way?
Because we do not ask when it arrives, and a date that silently assumed an arrival day would be a guess with a date printed on it. The run-out line is the stock you hold divided by your daily sales, and nothing else.
What if I sell fewer units some weeks?
The page multiplies one flat daily rate. Seasonality, promotions and a spike from a video are all invisible to it — if your sales vary, run the number at your quiet rate and at your busy rate and treat the gap as the uncertainty it is.
Is this Amazon’s own restock recommendation?
No, and it is not pretending to be. Amazon publishes a Restock Inventory tool and its own guidance on replenishment, and we have not read a current document describing it, so this page implements no Amazon rule. It is arithmetic on the numbers you type, with Amazon’s published storage rate attached to the result.
Related: the storage fee calculator prices a whole lot across both seasons and includes the utilisation surcharge; the aged inventory surcharge calculator is the fee that arrives when stock sits past 181 days — the direct cost of ordering too much.