Amazon FBA reimbursement rules, explained

The claim windows

Amazon refuses a claim filed too early or too late. Each kind of loss has its own window:

Put in a date and the FBA reimbursement deadline calculator tells you the first and last day for any of them.

• Customer refunds: the 60 days give the customer time to send the item back. If it hasn't arrived by then, Amazon usually charges the customer and reimburses you on its own, so check before filing.
• Lost in an Amazon warehouse: the 60 days start on the date Amazon reports the unit lost or damaged in your Inventory Ledger or the Inventory Defect and Reimbursement portal, not when it happened.
• Your inbound shipments: you can file once the shipment shows as eligible for investigation in your shipping queue, up to nine months after Amazon confirmed delivery. You need the supplier invoice (date, product names, quantities) and proof of delivery.
• Removal orders lost on the way back to you: wait 15 days from the shipment's last tracking update, and file by day 75 after the removal shipment was created. Damaged removals and grading disputes: within 60 days of delivery.

How much Amazon pays

Lost or damaged before a customer ordered it

For your inbound shipments, units in Amazon's warehouses and removal orders, Amazon pays your sourcing cost: what you paid the manufacturer or wholesaler for the item (or your cost to make it), without shipping, handling or customs duties. You can enter it on the Manage Your Sourcing Cost page of the Inventory Defect and Reimbursement portal, with invoices as proof. If you don't, Amazon uses its own estimate from comparable products, which may be lower than what you paid. Units that were already unsellable are paid at a reduced value.

Lost or damaged after a customer ordered it

For customer return claims, Amazon pays the refund (or the price of the replacement it sent) minus the fees that applied to the order.

The most Amazon pays for any single unit is $5,000. If you disagree with the value, you can dispute it through Contact Us within 60 days of the reimbursement.

What Amazon doesn't pay for

• A refund you issued yourself, and a refund where the customer wasn't asked to return the item, unless Amazon caused it.
• A return the customer damaged, unless Amazon charged the customer a damage fee. Amazon decides the item's condition from what arrives at the warehouse, not from the reason the customer picked.
• Recalled or defective items, and items that break Amazon's policies.
• Units pending disposal or disposed of, units in a canceled or deleted shipment, and shipments that didn't match your shipping plan.
• Anything while your selling account isn't in normal standing.

Before you file

• Check it isn't paid already. Look at the Reimbursements report and the In progress and Resolved tabs of the Inventory Defect and Reimbursement portal. Its Eligible for claim tab lists what you can claim.
• Don't flood Amazon with claims. Amazon's policy warns that premature, poorly researched or bulk claims can delay your support and lead to account action. File the ones that are really owed, inside their windows.
• Expect some clawbacks. If a reimbursed unit turns up later, Amazon can take the money back and return the unit to your stock, and it may sell reimbursed units through Amazon Warehouse.

Find what Amazon owes you

MyProfit's free reimbursement finder goes through your Amazon US refunds every night and lists the ones in their 60 to 120 day window where the item never came back, or came back damaged, and Amazon hasn't paid you, with the deadline for each. It keeps no commission. The Reimbursements page shows everything Amazon has paid back and clawed back, and flags products where Amazon paid less than your cost.

Source: Amazon's "FBA inventory reimbursement policy" pages in Seller Central (the policy and its shipment to Amazon, fulfillment center, removal and customer return claim pages), checked October 2, 2026. Amazon can change its policy at any time.