For years, plenty of sellers let Amazon handle the fiddly parts of prep. You paid a per-unit fee, and Amazon put the FNSKU on and bagged what needed bagging. That ended in the US on January 1, 2026. Now every unit has to arrive labeled and packaged correctly, which leaves two choices: do it yourself, or pay a prep center or 3PL to do it. The rest of this guide prices out the second option and puts it next to the first.
Outsourced FBA prep is usually priced per unit, with a base rate covering receiving, inspection and FNSKU labeling, plus add-ons for poly bagging, bubble wrap, bundling and carton or pallet work. As a rough guide, label-only prep often runs from about $0.30 to $0.75 per unit, labeling plus a poly bag about $0.60 to $1.25, and bundles or fragile items $1 or more per finished unit. Freight to Amazon and any storage are usually billed separately. Batch size, inspection depth and the condition of your supplier's cartons move the price more than anything else.
What You're Paying For
A per-unit prep price bundles several small jobs. It helps to know what they are, because quotes include different ones.
Receiving
Unloading your supplier's delivery and counting cartons and units against what was expected.
Inspection
Checking units for damage, wrong items or quantity shortfalls. This can range from a carton count to opening every unit, and the price should reflect which.
Labeling
Printing and applying FNSKU labels and covering any other barcodes.
Packaging
Poly bagging, bubble wrap, bundling multipacks, adding "Sold as set" labels.
Carton and shipment work
Packing units into compliant cartons, box ID labels, entering box contents, building pallets and booking the delivery.
Common Price Ranges
These are broad US ranges for sanity-checking quotes. Regional labor costs and volume will move them, and some providers bundle several lines into one rate.
| Service | Common range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Receive, inspect and FNSKU label | $0.30 – $0.75 / unit | Lower for large single-SKU batches |
| Poly bag (add-on) | $0.20 – $0.50 / unit | Includes bag and warning label |
| Bubble wrap (add-on) | $0.40 – $1.00 / unit | Depends on item size |
| Bundling / multipack | $0.75 – $2.00 / finished unit | Driven by component count |
| Carton packing and labels | $1.00 – $3.00 / carton | New boxes often extra |
| Pallet build | $10 – $25 / pallet | Plus pallet cost if not supplied |
| Storage between shipments | Monthly, per pallet or cubic foot | Ask how long it's free, if at all |
A Worked Monthly Estimate
A hypothetical seller sends 3,000 units a month to FBA across 12 SKUs. Of those, 600 units need a label only, 1,800 need a label and a poly bag, and 600 are combined into 300 two-packs. Everything ships out in about 75 cartons on 3 pallets. Using mid-range rates:
- Receive, inspect and label 2,400 single units at $0.45: $1,080
- Poly bag add-on for 1,800 units at $0.30: $540
- 300 two-packs at $1.10 each (bagged, labeled, "Sold as set"): $330
- 75 cartons packed and labeled at $1.50: $112.50
- 3 pallets built at $15: $45
That's $2,107.50 a month, or about $0.70 per unit, before freight into Amazon.
Doing It Yourself: Closer Than You'd Think
Prep centers don't always say this, but at moderate volume, in-house prep can cost less in cash. Using the same 3,000 units and some reasonable time estimates (8 seconds to label a unit, 25 seconds to bag and label, 30 seconds per two-pack, a minute and a half per carton, and a few seconds per unit to receive and inspect), the work comes to about 21.5 hours a month.
- Labor at $22 an hour, fully loaded: about $474
- Labels, stickers, bags and cartons: about $341
- A share of rent for prep and staging space: $300
That's roughly $1,115, or $0.37 per unit, about half the outsourced figure. But it assumes someone reliable is available for those hours and that nobody has to manage them. Add four hours a week of an owner's or manager's time at $60 an hour and the in-house figure climbs to about $2,146, or $0.72 per unit, almost exactly the outsourced number.
So the decision comes down to where your time and space are best used. Outsourcing tends to win clearly when:
- Your supplier is overseas. Shipping straight to a prep center near Amazon's network removes a freight leg compared with bringing goods to your own location first.
- Volume swings. A prep center can process a container in a few days. An in-house team sized for normal weeks can't.
- Mistakes are expensive. A single rejected shipment during Q4 can cost more than a year of prep fees on that SKU.
- You also sell elsewhere. A 3PL that preps for FBA and fulfills your other channels from the same stock replaces two setups with one.
What Pushes a Prep Quote Up
Setting up a station for 40 units costs nearly as much as for 400. Many SKUs with low quantities each push the per-unit price up.
Opening and checking every unit takes far longer than counting cartons. Worth it for new suppliers or high-return products, less so for proven ones.
Mixed SKUs in one carton, missing carton labels or floor-loaded containers add sorting labor before prep even starts.
Apparel that needs folding, glass, liquids, oddly shaped items. Anything that slows the hands on the table.
The cheapest improvement is usually upstream: ask your supplier to pre-label units with FNSKUs or at least pack one SKU per carton with clear carton labels. It often costs them very little and saves you a lot.
Questions to Ask a Prep Partner
- What's your turnaround from receipt to shipped, and does it change in Q4?
- What's included in the base rate, and what's an add-on?
- How much inspection is included by default?
- Do you create shipment plans and enter box contents in Seller Central, or do I?
- How do you handle a supplier delivery that's short, damaged or mislabeled?
- If you make a prep mistake and Amazon charges me, who pays?
- How is storage charged if stock waits between shipments?
Our FBA prep checklist covers what a good prep partner should be catching on every shipment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Outsourced FBA prep commonly runs about $0.30 to $0.75 per unit for receiving, inspection and labeling, around $0.60 to $1.25 with a poly bag, and $1 or more for bundles or fragile items. Carton handling, pallets, storage and freight are often billed separately.
No. Amazon ended its prep and item labeling services in the US on January 1, 2026. Inventory must now arrive prepped and labeled by the seller or a third-party prep partner.
In cash terms it can be, at moderate volumes, if you have reliable labor and space. Once you count management time, mistakes and your ability to handle volume spikes, the costs often come out similar, and outsourcing usually wins as volume grows.
Batch size per SKU, how thoroughly units are inspected, the condition of inbound cartons from your supplier, the type of product and packaging required, and whether bundling or fragile packing is needed.
Yes, and it's often the cheapest route. Sending goods straight from your supplier to a prep center avoids an extra freight leg and lets the prep center inspect units before they go to Amazon.
Many prep centers aim for one to three business days from receipt, depending on volume and complexity. Ask for their standard turnaround and how it changes during Q4.
Want a prep quote for your catalog?
Tell us your SKUs, monthly units and what each one needs: label only, bagging, bundling or fragile packing. We'll price it per unit and tell you our turnaround.