2025 Amazon Promotion Fee Changes: Full Breakdown and Cost Calculations

Most sellers recently received Amazon’s announcement of upcoming changes to promotion pricing across Lightning Deals (LD), coupons, and Prime Exclusive Discounts (PED). I ran the numbers for different price points and campaign durations to break down exactly how these changes will impact your costs, and which promotion types still make sense to use after the update goes live.

All changes to deal programs go into effect June 2, 2025. Based on the announcement as of early 2025, these changes took effect June 2, 2025. Please verify with your latest seller news for 2026 updates.

Duration rules for Best Deal (BD) promotions are getting more flexible. The old 7-day fixed duration is gone, and you can now choose any duration between 1 and 14 days, with the option to pick any start date within a 7-day window. Only deal durations during major events like Prime Day, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday will remain set by Amazon.

Deal pricing is shifting from fixed fees to a hybrid base fee plus commission model. Previously, BDs cost a flat $300 and LDs cost a flat $150. Under the new structure, you will pay a $70 daily base fee per deal plus 1% of total sales generated during the promotion, with a variable fee cap of $2,000 per deal. Total campaign costs for 1-14 day deals will max out between $2070 and $2980. Deal fees for major 2025 sale events will remain unchanged, at $1000 for BDs and $500 for LDs.

I ran the numbers for LDs specifically, and the old 8-hour LD cost $150 flat. Under the new rules, a single-day LD with $8000 in sales will cost exactly $150 (70 + 8000*0.01), matching the old price. Any sales above $8000 will result in higher costs than the old fee structure. BD costs are almost universally higher across all use cases, even for 1-day campaigns, making short-duration deals far less cost-effective for high-ticket bestsellers.

Coupon pricing is also getting an overhaul.

Previously, sellers paid a flat $0.6 fee per unit sold with a coupon. The new structure uses a $5 prepaid deposit plus a 2.5% commission on total coupon sales. The $5 deposit applies toward your total commission fees, and is fully refunded if no sales are generated during the campaign. I calculated the breakeven point sits at a $24 average order value (AOV). For products priced under $24, coupon fees will be lower than the old $0.6 per unit rate. For products priced above $24, coupon costs will rise. This matches Amazon’s claim that the change will lower costs for most products, as most Amazon listings fall under the $24 price point.

Finally, Prime Exclusive Discount fees for major sale events are doubling from $50 to $100. Even with the price increase, PEDs are still far more cost-effective than the $1000 price tag for major event BDs, so we expect participation rates to remain high.

Overall, these changes raise promotion costs for all sellers to varying degrees, with the sharpest increases hitting high-ticket items and top-ranked listings. Mid-tier sellers will feel the biggest impact, as many rely on promotions to boost sales and build listing authority. Amazon has been raising operating barriers consistently for years, pushing the ecosystem toward competition based on product quality and capital strength. Only sellers with high-quality products and reasonable pricing will be able to sustain growth long term.

Will you be adjusting your promotion strategy after these changes go into effect? Do you have alternative promotion tactics that deliver better ROI? Share your thoughts in the comments.