When you send inventory to Amazon, you're trusting a huge network of fulfillment centers with your money. Most units arrive, get stored, and ship without a problem. But some get lost, some get damaged, and some customer returns never come back. When that happens, Amazon owes you a reimbursement.
The catch is that the rules have changed a lot since late 2024. Amazon now reimburses many losses automatically, it values most lost inventory at your sourcing cost instead of your selling price, and manual claims have strict filing windows. If you miss a window, that money is gone.
In this article, you'll learn how Amazon FBA reimbursements work today, what's automatic and what isn't, every current claim deadline, how Amazon calculates what you get paid, and a simple weekly routine to make sure you aren't leaving money behind.
Protecting your inventory starts before your first shipment. This free checklist is used by Bubba Academy students to launch faster and avoid costly rookie mistakes.
An FBA reimbursement is money (or sometimes replacement inventory) that Amazon gives you when your units are lost or damaged while Amazon is responsible for them. The main situations are:
Some situations aren't covered. In an FBA series post in the Seller Forums, Amazon's team lists exclusions such as accounts that are blocked or flagged for fraud, ASINs that are restricted, prohibited, or suppressed, and damage that happened before the inventory reached the fulfillment center (for example, carrier damage).
In late 2024, Amazon announced a big change: starting November 1, 2024, it began proactively reimbursing sellers for FBA items lost in its fulfillment centers. The reimbursement is issued as soon as the fulfillment center reports the item as lost, and you can track it in the Reimbursements report in Seller Central.
According to that announcement:
"Automatic" doesn't mean "guaranteed." It means Amazon's systems catch most cases. Your job is to catch the rest, and that only works if you check your reports regularly.
Amazon updated its claim eligibility windows effective October 15, 2025. These are the windows for manual claims:
Two things to notice. First, some windows have a start date, not just an end date. For customer returns, filing before day 45 is too early, because the customer still has time to send the item back. Second, the 60-day fulfillment center window starts when the loss or damage is reported, which is why weekly checks matter.
Amazon has changed these windows twice in about a year (October 2024 and October 2025), so check the current FBA inventory reimbursement policy page in Seller Central Help before you build your process around them.
This is the change that surprised many sellers. Amazon announced that items lost or damaged before a customer order would be reimbursed based on the product's manufacturing cost, and the policy took effect on March 31, 2025 (moved from March 10).
Amazon defines it as your cost to source a product from a manufacturer, wholesaler, or reseller, or to produce it if you're the manufacturer. It excludes shipping, handling, customs duties, and other costs. Amazon now calls this "sourcing cost" in Seller Central.
Amazon gives you a cost estimate based on comparable products sold by Amazon, by other sellers, and through wholesale channels. If you don't enter your own cost, Amazon uses its estimate. You can view and change it on the Manage Your Sourcing Cost page in the Inventory Defect and Reimbursement (IDR) portal.
For items lost or damaged after a customer order, Amazon says it continues to reimburse the sales price on the original order minus applicable fees.
An Amazon team member explained in the forums that if you don't agree with the valuation, you can file a dispute through Contact Us in Seller Central within 60 days after the reimbursement was issued.
Fees, inventory, and reimbursements add up fast when nobody is watching them. Bubba Academy's step-by-step program shows Amazon sellers how to run FBA with clear numbers and simple weekly routines.
Here's an illustrative example with made-up numbers. It isn't real data, but it shows why the sourcing cost field deserves five minutes of your time.
Say your real cost to buy a product from your supplier is $9.50 per unit, but the estimate in your IDR portal says $6.00. If 20 units are lost in a fulfillment center over a few months, you'd be reimbursed:
That's $70 left on the table for one product. Multiply it across a catalog and a year, and it adds up. Remember that shipping, duties, and prep aren't included either way, so knowing your true per-unit cost helps you see what a lost unit really costs you.
Keep your invoices. An Amazon team member confirmed in the forums that Amazon regularly requests invoices to show the units were sourced correctly. Without them, claims and cost submissions are much harder to support.
Sometimes Seller Support confirms units are lost but pays $0.00. A seller shared the Seller Support message explaining why: if Amazon finds units in its fulfillment centers with the same FNSKU, condition, and expiration date (if relevant), it may transfer those units to your inventory instead of paying you the replacement value. For example, a unit that was reimbursed earlier and later found may be used to settle a future claim.
So a $0 result isn't always a mistake. Check your inventory ledger for a matching "found" adjustment before you reopen the case. If you can't find one, ask Seller Support to show you where the units were credited.
You don't need special software to get started. Amazon gives you three main places to look:
Amazon's team calls this your go-to report for inventory movements. Go to Reports → Fulfillment, choose Inventory Ledger, and filter by ASIN, FNSKU, or date range. Look for transactions marked as warehouse lost or warehouse damaged, and check whether each one shows a reimbursement.
This shows what Amazon has already paid you, including automatic reimbursements. Compare it with the ledger. A loss with no matching reimbursement is a lead for a manual claim.
An Amazon team member describes the portal's tabs: Eligible for claim shows defects you can file for, In progress shows what Amazon is investigating, and Resolved shows what's done, with the reason and any amount paid. You can filter by FNSKU or defect type.
Because the fulfillment center window is 60 days, a weekly 20-minute check is plenty for most small sellers:
Good records help on the way in too. Keep box contents, shipment IDs, and tracking numbers for every shipment, and follow a clean inbound shipping process.
FBA reimbursements are easier than they used to be, because Amazon now pays most fulfillment center losses on its own. But the rules are also stricter: most lost inventory is valued at sourcing cost, and manual claims have firm windows.
The key takeaways:
Your next step: Open the Manage Your Sourcing Cost page today, compare Amazon's estimate with your supplier invoices for your top 10 FNSKUs, and update any that are too low.
Bubba Academy trains sellers on product research, Brand Registry, listings, FBA, ads, and pricing, including how to track inventory and protect your margin when things go wrong.
Join Bubba Academy Today →Mostly, yes. Since November 1, 2024, Amazon proactively reimburses items lost in its fulfillment centers as soon as they're reported lost, and almost all warehouse lost and damaged cases and customer returns cases are reimbursed proactively. If you don't receive an automatic reimbursement, you can file a manual claim. Removal claims must always be filed manually.
Under the windows Amazon set effective October 15, 2025: within 60 days for items lost or damaged in a fulfillment center, 45 to 105 days after the refund for customer returns, 15 to 135 days from shipment creation for lost removal orders, 120 days for damaged removals and grading, and 90 days for re-evaluation requests.
For items lost or damaged before a customer order, Amazon reimburses based on sourcing cost, your cost to buy or make the product, excluding shipping, handling, and customs duties. For items lost or damaged after a customer order, Amazon reimburses the sales price minus applicable fees.
Go to the Inventory Defect and Reimbursement portal in Seller Central and open the Manage Your Sourcing Cost page. You can review Amazon's estimate for each FNSKU and submit your own cost. Keep supplier invoices ready, because Amazon may ask for proof.
Amazon may transfer found units with the same FNSKU, condition, and expiration date into your inventory instead of paying cash. For example, a unit that was reimbursed earlier and later found can be used to settle a new claim. Check your Inventory Ledger for a matching adjustment.