If you’ve been charging your Amazon ad spend to a credit card to earn rewards and keep your cash flow flexible, that strategy is about to disappear.
Starting April 15, 2026, Amazon will automatically deduct advertising costs from your seller proceeds. No credit card billing. No manual payments. Just fees pulled directly from your payouts before you ever see them.
What Amazon Announced
There was no public announcement. Amazon quietly sent a notice to Seller Central accounts outlining the change. The key points:
- Ad costs will automatically deduct from your retail proceeds
- Credit and debit cards become backup only – used when proceeds fall short
- Campaigns will continue running without payment interruptions
- A one-time $2,500 promotional ad credit will be applied on April 15
Amazon frames this as a cash flow simplification. In practice, it’s the opposite for most sellers.
You’re Losing 60 Days of Working Capital
This is the part that’s easy to overlook. Under the old setup, you could charge ad spend to a card and have 30 days before the bill came due. Amazon was also holding your proceeds for roughly 30 days. Together, those two buffers gave you a 60-day window of working capital to manage inventory and cash flow.
That window closes on April 15. Ad costs come out of the same proceeds Amazon is already holding – before you receive anything. The credit card buffer is gone.
Why Amazon Did This
Credit card interchange fees run between 1.5% and 2.5% per transaction. With Amazon generating roughly $69 billion in ad revenue in 2025, they were absorbing a significant cost every time a seller paid by card.
By routing ad payments through seller proceeds instead, Amazon eliminates those fees entirely and collects faster. It’s a straightforward margin improvement for their fastest-growing revenue segment, made at the expense of sellers.
What to Do Before April 15
The window to prepare is short. Start here:
- Calculate your annual rewards loss based on your actual monthly spend
- Model your cash flow without the 30-day credit card float
- Make sure your backup card has enough available credit if proceeds fall short
- Review your bidding strategy – tighter cash flow may require more conservative bids
This change lands at the same time as FBA fee increases and rising PPC costs. Plan accordingly.
Need help navigating Amazon’s evolving ad landscape? Request a free audit to see where your account stands.