Amazon Warehousing and Distribution, AWD for short, is Amazon's bulk storage service for sellers. You send cartons or pallets to an AWD facility, Amazon keeps them there at a storage price below what a fulfillment center costs, and moves stock forward to FBA as it sells. For a brand that imports by the container and sells by the unit, it replaces the third-party warehouse that used to sit between the port and FBA.
This guide explains how Amazon AWD works, what it costs, who it suits and where it does not fit. The second half shows what AWD looks like as data: inbound shipments, replenishment orders and outbound orders that you can question from Claude or ChatGPT once the account is connected to DataDoe. Amazon's rules and prices below were read on Amazon's own AWD page on 10 November 2026.
Amazon describes AWD as a bulk storage solution that distributes your inventory to the Amazon store and to non-Amazon sales channels. Three things separate it from FBA:
You manage it from the AWD page in Seller Central, where you create and track shipments, see what is stored and move it on.
The flow has three legs.
Auto-replenishment is the part most sellers join for. Amazon says a data science model watches your inventory levels in the fulfillment centers and triggers replenishments to keep FBA in stock. Two consequences are worth knowing, both stated on Amazon's page:
AWD pricing also covers FBA inbound placement for stock that arrives through AWD, so there is no separate placement charge for it.
The third leg can point somewhere other than FBA. AWD can send inventory to non-Amazon sales channels from the same pool, which is how one stock position can serve Amazon and your other stores. That is a bulk movement to another warehouse or channel. It is different from Multi-Channel Fulfillment, where FBA ships a single order to an end customer.
If you already sell with FBA, enrolling costs nothing. You pay when you send inventory in. Amazon calls the pricing pay as you go and states there are no extra charges for the holiday season. There are three fee types:
Amazon lists two cheaper tiers next to the base rate. The smart storage rate takes 10% off base storage, and the Amazon managed rate takes 20% off storage and 10% off transportation. The conditions for each tier are in the AWD fee pages in Seller Central, so read them there before you build a budget on the lower numbers. Rates change, usually at the start of a year, so check Amazon's page on the day you decide.
Two practical notes on reading the bill. First, the units differ from FBA. FBA storage is also charged by cubic foot, but FBA fulfillment is charged by unit, while AWD processing is charged by box. A box of 48 small units and a box of 4 large ones cost the same to process. Second, AWD adds a leg. Every unit you sell through FBA after AWD has paid AWD storage, one inbound box fee, one outbound box fee and transportation before the usual FBA fees start. AWD is cheaper than keeping the same stock in a fulfillment center for months. It is not cheaper than sending fast sellers straight to FBA and selling them in three weeks. For the FBA side of that comparison, see our guide to Amazon storage fees.
AWD fits when you hold more inventory than FBA should carry:
It fits less well in these cases:
Once part of your stock sits upstream, the simple question "how much do I have?" gets three answers: units available in FBA, units on the way to FBA, and units in AWD. Restock planning has to count all three, and a reorder decision made from the FBA number alone will order too early.
New questions appear with it. How long does a replenishment take from the day it is created to the day FBA receives it? Which SKUs keep running low in FBA while cartons sit in AWD? How many weeks of cover do I have in total, and where is it? Seller Central answers each of these on a different screen. Put the screens into one schema and they become one question.
DataDoe connects to your Seller Central account and loads AWD into tables you can query from an AI client over MCP, through the REST API or in BigQuery. It reads AWD. It does not create AWD shipments or FBA inbound shipments, and it does not change replenishment settings.
.svg)
amazon_awd_inbound_shipments): one row per shipment you sent to AWD.amazon_awd_inbound_shipment_line_items): the products and quantities on each inbound shipment.amazon_awd_replenishment_orders): one row per order that moves stock from AWD to FBA.amazon_awd_replenishment_order_line_items): what was on each replenishment order, line by line.amazon_awd_outbound_orders): inventory leaving AWD for a destination channel. These are not the AWD to FBA replenishments, which have their own table.amazon_awd_outbound_shipments): the shipments under each outbound order, with origin and destination addresses. Quantities on a row belong to that shipment only.amazon_awd_outbound_shipment_packages): the package configurations of an order and of each shipment.The current stock position is on the Listings table (amazon_listings_with_cogs), which carries price, FBA inventory and AWD inventory per SKU on one row. That is the table for "what do I have, and where" without a join.
Three rules from the table descriptions keep the answers right:
AWD data arrives in the daily fetch, which starts at 2am in the seller's local time. It is a daily picture of your shipments and orders, not a live feed of carton scans.
With DataDoe connected to Claude, ChatGPT or another AI client, these are questions you can ask in plain English:
Because AWD sits in the same schema as the rest of the account, the AI can set it against sales, FBA inventory health and Amazon's restock recommendations in one answer. Our posts on FBA restock planning and inventory velocity go deeper into the FBA half of that picture.
Amazon Warehousing and Distribution is Amazon's bulk storage service. It stores your inventory in boxes and distributes it to FBA and to non-Amazon sales channels.
No. FBA stores single units and ships customer orders. AWD stores cartons upstream and replenishes FBA. You cannot fulfill a customer order from AWD, and you cannot move FBA stock into AWD.
On 10 November 2026 Amazon listed base storage at $0.48 to $0.57 per cubic foot per month depending on region, processing at $1.40 per box in and out, and transportation at $1.40 per cubic foot, with discounted tiers below that.
Amazon says that with auto-replenishment it manages the flow into FBA, so you do not have to plan that stock around FBA capacity limits.
No. AWD in DataDoe is read-only. You book shipments in Seller Central and ask questions about them from your AI client.
DataDoe is the Amazon data layer for AI agents: Seller Central, Vendor Central and Amazon Ads in 130+ tables, reachable from the AI client you already use. It costs $97 a month with a 14-day free trial. Connect the account, wait for the first load, and ask how many weeks of cover you hold across AWD and FBA.