Your Amazon payout is lower than expected, or zero? Read the reserve lines in your settlement
Sellers often ask why Amazon's two-week payout is lower than their sales suggest, or why it is zero. One possible reason is the reserve: at the end of a settlement, Amazon holds back part of the balance and only gives it back in a later settlement.
We looked at ten sellers' euro settlements from November 2025 to October 2026. Six of them had a reserve at least once, and we saw three situations: a small amount rolled over every period while payouts went through; periods where the whole balance was held and the payout was zero; and a low-volume account where a reserve of a few tens of euro left little to pay out.
The data
We used Amazon's settlements: every line of each two-week period, including the reserve held and the reserve released, and the amount paid out at the end. We looked at closed periods between November 1, 2025 and October 22, 2026.
| Currency | Sellers | Two-week periods | Reserve |
|---|---|---|---|
| euro | 10 | 179 | at 6 sellers, in 39 periods |
| pound | 8 | 57 | never |
| forint | 3 | 44 | never |
| dollar | 2 | 28 | never |
In our data, the reserve only appeared in the euro settlements. With this many accounts we cannot tell how general that is.
Where you see the reserve
Two lines in the settlement show it, among the other lines:
- Current Reserve Amount (negative): what Amazon held back at the end of the period. It is not a fee, it is money set aside.
- Previous Reserve Amount Balance (positive): the amount held in the previous period, now given back.
If the two lines are about the same every period, the reserve just rolls over: roughly what Amazon gives back, it holds again. If the held amount grows period after period, more and more of your money is sitting with Amazon.
First situation: a small amount rolls over, payouts go through
One seller had a reserve in 19 consecutive periods (January 27 to October 20, 2026). The amount was between 107 and 224 euro, 4.2% to 14.7% of the period's sales (38.6% in one weak period with 278 euro of sales). Every period, Amazon released the previous reserve and held a new one, and the payout arrived every time.
In cash flow this barely shows: it means a small amount is always sitting with Amazon.
Second situation: the whole balance held, the payout is zero
Four sellers had periods with sales and still a zero payout, because the reserve reached or exceeded the balance. That was 11 periods in total:
| Seller | Periods with zero payout | Reserve held | Sales in those periods |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 1 (2 weeks) | 1,981 € | 1,456 € |
| B | 2 (4 weeks) | 164 €, then 161 € | 279 €, then 75 € |
| C | 5 (10 weeks) | grew from 70 € to 460 € | 70-175 € per period |
| D | 3 (6 weeks, ongoing) | grew from 444 € to 518 € | 925 €, 116 €, 39 € |
At seller C, the reserve grew every period by roughly the period's sales: for ten weeks practically all revenue was held, then 460 euro was released in one go. At seller A, the 1,981 euro was paid out in the next period, when the payout was 3,069 euro.
Seller D's euro settlement started in September 2026, and in the first three periods it did not receive a single euro: the reserve kept growing even as sales fell from 925 to 39 euro.
Third situation: a low-volume account
The sixth seller has low sales: there was a reserve in nine periods, between 25 and 73 euro. In several periods there were no sales, so a zero payout there was not only because of the reserve. On a small account, a few tens of euro can be a large part of the balance.
Why Amazon holds it
The settlement line does not say why. Amazon names several reasons for a reserve, for example holding the price of an order for a while after it ships, or an account it considers risky (for example a new account, or many buyer claims or chargebacks). Our data does not show which reason applied to which seller.
What to do
- Read both lines in every settlement. In Seller Central, download the settlement under Reports, Payments, and find the Current Reserve Amount and Previous Reserve Amount Balance lines. Do not look only at the amount paid out.
- Watch whether the reserve grows. If it grows for two or three periods while sales do not, it is not rolling over: ask Seller Support why, and check the account's health. More on that in Account Health Rating 200 does not mean your Amazon account is safe.
- On a new account or a new marketplace, plan your cash flow for it. In our data, a new euro settlement paid nothing in its first six weeks. If you want to fund your next order from your first sales, this can push it back by weeks.
- A reserve is not a loss. Where a reserve episode ended in our data, the held money came back in a later settlement, in one case after ten weeks. At seller D it is still held. If money seems to be missing from a settlement, check these two lines first, and only then look elsewhere, for example at reimbursements.
Why the numbers are not exact
- These are the euro settlements of ten sellers, six of whom had a reserve. They do not tell how common a reserve is in general, or how large it usually is.
- Sales here are the gross amount buyers paid for shipped orders in that settlement, before refunds and fees. The reserve comes out of the balance, not out of sales, so the percentages only show proportion, not Amazon's calculation.
- We only used settlements for which we had downloaded every line. Earlier periods may also have had a reserve that we do not see.
If your payout is zero or lower than you expected, the reserve is the first thing to check: two lines in the settlement, and they show how much of your money is still with Amazon.