If you sell on Amazon and pay for Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, or Sponsored Display with a credit card, there’s a billing change worth checking before next week. Amazon is moving a subset of advertisers off card billing and onto account balance deduction or Pay by Invoice, effective August 1, 2026. The change was originally set for April, then Amazon deferred it after a seller backlash, including a one-day ad boycott. The new date is now four days out.
What’s Actually Changing
Amazon isn’t touching how everyone pays for ads. This applies to a specific group of advertisers who were notified directly, mostly accounts currently billing ad spend to a credit card. For that group, Amazon is retiring card billing in favour of two options:
- Account balance deduction (the default): ad costs come straight out of your seller or vendor account balance before Amazon disburses your proceeds. Your card stays on file only as a backup if the balance runs short.
- Pay by Invoice: Amazon bills you monthly, with payment due 30 days after the invoice, which gets you back something close to the payment-timing cushion a credit card cycle used to give you.
If you don’t choose, you default to account balance deduction.
Who’s Affected
Amazon says this is not a platform-wide change. Only advertisers who received a direct notice are in scope. If ad spend already comes out of your account balance or invoice, or nothing has landed in your inbox from Amazon about this, this specific change doesn’t apply to you.
What To Do Before August 1
1. Check for the notice
Search your inbox and Ads Console notifications for anything from Amazon about payment method changes. If nothing’s there, you’re not in this batch and can stop here.
2. Decide which payment method you want
If keeping card-cycle-style payment flexibility matters to your cash flow, Pay by Invoice is the closer substitute. If you’d rather not deal with a monthly invoice and are comfortable with funds coming straight from your balance, the default account balance deduction needs no action from you.
3. Set your preference in the Ads Console
Pay by Invoice has to be selected manually in the Billing section of the Ads Console before August 1. Miss the window and you’re moved to account balance deduction automatically.
4. Know about the transition credits
Amazon is offering affected advertisers $2,500 in monthly click credits for five months starting August 1, up to $12,500 total. Worth checking the Promotions page in your account so you’re not leaving that on the table.
The Takeaway
Most sellers running ads on Amazon won’t notice this at all. But if you’re in the notified group and haven’t touched your billing settings yet, this is the week to do it. Account balance deduction as the default means no action is technically required, but it also means your ad spend now comes off the top of your payout before you see it, which is worth knowing in advance rather than discovering on your next disbursement.
