Amazon Lending is Amazon’s official financing program for US sellers, and Amazon does not lend the money itself: the program page says it works “through its third-party financing providers” to offer “business financing to help eligible US small and medium-sized businesses reach their goals.” The page lists four financing types — term loans, an SBA 7(a) loan, merchant cash advances and lines of credit — from six named providers, and you reach them by checking for a financing invitation in Seller Central, not by filing an open application. Amazon publishes cost structures, but apart from one SBA rate formula it does not publish rates, approval odds or eligibility thresholds. Data checked 2026-10-02 against sell.amazon.com/programs/amazon-lending.
Loan terms change by provider and over time; Amazon’s page and the provider’s contract are the binding sources, and nothing here is financial advice.
What Amazon Lending is, and what it is not
Amazon Lending is an access point, not a lender. Amazon’s role is choosing partners — the page says “We evaluate many factors when selecting a third-party provider to join the Amazon Lending program.” The contract you sign is with the provider, and the provider makes the credit decision.
Three practical consequences follow from that structure:
- The Amazon lending program is US-only on this page. Every product on it targets “eligible US small and medium-sized businesses.” Amazon’s Service Provider Network lists a separate “Seller Lending” service type with its own country label — see our SPN guide for that list.
- You need a Professional account to get in. The page’s sign-up footnote reads “A Professional selling account is $39.99/month + selling fees.” If you are still on the Individual plan, the plan comparison covers the switch.
- Funds are not restricted to Amazon costs. Amazon says “You can use funds to cover any business costs, such as expanding your marketing, product lines, workforce, or infrastructure.”
This is also different from money Amazon is holding back from you. A payout delay under an account level reserve is your own money arriving late; Amazon Lending is new money you repay with a cost on top.
How access works: invitations first, then the provider’s site
The page lays out five steps, and the first one decides whether you can borrow at all:
| Step | What Amazon’s page says |
|---|---|
| 1. Check for invitations | “Check for financing invitations in Seller Central.” |
| 2. Review the terms | “Choose the financing option that works best for your business, up to the full amount your business is eligible to apply for. Then click Start Application.” |
| 3. Share your data | “Agree to share your business’s Amazon selling data with the financing provider. You will then be redirected to the provider’s site to complete your application.” |
| 4. Apply | “Fill out the application form in a matter of minutes and submit.” |
| 5. Get the funds | “Receive notice of the provider’s financing decision, usually within one business day.” |
Two details matter. First, the amount is set before you apply: step 2 caps you at “the full amount your business is eligible to apply for,” so the offer you see in Seller Central is the ceiling. Second, step 3 hands your Amazon selling data to a third party before you see a decision.
If no invitation appears, the public page offers only one lever. Its FAQ answer to “How can I improve my eligibility?” is that providers evaluate “sellers who have a proven track record of growing sales and who provide the highest level of customer satisfaction.” No sales minimum, account age or metric threshold is published. The detailed help pages are behind a login: Amazon points to “Amazon Lending help pages” marked “(login required).”
The four financing types side by side
Amazon’s product table groups offers under three headings — term loan, merchant cash advance (MCA) and line of credit — with the SBA 7(a) loan listed inside the term loan group. Because the SBA product has a different cost formula and a government program behind it, this guide treats it as a fourth type.
| Type | How Amazon describes repayment | Cost structure on the page | Providers listed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Term loan | “A non-revolving, lump-sum loan with a specified payback period” | Fixed interest rate (Lendistry, QuickBooks Capital) or a fixed fee (Parafin, Uncapped) | Lendistry, Parafin, QuickBooks Capital, Uncapped |
| SBA 7(a) loan | “Loan is repaid in equal monthly payments (principal + interest).” | “Variable rate (prime rate + 1.5%–6.5%, by loan size), with capped lender fees up to $2,500 depending on use of proceeds.” | iBusiness Funding |
| Merchant cash advance | “ties payment to a portion of a seller’s future sales for a fixed capital fee” | “There is no interest on a merchant cash advance. Sellers pay a fixed capital fee.” | Parafin |
| Line of credit | “Draw only what you need, when you need it, repay and reuse.” | Interest on drawn balance only (Slope at stated APR; Uncapped at a fixed rate) | Slope, Uncapped |
Data checked 2026-10-02.
Term loans suit a known, one-off spend. Payment schedules differ by provider: Lendistry’s row says “equal monthly payments (principal + interest),” Parafin’s says “equal biweekly payments (principal + portion of fixed fee),” and QuickBooks Capital’s says “equal weekly or monthly payments” over “between 6 and 24 months.”
The SBA 7(a) loan is the only product with a published rate formula. The SBA describes 7(a) as “SBA’s primary business loan program,” states that “The maximum loan amount for a 7(a) loan is $5 million,” and tells borrowers “You will always work directly with your lender and not with SBA” (SBA 7(a) loans, checked 2026-10-02).
The merchant cash advance is not priced as interest. Parafin’s FAQ entry says the capital fee “is the only fee you’ll pay, and it will not change after you have accepted the advance,” and that you repay “with a set percentage of future gross sales.” That makes the dollar cost fixed and the time cost variable. If sales run hot, you repay faster and the same fee covers fewer weeks of borrowing, which raises the effective annual cost. If sales slow, payments shrink with them.
Lines of credit suit recurring inventory cycles rather than one purchase. Slope’s row says “You pay interest on the amount you draw based on stated APR” with “No origination or maintenance fees”; Uncapped’s row says its fixed rate “is locked in for the life of the line of credit agreement.”
Who the lenders are
Six providers appear on the page as of 2026-10-02. The descriptions below are what Amazon’s page says about each; they are the providers’ positioning, not independent reviews.
| Provider | Product on the page | What Amazon’s page says about them |
|---|---|---|
| Lendistry | Term loan | Partner in the “Amazon Community Lending” program; “an established minority-led Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI)” |
| Parafin | Term loan, MCA | “Parafin offers a merchant cash advance to sellers in the Amazon.com online store.” |
| QuickBooks Capital | Term loan | “offers access to term loans from $1,500 to $250,000”; “QuickBooks Term Loan is issued by WebBank.” |
| Uncapped | Term loan, line of credit | “a leading global working capital provider focused on Amazon sellers” |
| Slope | Line of credit | “flexible lines of credit up to $5M”; “supported by a credit facility and strategic equity investment from J.P. Morgan” |
| iBusiness Funding | SBA 7(a) loan | “connects business owners with a broad network of SBA-approved lenders” |
iBusiness Funding is a matchmaker into SBA lenders rather than the lender itself, so the bank on your final SBA contract may be a name not shown on Amazon’s page. The roster also moves: Amazon says “We are constantly expanding by partnering with trusted third-parties,” so treat the six names as a dated snapshot.
Speed and credit: what the page claims, and where it disagrees with itself
Amazon’s speed claims come in three versions on the same page:
- Top of page: “financing decisions are usually made in less than three business days, with approved funds typically disbursed within two business days.”
- Step 5: decisions arrive “usually within one business day.”
- FAQ: “Decision time may vary by financing provider. On average, most decisions are made within one business day.”
Both footnotes add delay. Footnote 1 says providers “may require additional documentation or information,” and “Additional processing time may be required to complete this review.” Footnote 2 says deposit timing “may vary, depending on the receiving bank and its processing times.” A fair planning number from Amazon’s own words is up to three business days for a decision plus about two for funds — roughly a working week — with extra time if the provider asks for documents.
The FAQ also says “In the US, term loans and merchant cash advances are available to eligible, US-based businesses,” leaving out the lines of credit in the product table. Your own invitation, not either section, shows what you can actually take.
On credit, the FAQ says: “Applying for financing in the Amazon Lending program will not impact your personal credit.” That sentence covers applying. It says nothing about what happens to your credit if you accept and then miss payments, and the only reporting statement on the page is lender-specific: “Making on-time payments with Lendistry can help you grow your business credit.”
What Amazon Lending does not promise
Reading the page for what is missing is as useful as reading what is there. As of 2026-10-02, the public page does not publish:
- Interest rates or fee percentages. Apart from the SBA formula, the page names cost types (“Fixed interest rate,” “Fixed capital fee”) without numbers. The phrase “favorable rates and payment terms exclusively for Amazon sellers” is a claim, not a figure.
- Eligibility thresholds. No minimum sales, account age or health metric is listed.
- Approval odds or offer sizes. The only dollar figures are provider-level: QuickBooks Capital’s $1,500 to $250,000 range and Slope’s “up to $5M.”
- How repayment is collected. The public page does not say whether payments come out of your Amazon disbursements or a linked bank account; that sits in the provider’s contract.
- What happens on default. Parafin’s rows say “no late fees” and its term product says “No interest or collateral required,” but the page gives no default terms for any provider.
Those answers live in the provider’s offer and contract, which is the document to read before you accept.
The fit test: matching the product to the cash need
Borrowing only makes sense when the money comes back with margin. Before accepting any offer, run three checks.
- Name the use and its payback window. An inventory reorder that sells through in 90 days fits a short term product or a line of credit. A slow brand build fits a longer SBA term. A mismatch — long-lived spending on short repayment — is how sellers end up borrowing to repay.
- Price the margin after fees. Work out unit profit with current Amazon fees using our FBA fees and profit guide, then subtract the financing cost spread across the units the loan buys. If the per-unit cost of capital eats most of the margin, the loan is funding volume, not profit.
- Stress-test repayment against a slow month. Fixed weekly or monthly payments do not care about a sales dip. An MCA’s sales-linked payment does, but you pay the full fixed fee either way.
If you are still at the start-up stage, financing is not in play yet: Amazon Lending works through invitations based on selling history. Our startup capital guide covers building the first budget from your own funds.
Amazon Lending checklist
- Confirm a Professional account and look for a financing invitation in Seller Central.
- Note which product types your invitation offers; the FAQ says you may be eligible for “one or more financing options” at a time.
- Record the eligible amount from step 2 — that is your ceiling.
- Get the exact rate, fee or capital fee, payment schedule and term in writing from the provider.
- Ask how payments are collected and what happens if a payment is missed.
- Run the three-check fit test above against a slow-month forecast.
- Decide whether you accept sharing your Amazon selling data with the provider.
- Keep proceeds and repayments visible in your books; our bookkeeping guide covers the monthly close.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Amazon lend money to sellers directly?
No. Amazon’s page says Amazon Lending works “through its third-party financing providers.” The provider makes the decision and holds the contract. As of 2026-10-02 the named providers are Lendistry, Parafin, QuickBooks Capital, Uncapped, Slope and iBusiness Funding.
Does applying for Amazon Lending affect my credit score?
Amazon’s FAQ says applying “will not impact your personal credit.” That statement is about applying only. How repayment history is reported after you accept depends on the provider; the page mentions business credit building only for Lendistry.
What does an Amazon FBA loan cost?
Amazon publishes cost structures, not rates, except for the SBA 7(a) product: “prime rate + 1.5%–6.5%, by loan size” with lender fees capped “up to $2,500.” Term loans carry a fixed interest rate or fixed fee, the merchant cash advance carries a fixed capital fee with no interest, and lines of credit charge interest only on drawn balances (data checked 2026-10-02).
Bottom line
Amazon Lending is a curated doorway to six third-party lenders, opened by a Seller Central invitation. The public page gives cost structures and repayment shapes, plus one rate formula for the SBA loan; your rate, odds and repayment mechanics come only with the provider’s offer. Match the product to how fast the borrowed money comes back, and price that cost against your margin before you accept.