Send to Amazon Delivery Windows in 2026: Discounted, Blocked and Missed Windows

By Bernardo Campelo, Forbes Business Council E-Commerce Leader, Amazon SPN Certified provider, Amazon SP-API authorized partner, and Founder of PrepVia.

A seller forwards me an Amazon email about his LTL shipment. It arrived outside its delivery window. The truck was not late by any standard his carrier uses. It delivered on a Monday, two days after the week he had picked closed on Saturday.

He had read the window as a soft estimate. In 2026 it is a calendar week that Amazon uses to plan dock capacity, marks with discounts, closes with blocks, and logs as a problem when freight lands outside it.

Here is the argument in one line. The delivery window reads like an arrival date, but it is really a promise about when your freight leaves the prep dock, so plan it backward from the prep center's clock.

What the Delivery Window Is in 2026, and When You Owe Amazon One

Amazon's help page on the Send to Amazon delivery window with standard calendar weeks defines it as the week in which you expect the shipment to reach the fulfillment center. It must be a full calendar week, Sunday to Saturday. The seven-day format covers domestic and cross-border shipments, and it became visible in the workflow for non-partnered carriers starting August 18, 2025.

Who owes the window depends on who carries the freight. If you book your own carrier for small parcel or LTL, the window is mandatory when you create the shipment. If you use an Amazon partnered carrier or Amazon Global Logistics, you give a ship date for small parcel or a freight-ready date for LTL, and the carrier handles the window. The page does not mention full truckload at all. Do not infer the FTL rule from it.

The window never travels alone. Own-carrier freight also needs a tracking ID. The window lets Amazon plan capacity for your arrival, and the tracking ID confirms delivery and makes it possible for in-transit inventory to be buyable even when you are out of stock.

The partnered rows still carry a date that belongs to the prep dock: the ship date or the freight-ready date. A partnered carrier takes the arrival week off your plate. It does not take the clock off. The carrier trade-offs are in our breakdown of partnered carrier versus own carrier, and the mode choice is in SPD versus LTL to Amazon.

How Amazon Builds the List of Weeks You Choose From

You choose the window in step 2 of Send to Amazon, Confirm shipping, where for own-carrier freight the plan date is the delivery window. Amazon's Confirm shipping help page says each inbound option then shows a delivery window, an availability status and an estimated total inbound cost.

Four details on that screen matter more than they look.

• The cost column is partly hypothetical. It adds the placement service fee to a partnered-rate shipping estimate that Amazon says is for comparison only and will not be charged.
• The options expire. Placement options stay valid for 72 hours pending confirmation, and after that you start a new workflow. Shipping details may also update if you do not confirm them within 24 hours.
• Every shipment gets its own week. Your inventory may be routed to more than one fulfillment center, and each shipment needs its own window, defaulted to your plan date. A split plan is several clocks, not one.
• A workflow is one carrier type. A single workflow cannot mix partnered and non-partnered carriers.

Through the SP-API the sequence is explicit: generateDeliveryWindowOptions builds the options for a shipment, listDeliveryWindowOptions returns them, and confirmDeliveryWindowOptions locks one in. The confirm operation requires a confirmed placement option first, and once a window is confirmed, new options cannot be generated. Transportation options under the CONFIRMED_DELIVERY_WINDOW program need a confirmed window before you can confirm them. Each listed option carries an availabilityType of AVAILABLE, CONGESTED, DISCOUNTED or BLOCKED, and a validUntil timestamp after which it lapses.

Blocked Windows: The Week You Cannot Have

Amazon's SP-API release notes of December 3, 2025 added DISCOUNTED and BLOCKED as availability types. A BLOCKED window is unavailable for scheduling, and after February 28, 2026 you cannot select one.

In Seller Central, an option's availability status tells you whether its window is expecting receive delays, or is at capacity and cannot be selected.

Read a blocked week as Amazon's capacity map, handed to you as a menu. If the week your freight will naturally reach is blocked, the window cannot move to meet the freight. The freight moves to an open week, or you accept one that expects receive delays.

That makes a blocked week a prep problem, not a trucking problem. If the open weeks come earlier, the lever is how fast the prep center turns the goods. If they come later, the lever is holding finished pallets on the prep dock instead of shipping them early into a miss. Both cost something: speed or storage.

Discounted Windows: What the Badge Pays and What It Asks

Some weeks carry a Discounted delivery window badge next to the option's estimated total inbound cost. The help page says only that in certain situations a window may be discounted. The December 2025 release notes define a DISCOUNTED window as one with an incentive for choosing it, and the July 29, 2026 release added an optional discounts field to listDeliveryWindowOptions that returns those incentives.

The help page publishes no amount and does not say which charge the discount reduces on your plan. The incentive object in the API schema lists two possible targets, Placement Services and Fulfillment Fee Discount, and two types, FEE and DISCOUNT. Those are allowed values, not a statement about any week you will see.

So what does the discount ask of you? Three things, and none is written down as a condition.

• An own-carrier plan, as far as the page shows. Amazon describes the badge only inside the delivery window step of the non-partnered flow, and a partnered plan hands the week to the carrier.
• A week you might not have picked. The help page does not say why a given week is discounted. Assume it suits Amazon's docks, not your sell-through.
• Freight that lands in that week. Neither the help page nor the API reference says what happens to the incentive if the shipment misses the week or you move the window. Until your statement shows the discount, keep it out of landed cost.

Take the discounted week when your prep and carrier plan already reach it with slack on both sides. Do not bend a prep schedule to chase it unless the discount you see beats what the bend costs: storage days, a later in-stock date, or a miss that throws away the priority lane. No prep center can promise you a discounted week, PrepVia included. The incentive is Amazon's, and it varies.

The Missed Window: What Amazon Records, and What It Does Not Charge

Amazon's delivery window page calls this a "Missing delivery window" defect, and it counts both directions. Early or late, Amazon notifies you for each occurrence by email, on the Problems tab of the Shipment Summary page, and on the Inbound Performance Dashboard. The Confirm shipping page dates this to October 2023, says it accounts for variability in lead times, and names the dashboard the Shipment Performance Dashboard.

The threshold sits on a third page. Amazon's inbound problem summary defines a Missed delivery window as over 10% of a shipment's units not arriving at the designated fulfillment centers within the window. One late box in a twenty-box parcel shipment with equal units is 5%. A single LTL truck has no such cushion. The same page still cites a 14-day window for international shipments, which conflicts with the December 2025 release note that sets all windows at one calendar week. On cross-border freight, go by the week your workflow offers.

There is one published exception. If your carrier requested an appointment inside your window and Amazon's appointment scheduling pushed the delivery outside it, Amazon does not notify you of a miss. Have your carrier keep the timestamp of that request.

What a miss does not do, on any page Amazon publishes, is trigger a fee. Amazon's inbound defect fees page lists misrouted, deleted and abandoned shipments, and a missed window is not among them. The cost is time. Priority processing goes to shipments inside their window, and the rest may face appointment and receive delays. Repeated problems in one group escalate your coaching level, but Amazon's Performance coaching page, which lists the actions by group, does not list on-time arrival; for other problems it says FBA notifies you. Our look at how long check-in takes in 2026 covers what happens after the truck backs in.

The fee lines do sit close to the window, and a badly planned week can cross one. Amazon lists these as deleted or abandoned shipment problems: a domestic shipment that does not arrive within 45 days of creation, an international one that does not arrive within 75 days, and, in a multiple destination plan, additional shipments that do not arrive within 30 days of the first arrival. For shipments created on or after January 15, 2026, the inbound defect fee runs from $0.32 per unit for small standard items up to $5.72 per unit in the heaviest large bulky tier.

The fee side, trigger by trigger, is in our inbound defect fee guide.

Choosing the Week: Where Your Arrival Should Sit Inside It

A calendar week is seven days, but it is not seven days of tolerance. It is a box with two walls, and your freight can hit either one.

Put the expected arrival on a Tuesday or a Wednesday. A Wednesday target leaves three days of slack on each side. A Friday target leaves one day of late slack. A three-day slip from a Wednesday target lands on Saturday, inside the week. The same slip from a Friday target lands on Monday, like the seller in the opening.

Then respect the edit cutoff: the start of the current window or the actual delivery, whichever comes first. Amazon's own example is a window of April 1 to April 7, editable until March 31, and a shipment that arrives on March 25 cannot be changed at all. With Sunday starts, the last day to move a window is the Saturday before it opens. Integrations can read the exact cutoff from the editableUntil field on the selected window that getShipment returns. Trust that timestamp: the confirmDeliveryWindowOptions reference says only that the window can be updated before shipment closure, looser than the help page.

Early is a miss too. A truck that arrives on the Saturday before the window is logged the same way as one that arrives the Monday after. If the freight finishes early, move the window to a week that has not started yet, or hold the pallets on the prep dock.

The Reverse Protocol: From the Window Back to the Prep Dock

Almost every date before the window belongs to the prep center: the receiving count that makes your box content true, the freight-ready date, the pickup. So plan backward from the week, with the prep center's clock as the spine.

Here is the protocol on an illustrative window of Sunday, November 1 to Saturday, November 7, 2026, for domestic LTL on your own carrier. The 4 business days of transit and the one day of inbound buffer are illustrations. Use your carrier's quote for your lane.

Everything from October 23 to October 29 happens at the prep center. A prep dock that runs a day long eats a third of your late slack before the truck moves. One that runs a week long makes you move the window, and the next open week may be blocked.

At PrepVia, in Miami, we receive, count, photograph, prep, label and hand the freight to the carrier on a prep window of 24-36 hours. For eligible shipments to fulfillment centers in Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama, FastLane 35H goes further: 35 hours end to end, from check-in at PrepVia to delivered status at Amazon, or the prep is free, with the terms on our SLA guarantee page. We do not control Amazon's appointment calendar, your carrier's transit, or whether Amazon discounts your week. For the holiday version of this backward math, see our Q4 2026 backward calendar.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a delivery window if I ship with an Amazon partnered carrier?

No. Amazon requires a delivery window only for small parcel and LTL shipments on a non-partnered carrier. With an Amazon partnered carrier or Amazon Global Logistics you provide a ship date for small parcel or a freight-ready date for LTL, and the carrier handles the arrival window.

How far ahead should I set my Send to Amazon delivery window?

Amazon recommends 3 or more weeks before the planned arrival, a recommendation rather than a condition. For domestic freight, also keep the arrival within 45 days of shipment creation: Amazon lists a later arrival as an abandoned shipment problem, which can carry the inbound defect fee.

Can I change my delivery window after my freight ships?

Yes, until the earlier of two dates: the start of the current window or the actual delivery. With Sunday starts, the last day to move a window is the Saturday before it opens. You update it in the Tracking details step, and an SP-API integration can read the cutoff from the editableUntil field.

Is there a fee for missing a delivery window?

Not on the published list. Amazon's 2026 inbound defect fees cover misrouted, deleted and abandoned shipments, and a missed window is not among them. A miss, over 10% of a shipment's units outside the week, is logged for each occurrence by email, on the Problems tab and on the Inbound Performance Dashboard, and the freight gives up the priority processing that on-time shipments receive.

How much does a discounted delivery window save?

The help page publishes no amount and says only that some windows may be discounted. Since July 29, 2026 the SP-API returns the incentive in an optional discounts field. Read the value on your own plan, and keep it out of landed cost until your statement shows it.

What does a blocked delivery window mean?

A BLOCKED window is unavailable for scheduling, and after February 28, 2026 you cannot select one. When the week your freight would naturally reach is blocked, you change the ship date at the prep dock or accept a different week.

Final Take

The Send to Amazon delivery window stopped being a formality when it became a calendar week. Amazon now attaches incentives to some weeks, blocks others, and logs a problem when a shipment lands outside the week you chose, early or late.

None of that is a fee, which is exactly why operators underrate it. The cost of a miss is the priority lane, paid in time.

So plan from the week backward. Put the arrival mid-week, count back through the carrier and the prep dock, and give the prep center the week on the day you create the plan. The window is Amazon's instrument. The clock that hits it belongs to whoever ships your freight.