Amazon makes roughly tens of thousands of dollars in revenue every second. The exact figure changes each year because Amazon’s sales keep changing, and “makes” can mean either revenue or actual profit.
Using Amazon’s latest full-year revenue and dividing it by the number of seconds in a year gives us the best way to estimate its revenue per second.
And this number sounds almost unreal when you first see it. By the time you finish reading this paragraph, Amazon has potentially generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue somewhere across its businesses.
Calculation
The formula is actually very simple:
Amazon annual revenue ÷ 365 ÷ 24 ÷ 60 ÷ 60 = revenue per second
There are 31,536,000 seconds in a normal year.
So, if Amazon generates hundreds of billions of dollars in annual revenue, dividing that massive figure by roughly 31.5 million seconds still leaves us with tens of thousands of dollars every single second.
One thing worth mentioning: this is an average. Amazon obviously doesn't receive exactly the same amount every second. Prime Day, Black Friday, Christmas shopping, and quieter periods will all look very different.
Per-Minute/Hour/Day Breakdown
To put Amazon's scale into perspective, its revenue roughly translates into:
Period | Approximate scale |
|---|---|
Per second | Tens of thousands of dollars |
Per minute | Millions of dollars |
Per hour | Hundreds of millions of dollars |
Per day | Billions of dollars |
Per year | Hundreds of billions of dollars |
This is where the number becomes easier to visualize. Saying “hundreds of billions annually” feels abstract. Saying Amazon generates millions of dollars in revenue in roughly the time it takes you to make a cup of coffee feels completely different.
Revenue vs. Profit
This is the biggest misunderstanding around questions like “How much does Amazon make?”
Revenue is not profit.
If you buy a $100 product on Amazon, you can't simply assume Amazon has “earned” $100 in profit. Revenue is the money generated before accounting for relevant costs and expenses.
Profit, or net income, is what's left after expenses.
Amazon itself defines net income in its financial-literacy material as the amount a business makes after deducting expenses and operating costs from revenue.
So those viral “Amazon makes $X every second” numbers usually refer to revenue, not money Jeff Bezos or Amazon gets to simply pocket.
Revenue Sources
Another thing people often miss is that Amazon isn't just an online shopping website anymore.
Its revenue comes from several businesses, including online stores, physical stores, third-party seller services, advertising, subscription services and Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Even within Amazon's marketplace, independent sellers are huge. Amazon says more than 60% of sales in its store come from independent sellers.
That's what makes Amazon's scale fascinating to me. You might associate the company with ordering headphones or shampoo, while behind that familiar shopping screen sits a much larger ecosystem involving cloud computing, advertising, subscriptions, logistics and millions of sellers.
FAQs
How much money does Amazon make every second?
Based on annual revenue, Amazon generates roughly tens of thousands of dollars in revenue per second.
Does Amazon literally make the same amount every second?
No. It's an average calculated by dividing annual revenue by the number of seconds in a year.
Is Amazon's revenue the same as profit?
No. Revenue is the money generated from business activities, while profit is what's left after expenses.
Does Amazon only make money from shopping?
No. Amazon also earns revenue from AWS, advertising, subscriptions, seller services, physical stores and other businesses.
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