Quick answer. Valid Tracking Rate (VTR) is the share of your seller-fulfilled packages that carry a tracking ID Amazon can use. Amazon requires a VTR of 95% or higher in each product category, and a category below 95% can lose its seller-fulfilled listings. For packages shipped from the US, Amazon treats a tracking ID as valid when four things are true. It received at least one physical carrier scan, the carrier is an Amazon-integrated carrier picked from the drop-down, a tracking ID was entered, and the shipment was confirmed before delivery. Most invalid tracking comes from typing errors, the wrong carrier, labels that were never scanned, or carriers that do not send scans to Amazon. Download the VTR defect report from Account Health, find the pattern, fix the process, and appeal with proof.

Most self-fulfilled sellers who lose listings over tracking are not shipping late or losing packages. The box arrives and the customer is happy, yet a category slides under target on the Shipping Performance page, because the problem sits in data nobody was watching. A carrier name typed into a free-text field, a label printed Friday and handed over Monday, a shipping tool that switched a service after an update. Amazon measures what the customer could track, not what the seller knows happened.

This applies to sellers who ship their own orders (Fulfilled by Merchant), including Seller Fulfilled Prime.

What Amazon counts as valid tracking

Amazon’s Valid tracking rate help page describes VTR as the percentage of seller-fulfilled packages that include a valid tracking ID, because customers depend on that ID to see where their order is. A number alone is not enough. Amazon must tie it to an integrated carrier and receive scan events it can show the customer.

The four tests behind every “valid” result

The VTR defect report shows Amazon’s logic. Its “Valid Tracking?” column returns Yes only when all four criteria are met.

Report criterion	What Amazon checks	How sellers usually fail it
Criteria 1. Amazon approved carrier	The carrier was an integrated carrier selected from the Ship Confirmation drop-down	Typing the carrier into the “Other” field, or using a carrier that is not integrated
Criteria 2. Tracking ID provided	A tracking ID was entered at the time of ship confirmation	Confirming without a number, or with a number added later in a note
Criteria 3. Confirmed before delivery	The package was ship-confirmed before the actual delivery date	Confirming in a batch days after handover, or correcting tracking after delivery
Criteria 4. Carrier scan received	The integrated carrier sent Amazon a valid scan	Labels created but never scanned, or a carrier integration that does not pass scans

If the carrier does not send Amazon valid scan events, the tracking ID is invalid even if it looks fine on the carrier’s website, and Amazon suggests asking the carrier to fix its integration. Only what reaches Amazon counts.

Domestic and cross-border scan rules

Amazon’s page says that starting January 15, 2025, a tracking ID on a package shipped from the US is valid if Amazon records at least one physical carrier scan. The ship-from location you select at confirmation decides whether domestic or international rules apply. If it is blank, Amazon uses your default shipping address.

Packages shipped into the US from China, Canada, American Samoa or the United States Minor Outlying Islands need one valid carrier scan under $5 (excluding taxes, including shipping) and two at or above $5, arrival at the carrier facility and then delivery or attempted delivery. From India or the United Kingdom the split sits at $15.

What Amazon leaves out of the calculation

Amazon says only its listed exemptions apply. They include digital products, domestic packages under $10 sent with the “USPS Standard Mail envelopes” or “USPS First Class Mail envelopes” service, domestic shipments through a named list of freight carriers, and some cross-border cases. Seller Fulfilled Prime packages have no exemptions. Check any order you think is exempt against the current list.

The 95% rule works category by category

The policy line is short. Amazon’s VTR page says all sellers shipping seller-fulfilled orders must maintain a VTR greater than or equal to 95% at a product category level. A category below 95% can lead to suspension of your seller-fulfilled listings in that category and can hurt your eligibility for premium shipping. Amazon also says seller-fulfilled listings in categories above the threshold, and your FBA listings, are not affected by a low VTR in another category.

A small category can fail while the account looks healthy, because a few bad packages weigh more against a small denominator. For Seller Fulfilled Prime, Amazon says 99% or more of Prime packages must have valid tracking across all categories combined. Amazon updates these pages, so confirm the current figure and your report’s window on the Valid tracking rate page and your Shipping Performance page before acting.

Two categories on the same account, gate by gate. Compare the counts to see why a small category falls under 95% while the account looks fine.

A worked example with hypothetical numbers

Home and Kitchen ships 1,200 counted packages with 30 invalid, for 97.5%. Toys ships 194 with 12 invalid, for 93.8%, under target. Ten of the twelve went out on a regional service typed under “Other”. Fixing that one habit keeps Toys at 98.9%. That is the pattern to look for, one cause concentrated in one place.

How VTR, On-Time Delivery Rate and Late Shipment Rate fit together

VTR shares its raw material, the ship confirmation and the carrier scans, with two other shipping metrics, so a weakness in one usually shows up in another.

On-Time Delivery Rate depends on tracking

Amazon’s On-time delivery rate page says that effective September 25, 2024, you must keep a minimum 90% on-time delivery rate without promise extensions to keep seller-fulfilled products listed on Amazon.com, and it recommends 95% or more. The rate is the percentage of tracked seller-fulfilled units delivered on or before the seller-promised “Deliver by” date, before any promise extensions. Amazon looks at shipments with a promised delivery date in the last 21 days, excluding the most recent 7, which leaves a 14-day window. “Tracked” is the link to VTR, because a package Amazon cannot follow gives it no delivery event to measure. In Amazon’s example, with a handling time of 1 day and a transit time of 2 days, an order received Monday must be delivered by Thursday, even if a promise extension showed the customer Friday.

Late Shipment Rate depends on the confirmation

Amazon’s Late Shipment Rate page says an order counts as shipped late when there is no shipment confirmation by the expected ship date. LSR is measured over 10-day and 30-day periods, and Amazon requires sellers to keep it under 4%. Above that, Amazon says it may suspend Fulfilled by Merchant selling privileges or deactivate seller-fulfilled offers with high late shipments. For more on LSR, read our guide to Amazon suspension for late shipment and our breakdown of root causes behind late shipment rates.

Metric	What it measures	Requirement Amazon states	Where you see it
Valid Tracking Rate	Share of packages with a valid tracking ID and carrier scan	95% or more per product category. 99% aggregate for Seller Fulfilled Prime	Account Health, Shipping performance, View details
On-Time Delivery Rate	Share of tracked units delivered by the seller-promised “Deliver by” date	Minimum 90% without promise extensions. 95% recommended	Account Health, Shipping performance, OTDR report
Late Shipment Rate	Share of orders not confirmed by the expected ship date	Under 4%, over 10-day and 30-day periods	Account Health, Shipping performance, LSR report

Fixing one metric in isolation often moves the problem. Confirming the moment a label prints helps LSR and hurts VTR once those labels sit unscanned.

Confirming a shipment the way Amazon expects

Amazon’s Confirm a shipment page lists what it needs at confirmation. The ship date, the carrier, the shipping service or ship method, a valid carrier-supplied tracking number (it cannot be blank or duplicated, and Amazon validates it), and the ship-from address. Confirming triggers the buyer’s charge and shipping email.

Confirm after handover, not before

Amazon says to confirm only after handing packages to carriers, and warns that confirming early can be treated as pre-confirm ship abuse. With Buy Shipping, the order is marked shipped when you buy the label, so hand packages over soon after. A label bought Friday and dropped off Monday is a confirmed order with no scan.

There is also a hard deadline at the other end. If you do not confirm shipment within seven business days of the shipping availability date, Amazon says it automatically cancels the order and does not charge the buyer, even if you already shipped.

Amazon’s own example order, Monday to Thursday and beyond. Tap a day to see what you can still change and when tracking stops counting.

Correcting a mistake in time

Amazon asks you to fix tracking errors preferably within 24 hours of confirmation, and says tracking cannot change after the Promised Delivery Date. In Manage Orders, search the order, click Edit Shipment, correct it and click Re-confirm the shipment. Allow 72 hours for metrics to update. Tracking updated after delivery does not count toward VTR.

Buy Shipping and carrier integrations

Amazon’s Use Buy Shipping services page says that with Buy Shipping labels, Amazon uploads tracking automatically and no separate confirmation is needed. That removes the typed number and the wrong carrier.

What Buy Shipping covers

The page lists Buy Shipping rates from Amazon Shipping, FedEx, OnTrac, UPS, USPS, DHL Express International and China Post, with domestic USPS at Commercial Plus prices. You can buy labels one at a time, in bulk up to 100 orders, or by API, and some carrier accounts can be linked for your own rates. For USPS pickups, Buy Shipping can produce a SCAN form listing the orders.

If you use your own labels

Buying labels elsewhere is allowed, but a clean confirmation is then your job. Pick carriers from the drop-down on the Ship Confirmation page, which lists the carriers integrated with Amazon and sending it real-time tracking, and make sure the carrier name, shipping service and tracking ID all belong to the same carrier.

Protection on the delivery side

On-Time Delivery Rate has its own safety net, and it depends on tracked, integrated shipping. Amazon’s OTDR page says a shipped unit counts as compliant if it was delivered by the “Deliver by” date, or if three conditions were all met. The SKU used a shipping template with Shipping Settings Automation enabled, the account had automated handling time enabled, and you bought an “on-time delivery rate Protected” label through Buy Shipping. Amazon says this protection currently applies only to Professional sellers who ship from the US and China.

A hypothetical label, confirm screen and report row. Open each tab to see which field decides whether a package counts toward VTR.

What the carrier’s tracking status is telling you

USPS explains that tracking can start as soon as the sender or a shipping partner tells USPS electronically that a package is coming, continues when USPS accepts the package, and ends at delivery or pickup. The record can exist before USPS has the box. USPS also notes that First-Class Mail postcards, letters and flats are not eligible for USPS Tracking, and that USPS Tracking does not expedite or guarantee delivery.

UPS says its “Label Created” status means UPS has received the shipment details and billing information from the sender, and the status updates once UPS has the package moving in its network. FedEx says “Label created” means the shipping label exists, and that if a tracking number shows no updates, the package is still at the shipper’s location. Details update once FedEx receives it.

A label is a promise, and the first scan is the proof. Amazon’s US rule asks for at least one physical carrier scan, so a “label created” package is a defect waiting to happen. If you have doubts about how USPS scanning behaves, our pieces on when sellers do not trust USPS and USPS on weekends cover the handover side in more detail.

A tracking ID only counts once a scan from an integrated carrier reaches Amazon. Each red box is a common way the chain breaks.

Why tracking goes invalid

The same causes show up in report after report.

Typing errors and formatting

Amazon’s LSR page asks you to check that the tracking number was entered correctly, was not left blank, and contains no special characters such as punctuation, which its system cannot recognize. The VTR page adds that Chinese characters or special characters in manually entered tracking are treated as invalid.

Wrong carrier, or the right carrier in the wrong field

Amazon says the carrier name must come from the drop-down on Manage Orders, and a carrier name that is misspelled, in another language or padded with extra words is marked invalid. The carrier must also match the number. Amazon’s example is a DHL package entered as FedEx, which is invalid. If you type an integrated carrier into “Other”, Amazon marks it invalid even though the carrier is integrated.

Labels created but never scanned

A label with no acceptance or pickup scan fails criterion 4. Think of a box left over a weekend, a reprinted label where the first number was uploaded, or a voided label left on the order.

Carriers or services that do not feed Amazon

Some local services deliver well but do not send scans to Amazon. A tool that defaults new SKUs to one of them can sink a category while every customer gets their order.

Confirmations that arrive after delivery

If a package is delivered before the order is confirmed, criterion 3 fails. This often happens after a holiday, when confirmations are caught up in bulk.

Six places in a seller’s shipping room where tracking breaks. Open each to see what triggers it, how the VTR report shows it and what it means.

How to audit your last 30 days of shipments

An audit shows where invalid packages cluster, by carrier, service, category, day or tool. Keep every file you produce, because it becomes your appeal evidence.

Step 1. Capture the metric as it stands

In Account Health, open Shipping performance, View details. Screenshot VTR per category, OTDR and LSR with the date visible.

Step 2. Download the VTR defect report

On the Shipping Performance page, click Download Report in the Valid Tracking Rate section. Only orders in the current report count against the metric. Filter by carrier or category, and work on a copy.

Step 3. Sort every defect into a cause

Read the four criteria columns on each line. A “No” in 1 points to the carrier field, 2 to a missing ID, 3 to timing, and 4 to a scan or integration gap. Add a cause column and count by cause, carrier, service and category.

Step 4. Pull the other two reports for the same period

Download the LSR and OTDR reports from the same section and match order IDs. Orders failing several metrics usually share a dispatch cause.

Step 5. Check a sample against the carrier

Look up ten or more invalid IDs on the carrier’s site. Label-only status means no handover. Full movement with “No” in criterion 4 means an integration gap. Take dated screenshots.

Step 6. Check your tools and settings

Record your shipping tool’s default carrier and service for each profile, its carrier name mapping and recent update dates, along with your Seller Central shipping templates and handling times.

Walk an invalid tracking line through the VTR report from download to cause label. Step through to see what each column tells you to fix.

Where to verify each fact

Question	Where to check	What to look for
Which categories are under 95%?	Account Health, Shipping performance, View details	VTR per category, with the date of the screenshot
Which packages failed and why?	VTR defect report (Download Report), filtered by carrier or category	“Valid Tracking?” column and criteria 1 to 4
Is the carrier integrated?	The carrier drop-down on the Ship Confirmation page in Manage Orders	Your carrier and service listed by name
Did the carrier have the package?	USPS Tracking, UPS tracking or FedEx tracking pages	First acceptance or pickup scan and its date versus your confirmation date
Are late shipments part of the same problem?	LSR report and OTDR report in Shipping performance	The same order IDs, dates or carriers appearing across reports
Is the order exempt?	Amazon’s Valid tracking rate help page, exemptions section	Package value, service and origin against the listed exemptions
What did your tool send?	Shipping software settings and change log	Default services, carrier name mapping, update dates

Tracking defects you cannot explain?

Send us your VTR report and we will tell you plainly where the defects come from.

Submit Case →Book a call

Fixes to put in place

Fixes that hold are controls, not intentions. Each one names the failure, its owner, the check that now runs and its start date. Match each to a cause from your audit.

Controls that close the common gaps

Buy Shipping where it fits, paired with a same-day handover rule.
An approved carrier list in your tool, limited to integrated, tracked services, with “Other” blocked.
No confirmation without tracking. Blank, duplicated or malformed numbers cannot be confirmed.
Scan at handover. Reconcile the pickup manifest or USPS SCAN form daily against confirmed orders.
A next-day first-scan check on yesterday’s orders, while tracking can still be corrected.
Change control. Test orders per profile after any software update.
Realistic handling and transit times, using Shipping Settings Automation and automated handling time where they fit.
A weekly category review by one named person.

Proving the fix works

Keep a dated log for each control, with a settings screenshot, the procedure, the owner and a sample of post-change orders showing first scans. Screenshot the recovery as it appears.

If listings were restricted or the account deactivated for VTR

When a category falls under 95%, Amazon may suspend the seller-fulfilled listings in that category. Amazon’s VTR page says you can appeal by clicking Submit Appeal next to the impacted categories on the Account Health page. If the appeal is approved, the seller-fulfilled listings in that category are restored. If it is denied, Amazon says you will receive an email asking for more information. Wider deactivations go through the main appeal on Account Health, with every breached metric addressed.

If On-Time Delivery Rate is also involved

Amazon’s OTDR page says a first appeal is reviewed within 72 hours and should cover the issues behind the low rate, the actions you will take, and the steps you have taken to prevent future issues. For later violations, Amazon says Professional sellers shipping from the US and China must meet the 90% requirement by using Shipping Settings Automation, automated handling time and Buy Shipping for their seller-fulfilled orders for the next 180 days. If both metrics are low, build one plan that answers both.

The structure of a plan of action that works for VTR

Show the specific break, the fix, and the control that stops recurrence, each tied to proof.

Root cause. Name the operational failure in the data, not the metric. “Our VTR was low” is a symptom. “After a shipping software update on a stated date, 14 new SKUs defaulted to a regional service that does not send scans to Amazon, and those orders made up 63% of our invalid tracking” is a root cause. Do not blame the carrier, buyer or Amazon.
Corrective actions already taken, with dates and numbers, such as services disabled, SKUs reassigned and open orders corrected.
Preventive measures, each with an owner and start date.
Supporting evidence you can produce, such as the annotated report, tool settings and post-fix scans.
One clear request for reinstatement.

A short hypothetical excerpt shows the tone. “Root cause: 63% of untracked orders in the period shipped on a local service that does not provide Amazon-valid tracking, selected by our shipping tool’s default for new SKUs. Corrective action: on the date shown we disabled that service and moved the affected SKUs to an integrated carrier. Preventive control: our tool now blocks confirmation of any order whose carrier is not on our approved list, owned by our shipping lead and checked daily.” Never adjust, recreate or tidy up the reports or carrier records you submit. If a record does not exist, say so and explain what you are doing instead.

Toggle the pieces your VTR appeal already has. The grade shows whether it is ready for Submit Appeal and which gaps to close first.

Honest expectations

Tracking appeals are decided on data. A plan that matches the scans is easy to accept. One that claims same-day handover while scans show two-day gaps is easy to reject. Amazon decides every appeal, and no one can promise an outcome or a date.

A weekly routine that keeps tracking clean

This routine catches problems while tracking can still be corrected.

Every shipping day. Confirm only after handover, reconcile the pickup manifest or SCAN form against confirmed orders, and check yesterday’s orders for a first scan.
Every week. Open Shipping performance, note VTR per category, OTDR and LSR, and download the VTR report. Sort any new defects by cause.
After any change. After a new carrier, new service, new SKU group or software update, run test orders and check the carrier and service Amazon receives.
Every month. Review the approved carrier list against the drop-down, review handling times against real dispatch times, and keep the month’s reports in a dated folder.

If you want a second set of eyes on your shipping metrics before they become a case, our Amazon account health maintenance service is built for that. If listings are already down, start with our Amazon suspension help.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good Valid Tracking Rate on Amazon?

Amazon requires 95% or higher in each product category for seller-fulfilled orders. For Seller Fulfilled Prime, Amazon requires 99% or more across all categories combined.

Does VTR apply to FBA orders?

No. VTR applies to seller-fulfilled packages. Amazon says FBA listings are not affected when a category’s seller-fulfilled VTR is low.

Why is my tracking invalid when the customer can see it on the carrier’s website?

Amazon only counts scans the carrier sends to Amazon. If the carrier does not pass valid scan events, Amazon treats the tracking as invalid and suggests contacting the carrier about its integration.

Can I fix a wrong tracking number after I confirm?

Yes, through Manage Orders and Edit Shipment, before delivery. Amazon prefers corrections within 24 hours of confirmation, does not allow changes after the Promised Delivery Date, and does not count tracking updated after delivery toward VTR.

Which carriers are integrated with Amazon?

Amazon says the integrated carriers are the ones in the carrier drop-down on the Ship Confirmation page. Select from that list instead of typing a name.

What happens if a category falls below 95%?

Amazon may suspend your seller-fulfilled listings in that category, and your eligibility for premium shipping can be affected. You can appeal with Submit Appeal next to the category on Account Health.

Is a “label created” status a valid scan?

No. UPS and FedEx both describe it as a status before they have the package. For US-origin packages, Amazon looks for at least one physical carrier scan.

Get Help With Amazon Valid Tracking Rate Problems

If a category is restricted, an appeal came back asking for more information, or VTR is tangled up with late shipment and delivery issues, we can review your reports and help you build a plan that matches the data. Submit your case for review or book a consultation to talk it through.

This article is educational information about Amazon’s published shipping performance policies and carrier tracking practices. It is not legal advice, and it is not affiliated with or endorsed by Amazon, USPS, UPS or FedEx. Amazon changes its policies and thresholds, so confirm current requirements on Seller Central before acting.

You can also see all our marketplace suspension services.

How to Fix an Amazon Valid Tracking Rate and Appeal a VTR Restriction