How Amazon Really Makes Money

In 2025, AWS brought in only about 18% of Amazon's revenue, yet earned about $45.6 billion in operating profit, more than Amazon's entire North America segment. Amazon's annual report shows about $717 billion in 2025 revenue across North America, International and AWS. We go through the books line by line. In 2025, the store segments kept operating margins of about 7% and 2.9%. Services made up about 59% of revenue, and the biggest service line was about $172 billion in third-party seller services. Next come advertising (about $68.6 billion, up about 22% from 2024), subscriptions that include Prime, and AWS. AWS kept about 35% of its 2025 revenue as segment operating profit. Every figure comes from Amazon's SEC filings. CHAPTERS 0:00 AWS Out-Earns North America in 2025 0:52 $717B Revenue and Three Segments 1:41 Store Segments: 7% and 2.9% Margins 2:32 59% of 2025 Revenue Is Services 3:34 Ads Up 22% in 2025; Prime as Marketing 4:23 AWS's 35% Margin and Its Costs 5:16 Margins Climb From 6.4% in 2023 5:54 The Real Profit Engine: The Cloud KEY TAKEAWAYS AWS: about 18% of Amazon's 2025 revenue, about $45.6B of segment operating profit 2025 segment operating margins: North America ~7%, International ~2.9%, AWS ~35% Services were about 59% of Amazon's 2025 revenue; products were about 41% For third-party sales, Amazon books its fees as revenue, not the product's price Amazon calls Prime and its other shipping offers effective worldwide marketing tools #Amazon #AWS #BusinessModel #CaseStudy Educational analysis, not investment advice or company endorsement. Sources: AMAZON COM INC: https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/company... AMAZON COM INC business segment, product and region figures (10-K inline XBRL): https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da... SEC.gov | Beginners' Guide to Financial Statement: https://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/beg...