How many employees does Amazon have?

This page is for sellers, analysts and anyone who needs an Amazon headcount they can cite: the latest number, the definition behind it and how it has moved. Workforce-analytics sites estimate Amazon's size from public profiles and job postings, and their numbers disagree with each other. Every figure here comes from Amazon's annual 10-K reports or its quarterly results filed with the SEC, with the date it applies to.

Amazon employees by year

Amazon reports its headcount once a year, as of December 31, in the Human Capital section of its 10-K.

Each filing gives the figure as "approximately", rounded to the nearest thousand (the nearest 500 in 2018). The changes are our arithmetic.

Amazon headcount by quarter

Amazon also reports employees every quarter, in the "Supplemental Financial Information and Business Metrics" table of its earnings release, which it files with the SEC as Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K. The release for the third quarter of 2026, filed October 29, 2026, shows six quarters:

The September 2026 count is 60,000 (3.8%) higher than a year earlier, which the release rounds to 4%. It is above every year-end figure Amazon has reported, including the 1,608,000 at the end of 2021.

What the number includes

• Full-time and part-time employees. The 10-K says "we employed approximately 1,576,000 full-time and part-time employees," then adds: "Additionally, we use independent contractors and temporary personnel to supplement our workforce." Those contractors and temporary staff are not in the total.
• The quarterly label says the same. The release line reads "Employees (full-time and part-time; excludes contractors & temporary personnel)".
• One worldwide total. Amazon reports three segments (North America, International and AWS) but doesn't split headcount by segment, country or job type in its filings. Any US-only, warehouse or corporate split you see elsewhere is someone else's estimate.
• A point-in-time count. It's the headcount on the last day of the period, not an average for the year. Amazon's 2018 and 2019 10-Ks noted that "employment levels fluctuate due to seasonal factors affecting our business," and the Q3 2026 release says Amazon plans to hire more than 300,000 seasonal, part-time and full-time employees across its US operations for the 2026 holiday season.

When you compare Amazon with another company, check that both figures use the same basis. Apple, for example, reports full-time equivalents, which converts part-time staff into fractions of a full-time job.

What changed and why

2020 and 2021: the pandemic build-out

Headcount rose by 810,000 in two years. The 2020 10-K says that since February 2020 Amazon had "hired over 400,000 full-time and part-time employees to increase our fulfillment network capacity."

2022 and 2023: the first declines

Headcount fell by 67,000 in 2022 and by 16,000 in 2023. The 2022 10-K records about $720 million of estimated severance costs "primarily related to planned role eliminations," $640 million of it in the fourth quarter and mostly in the North America segment.

2025 and 2026: corporate cuts, rising total

In October 2025 Amazon told employees it would make "an overall reduction in our corporate workforce of approximately 14,000 roles." In January 2026 it announced reductions that "will impact approximately 16,000 roles across Amazon." The 2025 10-K records about $2.7 billion of estimated severance costs for planned role eliminations: $1.8 billion in the third quarter and $730 million in the fourth.

The total still grew. Together the two announcements cover about 30,000 roles, roughly 1.9% of the 1,576,000 year-end count, and quarterly headcount on September 30, 2026 was higher than before either announcement.

Revenue per employee

Amazon's 2025 net sales were $716.9 billion. Divided by the year-end headcount, that's $716.9 billion ÷ 1,576,000 = about $454,900 per employee (our calculation). The same sum for 2024 ($638.0 billion ÷ 1,556,000) gives about $410,000, so sales grew much faster than headcount.

Because Amazon doesn't report headcount by segment, revenue per employee can't be worked out for AWS or the stores businesses from the filings. Treat the company figure as a rough comparison only: it uses one point-in-time count, includes part-time staff and leaves out contractors. For how other large employers compare, see the largest employers in the US.

Selling to a company this size

General guidance on how organizations of 1.6 million people buy, not a description of Amazon's internal processes.

• There is no single buyer. Budgets sit with business units and the teams inside them. The 10-K's three segments are a first map of where a problem lives, but most purchases are made several levels below them.
• Land with one team. Find a team that owns the problem you solve, win there, and use that result to reach the next team. This is the land and expand motion, and at this scale it's the normal route in.
• Plan for review time. Expect security, legal and procurement reviews and supplier onboarding before a first purchase order. Put that time in your forecast rather than treating it as a delay.
• Use the filings as your research. The severance notes and role-reduction announcements tell you which functions are being asked to do more with fewer people, which is often where a productivity pitch lands.
• Name the people. Work out who signs, who uses and who can block. Our guide to finding decision makers shows how.

Mapping the right team inside an account this large is the slow part of the work. Bebop researches each account and suggests who to talk to and the angle to open with; check what it finds against the company's own filings.

How to check Amazon's headcount yourself

1. Open Amazon's 10-K filings on SEC EDGAR and pick the latest one.
2. In Item 1, Business, find the Human Capital heading. The headcount is in its first paragraph, with the as-of date.
3. For a newer figure, open the latest 8-K that lists Item 2.02 (Results of Operations), then Exhibit 99.1, and find the Employees line in the supplemental metrics table.
4. Before you compare it with another company, note the date and whether the figure counts part-time staff, full-time equivalents or contractors.

Next step: see how Amazon compares with other big US employers in the largest employers in the US.