Amazon KDP Royalty Calculator

Pick your format, enter your list price, and add your Kindle file size or your page count and ink. You get the royalty KDP actually pays you on every copy, the printing cost or delivery fee that comes out of it, and the price cliffs that can cut your royalty in half.

Kindle ebook Paperback Hardcover

List price on Amazon.com ($) (the price on the product page, before any Amazon discount)

Kindle file size (MB) (the converted size KDP shows in your bookshelf, not your Word file. Text-only books run 1 to 3 MB; illustrated ones run far higher. Blank = 2)

70% option 35% option

The 70% option is only available from $2.99 to $12.99 and pays a delivery fee out of your royalty. The 35% option has no delivery fee.

Copies sold per month (optional: turns the per-copy figure into a monthly one)

Monthly income target ($) (optional: we work out how many copies that takes)

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Data reviewed: August 2026. Figures here come from published sources and change over time. How we verify

How KDP royalties actually work

Self-publishing is sold with one number ("you keep 70 percent!") and paid with another. The gap between them is not Amazon being sneaky; it is that KDP royalties are published formulas with edges in them, and the edges are where the money goes. A Kindle ebook pays 70 percent only inside a price window, and only after a per-megabyte delivery fee comes off the top. A paperback pays 60 percent, or 50 percent if you priced it a penny too low, and then you pay the printer out of your own share. This page runs whichever formula applies to your book and shows every line of it.

Two of those rules changed recently and most of the internet has not noticed. On July 7, 2026 Amazon raised the top of the 70 percent ebook window from $9.99 to $12.99, the first change to that band since 2007. And on June 10, 2025 the flat 60 percent print royalty became 60 percent at $9.99 and above, 50 percent at $9.98 and below. If another calculator tells you an $11.99 ebook pays 35 percent, or that your $7.99 paperback earns 60 percent, it is quoting rules that have expired. Every figure here was read off KDP's own help pages in August 2026, and the sources are listed at the bottom of this page.

The formula

Kindle, 70% option: royalty = 0.70 × (list price − $0.15 per MB of file size)
Kindle, 35% option: royalty = 0.35 × list price (no delivery fee)
Paperback and hardcover: royalty = (0.60 if list price is $9.99 or more, else 0.50) × list price − printing cost
Printing cost (black ink, regular trim, paperback) = $2.30 flat to 110 pages, then $1.00 + $0.012 per page
Minimum list price KDP will accept = printing cost ÷ the royalty rate that applies

The 70 percent option exists only between $2.99 and $12.99 on Amazon.com; outside that band the book pays 35 percent whatever you select. The delivery fee is $0.15 a megabyte in the US with a minimum of one cent, and it applies to the 70 percent option only. Print royalty is set by the price you list at, not by the book you wrote. Printing cost is set by page count, ink, trim size, and nothing else: not bleed, not cover finish, not how good the book is.

Worked example

The ebook. A 2 MB Kindle file listed at $4.99 on the 70 percent option. The delivery fee is 2 × $0.15 = $0.30, leaving $4.69 to split. Seventy percent of that is $3.28 a copy for you, and Amazon keeps $1.71 in all. The 35 percent option on the same book would pay $1.75, so the 70 percent option is worth $1.54 more a copy here. At 100 copies a month that is $328 a month; clearing $500 a month would take 153 copies.

The paperback. The same author's 300-page black ink paperback at regular trim, listed at $12.99. Printing is $1.00 fixed plus 300 pages at 1.2 cents = $4.60. The price is above $9.99, so the rate is 60 percent: $7.79 minus $4.60 = $3.19 a copy. The split of that $12.99: Amazon $5.20, the printer $4.60, you $3.19.

And the two cliffs. Move that ebook from $12.99 to $13.99 and your royalty falls from $8.88 to $4.90, a 45 percent pay cut for charging a dollar more. Move the paperback from $9.98 to $9.99 and your royalty rises from $0.39 to $1.39, because one cent of cover price buys a whole royalty rate.

The delivery fee: the surprise inside the 70 percent option

Kindle's 70 percent royalty is not 70 percent of your price. It is 70 percent of your price after Amazon charges you to transmit the file, at $0.15 a megabyte in the US. For a text-only novel this is a rounding error: Amazon's own documentation puts the average delivery cost across all Kindle books at about $0.06 a unit, which is well under half a megabyte. For an illustrated book it is not a rounding error at all.

Take a photo-heavy cookbook that converts to 50 MB and list it at $9.99. The delivery fee is $7.50 a copy. Seventy percent of the $2.49 that survives is $1.74. The very same book on the 35 percent option, which has no delivery fee at all, pays $3.50. The lower royalty rate pays double. The crossover is worth memorising because it is clean: the 35 percent option starts winning once your file is bigger than your list price divided by 30 cents. At $9.99 that is 33.3 MB; at $4.99 it is 16.6 MB. Compressing your images is not a nerd hobby, it is a raise, and the calculator above prices both options every time so you never have to guess.

The pricing paradox: why raising your price can cut your royalty in half

This is the fact worth knowing before you touch your price, and it is the one most self-publishing advice still gets wrong. The 70 percent option exists only inside a price window. One cent past the top of it, the rate drops to 35 percent, and because the rate halves faster than the price rises, your royalty falls. On Amazon.com, with a 2 MB file: $12.99 pays you $8.88 a copy, and $13.99 pays you $4.90. You raised your price by a dollar, made the book harder to sell, and took a $3.99 pay cut per sale. To out-earn the $12.99 price on the 35 percent rate you would have to charge $25.38.

Here is the part that dates every other guide on the subject: the top of that window used to be $9.99, from 2007 until July 7, 2026, when Amazon raised it to $12.99. So the cliff everyone quotes ("never price above $9.99") moved three dollars, and there is now a whole band from $10.00 to $12.99 where authors who follow old advice are leaving money on the table. The floor did not move: below $2.99 you are back on 35 percent, which is why the 99-cent ebook is a marketing instrument rather than an income one. It pays you about 35 cents.

Printing cost: the line that grows with your book

Print royalties work in the opposite direction from ebooks. The rate is simple; the cost underneath it is what moves. On Amazon.com a black ink paperback at regular trim prints for a flat $2.30 up to 110 pages, then $1.00 plus 1.2 cents a page above that. So 100 pages costs $2.30, 300 pages costs $4.60, 500 pages costs $7.00, and 800 pages costs $10.60. The flat rate and the per-page formula meet almost exactly at 110 pages, which is why the seam is invisible: a 40-page book and a 105-page book cost you exactly the same to print, and the first hundred pages are effectively free.

Color is a different world. Premium color runs $1.00 plus 6.5 cents a page, so a 200-page color paperback costs $14.00 to print before you have earned anything, and needs to list around $23.34 just to break even. Standard color is gentler at 2.55 cents a page but only exists between 72 and 600 pages. Large trim (wider than 6.12 inches or taller than 9 inches) raises the per-page rate on everything: black ink goes from 1.2 to 1.7 cents. Hardcover adds a much bigger fixed cost, $5.65 instead of $1.00, which is exactly why hardcovers carry the cover prices they do. KDP also offers a cheaper groundwood paper for black ink books ($2.23 flat, then $1.00 plus 1.14 cents a page) on eligible trims, which this calculator does not model.

The minimum list price, and the book that pays literally nothing

KDP will not let you list a print book below its printing cost, so it enforces a floor: printing cost divided by the royalty rate that applies. A 300-page black ink paperback costs $4.60 to print and lands in the 50 percent band, so the floor is $9.20. Try to list it at $8.00 and KDP simply refuses the price. This trips up more first-time authors than any other rule, because it arrives as a form error at the end of a long day rather than as a lesson.

The floor is also a lesson in itself. At exactly the minimum list price, your royalty is $0.00. The floor is not the cheapest price at which you make money; it is the price at which the book pays for its own printing and nothing else. And it climbs with page count: an 800-page black ink paperback has a floor of $17.67, which is the real reason a doorstop novel cannot be a $9.99 book. If you are wondering why the fat fantasy paperback in the shop costs what it does, this is a large part of the answer.

The penny that is worth a dollar

Since June 10, 2025, Amazon.com pays 60 percent on print books listed at $9.99 or more and 50 percent at $9.98 or less. That single cent is the most valuable one in self-publishing. On a 300-page black ink paperback, $9.98 pays you 39 cents a copy and $9.99 pays you $1.39: the same book, one cent apart, with a dollar of difference in your pocket. Sell a thousand copies and that penny was worth a thousand dollars.

The rule cuts both ways, and it is worth being honest about which way. Authors who used to price a slim paperback at $8.99 to look approachable are now on the 50 percent rate, and for a longer book that price may not even be legal any more. The practical version: if your instinct says a price between about $9.00 and $9.98, take the extra cent. There is no version of this where being on the wrong side of $9.99 is the better business.

Kindle Unlimited is a separate income stream, and we deliberately do not guess at it

If you enroll in KDP Select, borrows pay from the KDP Select Global Fund at a per-page rate that is calculated after the fact each month, by dividing that month's fund across every page read on the platform. Through 2026 it has run roughly $0.0038 to $0.0052 a page, which puts a fully-read 300-page book somewhere near $1.20 to $1.55. We do not compute it here, and that is a deliberate choice rather than an oversight: the rate is not published in advance, it moves every month, and a calculator that presents next month's KU income as a formula would be inventing precision. Treat borrows as a second stream stacked on top of the per-copy math above, and use your own recent months as the guide.

The part no formula can tell you

Everything above is arithmetic, and arithmetic is the easy half. The number this page cannot supply is how many copies you sell, and that is the number that decides whether self-publishing is a business or a hobby that occasionally buys dinner. Most self-published books sell in the low double digits over their lifetime, which is not a moral failing and not a reason to skip the math: it is the reason the copies-to-target line exists above. Seeing "153 copies a month" in plain type is more useful than any encouragement, because it turns an ambition into a testable plan. Some months you will beat it. Your results will vary, genuinely and widely.

Two last practical notes. Advertising, editing, and cover design all come out of the royalty figures above, so the per-copy number is a ceiling and not a take-home. And KDP royalties are taxable income: for most self-publishers running this as a business they land on Schedule C, where self-employment tax applies on top of income tax and quarterly estimated payments are often due. Our quarterly tax calculator handles that side, and our break-even calculator is the right tool the moment you start spending money on ads.

Sources

Where the numbers on this page come from. We go to the body that publishes the figure, not to another calculator. Figures on this page were checked against these sources in August 2026. See how we verify.

eBook List Price Requirements, Amazon KDP help. The primary source for the ebook price windows, checked August 3, 2026. On Amazon.com the 70 percent option runs from $2.99 to $12.99, effective July 7, 2026, expanded from the previous $2.99 to $9.99. The 35 percent option runs from $0.99 (files under 3 MB), $1.99 (3 MB to under 10 MB), or $2.99 (10 MB or larger) up to a $200.00 maximum.
Digital Book Pricing Page (KDP Terms), Amazon KDP help. The royalty formulas themselves, checked August 3, 2026: the 35 percent option pays 35 percent of list price with no delivery cost, and the 70 percent option pays 70 percent of list price less delivery costs. US delivery cost is $0.15 per megabyte with a minimum of $0.01. The 70 percent option also requires the ebook to be listed at least 20 percent below any physical edition.
eBook Royalties, Amazon KDP help. Confirms the 70 percent option does not require KDP Select enrollment, that the applied rate depends on the buyer's territory, and that Amazon's own stated average delivery cost across all Kindle books is about $0.06 per unit sold, which is well under half a megabyte.
Paperback Royalty, Amazon KDP help. The print royalty rule, checked August 3, 2026: on Amazon.com KDP pays 60 percent of list price at $9.99 and above, and 50 percent at $9.98 and below, minus printing cost either way. The page's own worked example ($15.00 list, 333 pages, regular trim, black ink: (0.60 x $15) - $5.00 = $4.00) is reproduced by this calculator's engine and asserted in its test suite. The same page states the minimum list price rule: printing cost divided by the royalty rate that applies.
Paperback Printing Cost, Amazon KDP help. The full Amazon.com paperback printing table, checked August 3, 2026. Black ink on white or cream paper: $2.30 flat for 24 to 110 pages, then $1.00 plus $0.012 per page (regular trim), or $2.84 flat then $1.00 plus $0.017 per page (large trim). Premium color: $3.60 or $4.20 flat to 40 pages, then $1.00 plus $0.065 or $0.080 per page. Standard color: $1.00 plus $0.0255 or $0.0402 per page, 72 to 600 pages only. Large trim means wider than 6.12 inches or taller than 9 inches.
Hardcover Printing Cost, Amazon KDP help. The Amazon.com hardcover printing table, checked August 3, 2026: black ink $6.80 flat for 75 to 108 pages then $5.65 plus $0.012 per page (regular trim), $7.49 flat then $5.65 plus $0.017 per page (large trim); premium color $5.65 plus $0.065 or $0.080 per page. Hardcover runs 75 to 550 pages and KDP does not offer standard color in hardcover. Amazon's own example (300 pages, black ink, regular trim = $9.25) is reproduced by this calculator and asserted in its tests.
KDP Raises Price Ceiling for 70 Percent Royalty Rate for the First Time, Publishers Lunch. The corroborating source for the July 7, 2026 change, fetched August 3, 2026: the 70 percent royalty band expanded from a top price of $9.99 up to $12.99, the first increase since 2007. Most self-publishing guides on the web still print the old $9.99 ceiling, which is why this page says the date out loud.
KDP Printing Cost Guide, Cambric. Independent corroboration of the printing table and the print royalty split, with its own rates checked July 9, 2026: black ink $2.30 flat to 110 pages then $1.00 plus $0.012 per page regular trim, $2.84 then $1.00 plus $0.017 large trim, and 60 percent at $9.99 and above versus 50 percent at $9.98 and below. It agrees with Amazon's tables cell for cell.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Amazon KDP pay per book?

It depends entirely on format and price, which is why a single number gets quoted wrongly so often. A $4.99 ebook with a 2 MB file on the 70 percent option pays you $3.28 a copy. The same author's 300-page paperback at $12.99 pays $3.19, because $4.60 of printing comes out of your 60 percent share before you see a cent. A 300-page paperback at $8.00 pays nothing at all, because KDP will not accept that price. Enter your own numbers above and the page walks the money one line at a time.

Why did my royalty drop when I raised my price?

Because Kindle royalties are not a straight percentage. The 70 percent option is only available inside a price window, and one cent past the top of it your rate falls to 35 percent. On Amazon.com that window is $2.99 to $12.99. A $12.99 ebook with a 2 MB file earns $8.88 a copy; move it to $13.99 and you earn $4.90, a 45 percent pay cut for charging a dollar more. To out-earn the $12.99 price at 35 percent you would have to charge $25.38.

Is the KDP 70 percent royalty still capped at $9.99?

No, and this is the most out-of-date fact in self-publishing right now. Amazon raised the ceiling on the 70 percent option from $9.99 to $12.99 on July 7, 2026, the first change to that band since 2007. The $2.99 floor did not move and the 35 percent option did not change. Plenty of guides, courses, and other royalty calculators still show the old $9.99 cliff, so if a tool tells you $11.99 pays 35 percent, it is quoting a rule that expired.

How much does it cost to print a paperback on KDP?

On Amazon.com, a black ink paperback at regular trim costs a flat $2.30 up to 110 pages, and $1.00 plus $0.012 a page above that. So 300 pages costs $4.60 and 500 pages costs $7.00. Premium color is $1.00 plus $0.065 a page, which is where illustrated books get expensive: 200 color pages costs $14.00 to print. Large trim (wider than 6.12 inches or taller than 9 inches) raises the per-page rate. Printing comes out of your royalty share, not Amazon's.

Why is my paperback royalty 50 percent instead of 60 percent?

Because of your list price. Since June 10, 2025, KDP pays 60 percent on Amazon.com print books listed at $9.99 or more and 50 percent on books listed at $9.98 or less. That makes one penny remarkably valuable: on a 300-page black ink paperback, $9.98 pays you $0.39 a copy and $9.99 pays you $1.39. The same cent that moves your price moves your rate, and the rate is worth a dollar.

What is the lowest price KDP will let me charge for a paperback?

KDP enforces a minimum list price equal to your printing cost divided by the royalty rate that applies, so your royalty can never go negative. A 300-page black ink paperback costs $4.60 to print and falls in the 50 percent band, so the floor is $9.20. Price it there and you earn exactly $0.00 a copy: the minimum list price is the price at which the book pays for its own printing and nothing else. Long books have high floors, which is the real reason a 700-page paperback cannot be a $9.99 book.

Does this calculator include Kindle Unlimited page reads?

No, deliberately. Kindle Unlimited pays from the KDP Select Global Fund, and the per-page rate is set after the fact each month by dividing that fund across every page read on the platform. It has run roughly $0.0038 to $0.0052 a page during 2026, and no calculator can know next month's figure. This page prices the thing KDP publishes as a formula. If you are enrolled in KDP Select, treat borrows as a separate income stream stacked on top of the per-copy math here.

Do I pay taxes on KDP royalties?

Yes. KDP royalties are taxable income whether or not a 1099 form arrives, and for most self-publishers running the books as a business they land on Schedule C, where self-employment tax applies on top of income tax and quarterly estimated payments are often due. This page deliberately computes no taxes, because your bracket and structure change the answer. Our quarterly tax calculator handles the estimated payment side, and your cover design, editing, and advertising costs generally deduct against the royalty income.