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Amazon KDP 2026: The Complete Guide to Royalties, Prices and Pay

Since July 7, 2026, KDP's 70% ebook rate covers $2.99 to $12.99. Paperbacks under $9.99 earn 50%, not 60%. Current print costs, KDP Select, categories, keywords and pay dates, from KDP's help pages.

The Publishing Times Staff · March 22, 2026 · 7 min read

Amazon KDP 2026: The Complete Guide to Royalties, Prices and Pay

How does Amazon KDP work in 2026, and what has changed? Kindle Direct Publishing lets an author upload an ebook, a paperback or a hardcover and sell it on Amazon with no upfront fee. Amazon takes its share from each sale. Two rules have changed recently: paperbacks priced under $9.99 on Amazon.com now earn 50 percent instead of 60, and since July 7, 2026, the 70 percent ebook rate covers list prices up to $12.99 instead of $9.99. This guide sets out the current numbers from KDP's own help pages, with links to each one.

Ebook royalties: the 35% and 70% options

KDP's eBook Royalties page offers two options for each title. On the 35 percent option you receive 35 percent of the list price without VAT. On the 70 percent option you receive 70 percent of the list price without VAT, less a delivery cost based on file size. KDP says "average delivery costs are $0.06 per unit sold."

The 70 percent rate has conditions:

  • Price. On Amazon.com the list price must be between $2.99 and $12.99. KDP's eBook List Price Requirements page says the old $9.99 ceiling "has been in place since 2007" and that the change took effect on July 7, 2026, "with equivalent changes in other KDP marketplaces." The UK band is now £1.77 to £12.99 and the euro band €2.69 to €12.99.
  • Buyer location. The rate applies to sales to customers in the 70 percent territories. Sales to other buyers earn 35 percent, which is why the Bookshelf can show both rates for one book on Amazon.com.
  • Copyright. "The 70% royalty option is for in-copyright works only." Books made mostly of public-domain text get 35 percent.
  • Some stores need KDP Select. For sales to customers in Brazil, Japan, Mexico and India, the ebook must also be enrolled in KDP Select to earn 70 percent.

Nobody has to reprice. KDP's FAQ says "Your current price and royalty option stay the same unless you choose to make a change." A book on the 35 percent option priced between $2.99 and $12.99 can be switched to 70 percent. Our report on the July price-band change covers what it means for genre pricing, and our ebook pricing guide works through the trade-offs.

A worked example: an ebook at $11.99 sold to a US buyer with no VAT earns 0.70 × $11.99, less KDP's average delivery cost of about $0.06, or roughly $8.33. Larger files cost more to deliver. The same book a year ago would have earned 35 percent, or $4.20.

Paperback royalties and printing costs

The Paperback Royalty page now has two rates on Amazon marketplaces. On Amazon.com, a list price of $9.99 or more earns 60 percent; $9.98 or less earns 50 percent. The UK cut-off is £7.99 and the euro cut-off €9.99. The printing cost is then subtracted:

(Royalty rate × list price) − printing cost = royalty

KDP's own example is a 333-page paperback at $15: (0.60 × $15) − $5.00 = $4.00. Through Expanded Distribution, the rate falls to 40 percent, so the same book earns $1.00 per copy.

Printing costs come from the Paperback Printing Cost page. For a black-ink book in a regular trim size sold on Amazon.com, books of 24 to 110 pages cost a flat $2.30. Longer books cost $1.00 plus $0.012 per page, so a 300-page novel costs $4.60 to print. Trim size, bleed and cover finish do not change the price; page count, ink and paper type do. KDP sets a minimum list price so that the royalty always covers printing, and caps paperback prices at $250 on Amazon.com.

The practical point: a 300-page paperback at $9.49 earns 0.50 × $9.49 − $4.60, or about 15 cents. At $9.99 it earns 0.60 × $9.99 − $4.60, or $1.39. Fifty cents on the cover price is worth more than a dollar to the author. The Publishing Times' royalty calculator uses these current rates.

KDP Select and Kindle Unlimited

KDP Select is a free 90-day program for Kindle ebooks only. An enrolled ebook is automatically in Kindle Unlimited and becomes eligible for Free Book Promotions and Kindle Countdown Deals. KDP notes that Countdown Deals run only on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. While it is enrolled, the ebook must be exclusive to Amazon; paperbacks and hardcovers are not affected.

Kindle Unlimited pays from a monthly fund shared by pages read, not from a list-price percentage. The size of the fund is announced each month, and the per-page rate is set after the month closes. Our KDP Select Global Fund tracker logs each announcement, and our report on the page-reads rate explains how it moves. For the exclusivity question itself, see our guide to KDP Select versus publishing wide.

Categories and keywords

Each book gets three categories. KDP's Categories page says an author "can select 3 categories when creating a book," that new placements can take up to 72 hours to show, and that KDP "may remove or change the category" when it does not match the book.

Keywords work alongside them. The keywords help page allows "up to seven keywords or short phrases" and lists what not to enter: words already in the title or categories, claims such as "best novel ever," time-sensitive words such as "new," other authors' names, brands you do not own, and Amazon program names such as "Kindle Unlimited" or "KDP Select." The page also says customers "are more likely to skim past long titles (over 60 characters)." Keywords and descriptions can be changed as often as you like.

When KDP pays

Royalties are paid monthly, about 60 days after the end of the month of the sale, so January earnings are paid at the end of March. Direct deposit has no minimum; wire and check payments need 100 in the local currency on most stores. Each Amazon marketplace pays separately. The full calendar, thresholds and the common reasons for a late payment are in our explainer, When does Amazon KDP pay royalties?

Print distribution beyond Amazon

KDP's Expanded Distribution offers paperbacks to other booksellers and libraries at the 40 percent rate shown above. Many authors use IngramSpark for wider print distribution instead. We compare the two in IngramSpark vs KDP Print.

Questions authors ask

Is KDP free? Yes. There is no upload fee. KDP's share comes out of each sale, and print costs are subtracted from print royalties.

Do I need to live in a 70 percent territory to get 70 percent? No. KDP says "You do not need to live in one of the 70% territories." What matters is where the buyer is.

Did the July 2026 change raise my royalty automatically? No. A book priced above $9.99 on the 35 percent option stays there until you switch it.

Why did my paperback royalty drop? If its Amazon.com list price is under $9.99, it now earns 50 percent before printing costs.

Do I have to tell KDP that I used AI? Only for AI-generated content. KDP's content guidelines ask you to disclose AI-generated text, images or translations when you publish or republish a book; AI-assisted work, such as editing or brainstorming with a tool, does not need disclosing. Our explainer on KDP's AI disclosure rule quotes the guideline in full.

What we don't know

KDP has not said whether the delivery cost or the 70 percent territory list will change after the July price-band update; its FAQ says delivery costs are unchanged for now. It also does not publish how much weight keywords carry against sales history in Amazon search, beyond saying that both matter. Rates on the help pages can change without notice, so check the Pricing tab for any title before you set a price.

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