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When Does Amazon KDP Pay Royalties? The Payment Schedule, Explained

KDP pays royalties monthly, about 60 days after the end of the sales month. Direct deposit has no threshold; wire and check need 100 in most currencies. Kindle Unlimited follows the same calendar.

The Publishing Times Staff · October 8, 2026 · 7 min read

When Does Amazon KDP Pay Royalties? The Payment Schedule, Explained

When does Amazon KDP pay royalties? Once a month, about two months after the sales month ends. KDP's help page When will I get paid? says royalties are paid "approximately 60 days after the end of the month in which the sale was reported," as long as the minimum threshold for the payment method is met. A sale on January 3 and a sale on January 31 are paid together, at the end of March. Expanded Distribution sales take longer: about 90 days.

This explainer sets out the schedule, the thresholds for each payment method, how Kindle Unlimited page reads fit in, and the most common reasons a payment arrives late.

The schedule, month by month

KDP publishes a simple table. The month on the left is when the royalties were earned and met the threshold. The month on the right is when KDP pays.

Royalties earned in Paid at the end of
January March
February April
March May
April June
May July
June August
July September
August October
September November
October December
November January
December February

The lag never shrinks. A new author waits about two months for the first payment, and after that a payment arrives each month for the sales of two months earlier. KDP's Reports help page says the Payments report "is updated 60 days after the end of the month in which the sale was reported," so the report and the deposit move together.

Each marketplace pays separately

KDP does not pool your earnings into one payment. The Payment Thresholds page says "your royalties accrue separately for each Amazon marketplace and must meet the minimum amount for your selected payment method in the local marketplace currency." A month with sales on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de produces three separate payments, each in its own currency unless KDP converts it.

Thresholds: direct deposit has none

The threshold depends on how you are paid.

  • Direct deposit (EFT): no threshold. KDP says "EFT Payments do not have a threshold. This means you'll be paid electronically in full no matter the amount accrued." One caveat in the same note: after currency conversion and tax withholding, the amount must still meet "the minimum amount banks will allow us to send."
  • Wire transfer: 100 in the local currency on most stores (100 USD on Amazon.com, 100 GBP on Amazon.co.uk, 100 EUR on the German, Spanish, French, Italian and Dutch stores, 100 CAD on Amazon.ca), 1,000 MXN on Amazon.com.mx and 10,000 yen on Amazon.co.jp.
  • Check: 100 USD on Amazon.com, 100 GBP on Amazon.co.uk and 100 EUR on the euro stores. KDP says check payment "is only offered for certain locations," and the table on its "When will I get paid?" page lists checks as not available on several marketplaces, including Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.jp and Amazon.com.au.

Below a wire or check threshold, nothing is lost. KDP says it will "keep a running total and issue the payment once you met the threshold," and that payment then follows the same rule: "60 days after the end of the month in which your royalties meet the threshold."

That is the practical case for direct deposit. A small store such as Amazon.ca can take months to reach 100 dollars, and on a wire or check that money waits. On direct deposit it is paid each month.

When the money actually lands

The payment date is not the day the money appears. KDP gives these delivery times after the payment date:

  • Direct deposit: "1–5 business days," or "7–10 business days" when the bank is in India.
  • Wire: "5–10 days."
  • Check: "up to 30 days for the check to reach the address in your KDP account."

If the Payments report shows an amount as "Paid" and nothing has arrived, KDP's advice is to "contact your financial institution for verification."

Kindle Unlimited page reads follow the same calendar

Money from Kindle Unlimited and the KDP Select Global Fund does not get its own schedule. KDP's Royalties in Kindle Unlimited page says: "We'll pay according to the same payment schedule and payment method you selected for your other KDP sales."

Pages read in a month are paid at the end of the second month after it, like sales. What changes in the middle is the rate. KDP says monthly KENP numbers "may change and will be finalized near the 15th of the following month," and Amazon announces the size of the fund each month in its community forum. The Publishing Times tracks those announcements in its KDP Select Global Fund tracker, and our report on the page-reads rate explains how the per-page figure is set. Until the fund is announced, the KU line in the Royalties Estimator is, in KDP's words, "only an estimate and won't match your actual earnings."

Why a payment can be late or missing

KDP's Troubleshoot Payment Issues page lists the usual causes:

  • Name mismatch. "If the information you enter in your KDP account doesn't exactly match the information your bank has on file for you, the bank will reject an electronic transfer of funds." This includes pen names: if the account holder name in Getting Paid is a pen name that your bank does not have on file, "the bank will reject the payment."
  • Tax withholding. Withholding is taken before the threshold is checked, so it "may cause your balance not to reach the payment threshold and delay payment."
  • A threshold not met on a wire or check marketplace, or a converted amount too small for the bank to send.
  • A new payment method. After a change, payments go to the new method "approximately 60 days after the end of the month during which sales occur," once any threshold is met.

Setting up a payment method also requires two-step verification on the KDP account, according to the setup steps on the same help page.

What KDP does not say

KDP does not give a fixed calendar date for payments. Its own wording is "approximately 60 days" and "end of" the month. The Publishing Times could not find a KDP page that names a day of the month or explains why individual marketplaces sometimes pay on different days. Exchange rates also move: KDP says it converts at "an exchange rate determined by Amazon," so the amount in the estimator will not exactly match the deposit. The two KDP help pages on thresholds also disagree in places: the Payment Thresholds table lists a 100 USD check threshold for Amazon.co.jp and Amazon.com.au, while the "When will I get paid?" table lists checks as not available there. The Getting Paid section of your own account shows which methods you can actually choose.

For what you earn on each sale, see our guides to pricing an ebook for the 70% royalty and the 70% price band. For the rest of the platform, start with The Publishing Times' KDP guide and the KDP news hub.

This explainer describes KDP's published payment rules. It is not tax or financial advice.

Sources