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Kindle Unlimited Payouts: 13 Months of KDP Select Fund Numbers
Amazon paid $69.4 million to KDP Select authors for August 2026, down $1.6 million from July but up $5.9 million on a year earlier. Here are 13 months of Amazon's own figures.
How much did Kindle Unlimited pay authors in August 2026? Amazon's August 2026 KDP Select update puts total KU author earnings at $69.4 million. That includes a KDP Select Global Fund of $66.0 million and $3.4 million in KDP Select All Stars bonuses. Both the total and the fund are $1.6 million lower than July.
People sometimes quote the $69.4 million figure as "the fund." It isn't. The fund, which is what page-read royalties are paid from, is $66.0 million. The difference is the All Stars bonus pool.
Thirteen months of KDP's figures
| Month | Total KU earnings | Global Fund |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 2025 | $63.5M | $60.1M |
| Sep 2025 | $62.1M | $58.7M |
| Oct 2025 | $64.6M | $61.2M |
| Nov 2025 | $61.6M | $58.2M |
| Dec 2025 | $64.9M | $61.5M |
| Jan 2026 | $65.6M | $62.2M |
| Feb 2026 | $61.7M | $58.3M |
| Mar 2026 | $69.3M | $65.9M |
| Apr 2026 | $67.7M | $64.3M |
| May 2026 | $70.3M | $66.9M |
| Jun 2026 | $67.0M | $63.6M |
| Jul 2026 | $71.0M | $67.6M |
| Aug 2026 | $69.4M | $66.0M |
The All Stars bonus was $3.4 million in every month shown. Figures are from KDP's monthly community posts (for example July 2026 and August 2025), which usually appear around the middle of the following month.
What the numbers show
- Year over year: August 2026 total earnings were $5.9 million higher than August 2025, a gain of about 9.3 percent.
- The trend changed in March. From September 2025 to February 2026, monthly totals averaged about $63.4 million. From March to August 2026 they averaged about $69.1 million, roughly 9 percent higher.
- July was the high point of this period at $71.0 million. We've checked 13 months, not the full history, so we aren't calling it a record.
What the fund does not tell you
KU pays authors from the fund according to their share of pages read (KENP). If readers read more pages, a bigger fund can still mean a flat or lower rate per page. KDP's monthly announcements give the fund total but not the per-page rate, so check the rate in your own KDP reports. For how pages are counted, see our guide to how Kindle Unlimited page reads work.
What to do with this
- Track your per-page earnings next to the fund. If the fund grows and your rate falls, more pages are being read across KU, not fewer readers.
- Look at trends over several months. One month's change of about $1.6 million is small compared with the overall growth this year.
- Keep an eye on the September figure, due in mid-October. It will show whether the March increase is holding.
Desk takeaway
KU's author payouts have grown this year, and August held most of the gain. The fund total is Amazon's number. Your royalty depends on your own share of pages read.
Sources
- KDP community: KDP Select Global Fund and All Stars Bonus Update, August 2026
- KDP community: July 2026 update
- KDP community: August 2025 update