Guides / Royalties
Money
KDP royalties in 2026
Amazon publishes the formulas. Use them. Feelings about your “value” are not a pricing strategy.
eBooks
You choose 35% or 70% per marketplace. On Amazon.com, as of 7 July 2026, the 70% option is available for list prices from $2.99 to $12.99 (the old ceiling was $9.99). Outside that band you are on 35%. The 70% option subtracts a delivery cost that scales with file size (KDP cites an average around $0.06; the old rule of thumb is $0.15 per MB). The 35% option does not subtract delivery.
A $4.99 ebook at 70% with a 1 MB file is roughly $3.34 after delivery. A $0.99 ebook is 35% — about $0.35 — which can still be the right number if the job of that book is to start a series, not to pay rent alone.
Paperbacks
Royalty = (rate × list price) − printing cost. On Amazon.com the rate is 60% at $9.99 and above, 50% at $9.98 and below. Expanded distribution is 40% minus print. Print cost is a fixed fee plus a per-page fee that depends on ink and trim. Short black-and-white books (24–110 pages, regular trim) pay a flat $2.30 in the US and no per-page fee. Longer black-and-white regular trim is $1.00 + $0.012 per page.
Example: 280-page B&W regular trim, $14.99 list, Amazon.com: print ≈ $4.36; 60% × 14.99 − 4.36 ≈ $4.63 a copy. Same book at $8.99 falls into 50% and may barely clear print. This is why “cheap paperback” is often a hobby with extra shipping.
What this means
- Price the ebook inside the 70% band unless you have a reason (KU pages, permafree funnel, or a $14.99 workbook people already want).
- Don’t print 400 color pages as a first experiment.
- Ads have to buy a customer for less than you earn. If you make $3.34, a $5 click is a donation.
Always confirm in KDP’s own pages — they change. Our calculator follows the 2026 US formulas linked there.
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