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KDP Royalty & Book Price Calculator

Free Amazon KDP royalty calculator. Switch between Kindle ebook and paperback formats; enter list price, royalty tier or page count; outputs royalty per sale, printing cost, and the minimum viable list price for paperbacks.

Built and maintained by Paul Clark, Redmoon Software · Last verified · Sources · Changes and corrections

When to use this

Use when choosing a launch price for a new KDP title, or when deciding between the 35% and 70% royalty tiers, or when setting a paperback price that needs to clear its printing-cost floor.

How it compares

Amazon's own KDP pricing page shows royalty tables, but this tool lets you flip between ebook and paperback and immediately see the paperback price floor without cross-referencing separate charts.

Enter your values below. Calculations run locally as you type.

Book details

Ebook royalty

Royalty / sale
$3.18
70% of (price − delivery fee)
Delivery fee
$0.45
3 MB @ $0.15/MB

At $4.99 on the 70% tier, you earn $3.18 per sale. The 70% tier requires a list price between $2.99–$12.99 (Amazon.com) and enrollment in eligible territories.

How it works

Ebook royalty: at the 70% tier, royalty = 0.70 × (price − file size in MB × $0.15 delivery fee); at 35%, royalty = price × 0.35 with no delivery fee.

Paperback printing cost = $1.00 + $0.012 × page count ($2.30 flat up to 110 pages), KDP's US black-ink rate for regular trim sizes. Royalty = 60% × list price − printing cost, or 50% × list price − printing cost below $9.99.

Minimum viable list price = printing cost ÷ 0.60, or printing cost ÷ 0.50 when that falls below $9.99 (the 50% band), rounded up to the nearest cent — the price floor below which royalty would be zero or negative.

FAQs

How do the ebook royalty tiers work?

KDP pays 70% royalty only when your list price is between $2.99 and $12.99 on Amazon.com and the book is enrolled in eligible territories; a delivery fee based on file size is subtracted. Outside that price band, or if you choose the 35% tier, you earn 35% with no delivery fee deducted.

Why does paperback have a minimum viable price?

KDP paperback royalty is 60% of the list price (50% below $9.99 on Amazon.com) minus the printing cost, so the printing cost — which rises with page count — sets a hard floor. Below that price you'd earn $0 or a negative royalty, so KDP won't let you publish under it.

What is the ebook delivery fee?

On the 70% royalty tier, Amazon charges $0.15 per megabyte of file size to cover delivery bandwidth. Image-heavy books can lose a meaningful chunk of royalty this way, so keeping file size lean matters.

Should I publish ebook or paperback first?

Ebooks have simpler economics and no per-unit printing cost, so margins are more predictable. Paperbacks add a physical-product feel and print cost that scales with page count — run both formats through this calculator to compare royalty per sale before committing to a launch price.

Worked example

Input

Ebook: $4.99 price, 70% tier, 3 MB file.

Output

Royalty ≈ $3.18/sale (0.70 × ($4.99 − 3 × $0.15)).

KDP takes the $0.45 delivery fee (3 MB × $0.15) off the price before applying 70%: 0.70 × $4.54 = $3.18 per sale. The 35% tier at the same price pays $1.75.

Common pitfalls

  • The paperback printing cost uses KDP's US black-ink rate for regular trim sizes ($2.30 up to 110 pages, then $1.00 + $0.012 a page); color, large trim sizes and non-US marketplaces price differently.
  • The 70% ebook tier has eligibility rules (price band, territory enrollment, exclusivity considerations) beyond what this calculator checks.
  • Doesn't include KDP Select page-read income (Kindle Unlimited), which is a separate, fluctuating revenue stream for enrolled ebooks.

The 70% tier has conditions attached

KDP ebook royalties come in two tiers and the higher one is not a straight upgrade. The 70% rate applies only inside a list price band — $2.99 to $12.99 on Amazon.com since July 2026 — and only in eligible territories. Outside that band or those territories, the same book earns 35%.

That produces a genuine cliff. A book priced at $12.99 on the 70% tier earns considerably more per sale than the same book at $13.99 on 35%, so raising the price can cut the royalty. The tool exists largely to make that visible before you set a price.

Delivery cost and the paperback model

The 70% tier also deducts a delivery cost based on file size, charged per megabyte. For text-only books this is negligible. For anything image-heavy — cookbooks, illustrated children's books, technical books with screenshots — it becomes significant, and it is the reason a large file on the 70% tier can net less than a small one.

Paperbacks work on a different model entirely: royalty is a percentage of list price minus a printing cost driven by page count and interior type. Page count has a minimum of 24, and colour interiors cost several times mono. A short colour paperback can have a printing cost that exceeds any sensible list price, which is the constraint to check before committing to a format.

Where these numbers come from

This calculator applies rates set by someone else, and they change. Check them against the source below before pricing anything that matters.

Read more about this

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