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KDP Royalty Calculator

Calculate your Amazon KDP and Audible royalties for ebooks, paperbacks, hardcovers, and audiobooks. Updated with 2026 rates.

Free forever · No signup · Official KDP rates · All marketplaces

Marketplace

Monthly Sales Estimate

Ebook

List Price

File Size

35% Royalty

$1.75

per sale · no delivery cost

70% RoyaltyBest

$3.19

per sale · $0.30 delivery

30 sales/month

$95.79

$1149.48/year

Paperback

List Price

Page Count

Ink Type

Printing cost$4.60

Royalty rate60%

60% rate (price ≥ $9.99)

$4.39

per sale

30 sales/month

$131.82

$1581.84/year

Hardcover

List Price

Page Count

Ink Type

Printing cost$9.25

Royalty rate60%

$5.74

per sale

30 sales/month

$172.32

$2067.84/year

Kindle Unlimited (KENP)

KENP Page Count

Monthly Reads

KENP Rate$0.0045/page

Per full read$1.57

$157.50

per month

Annual projection

$1890.00

KENP rate fluctuates monthly (~$0.004–$0.005)

Audible / ACX

List Price

Distribution

Narration

Finished Hours

hrs

AdvertisedRealistic

Full price$5.98$5.98

Member (-30%)$4.19$4.19

Credit$2.99$1.30

8h → $3.00–$3.50 per credit

per sale (author keeps)$3.56$2.29

30 sales/month

$68.72

$824.62/year

How Amazon Book Royalties Work

A simple guide for authors. Amazon keeps a percentage of every sale and charges printing/delivery costs. What's left is your royalty.

The Big Picture

Every time someone buys your book, Amazon takes a cut. How much depends on the format:

Ebook

Reader pays $4.99

Amazon keeps 30%

Delivery ~$0.30

You get $3.19

Paperback

Reader pays $14.99

Amazon keeps 40%

Printing $4.60

You get $4.39

Audiobook

List price ~$14.95

Audible keeps 60-80%

Narrator (if any)

You get ~$3.44

Ebook

Two royalty options: 35% or 70%

70%

Price must be $2.99–$9.99
Small delivery fee deducted (~$0.15/MB)
Best for most fiction & nonfiction

35%

Any price from $0.99–$200
No delivery fee
For $0.99 promos or high-priced books

Example: $4.99 ebook, 2 MB file

List Price$4.99

Amazon's cut (30%)-$1.50

Delivery cost (2 MB x $0.15)-$0.30

Your royalty$3.19

Tip: Keep your ebook file under 5 MB. Use compressed images. A text-only novel is usually under 1 MB — the delivery cost is negligible.

Paperback & Hardcover

Your royalty = what's left after printing

Unlike ebooks, print books cost money to manufacture. Amazon prints each copy on demand and deducts the printing cost from your royalty.

List PricexRoyalty Rate-Printing Cost=Your Royalty

Royalty Rates

60% — list price ≥ $9.99
50% — list price < $9.99
Hardcover is always 60%

Printing Cost

Fixed fee + per-page fee
B&W: $1.00 + $0.012/page
Color: $1.00 + $0.026/page
More pages = higher cost

Example: $14.99 paperback, 300 pages, B&W

List price x 60%$8.99

Printing ($1.00 + 300 x $0.012)-$4.60

Your royalty$4.39

Tip: A 6"x9" trim size with black & white ink is the cheapest to print. Color ink costs 2x more per page — only use it for children's books, art books, or cookbooks.

Kindle Unlimited

Paid per page read, not per sale

When readers borrow your book through Kindle Unlimited, you don't get a royalty per sale. Instead, Amazon pays you for every page the reader actually reads (KENP = Kindle Edition Normalized Pages).

KENP PagesxRate (~$0.0045)xReaders=Your Royalty

Example: 350 KENP pages, 100 full reads/month

Per full read (350 x $0.0045)$1.58

100 reads/monthx 100

Monthly royalty$157.50

Pros

Massive reader pool (subscribers try more books)
Higher visibility in Amazon algorithms
Great for series (readers binge all volumes)

Cons

Requires KDP Select (exclusive to Amazon)
Rate fluctuates monthly
Short books earn less per read

Audible / ACX

Three ways to produce your audiobook

Audible pays you a percentage of each sale. The big question is how you produce the narration — this dramatically changes your profit.

🤖

KDP Virtual Voice

Free — built into KDP
40% royalty, no narrator cost
80 voices, 7 languages
Ready in minutes

💰

Pay Per Hour

$100–$400/finished hour upfront
You keep 100% of royalty
Professional quality
8hr book = $800–$3,200

🤝

Royalty Share

No upfront cost
Narrator gets 50% of royalty
Split lasts 7 years
Hard to find good narrators

The Credit Payout Reality

ACX doesn't base credit payouts on your list price. They distribute from a monthly revenue pool based on your audiobook's finished duration. A $14.95 and $24.95 book of the same length earn roughly the same per credit.

Under 1 hour

$1.50–$2.00

per credit

1–3 hours

$2.00–$2.50

per credit

3–5 hours

$2.50–$3.00

per credit

5–10 hours

$3.00–$3.50

per credit

10–20 hours

$3.50–$4.00

per credit

Over 20 hours

$4.00–$4.50

per credit

Fluctuates monthly (like KENP rate)

List price doesn't matter for credit sales — only duration does

Example: $14.95 audiobook, exclusive, AI narration, credit sale

AdvertisedRealistic

Credit payout$7.48$3.25

Narrator cost (AI)$0$0

Your royalty$3.44$1.87

Tip: KDP Virtual Voice is free and built into your KDP dashboard — select your ebook, pick a voice, and publish. For ACX, only human narration is accepted (pay-per-hour or royalty share).