Estimate your Amazon KDP royalty for paperback, hardcover and Kindle ebooks — print cost, royalty rate and margin, before you publish.
KDP royalties depend on format, page count, ink type and — critically — your list price. Paperbacks priced below $9.99 earn a 50% royalty; at $9.99 or above the rate jumps to 60%. Enter your book below and ListingMath estimates the royalty before you hit publish.
Pick your platform. Adjust your numbers. Watch your real profit update in real time.
Rates current as of May 2026, US marketplace. International marketplaces may differ. Verify in your seller dashboard before pricing decisions.
With the default values above — a 200-page black & white paperback listed at $14.99:
Total deductions: $9.40. Your royalty per copy: $5.59 — about a 37% margin.
Drop the price below $9.99 and the royalty rate falls to 50%, cutting your earnings sharply — one of the most common and most expensive mistakes new KDP authors make. The calculator flags it instantly.
Amazon KDP royalty depends on format (paperback, hardcover, ebook), list price, page count, ink type (B&W or color), and Amazon's cut. Here's the math:
For B&W paperbacks under 108 pages, printing has a fixed floor cost — page count under that doesn't reduce printing. That's why very short paperbacks have terrible margins.
For paperbacks and hardcovers, Amazon takes a 40% or 50% cut of your list price (depending on price threshold) and you pay printing costs separately. Your royalty is what's left. For Kindle ebooks, you get 70% of list price (if priced $2.99–$9.99) minus a small delivery fee, or 35% outside that range.
The 60% royalty is for paperbacks and hardcovers priced at $9.99 or more. Below $9.99, you get 50%. The 70% royalty is for Kindle ebooks priced between $2.99 and $9.99. Outside that range, ebook royalty drops to 35%.
For black-and-white paperbacks under 108 pages, Amazon charges a fixed minimum printing cost (about $2.30 US) rather than a per-page cost. Above 108 pages, per-page charges kick in. This means very short paperbacks have surprisingly poor margins relative to their length.
The delivery fee is deducted from your royalty, but any sales tax is Amazon's responsibility to remit — it doesn't reduce your royalty. What you see is what you get, less the delivery fee.
For ebooks: exactly $9.99 (top of the 70% tier). For paperbacks: exactly $9.99 (jumps you from 50% to 60% royalty). Pricing just below these thresholds is usually a mistake — you drop into a much lower royalty band.
Yes. Expanded Distribution (making your book available to bookstores/libraries via wholesalers) reduces your royalty to 40% of list price minus printing — a significant cut compared to Amazon-only 60%. Only opt in if the additional reach is worth the margin hit.
Upload your Etsy, eBay, Amazon or KDP listings. We tell you which ones are quietly bleeding money, and what to reprice them to. The kind of insight a spreadsheet wishes it could give you.