KDP Royalty Calculator
KDP pays 35% or 70% of an ebook's list price without VAT, the 70% option less a delivery cost per megabyte, and 60% of a paperback's list price less the cost of printing it. Pick a marketplace and a price to see what one sale earns you, with every amount KDP takes off along the way.
Thinking of a translated edition? The third tab counts the sales that pay back its translation, and further down we publish what the 6,725 translations that customers paid for on Translate A Book tell us about book lengths and translation languages.
- List price
- $4.99
- List price without tax
- $4.99
- Delivery cost, taken from the 70% option only
- −$0.15
The figures are for a reader who lives in the marketplace's country. KDP takes off the tax of the reader's own country, and pays 35% on a sale to a reader outside the 70% territories, whichever option you chose.
- Lowest list price KDP accepts for this paperback
- $9.20
- List price from which the royalty rate is 60% instead of 50%
- $9.99
- Royalty on a sale through Expanded Distribution (40% of the list price less printing), which needs a list price of at least $11.50
- $1.40
The list price you set on KDP leaves out tax: Amazon adds VAT or sales tax on top of it when a reader buys. The printing cost counts every page, blank ones included.
KDP Ebook Royalties at Common Prices
What one sale earns with the royalty option that pays more, for a 1 MB ebook bought by a reader in the marketplace's country. Each price is in the marketplace's own currency.
| List price | Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.99 | $0.35 35% | £0.35 35% | 0,33 € 35% |
| 1.99 | $0.70 35% | £1.32 70% | 0,65 € 35% |
| 2.99 | $1.99 70% | £2.02 70% | 1,87 € 70% |
| 3.99 | $2.69 70% | £2.72 70% | 2,53 € 70% |
| 4.99 | $3.39 70% | £3.42 70% | 3,18 € 70% |
| 6.99 | $4.79 70% | £4.82 70% | 4,49 € 70% |
| 9.99 | $6.89 70% | £6.92 70% | 6,45 € 70% |
| 12.99 | $8.99 70% | £9.02 70% | 8,41 € 70% |
| 14.99 | $5.25 35% | £5.25 35% | 4,90 € 35% |
| 19.99 | $7.00 35% | £7.00 35% | 6,54 € 35% |
KDP Paperback Royalties for a 300-Page Book
A black ink paperback of 300 pages on a regular trim size, such as 6 × 9 in. The euro marketplaces (Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.it and Amazon.nl) share the same printing costs, so Amazon.de stands for all of them.
| Marketplace | Printing cost | Lowest list price | Royalty per sale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon.com | $4.60 | $9.20 | $4.39 at $14.99 |
| Amazon.co.uk | £3.85 | £7.70 | £2.14 at £9.99 |
| Amazon.de | 4,35 € | 8,70 € | 4,64 € at 14,99 € |
| Amazon.pl | 20,31 zł | 40,00 zł | 15,68 zł at 59,99 zł |
| Amazon.se | 48,57 kr | 97,14 kr | 58,83 kr at 179,00 kr |
| Amazon.ca | C$6.06 | C$12.12 | C$5.93 at C$19.99 |
| Amazon.com.au | A$9.02 | A$15.04 | A$5.97 at A$24.99 |
| Amazon.co.jp | ¥806 | ¥1,344 | ¥274 at ¥1,800 |
How KDP Calculates Royalties
An ebook earns 35% or 70% of its list price, and KDP takes the VAT included in that price off first. Under the 70% option, KDP also takes a delivery cost for each megabyte of the file, and the option pays only on a list price inside a band set for each marketplace. The ebook must also cost at least 20% less than its print edition on Amazon. Readers in Brazil, Japan, Mexico and India earn you 70% only on an ebook enrolled in KDP Select, and a sale to a reader outside the 70% territories earns 35% whatever option you chose.
A paperback earns 60% of its list price, or 50% below a threshold in each marketplace, minus the cost of printing it. That cost is a fixed amount per copy plus an amount per page, depending on the ink and the trim size, and a short book pays a flat cost instead. KDP refuses any list price too low for the royalty to cover the printing cost. On Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, Expanded Distribution sells the paperback to bookstores and libraries for 40% of the list price, minus the same printing cost.
Ebook Rates by Marketplace
| Marketplace | 70% price band | Delivery cost per MB | VAT in the list price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon.com | $2.99 to $12.99 | $0.15 | 0% |
| Amazon.co.uk | £1.77 to £12.99 | £0.10 | 0% |
| Amazon.de | 2,69 € to 12,99 € | 0,12 € | 7% |
| Amazon.fr | 2,69 € to 12,99 € | 0,12 € | 5.5% |
| Amazon.es | 2,69 € to 12,99 € | 0,12 € | 4% |
| Amazon.it | 2,69 € to 12,99 € | 0,12 € | 4% |
| Amazon.nl | 2,69 € to 12,99 € | 0,12 € | 9% |
| Amazon.ca | C$2.99 to C$12.99 | C$0.15 | 0% |
| Amazon.com.au | A$3.99 to A$15.99 | A$0.15 | 10% |
| Amazon.co.jp | ¥250 to ¥1,650 | ¥1 | 10% |
| Amazon.in | ₹99.00 to ₹599.00 | ₹7.00 | 18% |
Italy taxes an ebook without an ISBN of its own at 22%. Japan charges no delivery cost for a file of 10 MB or more. The United States and Canada add sales tax at checkout instead of including it in the price.
Last reviewed: October 29, 2026
We check every rate on this page against KDP's own help pages, which you can read here:
How Many Sales Pay Back a Translation
We measured 2,844 English-language books that 1,098 authors and publishers paid to translate on Translate A Book. For each kind of book with enough of them, the table gives their median length and the ebook sales that pay back translating a book of that length into German, sold on Amazon.de at 4,99 €, where each sale earns 3,18 €.
| Book type | Books translated | Median length | Sales to pay back Pro Mode | Sales to pay back Author Mode | Sales to pay back a professional translator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Novels | 1,202 | 90,853 words | 10 | 50 | 4,286 |
| Spiritual books | 221 | 37,798 words | 5 | 21 | 1,783 |
| Self-help books | 197 | 51,062 words | 6 | 28 | 2,409 |
| Memoirs | 123 | 69,589 words | 8 | 39 | 3,283 |
| Novellas | 79 | 29,873 words | 5 | 20 | 1,410 |
| History books | 74 | 99,395 words | 10 | 49 | 4,689 |
| Business books | 64 | 53,747 words | 7 | 30 | 2,536 |
| Biographies | 32 | 54,682 words | 7 | 31 | 2,580 |
Measured on October 29, 2026, counting each file once and leaving out scanned PDFs. Each customer weighs the same in a median, and a book type appears only with at least 30 books from 20 customers. Our page on novel word count explains the method and gives the length of each genre. Translation prices come from our price calculator for a Word manuscript, and the professional translator charges 0.15€ a word (source).
The Languages Authors Translate Into, and Whether KDP Publishes Them
The languages our customers translate their books into most, with each one's share of all the books translated on Translate A Book, and the formats KDP publishes in that language. KDP publishes no books in Russian, so an edition in that language has to reach readers through another store.
| Target language | Share of translated books | Ebook on KDP | Paperback on KDP |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
17.7% | Yes | Yes |
|
|
8.7% | Yes | Yes |
|
|
7.9% | No | No |
|
|
7.7% | Yes | Yes |
|
|
6.1% | Yes | Yes |
| Spanish (Latin America) | 5.7% | Yes | Yes |
|
|
4.6% | No | Yes |
|
|
4.3% | Yes | Yes |
| Arabic | 3.5% | Yes | No |
|
|
3.3% | Yes | Yes |
|
|
3.1% | Yes | Yes |
|
|
1.9% | No | Yes |
Frequently Asked Questions
- How much does KDP pay per ebook sale?
- Under the 70% option, KDP pays 70% of the list price without VAT, less a delivery cost of $0.15 per megabyte on Amazon.com, for an ebook priced from $2.99 to $12.99 there. Under the 35% option, it pays 35% of the list price without VAT and charges no delivery. A 1 MB ebook sold for $4.99 on Amazon.com earns $3.39 a sale at 70%.
- When does the 35% royalty pay more than 70%?
- An ebook earns 35% on every sale when its list price falls outside the 70% price band, and on each sale to a reader outside the 70% territories. A heavy file, such as a book full of pictures, can also pay more at 35%, once its delivery cost takes more than the 70% option adds. The calculator above shows which option pays more for your file.
- How is the KDP paperback royalty calculated?
- KDP pays 60% of the list price, or 50% below $9.99 on Amazon.com, and then takes off the printing cost. A 300-page paperback in black ink costs $4.60 to print in the United States, so at $14.99 it earns $4.39 a sale.
- Does KDP take VAT out of my royalty?
- For an ebook, yes. Ebook list prices in Europe, Japan, Australia and India include the tax, and KDP takes it off before applying your royalty rate, so a 4,99 € ebook sold to a reader in Germany counts as 4,66 € once its 7% VAT is removed. For a paperback, the list price you set leaves out tax, and Amazon adds it on top when the reader buys.
- Can a translation of a public domain book earn 70%?
- Yes. KDP keeps a book made mostly of public domain content at the 35% option, but it names an original translation, like substantial original content, as what makes such a book eligible for 70%.
- Which languages can I publish on KDP?
- KDP publishes ebooks and paperbacks in English, most Western European languages, Japanese and Hebrew. It takes Arabic, Persian, Traditional Chinese, Hindi and several other Indian languages as ebooks only, and Polish, Ukrainian and Yiddish as paperbacks only. Many languages are not supported at all, Russian, Czech, Romanian, Greek and simplified Chinese among them.
- How many sales does a translated edition need to pay for itself?
- A novel of 90,853 words, the median length of the English-language novels our customers translate, costs about as much to translate into German in Author Mode as 50 ebook sales earn on Amazon.de at 4,99 €. With a professional translator, it takes 4,286 sales.
Want to Translate Your Full Book?
We've worked with thousands of authors and publishers to get them high quality book translations.