Prerequisites
- A finished manuscript, or one close to it
- A KDP account and a decision to make about pricing
If you've read anything about Kindle pricing, you've been told the magic number is $9.99 — price above it and your royalty halves.
That stopped being true on 7 July 2026. The 70% royalty band on Amazon.com now runs $2.99 to $12.99. The $9.99 ceiling had been in place since 2007, so nearly every guide, course and forum post written before mid-2026 is now giving outdated pricing advice.
Here's how the royalty maths actually works.
The Two Options
You choose one per book.
The 35% option
The simple one. You receive 35% of your list price excluding VAT, with no delivery cost deduction:
Royalty Rate × (List Price − VAT) = Royalty
A $0.99 book with no VAT earns $0.35 per sale. The same book sold where 20% VAT applies earns about $0.29, because VAT reduces the base the royalty is calculated on.
The 70% option
Higher, with conditions:
Royalty Rate × (List Price − VAT − Delivery Costs) = Royalty
You receive 70% in Amazon's designated 70% territories, and 35% for sales outside them. Note what determines this: your customer's location, not yours. You do not need to live in a 70% territory to earn the higher rate.
ℹ️ Good to Know
Because the split is by buyer location, a single book earns both rates simultaneously. Your KDP reports show a blend, which is why the average per-sale figure rarely matches a clean 70% calculation.
Delivery Costs: The Deduction Most Guides Skip
The 70% option deducts a delivery cost before calculating your royalty. It's based on file size, and Amazon states it averages about $0.06 per unit.
This matters more than $0.06 suggests, because it scales with your file. Amazon's own example charges €0.10 per MB in Spain — so a 1 MB file costs €0.10, and a 20 MB illustrated book costs €2.00 per sale.
The 35% option has no delivery cost deduction at all. For a large, image-heavy book this can flip the comparison entirely.
💡 Pro Tip
Before uploading, compress your images. Delivery cost is charged on every single sale forever, so shaving a 15 MB file to 4 MB is one of the few optimisations in self-publishing that pays out permanently.
What the $12.99 Change Means
At the old $9.99 ceiling, a book priced at $10.99 dropped to 35% — earning $3.85 instead of the roughly $7.65 it would have earned at 70%. Pricing above $9.99 was close to irrational, which is why so much of the market clustered at $9.99 exactly.
That constraint is gone up to $12.99. A $12.99 book at 70%, less an average $0.06 delivery cost, earns about $9.05 per sale versus $4.55 at 35%.
Whether readers in your category will pay $12.99 is a separate question that pricing bands don't answer. But the penalty that made it pointless to try no longer applies below $12.99.
Quick Royalty Comparison
Assuming no VAT and an average $0.06 delivery cost, on Amazon.com:
| List price | 35% royalty | 70% royalty | 70% available? |
|---|---|---|---|
| $0.99 | $0.35 | — | No, below $2.99 |
| $2.99 | $1.05 | $2.05 | Yes |
| $4.99 | $1.75 | $3.45 | Yes |
| $9.99 | $3.50 | $6.95 | Yes |
| $12.99 | $4.55 | $9.05 | Yes (since July 2026) |
| $14.99 | $5.25 | — | No, above $12.99 |
The Conditions That Catch People
Public domain works only qualify for 35%. If you're republishing out-of-copyright material, the 70% option is unavailable regardless of price.
Price matching cuts both ways. If Amazon discounts your book to match a competitor, you receive 70% of the sale price, not your list price, in eligible territories. Listing the same book more cheaply elsewhere can therefore reduce your Amazon royalty.
The 35% option runs to $200. Its band is much wider — from $0.99 (the minimum varies with file size) up to $200 — which is why textbooks and technical manuals often sit at 35% by necessity.
VAT reduces your base everywhere it applies. Your royalty is calculated after VAT is removed, so identical list prices produce different royalties in different markets.
✅ Action Step
If you published before July 2026 and priced at $9.99 because of the old ceiling, that constraint no longer binds below $12.99. Revisit it — but test rather than assuming, since a higher price only helps if the sales volume holds.
Where to Verify Any of This
Every rate, band and effective date above comes from Amazon's own KDP Help pages, linked below. Amazon publishes the full list of 70% territories and its per-market price bands there. Given that a 19-year-old pricing rule changed this year, check the current pages before making pricing decisions rather than trusting any guide — including this one.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Amazon KDP pay per book?
You choose between a 35% and a 70% royalty option. The 35% option pays 35% of your list price excluding VAT. The 70% option pays 70% of list price excluding VAT and after delivery costs, but only for sales in Amazon's designated 70% territories — sales elsewhere earn 35%.
What is the KDP 70% royalty price range?
On Amazon.com the 70% royalty option requires a list price between $2.99 and $12.99. The upper limit rose from $9.99 to $12.99 effective 7 July 2026 — the first change since the $9.99 ceiling was introduced in 2007.
What are KDP delivery costs?
A per-unit charge based on your file size, deducted before the 70% royalty is calculated. Amazon states delivery costs average about $0.06 per unit. They apply only to the 70% option, not the 35% option, so image-heavy books are affected far more.
Should I choose 35% or 70% royalty on KDP?
At any price inside the $2.99-$12.99 band the 70% option pays roughly twice as much per sale, so it is usually the better choice. The 35% option matters below $2.99, above $12.99, for public domain works which only qualify for 35%, and for sales outside the 70% territories.
Sources & Further Reading
Every factual claim in this guide is drawn from primary, authoritative sources. Figures reflect the referenced pages at the time of our last review and can change — always confirm current terms on the official site.
- 1eBook Royalties — Amazon KDP Help
- 2eBook List Price Requirements — Amazon KDP Help
- 3Digital Book Pricing Page — Amazon KDP Help
- 4Royalties in Kindle Unlimited — Amazon KDP Help
- 5Paperback Royalty — Amazon KDP Help
EarnRoutes Editorial
Researched and fact-checked against primary sources
Compiled from Amazon KDP's published royalty and list price documentation. Every rate, price band and effective date quoted here is stated by Amazon in its own KDP Help pages, linked in the source list below.
Last reviewed on September 2, 2026