The 70% royalty is only available for list prices between $2.99 and $12.99, per Amazon's July 2026 pricing update; outside that band, KDP pays 35% automatically. Delivery fee is $0.15 per MB in the US.
Built by Rankite, the SEO team behind Swordfish AI's +400% revenue and Zluri's +45% organic growth. See the case studies
Amazon KDP pays self-published ebook authors one of two royalty rates, and picking the wrong one can quietly cut your earnings in half. The 35% option is simple and available at any price, with no fees deducted. The 70% option pays roughly double per dollar of list price, but only within a specific price band and only after a per-sale delivery fee based on file size. The calculator above runs both numbers so you can see which one actually nets more on your book.
The 35% royalty option pays 35% of your list price on every sale, at any price point, with no delivery fee subtracted. It is the default, always-available option. The 70% royalty option pays 70% of the list price minus a delivery fee, but Amazon only offers it for books priced between $2.99 and $12.99. Set your price outside that range while selected into the 70% program, and KDP automatically falls back to paying 35% instead, since 70% simply is not available there.
The 70% option is not actually 70% of your list price landing in your account. Amazon first deducts a delivery fee, calculated as your ebook's file size in megabytes multiplied by $0.15 in the US, and only then applies the 70% rate to what remains conceptually, functioning as: (list price times 0.70) minus delivery cost. A typical text-heavy novel of 2 to 4 MB carries a delivery fee of $0.30 to $0.60 per sale, while a heavily illustrated book with a much larger file size can see a noticeably bigger fee, which is worth checking before assuming 70% is automatically the better deal.
On July 7, 2026, Amazon raised the top of the 70% royalty price band from $9.99 to $12.99, the first change to that range since KDP launched. Authors who had priced books at $9.99 to stay inside the old ceiling can now price up to $12.99 and still qualify for the 70% rate, which for many books meaningfully increases royalty per sale without changing anything else about the book itself.
Rankite helps authors and publishers get discovered with SEO content optimization and monthly SEO management.
Get a free, no-obligation SEO audit and a 30-minute strategy session. We'll show you exactly where the growth is hiding.
Fill out the form and we'll get back to you within one business day. Prefer email? Write to us directly at contact@rankite.com.