About the Book Royalty & Print Cost Calculator
Self-publishing arithmetic is simple once you have the right table, and the tables are where authors go wrong. This calculator carries KDP’s complete printing-cost schedule — every marketplace, black, groundwood, standard-colour and premium-colour ink, regular and large trims, and each page-count band — and applies the 50% or 60% royalty rate your list price actually earns in that store.
Alongside the Amazon royalty it shows Expanded Distribution at 40%, the minimum list price KDP will accept, and whether your trim and paper are even eligible. For eBooks it compares the 35% and 70% options after VAT and the per-megabyte delivery fee, using the 70% band as it stands after KDP raised the ceiling to $12.99 in July 2026.
For IngramSpark it applies IngramSpark’s own published compensation formula to the print charge you get from IngramSpark’s calculator. We could not verify IngramSpark’s current per-page rates from IngramSpark itself, so we do not invent them.
Compare IngramSpark (optional — uses your IngramSpark quote)
IngramSpark pays list price − wholesale discount − print cost per sale. Its published discount range is 40–55% in the US (35–55% in the UK, EU and Australia); 55% is the trade standard it recommends for bookstore ordering. The 1% market access fee is from IngramSpark’s Pricing & Services Guide (effective 15 Aug 2023) — confirm the current figure in your account. Get the print charge from IngramSpark’s calculator; we could not verify its current per-page rates, so we don’t estimate them.
Your royalty at every price point, with the rate threshold and KDP’s minimum marked.
The same book in all three formats in this marketplace, each at its own price. Page count, trim and colour carry over where the format allows them.
Lays out real text in your browser at the trim’s text block (KDP’s minimum gutter for the page count, the outer margins you choose) and counts how many words fit on a page.
KDP charges the printing cost per author copy, plus shipping and tax. KDP publishes no shipping formula — it depends on quantity, speed, destination and weight — so enter the shipping total its checkout quotes you.
How to Use the Book Royalty & Print Cost Calculator
Choose the format and the Amazon store, then describe the book: trim size, ink and paper, and the final page count of the print-ready PDF, including title pages, contents and any blank versos. Enter the list price and the royalty appears as you type, with the printing cost, the rate that price earns, KDP’s minimum price for the book, and what Expanded Distribution would pay. The worked arithmetic sits underneath so you can check every number against KDP’s own pages.
The Formula KDP Uses
Royalty = (royalty rate × list price) − printing cost. Printing cost is a fixed charge per book plus a charge per page, both set by the store the copy is sold in. Colour matters most:
| Amazon.com, regular trim | Pages | Printing cost | 300-page book |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black ink, white or cream | 110–828 | $1.00 + $0.012/page | $4.60 |
| Black ink, groundwood | 114–828 | $1.00 + $0.0114/page | $4.42 |
| Standard colour | 72–600 | $1.00 + $0.0255/page | $8.65 |
| Premium colour | 42–828 | $1.00 + $0.065/page | $20.50 |
| Hardcover, black ink | 110–550 | $5.65 + $0.012/page | $9.25 |
Short books pay a flat fee instead: a black-ink paperback of 24 to 110 pages costs $2.30 on Amazon.com whatever its length. Large trims — anything wider than 6.12 inches or taller than 9 — cost more per page ($0.017 for black ink), which is why a 6.14 × 9.21 book costs more to print than a 6 × 9 with the same content.
The 50% / 60% Threshold Is Worth Pricing Around
Since June 2025 KDP pays 60% on print books listed at $9.99 or more on Amazon.com and 50% below that. The cliff is steep: a 300-page paperback earns $0.39 at $9.98 and $1.39 at $9.99. Each store has its own line — £7.99 on Amazon.co.uk, €9.99 across the euro stores, C$13.99 and A$13.99 in Canada and Australia — and the calculator applies the right one. If your book is priced just under a threshold, one cent is almost always the most profitable change you can make.
eBooks: 70% Is Not Always More
The 70% option applies only between $2.99 and $12.99 on Amazon.com (the ceiling was $9.99 until 7 July 2026), and it subtracts a delivery fee of $0.15 per megabyte of file. A text-only novel of 1–2 MB loses a few cents; an illustrated cookbook of 25 MB has $3.75 deducted before the 70% is applied, which cuts its royalty by $2.63 a copy and can make the 35% option the better one. In Japan, India, Brazil and Mexico 70% also requires KDP Select. VAT comes out before either rate: eBook list prices include it in Europe, so enter the buyer’s VAT rate to see the real figure (German eBooks carry 7%, Spanish 4%, UK eBooks 0%).
KDP or IngramSpark?
They answer different questions. KDP pays 50–60% of list on Amazon, where most self-published print copies sell. IngramSpark pays list price minus the wholesale discount you set minus printing, and that discount — usually 55% if you want bookstores to stock you — is the cost of being orderable by shops and libraries on normal trade terms. Many authors use both: KDP for Amazon, IngramSpark for everything else, with their own ISBN on each. Put your IngramSpark quote in the comparison box and the two sit side by side.
Keeping the Numbers Honest
KDP revises these tables — the 50% band arrived in June 2025, the eBook ceiling rose in July 2026 — so every figure here carries the date it was checked against KDP’s help pages, and the tables are re-verified every January. Taxes withheld from your royalty, currency conversion on foreign sales and Kindle Unlimited page-read payments are outside the scope of a per-copy calculator.
Need a page count before the manuscript is typeset? Start with the Word & Character Counter. Building the bibliography? The Citation Generator formats it. For the business side, the Break-Even Calculator turns a cover design and editing budget into copies you need to sell. Browse every Writing & Content tool for more.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is KDP's paperback printing cost calculated?
A fixed cost per book plus a cost per page, set by marketplace, ink, paper and whether the trim is regular or large. On Amazon.com a black-ink regular-trim paperback of 110 to 828 pages costs $1.00 plus $0.012 per page, so 300 pages is $4.60; books of 24 to 110 pages pay a flat $2.30 instead. Large trims (wider than 6.12 inches or taller than 9) cost $0.017 per page, and colour and groundwood paper have their own tables.
Why does my royalty jump when I price at $9.99?
Since June 2025 KDP pays 50% on paperbacks and hardcovers listed at $9.98 or less on Amazon.com and 60% at $9.99 or more, before printing is subtracted. For a 300-page paperback that is $0.39 per copy at $9.98 and $1.39 at $9.99 — a one-cent price change worth a dollar a copy. Other stores have their own threshold, such as £7.99 in the UK and C$13.99 in Canada.
Should I turn on Expanded Distribution?
It pays 40% of list price minus the same printing cost, so it needs a higher price to earn anything: a 300-page book at $14.99 earns $4.39 on Amazon and $1.40 through Expanded Distribution. It is worth it when bookstores or libraries might order the book; it is not worth pricing up for if they will not. Hardcovers are not eligible, and several trim and paper combinations are excluded.
When does an eBook get the 70% royalty?
When its list price is inside the 70% band — $2.99 to $12.99 on Amazon.com since 7 July 2026, when the ceiling rose from $9.99 — the book is not mainly public-domain content, and it is priced at least 20% below the print edition. The 70% option then deducts a delivery fee of $0.15 per megabyte on Amazon.com, so a picture-heavy file can earn less at 70% than you expect.
Why doesn't the calculator estimate IngramSpark print costs for me?
Because we could not verify IngramSpark's current rate card from IngramSpark itself. Its downloadable pricing guide is dated August 2023, its print calculator sits behind bot protection, and a newer February 2026 rate card is reported but not published where we can check it. Rather than show a number that might be wrong, the calculator applies IngramSpark's published compensation formula to the print charge you get from IngramSpark's own calculator.
