KDP does not take one flat cut. An ebook's royalty depends on which of two plans it falls into by list price, and a paperback's royalty depends on a per-page print cost KDP deducts before you see a dollar. Neither is a single percentage a reader can quote from memory.
A list price from $2.99 to $9.99 qualifies for the 70% royalty plan. KDP pays 70% of the list price, then subtracts a delivery fee of $0.15 per MB of the file you uploaded.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| List price | $4.99 |
| 70% of list price | $3.493 |
| Delivery fee (2 MB x $0.15) | -$0.30 |
| Royalty per sale | $3.193 |
A list price under $2.99 does not get a reduced version of the 70% plan -- it drops onto the separate 35% plan entirely, and the delivery fee no longer applies. A $2.00 ebook nets just $2.00 x 0.35 = $0.70. Compare that to $3.193 on the $4.99 example above: pricing $2.99 lower does not cost 42% of the royalty, it costs 78% of it, because the plan itself changed underneath the price.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| List price | $2.00 |
| Plan | 35% (below $2.99 floor) |
| 35% of list price | $0.70 |
| Delivery fee | $0.00 (35% plan has none) |
| Royalty per sale | $0.70 |
Paperback royalty is list price times a royalty rate (60% for sales on Amazon.com) minus KDP's own print cost -- a fixed charge plus a per-page charge that scales with the book, not a flat fee.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| List price | $14.99 |
| 60% of list price | $8.994 |
| Print cost ($0.85 + 280pg x $0.012) | -$4.210 |
| Royalty per copy | $4.784 |
A color-interior book uses a higher fixed charge and per-page rate than black-and-white, and Amazon's own printing terms can change either constant -- verify against a current KDP print-cost report before pricing a new title.
The KDP royalty calculator runs this same arithmetic on your own list price, file size, page count, and sales volume, and compares staying KDP-exclusive against going wide to other stores and Ingram over the same 90-day window. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
On the 70% royalty plan (list price $2.99-$9.99), KDP pays 70% of the list price minus a delivery fee based on file size -- $0.15 per MB. A $4.99 ebook with a 2 MB file nets $4.99 x 0.7 - 2 x $0.15 = $3.193 per sale.
It is not a smaller slice of the same 70% rate -- it is a different plan entirely. The 70% plan only applies to list prices from $2.99 to $9.99. A $2.00 ebook falls below that floor and is automatically paid on the 35% plan instead, with no delivery fee deducted: $2.00 x 0.35 = $0.70. That is less than a quarter of what the same book would net at $4.99 on the 70% plan ($3.193), for a book that costs only $2.99 less.
Paperback royalty is list price times a royalty rate (60% for Amazon.com sales) minus KDP's own print cost, which is a fixed charge plus a per-page charge. A $14.99, 280-page black-and-white paperback has a print cost of $0.85 + 280 x $0.012 = $4.21, so the royalty is $14.99 x 0.6 - $4.21 = $4.784 per copy.