Every month Amazon announces the size of the previous month’s Kindle Direct Publishing Global Fund. This is the pot of money that authors whose titles are available through Kindle Unlimited get paid out of. In this post, we will be keeping a running list of the fund sizes, so we can see how it’s grown, and (we hope) watch it continue to do so.
If you’d like a more in-depth look into Kindle Unlimited and the KDP Global Fund, you’re welcome to read our analysis of KU Readers, or check out our overview of KU and what it means for authors.
Current KDP Per Page Payout:
- November 2024: $0.00459
Current KDP Global Fund Size:
- November 2024: $53.7 million
Total KDP Global Fund Size:
- November 2024: $53.7 million
- October 2024: $54.8 million
- September 2024: $56.4 million
- August 2024: $60.0 million
- July 2024: $55.5 million
- June 2024: $52.7 million
- May 2024: $52.5 million
- April 2024: $53.9 million
- March 2024: $50.9 million
- February 2024: $49 million
- January 2024: $52 million
- December 2023: $49.5 million
- November 2023: $49.4 million
- October 2023: $49.3 million
- September 2023: $49.3 million
- August 2023: $49.6 million
- July 2023: $49.5 million
- June 2023: $47 million
- May 2023: $46.5 million
- April 2023: $46.1 million
- March 2023: $46.1 million
- February 2023: $44.6 million
- January 2023: $47.9 million
- December 2022: $45.3 million
- November 2022: $45.2 million
- October 2022: $45.2 million
- September 2022: $45.1 million
- August 2022: $45.1 million
- July 2022: $45 million
- June 2022: $43.4 million
- May 2022: $43.3 million
- April 2022: $41.5 million
- March 2022: $41.4 million
- February 2022: $39.4 million
- January 2022: $42.2 million
- December 2021: $40.2 million
- November 2021: $39.9 million
- October 2021: $39.8 million
- September 2021: $39.7 million
- August 2021: $39.6 million
- July 2021: $38.1 million
- June 2021: $36.5 million
- May 2021: $35.9 million
- April 2021: $35.5 million
- March 2021: $35.4 million
- February 2021: $33.5 million
- January 2021: $36 million
- December 2020: $34 million
- November 2020: $33.2 million
- October 2020: $32.9 million
- September 2020: $32.7 million
- August 2020: $32.6 million
- July 2020: $32.4 million
- June 2020: $32.3 million
- May 2020: $32.2 million
- April 2020: $30.3 million
- March 2020: $29 million
- February 2020: $27.2 million
- January 2020: $28.2 million
- December 2019: $26.2 million
- November 2019: $26.1 million
- October 2019: $26 million
- September 2019: $25.9 million
- August 2019: $25.8 million
- July 2019: $25.6 million
- June 2019: $24.9 million
- May 2019: $24.6 million
- April 2019: $24.1 million
- March 2019: $24 million
- February 2019: $23.5 million
- January 2019 24.7 million
- December 2018 23.7 million
- November 2018 23.6 million
- October 2018 23.5 million
- September 2018 23.3 million
- August 2018 23.3 million
- July 2018 23.1 million
- June 2018: 22.6 million
- May 2018: 22.5 million
- April 2018: $21.2 million
- March 2018: $21 million
- February 2018: $20 million
- January 2018: $20.1 million
- December 2017: $19.9 million
- November 2017: $19.8 million
- October 2017: $19.7 million
- September 2017: $19.5 million
- August 2017: $19.4 million
- July 2017: $19 million
- June 2017: $18 million
- May 2017: $17.9 million
- April 2017: $17.8 million
- March 2017: $17.7 million
- February 2017: : $16.8 million
- January 2017: : $17.8 million
- December 2016: $16.8 million
- November 2016: $16.3 million
- October 2016: $16.2 million
- September 2016: $15.9 million
- August 2016: $15.8 million
- July 2016: $15.5 million
- June 2016: $15.4 million
- May 2016: $15.3 million
- April 2016: $14.9 million
- March 2016: $14.9 million
- February 2016: $14 million
- January 2016: $15 million
- December 2015: $13.5 million
- November 2015: $12.7 million
- October 2015: $12.4 million
- September 2015: $12 million
- August 2015: $11.8 million
- July 2015: $11.5 million
- June 2015: $11.3 million
- May 2015: $10.8 million
- April 2015: $9.8 million
- March 2015: $9.3 million
- February 2015: $8 million
- January 2015 – $8.5 million
- December 2014: $7.25 million
- November 2014: $6.5 million
- October 2014: $5.5 million
- September 2014: $5 million
- August 2014: $4.7 million
- July 2014: $2.5 million (This is the first month of Kindle Unlimited)
US KDP Payout Per Page:
- October 2024: $0.00446
- September 2024: $0.00461
- August 2024: $0.00441
- July 2024: $0.00428
- June 2024: $0.00432
- May 2024: $0.00435
- April 2024: $0.00425
- March 2024: $0.00415
- February 2024: $0.00430
- January 2024: $0.00409
- December 2023: $0.00437
- November 2023: $0.00458
- October 2023: $0.00427
- September 2023: $0.00435
- August 2023: $0.00411
- July 2023: $0.003989
- June 2023: $0.00404
- May 2023: $0.00409
- April 2023: $0.00412
- March 2023: $0.00406
- February 2023: $0.00443
- January 2023: $0.004246
- December 2022: $0.004561577
- November 2022: $0.004579369
- October 2022: $0.004495139
- September 2022: $0.004713915
- August 2022: $0.004263264
- July 2022: $0.004293357
- June 2022: $0.00458496
- May 2022: $0.004557937
- April 2022: $0.004470993
- March 2022: $0.0043418627
- February 2022: $0.0044965
- January 2022: $0.00428859
- December 2021: $$0.0047517
- November 2021: $0.00476087
- October 2021: $0.00448058
- September 2021: $0.00451896
- August 2021: $0.0042584
- July 2021: $0.004297
- June 2021: $0.0044358
- May 2021: $0.0044063
- April 2021: $0.0044994
- March 2021: $0.00443837
- February 2021: $0.004486
- January 2021: $0.004216
- December 2020: $0.004514
- November 2020: $0.004644
- October 2020: $0.004538
- September 2020: $0.004594
- August 2020: $0.00432
- July 2020: $0.00429
- June 2020: $0.0045
- May 2020: $0.0042
- April 2020: $0.0042
- March 2020: $0.0046
- February 2020: $0.0048
- January 2020: $0.0044
- December 2019: $0.004664
- November 2019: $0.004925
- October 2019: $0.0046763
- September 2019: $0.0046799
- August 2019: $0.004387
- July 2019 $0.004394
- June 2019: $0.004642
- May 2019: $0.0046598
- April 2019: $0.0046602
- March 2019: $0.0045124
- February 2019: $0.0048
- January 2019: $0.00442265
- December 2018: $0.0048737
- November 2018: $0.005206
- October 2018: $0.0048
- September 2018: $0.0042
- August 2018: $0.0045
- July 2018: $0.0045
- June 2018: $0.0046
- May 2018: $0.00454
- April 2018: $0.0046
- March 2018: $0.0045
- February 2018: $0.0047
- January 2018: $0.0045
- December 2017: $0.0051
- November 2017: $0.0046
- October 2017: $0.00456
- September 2017: $0.004425
- August 2017: $0.00419
- July 2017: $0.0040
- June 2017: $0.00422
- May 2017: $0.0043
- April 2017: $0.0046
- March 2017: $0.0046
- February 2017: $0.00497
- January 2017: $0.0048
- December 2016: $0.0052
- November 2016: $0.0054
- October 2016: $0.0052
- September 2016: $0.0050
- August 2016: $0.0046
- July 2016: $0.0048
- June 2016: $0.0049
- May 2016: $0.0047
- April 2016: $0.00496
- March 2016: $0.00478
- February 2016: $0.00479
- January 2016: $0.00411
- December 2015: $0.00461
- November 2015: $0.00492
- October 2015: $0.0058
- September 2015: $0.00507
- August 2015: $0.00514
- July 2015: $0.005779
Nice! I’ve never stopped to look at what KDP actually pays out on the whole.
Fascinating! The fund has certainly grown, but, of course, so too has the number of pages read and authors it has to support. Is there any way to know how many pages are viewed each month (now that Amazon has switched to a “pay by page read” model)?
I use the afterword app.
Thanks, I’ll check that out!
I’m not sure whose numbers are incorrect, but I only received $0.00418 pp for March
Are you recived the march payment?
I’m wondering what your source is for the payout per page information?
Hi Shauna – We get the funding pool and payout data directly from Amazon. We also usually cross-check our data with Nate’s posts on the Digital Reader as he usually provides a monthly update there as well. Thanks for asking!
Check out my book, its TRUTH IN TRILLION LIES. New world perspective
Amazon has created a monster bulk of freebie book junkies who now expect every book they read to be free (for a mere $9.99 per month). I know of no author who has received a dime in royalties from the Global fund. My books have four and five star review ratings but during the time my books were with KU or KDP Select, lending library or Matchbook, I received zilch. I belong to 25 Facebook book clubs and used to promote my books on them and saw sales. Today, I promote but sell nothing, but when I offer free giveaways, I give out at least 50 books for each free title. That tells me that every avid reader is now reading books free exclusively. None of the major publishers will even consider these free book services. That should tell you something. I have pulled all of my books from all of these free services. I would rather quit as a writer than see all my hard work perfecting my craft go for free. There are better ways to make a living.
I ran a KU experiment early in 2018, putting 10 books into the system for the required 90 days. I averaged 30,000 page reads a month across all ten titles for a net income of $440.
I didn’t do any advertising, which was a mistake.
Now I have ONE book in KU. It’s only been there a week but it’s had 5500 page reads and earned $26 from KU. (Twice that from regular royalties.) I am advertising that one with AMS though.
I run giveaways on my books, but only the for first in any given series.
I have a facebook author page and twitter, but if I want to promote outside of those I pay for targeted facebook CPC ads.
I also apply for (and am occasionally accepted for) Bookbub feature deals.
I’ve been writing and publishing my own novels for 20 years now. I’m a slow learner when it comes to marketing, but I’ve picked up a few things over that time.
(Not just BB featured deals, btw. I regularly book promos with many sites offering similar services.)
If you have not contacted them to find out why you should do so. I’m making thousands of dollars a month off Amazon KU/KULL. So now you know an author who has been paid and quite well.
Hi Claude,
I’m responding to your post, as I feel contrary to your slightly belligerent choice of words. (Probably the most difficult decision a writer has to make).
I remember my most remarkable reads (that makes me whatever little I am today) being from free libraries that were stacked with rows and rows of wondrous pages. The library fee was a staggering Rs. 20 per month (US$ 0.3) – which was approximately 10% of my family’s income.
Today, as an author of a best-selling, critically acclaimed work of fiction (and also, as that impoverished child who devoured books for free), I’d support any system that creates “book junkies who now expect every book to be for free” YET pay the “mere” US$ 9.99.
We will probably need to investigate a little deeper into the malady you identify, rather than taking a disgruntled swipe at the lowest lying punching bag. There are teenagers today, who can drop out of college on the power of their words – from Acapulco to Zanzibar – purely on the merit of their craft and soar to heights that were unthinkable 25 years ago.
Let’s not put the shopping cart, before the art.
Sincerely,
Gautam Shiknis.
Love this. Thanks for sharing.
Do the payouts per page vary by countries/language? I have several translated books in KU and the payouts are no where near the amount reported.
Hello Tarina! The payouts that we’re reporting are for US payouts only. However, KDP payouts do indeed vary by country. Which marketplace specifically are you looking for? We’re happy to look into it for you.
Please, if I should enroll in kdp select, will I still ask people to get my book review or is it that kdp select will handle everything for me.
And the second thing is that, when will I get paid..is is monthly ??.
Hi Steven. If you are requesting something like book reviews from your readers through an email, you will need to take care of that yourself. If you do enroll in KDP select, you will indeed get paid monthly. According to Amazon, payment comes “approximately 60 days after the end of the month in which [payment was] earned.”
[…] to Self-Publish on Kobo […]
How do you calculate KENPC? Where is this listed?
Hey Jake, the per page payout isn’t listed by Amazon, but by using the overall pool and statistics available in Amazon’s author dashboard, you can back into the number.
OK, I looked up Mr. Brickell’s books. They do indeed have 5 star reviews – a single review after being published for months. One with 3 reviews is less kind.
The first book up shows as ranking #329,567 Paid in Kindle Store. That goes a long way toward explaining his experience.
LoL thanks for doing the legwork!
My page read number always figures to lower than what’s shown my a couple cents, but the trends seem to be in the same direction.
Nice, good to see someone’s still keeping up with publishing these numbers. Thanks, and bookmarked!
P.S. They’ve got pretty steady over the last few months. I wonder if that’s where Amazon are looking to settle…
We have seen million paid out monthly. I as an individual got a 5 star review rating and have not benefited from the incentives or royalties. I was not briefed on the sales recorded when books are being purchased. Come out clear to assistant independent writers.
Hi! would it be possible to get the historical numbers for the UK market instead?
Hello, unfortunately we don’t have access to numbers for a specific market, just the overall fund.
Hi. I just wanted to know where you get the rates from and how accurate they are. Above it says:
February 2022: $0.0042885952
January 2022: $0.00428859
December 2021: $$0.0047517
Based on my KDP reports of the pages that were read and the royalty I received, I get a rates of:
February 2022: $0.003947
January 2022: $0.003817
December 2021: $0.004374
The difference in the rates adds up to a few hundred dollars, so I am concerned and I am not sure if I should take this up with Amazon.
Hello Jacqueline, we’re using a calculation to get the above numbers, so what shows in your KDP account will be the most accurate.
It makes sense to take time to do so. You will feel happier about yourself later when you have made an effort to improve. Plus, it will help you achieve your goals.
I also apply for (and am occasionally accepted for) Bookbub feature deals.
Very interesting review, thanks!
Is there a public list of the All-Star book winners?
KDP select fund is biased towards best sellers at the expense of over 80% of ALL authors registered!
Having done some research on this, the KDP Select millions are very disproportionately spread. As a basic example, it is estimated that over 300,000 authors on Amazon only receive small amounts from the fund each month/year. It is biased towards big sellers and best sellers who gain ALL the prominent exposure and positions on the site, many flying high in high-trafficked overall top 100 categories, and those are also promoted via the KINDLE UNLIMITED program emails Amazon sends to its 3.5 million subscribers of the program.
Furthermore, even though Amazon says only 50 authors make over $100,000 a year, about 10 or 15 make a million or more.
So, it’s a classic case of the 80/20 rule at play here e.g. 20% of all authors take 80% of the fund profits, leaving the rest to be split between thousands of also ran authors!
An example year might look like so – approximately $516,000,000 was paid out in 2022.
According to Amazon’s own blog, this is stated. I cannot find the blog post anymore but it was genuine!
# 10/15 authors earned $1,000,000 each year and therefore took up to 15 million from the fund in the example year.
# 50 authors earned around $100,000 and therefore took another $5,000,000 from the fund in the example year.
# 1000 authors earned $50,000 and therefore took another $50,000,000 from the fund in the example year.
So $70 million – $516 million = $446 million which is then split between 299,935 authors left in the fund.
Which equates to an average earning of $1490 a year each for the remaining authors in the Kindle Select fund pot. Obviously, some will earn more and some just a few dollars, but this example highlights how biased the fund is towards best sellers and those in the overall kindle top 100 charts!
Whether authors choose to believe this or not is up to them!
Thanks for sharing, didnt know there was data for this lol. I am still struggeling to make good money with KDP.
If this page is still active can you please update the June 2023 page rate? Most authors use this site to check the payout every month. Thanks.
Hi Sutton, the numbers have now been updated for June!
Amazing, thanks for sharing!
And Thanks for the Update in numbers!
Hi Clayton. So we have the highest amount of $$ in the reserve and the lowest payout ever. Do you have any best guess as to why? This trend is concerning.
Hey JD, it’s certainly a concerning trend. One thing to consider is that Amazon increased the price of KU for readers a couple months ago. We likely haven’t seen the full impact of this yet, but that change could have a few implications:
1) It could signal that Amazon isn’t satisfied with it’s earnings from KU and is looking for ways to increase revenue. In which case, this price increase may not get passed along to authors (it certainly isn’t yet).
2) Economic factors could have caused readers to cancel KU subscriptions, and Amazon is squeezing the remaining KU readers to make of the difference. In which case, this price increase isn’t about earning MORE money, it’s about slowing the decline of KU revenue. If this is the case, we shouldn’t expect the per-page rate to improve soon.
All speculation of course. So it’s really down to individuals to decide whether to go wide, or stay in KU.
I found this article on KDP Global Fund payouts extremely informative and well-structured. As an independent author, understanding how these payments work is crucial for managing my income effectively. Written Word Media always provides valuable insights for authors, and this piece is no exception. Thank you for helping me navigate the world of self-publishing with clarity and confidence!
It’s incredibly encouraging to see the Kindle Direct Publishing Global Fund continuing to grow month by month. This not only reflects the increasing popularity of Kindle Unlimited but also signifies more opportunities for authors to earn from their work. With each update, we witness a testament to the thriving community of writers and readers. Here’s to the continued growth of the fund and the success of all authors involved! 📘💰
Hey, I appreciate this article. Thanks.
How do you get these numbers? Also, how would I go about getting them for other marketplaces when I sell in australia, brazil etc because as I understand it, the numbers you’ve mentioned only apply to amazon.com?
Hello, Allan! Yes, the numbers we post reflect only the US market on Amazon. But these numbers can be found in your Amazon KDP dashboard and you can filter by marketplace!
Thanks Kelly. What report gives me those numbers? Do I need to go to the KENP Read report, download the file then work out the rate myself using the earned / total reads or is there an easier way?
Hi, Allan! We manually calculate the rate using the subscription royalties divided by the total KENP pages (filtered for the US). If you find an easier way, let us know 🙂
Thank you Kelly!
So, $55M for one month and about 0.4 cent per page. Ot means about 14 billion pages were read this month. That’s a huge number !