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Your ebook price in other countries: converted or fixed?

By R. S. Breed · Updated

On this page (10 sections)
  1. Why it matters
  2. Amazon KDP
  3. Apple Books
  4. Kobo Writing Life
  5. Google Play Books
  6. Barnes & Noble Press
  7. Draft2Digital
  8. IngramSpark
  9. Audiobooks
  10. What to actually do

You set your ebook at US$4.99. What does a reader in the UK, Australia or Germany actually pay? It depends on the store, and plenty of authors never look.

There are three ways a store can price your book outside your home market:

  • You set each currency yourself. The price stays exactly where you put it until you change it.
  • The store converts your price once. It works out the other currencies when you publish or save, and keeps those numbers. As exchange rates move, the price drifts away from what you meant.
  • The store converts and refreshes. It works the prices out again from time to time, so your book's price in another country can change without you touching it.

Most platforms mix these: they convert by default and let you override any country. The catch is knowing which one you're on, because it changes what you need to check.

Why it matters

  • Drift. A converted price that was right in January can be well off by July, in either direction.
  • Royalty bands are set in each local currency. On KDP, the 70% ebook royalty needs a price inside a band for each marketplace, and Kobo's 70% rate starts at a set price in each currency. A converted price can land below a threshold and quietly earn you the lower rate.
  • Some prices include tax and some don't. The same number can mean different things in different countries.
  • Ugly prices. At early October 2026 exchange rates, US$4.99 converted straight across is about £3.78, which looks like a mistake next to books at £3.99.
  • Fixed book price laws. Some countries require a book to sell at the same price everywhere. Amazon and Google both flag this; converted prices can break it.

This guide explains how each platform works so you know what to check. It isn't financial or legal advice. If fixed price laws or tax apply to you, ask an accountant or the platform.

Amazon KDP

KDP gives you two ways to price, for ebooks, paperbacks and hardcovers alike:

  1. Based on your primary marketplace. You set one price (say on Amazon.com) and KDP converts it for the other marketplaces.
  2. A price for each marketplace. You type a price for each one yourself.

If you set a price by hand in another marketplace, changing your main price later doesn't touch it. That's useful, but it also means a price you set years ago will sit there until you go back to it.

KDP's terms say that converted prices are worked out from an exchange-rate service and may be updated from time to time to follow current rates. So on KDP a converted price can move without you doing anything. If a conversion lands outside a marketplace's minimum or maximum price, KDP moves it to that limit, and your royalty is worked out on the converted price.

Things that catch people out on KDP:

  • The 70% ebook band is different in each marketplace. Since 7 July 2026 it's US$2.99 to $12.99 on Amazon.com. Other examples: £1.77 to £12.99 on Amazon.co.uk, €2.69 to €12.99 in the euro marketplaces, C$2.99 to C$12.99 in Canada, A$3.99 to A$15.99 in Australia, and ¥250 to ¥1,650 in Japan. Outside the band you're on the 35% option. Sales to readers outside KDP's list of 70% countries earn 35% whatever the price.
  • Paperback royalties have a threshold in each currency too. 60% at or above US$9.99, £7.99, €9.99, C$13.99 or A$13.99; 50% below.
  • Tax is handled differently by format. For ebooks in the UK and Europe, your list price is what readers see, with VAT inside it; KDP takes the VAT out before working out your royalty. For paperbacks and hardcovers, Amazon adds VAT on top of your list price. Australia's GST and Japan's consumption tax apply to print too, so the price readers see can differ from the one you set.
  • Europe uses your lowest price. If you set different prices on, say, Amazon.de and Amazon.fr, a reader who can buy from both is charged the lower one.
  • Readers can shop on Amazon.com from anywhere. When they do, they pay your price converted to US dollars.
  • Fixed price law countries. KDP lists Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Greece for ebooks, and those plus Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia and Spain for print. You're expected to charge the same price at every retailer there.

Apple Books

In Apple's iTunes Connect you pick a base currency and a price. Apple uses current exchange rates to find the nearest available price point in each other country you've chosen, with tax included wherever Apple collects it. You can then change the price in any country yourself.

Apple's help page doesn't say whether it works out those converted prices again later, so treat them as set when you saved them, and check them now and then.

If you reach Apple through an aggregator, Apple's price-ending rules show up there: Draft2Digital says Apple insists on US prices ending in .99, and IngramSpark has its own rules for Apple prices (below).

Kobo Writing Life

You set your price in your default currency first. For each other country with its own Kobo store, you can set a custom price. While you do, Kobo shows a suggested price in red, converted from your default price and rounded to a whole number, and you click it to use it. You can type over any of them.

Kobo recommends prices ending in .99 in the main English-speaking markets, and says .99 endings matter if you want your book in its promotions.

Kobo's 70% royalty starts at a set price in each currency: US$2.99, £1.99, C$2.99, A$2.99, €1.99 and NZ$2.99, among others. Below that you earn 45%.

Kobo's help doesn't spell out what happens to a country you leave alone, or whether a converted price is refreshed later. After you save, look at the price list for every currency and make sure each one is a number you chose.

Google Play Books

Google is the platform that converts most actively.

  • Currency conversion is an account setting in the Payment Center. It's on by default for accounts made after July 2014.
  • Converted prices only apply where you haven't set a local price. A price you set in a country's own currency always wins.
  • Google refreshes the exchange rates once a quarter. The rates used are the ones from when conversion was switched on, refreshed each quarter, or when you refresh them yourself in the Payment Center. Google's page puts the risk of out-of-date or moving exchange rates on you, the publisher.
  • Google rounds converted prices. It nudges them up or down by up to 5% to a tidier price, usually ending in .99, .49 or .00 (whole numbers in currencies like yen and rupees). Prices you set yourself for a country aren't rounded. You can opt out of rounding.
  • Turning conversion off removes every converted price. Your book comes off sale in those countries until you give them local prices.
  • Don't use converted prices where book prices are fixed by law. Google asks for a local-currency price in those countries.

Barnes & Noble Press

B&N Press has you set one retail price for your ebook, and price changes go live within about a day. It's open to authors in the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and several European countries as well as the US, and from 2 March 2026 it pays international authors in US dollars, leaving the conversion to your bank.

We couldn't find a B&N Press help page about prices in other currencies, so there's nothing to set beyond your main price.

Draft2Digital

You enter one price in US dollars. By default, D2D converts it into the currencies of the stores you choose at the exchange rate on the day you publish, and rounds to tidy local prices. D2D's help doesn't say it redoes this later, so assume those prices stay where they landed until you change them.

To set your own, use Manage Territorial Prices under the price box. You can set an exact price in any currency D2D supports, which also lets you run a sale in one country without touching the others.

D2D notes that its US and Canadian prices are before sales tax, while prices in every other currency are what the reader pays, with tax taken out before your royalty is worked out.

IngramSpark

IngramSpark asks for a list price for each market you sell into, for print and ebooks. Its help describes these as prices you set and change yourself; nothing in it says they're converted again later, so each one stays where you put it.

  • Price changes go out weekly. Submit by 11:59 pm US Central time on Thursday and they apply from the next day.
  • Round every market's price. IngramSpark asks for prices ending in .00, .95 or .99 in all markets.
  • Check what you earn in each currency. IngramSpark's own advice is to convert your earnings into your currency and leave some margin, because exchange rates move every day and a thin margin can go negative.
  • Canada and Australia are different. You can price for Canada, but what you earn there is the same as in the US because those books are printed in the US. In Australia, GST comes out before you're paid, so IngramSpark suggests dividing your intended price by 1.1 when you work out earnings.
  • Global Connect is converted by someone else. For those markets you give the amount you want to be paid in US dollars, and the local printer converts it and sets the shop price.
  • Apple prices through IngramSpark have their own rules. The Apple price must end in .99 in the US; in euros or pounds it must end in .99 above 10.00 and should end in .49 below.

Audiobooks

  • Kobo: your default currency is the starting point. Any currency you leave empty is converted from it, and Kobo recommends entering your own prices instead. Each currency has its own maximum price.
  • Google Play: audiobooks are priced in the same Partner Center as ebooks. Google's audiobook policy calls your list price a recommended price, so the price on Google Play can differ from it.
  • Findaway Voices: Spotify's old Findaway Voices help pages now send you to the Voices by INaudio support site. It says you set the list price, retailers choose the final price to the listener, and for most retailers you're paid on your list price. It doesn't say how prices in other currencies are worked out, so ask their support before you rely on it.

What to actually do

  1. List the countries that matter. Where are your readers, your ads and your newsletter? Usually it's a handful of stores, not all of them.
  2. Set those prices yourself. Pick a proper local price for each (£3.99, A$6.99, €4.99) instead of leaving a conversion in place.
  3. Check each one against that store's royalty threshold. KDP's 70% band and Kobo's 70% start point are set in each currency.
  4. Know whether the number includes tax. Ebook prices in the UK and Europe usually include VAT; US prices don't.
  5. Look at the result. After publishing, open your book's page in each country's store, or the platform's price list, and screenshot what you see.
  6. Put a reminder in your calendar. Every six months, or after a big currency swing, check any price you left converted. On Google Play, remember it refreshes quarterly.
  7. Change every currency when you run a sale. A US promotion at $0.99 doesn't drop your UK price unless you change that too.
  8. Keep a price sheet. One row per book and format, one column per store and currency, with the date you last checked.

For print, Bervet's free print royalty calculator shows what you earn per copy on KDP, IngramSpark, Draft2Digital Print and B&N Press in each marketplace's own currency, so you can test a price before you set it. For the bigger question of which stores to sell in, see Going wide.

Sources (25)

Platforms change their rules often. If something here is out of date, tell us in the forum and we'll fix it.

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