Audiobook Royalty Calculator: Estimate ACX, Kobo and Direct Earnings

This calculator estimates what you would earn per sale and in total on ACX, KDP Virtual Voice, Kobo and ElevenReader Publishing, and how many sales it takes for Royalty Share to cost you more than paying a narrator per finished hour. List price alone cannot produce a reliable figure: each store applies its rate to its own base, so you enter the revenue or allocation amount per sale, and every result is an estimate.

What the calculator does

It takes a revenue figure per sale, a sales count and a store, and returns royalty per sale and total royalty. A second set of fields compares two ACX paths for the same exclusive title, and shows a break-even figure only when the store is set to ACX exclusive: Pay-for-Production, where you pay a producer a flat fee of per-finished-hour rate times finished hours, and Royalty Share, where the royalty is split with the producer for seven years, so the rights holder earns 25% on the new model and 20% on legacy (half of the 50% or 40% exclusive rate).

Why you enter the revenue figure yourself

Except for Kobo's 45%, which its FAQ gives as a share of list price, the percentages below do not apply to list price on the pages we read, so the tool asks for the amount each source says the percentage applies to.

• ACX (royalties page dated Jul 31, 2026). Under the legacy model, royalties are calculated on net receipts for three sale types: membership credits and other non-cash redemptions, member cash purchases, and non-member cash purchases. Membership royalties also use an Allocation Factor, which is actual total member revenue divided by the aggregate regular price of member-selected titles in the period. Under the new model, membership royalties are based on "Member Value" times the contractual rate. Member Value starts from a member's monthly plan revenue less taxes and fees, split across the titles the member engaged with in proportion to each title's a la carte price. The page does not state the base for member or non-member cash purchases under the new model, so confirm it on the ACX page before you rely on a number.
• KDP Virtual Voice (terms updated October 21, 2026). The 40% is of applicable net sales receipts. For a la carte cash sales the base is the amount Amazon receives less items such as promotional discounts, taxes and returns. Membership sales use an allocation factor times Audible's a la carte price. KDP Select titles may also earn from subscription programs, which pay a share of a monthly fund by listening, not a per-sale royalty. See KDP's terms and its royalties page.
• Kobo (audiobook FAQ, as captured on 2026-11-08). The FAQ lines say 45% of list price for a la carte audiobooks at or above $2.99, and 32% for token-based subscription downloads. A follow-up read of Kobo's pages was blocked, and the base for the 32% is not stated.
• ElevenReader Publishing (Payment Terms, Jan 17, 2026). 60% of net revenue for list-price titles. Titles eligible for engagement payments earn $0.20 per hour streamed by premium users, capped at $2.50 per premium user per title per measurement window. The minimum payout is $10. The $0.20 rate is described as current and can change on 30 days' notice.
• Spotify. Its Opt-In Audiobook Distribution Terms, last updated May 4, 2026, apply to content opted into its Distribution Services. For that content they state 50% of the suggested retail price you set for a la carte sales, and a pro-rata share of a pool with no percentage. They do not mention digital voice or say whether a title uploaded through Spotify for Authors is covered, so the rate field stays blank for you to fill in.
• Voices by INaudio. Its royalty article, which shows "Edited" with no date (read 2026-11-08), says authors keep 80% of the royalties INaudio receives from its partners, not 80% of list price, and does not mention digital voice, so the rate field stays blank for you to fill in.

The formulas

Royalty per sale = rate x revenue base per sale. Total = royalty per sale x sales. Revenue base is what you enter.

Break-even compares the two ACX paths on one exclusive title:

• Fee = finished hours x per-finished-hour rate.
• Rate difference = Pay-for-Production rights-holder rate minus Royalty Share rights-holder rate (50% minus 25% on the new model; 40% minus 20% on legacy).
• Break-even sales = Fee / (rate difference x revenue base per sale). Past that sales count, Pay-for-Production leaves you ahead; short of it, Royalty Share does.

Royalty Share requires exclusive distribution, and the producer's share runs for 7 years, so count sales over that period. Royalty Share Plus is not modeled. Its reduced upfront payment is not defined on the pages read.

Worked examples (estimates)

The revenue figures below are assumptions chosen for arithmetic, not forecasts. Assume $9.00 received per sale and 400 sales.

Break-even example: a 90,000-word book at about 9,300 words per finished hour (ACX's June 11, 2013 blog) is about 9.7 hours. At a placeholder $300 per finished hour, the fee is $2,910. On the new model, 2,910 / (0.25 x 9.00) is about 1,293 sales. On legacy, 2,910 / (0.20 x 9.00) is about 1,617. The $300 is not a current market rate: the blog is from 2013 and we read no current union or guild figure. Enter your own quote.

Limits

• Estimates only. Payouts depend on store deductions, member allocations and currency.
• ACX's membership base changes monthly. Cash and membership sales need separate runs.
• The legacy model ends at year-end 2026, per ACX.
• KDP Virtual Voice is an invite-only US beta, and its list price must be between $3.99 and $14.99. KDP's terms say enrolling in KDP Select gives Amazon the exclusive right to sell the edition and bars selling it in audio elsewhere during the 90-day exclusivity period.
• Kobo's exclusivity is not stated on the pages we could read.
• Taxes, fees, the narrator's own deal and ACX's $50 carry-forward are not modeled.

For store rules, see the ACX page, Kobo, Audible Virtual Voice and ElevenReader Publishing. The distributor comparison covers exclusivity. Production costs live in human vs AI narration cost and the AI audiobook cost calculator. More utilities are in tools.

Last verified 2026-11-08. Rules and prices change: check the linked primary page before you rely on this.