Our page-count error guide decodes the rejection when a file lands outside its range. This page is the planning version: one master table, by format, ink, paper and trim, to consult before layout — because changing trim or paper after layout to rescue an over-long book means laying the book out again.
The master table — paperback maximums (Amazon.com)
| Trim size group | White | Cream | Groundwood | Standard color | Premium color |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5×8″ up to 8×10″ (incl. 6×9″) | 828 | 776 | 812 | 600 | 828 |
| 8.25×6″, 8.25×8.25″ | 800 | 750 | 784 | 600 | 800 |
| 8.5×8.5″, 8.5×11″ | 590 | 550 | 578 | 600 | 590 |
| A4 (8.27×11.69″) | 780 | 730 | 764 | — | 590 |
Minimums and the hardcover row
| Format / ink | Minimum | Maximum |
|---|---|---|
| Paperback, black ink | 24 pages | By trim & paper — master table above |
| Paperback, premium color | 24 pages | By trim & paper — master table above |
| Paperback, standard color | 72 pages | 600 pages, every trim |
| Hardcover, black or premium color | 75 pages | 550 pages, every trim |
Three traps account for most surprises. Cream costs you 52 pages at the common trims (776 vs 828) because cream is thicker per page — a 780-page manuscript is legal on white and refused on cream. Bigger trim can mean a smaller ceiling: moving a long workbook up to 8.5×11″ cuts its limit from 828 to 590, the opposite of what most authors assume. Standard color is the narrowest window in the whole system — 72 to 600 pages — so a 40-page colour picture book must use premium color, and a 650-page colour book cannot use standard color at all.
Check it yourself
- Count the PDF file, not the word processor. KDP counts pages in the uploaded file; an odd count is rounded up to even, so a 777-page file is treated as 778.
- Find your cell with all four variables: format + trim + paper + ink. Quoting a maximum from memory almost always quotes the wrong cell.
- Leave headroom. If you are within 10 pages of a ceiling, front and back matter added late can push you over it.
- Price the count, not just the legality. Every page adds print cost — at black ink, every 100 pages add $1.20 per copy at a regular trim. Run your count through the print-cost estimator by page count.
Close to a limit, or already rejected on page count? The free check measures your actual interior PDF — page count, spine, margins, fonts and geometry — and reports every finding in plain English, free within 48 hours. Get the free check →
If you are over the maximum
- Switch cream to white — buys 52 pages at most trims, no re-layout of page size, but the cover spine must be rebuilt for the thinner paper.
- Tighten the layout — type size, leading and margins inside KDP’s published minimums can recover 5–15% of a long book’s pages.
- Change trim deliberately — 8.5×11″ to 6×9″ raises the ceiling from 590 to 828, at the cost of a full re-layout.
- Split into volumes — Volume 1 / Volume 2 in the title, metadata and cover is a legitimate structure, not a workaround.
The honest limit
This table is KDP’s published Amazon.com table as verified in October 2026; other marketplaces share nearly all of it, but a book published in several stores should be checked against the strictest cell it will use. And a legal count is not automatically a wise one: a book padded with blanks to reach 24 pages collides with KDP’s blank-page allowances (no more than 4 consecutive at the start or middle, 10 at the end) and with readers. Stay inside your cell with real content.
Or send us the files — the check is free
Email your interior and cover PDFs and we'll tell you exactly what's wrong — in plain English, free, within 48 hours. If it does need fixing, the by-hand fix is $19 and we redo it free if KDP rejects it for a formatting issue we were hired to fix. We rebuild files to be compliant with KDP's published spec — that's the promise we can keep.
Prefer the whole library in one file? The KDP Rejection Field Guide (free PDF) collects every guide, table, and the 13-point checklist.
More from the Help Library
- The KDP & IngramSpark Help Library — all guides & tools
- Page count out of range — the rejection, decoded
- KDP trim sizes compared — every size, side by side
- White vs cream paper — same cost, different ceiling
- Hardcover vs paperback — specs, page limits, and print-cost gap
- Print-cost estimator by page count — what your count costs per copy
- The free rejection check — all 13 checks at once