Can you sell digital products on Amazon?

One thing to know about the source before you rely on it. Amazon's actual policy page sits inside Seller Central and needs a seller login, so we could not read it. What is public is two answers from Amazon staff on Amazon's own seller forum. This post rests on those, and says so wherever it matters.

What does Amazon say about selling digital downloads?

Amazon staff have said no, in the same words, in two separate forum threads. In one, a new seller asked how to sell generative art as digital images. In the other, a seller asked about selling a two-page printable PDF.

Both got the same reply from a member of Amazon's staff: third-party sellers are not able to sell digital downloads, and "only Amazon Retail can create this type of listing." You can read both answers yourself, in the thread on selling digital goods on Amazon and the thread on selling a digital download.

Two caveats, stated plainly. Both answers link to a policy page in Seller Central, and that page asks for a seller login, so we have not read the policy itself. And the answers are not new: the forum dates them two and three years ago. If you have a seller account, read the policy page before you list anything. If Amazon has changed its rule, that page is where the change will be.

Why do some digital downloads still show up on Amazon?

Because Amazon Retail can create that kind of listing, and third-party sellers cannot. That is the answer Amazon's staff gave when a seller asked this exact question.

The seller who asked about the printable PDF had found a printable download listed under Board Games. They asked whether it was an old listing from before a policy change, or a way of listing they had missed. The staff reply did not talk about that listing. It repeated that third-party sellers cannot sell digital downloads, and that this type of listing is Amazon Retail's to create.

So a download you can buy on Amazon is not proof that you can list one. We can't tell you why any single listing exists. What we can say is that the public answer from Amazon's own staff is no, so do not plan a product around a listing you cannot recreate.

Can you sell an ebook on Amazon?

Yes. Ebooks go through Kindle Direct Publishing, Amazon's self-publishing service, not through a normal seller account.

The KDP homepage says you can publish an ebook, a paperback and a hardcover, that its tools are free, and that a book can appear in Amazon stores around the world in about 72 hours. You set your own list price, and KDP pays you a royalty on each sale. We are not quoting the royalty rate here, because it depends on choices you make in KDP and we have not checked them.

Print is on demand. KDP prints each paperback or hardcover when it sells and ships it to the buyer, so you hold no stock. That makes KDP the natural home for anything that is really a book, such as a novel, a guide or a cookbook.

An ebook on Kindle is still a digital product, but it is a different kind of listing from a download. The buyer reads it in a Kindle app or on a Kindle. They do not get a PDF to keep on their laptop.

Does selling on KDP stop you selling the ebook elsewhere?

Only if you enroll the book in KDP Select. Plain KDP does not.

Amazon's KDP Select page says that enrolling commits you to make the digital version of that book available only through KDP. During that period you cannot distribute it digitally anywhere else, and the page names your own website and blog. Print is not affected: you can keep selling the book in physical form.

KDP Select is optional. So you can sell an ebook on Amazon and from your own checkout at the same time, as long as it is not enrolled in Select. If it is enrolled, the digital copy cannot go on your own page until it leaves the program.

That is the one choice to make early, before you build a sales page around the ebook. Our guide to selling an ebook walks through the rest of it, from the file format to the price.

Can you sell printables, templates or presets on Amazon?

Not as downloads, going by Amazon's staff. A printable PDF, a planner template, a preset pack, a font or a stock photo is a digital download, and the staff answers say third-party sellers cannot sell those. The printable PDF question on the forum got exactly that answer.

That leaves two routes. If what you made is really a book, KDP's paperback route may be open to it, and then the buyer gets a printed copy rather than a file. Whether a given product counts as a book is KDP's call, so read its content rules before you design for print.

The other route is to sell the download from a page you control, through a marketplace that allows files or a checkout of your own, and send people there. Our guide to selling printables without Etsy covers the file itself: the format, the paper sizes and how it reaches the buyer.

Where can you sell digital downloads instead of Amazon?

On a marketplace that allows files, or on a checkout of your own. Here is how the main options compare, sorted by name.

Where you sell	Sells downloads?	Fixed cost	Per sale
Amazon, as a third-party seller	No, per Amazon staff	-	-
Amazon KDP	Ebooks only, read on Kindle	Free tools	Pays you a royalty
Etsy	Yes, instant downloads	$0.20 a listing, every 4 months	6.5% of the order, processing on top
Gumroad	Yes	None	10% + $0.50, card processing on top
Payhip free plan	Yes	None	5%, PayPal or Stripe fees on top
Stakk	Yes	None	10% + $0.50, card processing included
Systeme.io free plan	Yes	None	0%, processing on top

Two other places people ask about are not much more open than Amazon. eBay has its own narrow route for digital items, which our eBay post goes through. And in the US, TikTok Shop only takes digital products from sellers it approves into an invite-only category, as our TikTok Shop post explains. For most digital products, the working setup is a checkout you own and a link you share.

When should you use Amazon instead of Stakk?

When the product is an ebook and you want Amazon's readers. KDP puts the book where people already shop for books, and Stakk cannot do that: it is a checkout, not a marketplace, so nobody browses it for a novel. Use KDP instead for that. If the ebook is enrolled in KDP Select, Stakk is out for that title anyway, because the digital copy cannot be sold anywhere else. And if cost per sale is the whole decision, go elsewhere: Systeme.io has a free plan with no transaction fee, and Whop charges 2.7% + $0.30 with no monthly cost. Both take less than our 10% + $0.50. Stakk also has no subscription billing, sells in US dollars only, and caps prices at $999.

What Stakk offers instead is the shape of the checkout for the products Amazon will not list. An add-on, like the editable version of a planner, rides the same charge as the main product, so the order carries one fee rather than two. The post-purchase upsell is one tap against the card already used. It is a second charge with its own fee, and both are on every account with nothing behind a tier, which fewer platforms do than you would expect.

Want a checkout for the products Amazon won't list?

If you have a printable, a template or a preset pack that Amazon will not take, the setup is short. Put it behind a checkout, add the natural extra as an optional add-on before payment, and share the link wherever your buyers already find you. Stakk is 10% + $0.50 a sale with card processing included and no monthly fee, and the payment lands in your own Stripe account rather than a balance we hold.

Start selling on Stakk, free