Amazon KDP lets you publish a book written with AI, but if an AI tool produced the text, the images or the translation, you have to say so when you publish, "even if you applied substantial edits afterwards." If you wrote the book yourself and used AI only to edit, error-check or brainstorm, that's AI-assisted, and "You are not required to disclose AI-assisted content." The other rules that catch AI fiction sit on different pages: a limit on how many titles you can create a day, a list of "disappointing content" Amazon removes, and, for romance writers, a ban on pornography and a question about explicit titles and covers that decides whether your book shows up in search.
Each rule below is quoted from Amazon's own help pages, read on 29 October 2026.
KDP's AI content policy, word for word
Checked October 2026: every quote in this section is from KDP's Content Guidelines, read on 29 October 2026. The page carries no "last updated" date, so read it again on the day you publish.
"We require you to inform us of AI-generated content (text, images, or translations) when you publish a new book or make edits to and republish an existing book through KDP." Images include "cover and interior images and artwork."
Then the two definitions that decide everything:
| Amazon's words | Disclose? | |
|---|---|---|
| AI-generated | "text, images, or translations created by an AI-based tool. If you used an AI-based tool to create the actual content […] it is considered 'AI-generated,' even if you applied substantial edits afterwards." | Yes |
| AI-assisted | "If you created the content yourself, and used AI-based tools to edit, refine, error-check, or otherwise improve that content […] then it is considered 'AI-assisted' and not 'AI-generated.'" | No |
| Brainstorming | "if you used an AI-based tool to brainstorm and generate ideas, but ultimately created the text or images yourself, this is also considered 'AI-assisted'" | No |
The same paragraph ends with the sentence people skip: "You are responsible for verifying that all AI-generated and/or AI-assisted content adheres to all content guidelines, including by complying with all applicable intellectual property rights."
The policy dates from September 2023: the Authors Guild called it a welcome first step on 7 September 2023, and The Bookseller reported the revision on 11 September.
Which box does your fiction workflow tick?
Amazon's test is who created the words, not how much you edited them. Below, the common ways of writing fiction with AI against that wording. This is our reading of Amazon's sentences, not a ruling from Amazon; where a row says "probably", tick the box.
| How the book was written | Amazon's test | Box |
|---|---|---|
| An AI drafted the chapters from your outline, you revised | "created by an AI-based tool… even if you applied substantial edits" | AI-generated |
| You sketched each scene in a line or two, the AI wrote the prose | The prose on the page came from the tool | AI-generated |
| You wrote full passages, the AI expanded them with new sentences | The added sentences were created by the tool | Probably AI-generated (some sections) |
| You wrote it, the AI fixed typos, grammar and clumsy lines | "edit, refine, error-check, or otherwise improve" | AI-assisted |
| The AI suggested plot ideas or names, you wrote every line | "brainstorm and generate ideas" | AI-assisted |
| You wrote it, the cover art came from an image generator | "AI-generated images include cover and interior images" | AI-generated (images) |
| You wrote it in one language, a machine translated it | "translations created by an AI-based tool" | AI-generated (translation) |
Amazon's page doesn't settle the middle row. The safe reading of "the actual content" is that any sentence a model wrote counts.
Where the AI question sits in KDP setup
The question comes in the Content step of setting up a book, one of the steps to self-publish a novel on Amazon KDP. According to Jason Pearce's walk-through at ebookpbook (27 May 2026), it opens as a single yes-or-no question about AI tools for text, images or translations. A yes opens a dropdown for each of the three, where you say whether AI made some sections or the entire work, and whether you edited it minimally or extensively. Amazon's help page doesn't print the form, so those labels are his description, not Amazon's text.
The duty applies again when you "make edits to and republish an existing book", and each part is answered separately: a human-written novel with a generated cover is a yes for images, a no for text.
Is the AI disclosure shown to readers?
Amazon's guideline asks you to "inform us", and that is all it says about who sees the answer. When the policy launched, the Authors Guild wrote on 7 September 2023 that Amazon "has not yet agreed to add disclosures to all book listings for AI-generated books on its other channels outside of KDP, as the Authors Guild requested", so that "readers can make informed choices". We found no Amazon page, as of 29 October 2026, that says the answer appears on a product page or what Amazon does with it.
The three-titles-a-day limit
Alongside the disclosure, KDP cut how many new titles one account can create. In its statement of 27 September 2023, KDP said it was "lowering the volume limits we have in place on new title creations", and the Authors Guild reports that KDP confirmed the number to it: three new titles a day, open to adjustment. The same statement says publishers who are affected "will be notified and have the option to seek an exception." ScribeCount's compliance guide (14 August 2026) still gives three a day.
What gets an AI-written book removed
The disclosure box isn't what removes most AI fiction. The Guide to Kindle Content Quality lists "disappointing content" Amazon doesn't allow, and several items read as if written about generated books:
- "Content that is not significantly different from content in another book available in the Kindle Store"
- "Content that is excessively reused, recycled, or repeated within or across books"
- "Content that is too short"
- "Content that is poorly translated"
- "Content that does not provide an enjoyable reading experience"
- "Content that is freely available on the web (unless you are the copyright owner of that content…)"
The last one matters if you serialised the book first. A story you posted free under your own name is yours, which the exception covers.
On how this is enforced, KDP's Metadata Guidelines say Amazon uses "a combination of machine learning, automation, and dedicated teams of human reviewers", and "If we remove a title, we let the author, publisher, or selling partner know and they can appeal our decision." ScribeCount reports that enforcement of the AI rule was sporadic at first and ramped up through 2025 and 2026; Amazon hasn't published figures on it.
KDP's rules for spicy and dark romance
This isn't an AI rule, but it applies to every book, and it decides where a spicy or dark romance can be sold. (The craft of writing up to the line is in how to write dark romance.)
The Content Guidelines say Amazon doesn't sell content that "contains pornography, glorifies rape or pedophilia". Neither word is defined on the page. Erotica is still sold: ALLi's guide for erotica authors (updated July 2026) says erotica is its own category on KDP and can't be advertised.
Then there's the setup question every book answers. The Metadata Guidelines ask "Sexually Explicit Images or Title", and you select Yes if the cover or interior has "images containing nudity or sexual poses" or the title or subtitle has "words or phrases that refer to sexual acts, devices, fluids, or genitalia." The consequence is in the note: "Books containing sexually explicit images or titles will not surface in general product searches." A spicy book with a plain title and a clothed cover answers No.
Separately, ALLi describes Amazon's internal adult flag, which writers call the "dungeon": a flagged book stays on sale but is reachable "only by readers who've manually switched on 18+ search", and there is "no published list of what triggers it." Since June 2023 you can also flag your own book as explicit during setup.
One line in the content quality guide helps romance writers directly: "If you're publishing a romance novel, you can publish the book with two covers, the original cover and a discreet or alternate version," as long as the title or subtitle says "Discreet Version" or "Alternate Version."
Where KDP's rules fall short
- "Some sections" has no definition. A novel with three AI-expanded paragraphs and one with thirty chapters drafted by a model give the same first answer.
- Amazon says what it collects, not what it does with it. Nothing on the guideline pages says whether a yes affects review, ranking, Kindle Unlimited or ads. Nor do they say Amazon runs a detector; if a publisher or reader does, see whether AI detectors work on fiction before you answer a score.
- "Pornography" isn't defined, and the adult filter's triggers aren't published. Erotica writers learn the line from removals.
Writing the book in KudoWrite, publishing on KDP
KudoWrite hands you the file KDP asks for: the finished book exports as EPUB 3, a format KDP accepts for eBooks, or as PDF. On the AI question, it sits in the second and third rows of the workflow table above: you sketch each beat, a line or a full passage, and the AI writes or expands it; every Expand level keeps your words and events and adds sentences around them. By Amazon's wording those added sentences are AI-generated text, so answer yes for text. That's a disclosure, not a ban: KDP takes the book, and the content rules apply to it as to any other.
The explicit cut KDP won't sell has a place on KudoWrite's Community Books, which allows Explicit books and shows an "I'm 18 or older" notice before anyone reads one. Where to post AI-assisted and explicit stories compares it with AO3, Wattpad and the rest. Fan fiction is a different case, since KDP holds you to "all applicable intellectual property rights"; Wattpad's 2026 fanfiction rules say which Mature fics stay up there.
Before you press Publish
Answer the AI question part by part (text, images, translation) using Amazon's test of who created the words, and when a row of the table above says "probably", answer yes. Check the title and cover against the explicit-content question. Then open the Content Guidelines page linked above and read the AI section once more on the day you upload, because it carries no date and Amazon can change it. To draft the book itself, start it in KudoWrite: sign-up takes no card, there's one free credit to try it after you confirm your email, and one-off packs start at $3.50 for 100 credits. If the draft lives in Word or Scrivener, import the .docx or the Scrivener zip and pick up from there.