In brief. You do not have to print page numbers in a KDP paperback. If you do, Amazon’s Paperback Submission Guidelines require them to run sequentially, with even numbers on the left-hand page and odd numbers on the right for a left-to-right book. That is the pagination rule. It is not a requirement to number the book, and it is not a rule about outside corners. The upload check that actually rejects files is mirrored gutters: the inside margin must clear the spine and grows with page count, from 0.375 inches on a 24–150 page book to 0.875 inches at 701–828 pages. Set Mirror margins in Word, or use a formatter that already does.
Last reviewed by Robert Prime — 17 August 2026
You do not have to print page numbers in a KDP paperback. If you do print them, they must run sequentially, with odd numbers on the right-hand page and even numbers on the left. That is Amazon’s own pagination line, from the Paperback Submission Guidelines (help topic G201857950), fetched 17 August 2026.
It is not a requirement to number the book. Amazon never writes “page numbers are required.” The pagination block only applies when numbers are present. Google’s AI Overview currently adds a further claim — that visible numbers must sit in the outside corners — which does not appear on that help page.
The check that actually rejects files is a different one. KDP’s Print Previewer looks at structure: trim size, fonts, and whether the inside margin (the gutter) is wide enough for the page count. Folio style is not the usual fail. We format KDP paperbacks from £69, so treat that as the bias it is. The gutter table below is Amazon’s, not ours.
What Amazon actually writes
On Paperback Submission Guidelines, under Pagination, Amazon says:
Order all page numbers sequentially, with even numbers on left pages and odd numbers on the right for the left to right content, and with even numbers on right pages and odd numbers on the left for the right to left content.
That is the whole published rule for folios. Sequential. Even left, odd right, on a left-to-right book — which is every English-language paperback you will upload. The same page allows Roman numerals at the beginning, lets a series continue numbering if the series name and volume are labelled, and allows scanned content that already carries sequential original numbering in the footer.
“Incorrect pagination” is listed among the common points of failure. The companion page, Fix Paperback and Hardcover Formatting Issues, restates the fix as: “Make sure the page numbers are ordered sequentially,” then repeats the left-to-right and right-to-left pairings.
Neither page says you must include page numbers. Neither page says they must sit in the outside corners. Neither page says a missing folio is a reject.
Four things people lump under odd and even
The search is “alternating odd even required.” Four different book facts get folded into that phrase. Only two of them are Amazon rules, and they are not the same rule.
| Thing | What Amazon writes | What rejects the file |
|---|---|---|
| Page numbers (folios) | If present: sequential; even left, odd right (LTR) | Incorrect pagination is a named failure. Missing numbers are not |
| Margins / gutter | Inside margin scales with page count; outside has a published floor | Print Previewer checks margins. This is the usual upload fail |
| Chapter starts (recto) | Not stated as a requirement | Convention. Amazon will accept a chapter that opens on the left |
| Total page count | Calculated from the file; rounded up to even if needed; minimum 24 | Under the floor, or over the trim/ink maximum — not odd-versus-even |
All fetched 17 August 2026, from G201857950 and G201834260.
If you came here from a snippet that said KDP “does not require different odd and even page numbers,” that line was ours, and it was wrong. The live page contradicted Amazon’s pagination sentence. This rewrite is the correction.
The thing that actually fails upload: mirrored gutters
In a bound paperback the spine sits on the inside of every leaf. On a right-hand page (recto, odd) the binding is on the left. On a left-hand page (verso, even) the binding is on the right. The inside margin has to swap sides or the text runs into the glue.
That swap is a margin setting, not a page-number setting. You can have a perfectly numbered book that still fails because the gutter is too tight. You can have a book with no folios at all that passes because the gutters are mirrored and wide enough.
Amazon’s inside-margin table, fetched 17 August 2026 from G201857950:
| Page count | Inside (gutter) | Outside (no bleed) | Outside (with bleed) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24–150 | 0.375" (9.6 mm) | at least 0.25" (6.4 mm) | at least 0.375" (9.6 mm) |
| 151–300 | 0.5" (12.7 mm) | at least 0.25" (6.4 mm) | at least 0.375" (9.6 mm) |
| 301–500 | 0.625" (15.9 mm) | at least 0.25" (6.4 mm) | at least 0.375" (9.6 mm) |
| 501–700 | 0.75" (19.1 mm) | at least 0.25" (6.4 mm) | at least 0.375" (9.6 mm) |
| 701–828 | 0.875" (22.3 mm) | at least 0.25" (6.4 mm) | at least 0.375" (9.6 mm) |
The thicker the book, the more the spine eats, so the bigger the gutter has to be. A 130-page novella and a 450-page memoir at the same trim do not share an inside margin.
Print Previewer’s automated checks, on G201834260, include margins, cover size and fonts. A reviewer then looks at the file after you submit. The previewer is looking at structure. It is not scoring whether your folio sits in the outer corner.
G201834260 also caps blank pages: no more than four consecutive blanks at the beginning or in the middle, and no more than ten at the end. That is a separate reject from pagination.
If you only came for the numbers, stop here: omit them, or number them sequentially odd-right / even-left, and set the gutter from the table. The KDP margin calculator on this site is a convenience wrapper around the same figures. Confirm against Amazon before you lock a file.
How to set folios if you use them
Dedicated tools — Vellum, Atticus, InDesign, Reedsy Studio — treat a book as a spread. They put odd numbers on the right because that is how a printed leaf works. You still have to check the first numbered page is a recto.
In Microsoft Word:
- Layout → Margins → Custom Margins. Under Multiple pages, choose Mirror margins. Word then shows Inside and Outside instead of Left and Right. Set Inside from the gutter table for your page count.
- Insert a section break after the front matter, not a page break. Front matter can carry Roman numerals (i, ii, iii). The body starts a new section at Arabic 1.
- Arabic 1 must land on a right-hand page. If chapter one opens on the left, the sequence is already wrong: you will print an even number on a recto, or an odd number on a verso.
- Header & Footer → Different Odd & Even Pages if you want the folio (or a running head) to sit on opposite sides of the spread. That checkbox is how Word mirrors position. It is not itself an Amazon gate.
- Different First Page on the chapter-opening section if you want the chapter start clean. Suppressing a folio on a chapter recto is ordinary trade practice. It is not a KDP rule either way.
A copyright page sits on the verso of the title leaf in a conventional book. That is also convention. KDP does not reject a copyright page that lands somewhere else, provided the file is readable and the ISBN on it matches the metadata. The UK ISBN guide is the neighbouring piece if the number itself is the problem.
On UK trims: B-format (129 × 198 mm), 5 × 8 in, and A5 are the sizes most UK paperbacks use. The gutter still scales with page count. Changing trim does not change the pagination sentence.
Recto chapter starts are convention
Open a traditionally typeset novel and new chapters begin on a right-hand page. Where the previous chapter ends on a recto, the typesetter inserts a blank verso so the next chapter still lands odd.
Amazon does not require this. A chapter that opens on the left will go through. The cost of doing it “properly” is the extra leaves: they add to the page count Amazon calculates, which feeds print cost and spine width. The paperback formatting template walks the UK sizes; the paperback formatting guide is the longer setup.
Do not confuse those inserted blank versos with the blank-page limits on G201834260. One intentional blank before a chapter is fine. Four in a row in the middle of the book is not.
Odd total page count is a different question
Authors hit a page-count error and describe it as an “odd page” problem. They mean the total, not the folios.
Amazon’s wording, fetched 17 August 2026: “We’ll calculate your page count based on your manuscript file, rounding up to an even number if necessary. The minimum page count is 24 pages…”
They do not reject a manuscript because the PDF has an odd number of pages. They round. What they do reject is a file under the 24-page floor, or over the maximum for that trim and ink. That is a count constraint, not a parity constraint, and not a numbering constraint.
Our sister page on the odd page count error ranks for that search. Treat Amazon’s “rounding up” sentence as current. The page count rules piece is the min/max table by trim.
Common mistakes
- Uniform margins on a thick book. Text vanishes into the spine on half the pages. Mirror the gutter; do not spend the evening nudging a footer.
- Starting Arabic 1 on a left-hand page. The sequence then puts even numbers on the right. That is the pagination failure Amazon actually names.
- Treating outside corners as a KDP rule. The AI Overview says visible numbers must alternate to the outside corners so they are not hidden in the spine. G201857950 does not say that. Outer-corner placement is how most trade books are set, because a folio in the gutter would disappear. It is still a convention, not a published Amazon requirement.
- Reading a page-count error as a page-number error. If KDP flags page count, check the floor and ceiling for the trim. See the rejection decoder if the message is one of the others.
- Assuming a single blank verso is a fault. The blank before a recto chapter start is intentional. Four consecutive blanks are not.
- Repeating our old line. “KDP does not require different odd and even page numbers” was the live snippet. It contradicted Amazon, and it is why a #1 result was skipped.
Formatting, and who should not buy it
We format KDP paperbacks and Kindle files from £69. That is a production job: trim, mirrored gutters, section breaks, export. It is not a page-number job. If you can set Mirror margins in Word and you can read Amazon’s gutter table, you do not need us for this. The KDP readiness audit is free and will tell you whether the file already clears the structural checks.
Buy the formatting service if the Word file still will not export a clean print PDF, or if you have never made a print edition and you want one that matches the gutter table on the first upload. Skip it if the only question you had was whether the numbers have to alternate. They do, if they exist. You can also leave them off.
What we could not verify
- A published Amazon sentence that says page numbers are optional, required, or recommended. The pagination block is conditional on numbers being present. The inference — you may omit them — is ours, not a quote.
- Any Amazon line that requires folios in the outside corners. G201857950 says sequential, even left / odd right. Outside-corner placement is a typesetting convention that Google’s AI Overview currently states as a KDP rule. We could not find that wording on the help pages fetched 17 August 2026.
- A published reject rate for folio placement versus gutter. Click Gap’s working note, and our own upload experience, is that Print Previewer fails margins more often than it fails a footer. Amazon does not publish the split.
- Whether a file with no folios at all is ever failed specifically for “Incorrect pagination.” The named failure is incorrect (present) pagination.
- Whether a folio set in the inner margin, but still sequential and odd-right / even-left, is rejected. Amazon does not say. It would be a poor book. That is not the same as a published rule.
- Live Print Previewer behaviour on a login-walled upload we did not run for this review. The checks listed above are from the public help pages.
- The sister page’s older claim that KDP requires an even total page count. Amazon’s current sentence is that they round up. We have not re-audited that sister page for this rewrite.
Related guides
- KDP page count rules
- KDP odd page count error
- KDP paperback formatting template (UK)
- KDP paperback formatting
- KDP formatting checklist (2026)
- KDP rejection error decoder
- ISBN requirements UK
External references
All fetched 17 August 2026.
- Amazon KDP: Paperback Submission Guidelines — pagination sentence, gutter table, 24-page floor, “Incorrect pagination” as a common point of failure.
- Amazon KDP: Fix Paperback and Hardcover Formatting Issues — Print Previewer (margins, cover size, fonts), sequential-numbering fix, blank-page limits.
- Amazon KDP: Format a Paperback Manuscript (Word) — “Right-facing pages are odd numbered pages in printed books because the first piece of paper is on the right side, facing up from the open, printed book.”
Frequently asked questions
Does KDP require odd and even page numbers?
You do not have to print them. If you do, they must run sequentially: even numbers on the left-hand page, odd numbers on the right, for a left-to-right book. That is the pagination sentence on G201857950, fetched 17 August 2026. Right-to-left languages reverse the pairing.
Does KDP require page numbers at all?
Amazon does not publish a sentence that says you must include them. The pagination block on the Paperback Submission Guidelines only applies when numbers are present. Plenty of trade paperbacks omit folios on chapter opens; some omit them entirely. Treat “optional” as an inference, not a quote.
What actually has to alternate between left and right pages?
The gutter. On a right-hand page the binding is on the left; on a left-hand page it is on the right. Use mirrored margins so the inside margin swaps sides and text never runs into the spine. The gutter size scales with page count — 0.375 inches at 24–150 pages, up to 0.875 inches at 701–828.
Do page numbers have to sit in the outside corners?
Not on Amazon’s published pagination line. G201857950 requires sequential numbering, even left and odd right. It does not mention corners. Outside-corner placement is a typesetting convention — a folio in the gutter would disappear into the binding — and it is what Google’s AI Overview currently states as a KDP rule. We could not find that wording on the help pages.
Is an odd total page count a problem for KDP?
No. Amazon calculates page count from the manuscript and rounds up to an even number if necessary. The published floor is 24 pages. Do not confuse “odd page numbers” with “odd total page count.”
Does Amazon KDP automatically add page numbers?
No. You insert them in the manuscript, or you leave them off. KDP does not stamp folios onto a print PDF at upload. Kindle’s own location or “page” display in the reading app is a separate system and is not the paperback folio.
