The Cheapest Way to Make a Coloring Book in 2026: What One Book Really Costs

"From $9 a month" tells you very little. What matters is what you actually pay to make one coloring book that you are allowed to sell, with pages the right size for print and a cover.

So we priced the same book in every tool. It is a 24-page coloring book, which is KDP's minimum for a paperback, plus a cover. For each tool we found the smallest amount you must pay to make it and sell it. Prices come from each tool's own pricing page, billed monthly, checked on October 13, 2026.

Disclosure: we make InkChamps. It comes out cheapest below because of its one-time credit packs, and we show the maths so you can check it. Where another option is cheaper, we say so.

The answer

• Cheapest paid option: InkChamps, at $4.99 one-time. The smallest credit pack has 50 credits, and a 24-page book with a generated cover uses 26. Nothing renews, and the 24 credits left over last 12 months.
• Cheapest overall: drawing pages one at a time in ChatGPT's free tier and laying them out in Canva Free costs $0. You pay in time instead. You set the trim, bleed, margins and cover yourself, and the free tier limits how many images you can make.
• Most expensive surprise: two popular page generators only let you sell what you make on plans costing $35 to $40 a month.

What one 24-page book costs in each tool

"Minimum to make and sell" means the smallest purchase that covers 24 pages plus a cover on a plan that allows commercial use.

How the credits were counted:

• InkChamps: 1 credit per standard page and 2 credits for a generated front and back cover, so 24 + 2 = 26.
• Koloring.ai: 2 credits per AI page, so 48 credits for 24 pages before any HD downloads.
• KDP Coloring Book Studio: 1 credit per page and 3 per cover. It estimates about 40 credits for a 24-page book once you allow for edits.

MyColoring.ai and iColoring.ai do not state how many credits a page uses, so we show their entry price.

Why InkChamps comes out cheapest

1. You can buy credits once, with no subscription. Many people make one book, see how it sells and only then make the next. Subscriptions charge you every month whether you make a book or not. InkChamps sells one-time packs that last 12 months and never renew:

If you publish every month, the monthly plans cost less per credit:

Packs and plan credits add up, so you can top up a plan with a pack.

2. Commercial use is included with every purchase. It is not locked behind a higher tier, and there is no watermark.

3. The print work is included. The interior PDF comes at your KDP trim size (8.5 × 11, 8.5 × 8.5 or 6 × 9 in). It has 0.125 in bleed if you want it, a gutter that grows with page count, padding to 24 pages and an even count, one-sided coloring pages, and 300 DPI. The cover creator builds the full wrap and works out the spine from the page count. With a cheaper-looking page generator, you either do this yourself or pay someone to.

4. You pay only for books that finish. Credits are taken when the book is done, and a failed book costs nothing.

What a whole book costs in InkChamps

Standard pages cost 1 credit. Premium pages cost 2.5 credits; that is the quality InkChamps suggests for books you sell. Puzzle pages in activity books are always 1 credit, and answer pages are free. Redrawing a page costs the same as the page did.

When another option is cheaper

• You have more time than money. ChatGPT's free tier plus Canva Free costs nothing. Expect to fix grey shading and thin lines, keep the style consistent across pages, upscale images to 300 DPI, and set KDP's 0.125 in bleed yourself.
• You make hundreds of single pages a month and do your own layout. On their top plans, some page generators charge less per credit than InkChamps. Check how many credits a page uses, whether that plan allows selling, and whether you will pay someone for print setup.
• You already draw your own pages. Then you only need layout and a cover, and Canva Free does that at no cost.

Costs people forget

• Monthly renewals. A $7 weekly plan left running for a month costs $28 or more.
• Yearly billing shown as a monthly price. Several pricing pages open on yearly billing. Their "$6.99 a month" means paying for 12 months up front.
• Commercial use on a higher plan. If your plan does not allow selling, the cheap plan is not the real price.
• The cover. KDP needs one PDF with back, spine and front, and the spine width depends on page count. Use the free spine calculator and cover validator whichever tool you use.
• Rejected uploads. Wrong trim, bleed or page count gets a file sent back. Run it through the free KDP interior checker first.

KDP itself charges nothing to publish. The printing cost is taken out of each sale.

Make your book for $4.99

Pick a theme, an age group and a page count, and InkChamps builds the pages and the print-ready PDF. Start a coloring book, or see every pack and plan on the pricing page.

For a full feature comparison rather than a price one, see the best tool to create a KDP coloring book.

Sources

All checked October 13, 2026:

• InkChamps pricing
• Koloring.ai pricing
• KDP Coloring Book Studio
• MyColoring.ai pricing
• iColoring.ai pricing
• Book Bolt pricing
• ColorBliss pricing
• ColoringBook.ai pricing
• Canva pricing (US)

Prices change often; check the tool's own pricing page before you buy. All product names are trademarks of their owners, and InkChamps is not affiliated with any of them.