Amazon is changing how its Kindle DRM works, but only for these titles

I like Amazon’s lineup of Kindle e-readers, but one thing that frustrates me, and many others as well, is how locked down its software experience is compared to other e-readers on the market, like Kobo.

Over the past year, Amazon has only made things more complicated. In February, it removed the ability for users to “Download and Transfer via USB,” making it even harder for people to back up the Kindle e-books they’ve purchased. Additionally, with a recent Kindle software update, it has implemented an even stricter DRM (Digital Rights Management) system for all its Kindle e-books, making it harder for people to use e-book management tools like Calibre.

Now, in a surprising twist, Amazon is actually loosening up its DRM policy, but only for select titles, and at the author’s discretion. In a recent blog post, Amazon announced that authors using its self-publishing platform, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), will be able to offer DRM-free books for download in EPUB or PDF format.

“Starting January 20, 2026, Amazon will make it easier for readers to enjoy content they have purchased from the Kindle store across a wider range of devices and applications by allowing new titles published without Digital Rights Management (DRM) to be downloaded in EPUB or PDF format,” Amazon posted on the KDP Forum.

This won’t affect very many titles

Only new titles marked DRM-free will be affected, unless the author changes it

For Kindle users who want to download an e-book they’ve purchased that’s DRM-free as a PDF or EPUB file, and then put it on another device, like their PC or Kobo, this will surely come as good news.

However, the number of titles this will actually impact will likely be very small. First, this will only affect books that Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) authors have marked as DMR-free on or after December 9, 2025. This means DMR-free titles published before that date won’t be available to download as an EPUB or PDF unless the author updates them manually in the KDP portal. Second, the vast majority of books on the Kindle store are protected by DMR, and will continue to be, so you still won’t be able to download them in other formats even if you’ve purchased them.

There’s also a chance that this change will lead some authors to stop offering their books as DRM-free, especially if they don’t want them downloadable as PDFs. This is the case for one author, Leslie Anne Perry, who mentioned on the Kindle Direct Publishing Forum that this will cause them to rethink making their books DRM-free (via TechCrunch).

“Previously I have not enabled DRM on my e-books. My thinking was that I wanted folks to be able to download them to other devices within their own household,” Anne Perry explained. “However, I think I will enable it on any future e-books. I’m not sure I want people to be able to download them as a PDFs.”

Overall, it’s entirely up to KDP authors whether they want their books to be DRM-free. Starting next year, books made DRM-free after December 9, 2025, can also be downloaded in EPUB or PDF format by purchasers. Some authors will likely embrace this, while others may be more cautious. As a result, the number of DRM-free titles available to download as EPUB or PDF will probably be small at first, though it could grow if more authors opt in over the coming year and beyond.