Big news. Amazon is going to start giving Kindle ebook customers the option to download DRM-free Kindle ebooks in standard EPUB and PDF formats directly from the Manage Your Content and Devices page at Amazon.
The change will go into effect on January 20th, 2026 according to Amazon’s Digital Rights Management page. However, existing DRM-free ebooks won’t automatically get the EPUB and PDF download option; authors and publishers have to approve the change for each individual book before the option can be made available (directions on how to do so can be found on the linked page above).
It’s hard to believe that Amazon is actually doing something that benefits readers for a change instead of locking down Kindle ebooks even more like they’ve been doing over the past year, but this is really happening. Here’s a quote from Amazon’s ebook publishing website:
Effective January 20, 2026, readers can download EPUB and PDF files of your DRM-free books from their Manage Your Content and Devices page on Amazon. Only verified purchasers who have bought your book can access the EPUB/PDF files. Customers who borrowed your books through Kindle Unlimited or other services can’t download the EPUB/PDF files, even if the books are DRM-free.
This is a huge deal. One of the biggest complaints about the Kindle platform is how Amazon has locked customers into using Kindle apps and Kindle ereaders to read Kindle ebooks. After this change goes live you’ll be able to read DRM-free Kindle ebooks natively on Kobos and Pocketbooks and all manner of ereaders and apps such as KOReader without having to jump through hoops with DRM removal and trying to get ebooks away from Amazon.
Another huge benefit to this change is it will give authors that use KDP Select a way to offer their ebooks to non-Kindle users by making them DRM-free. Unless you’re a big time author, Amazon requires ebooks in Kindle Unlimited to be exclusive to the Kindle platform, making it so authors cannot sell them on other platforms. If authors choose to make their ebooks DRM-free then people that use Kobos, for instance, will be able to buy the ebook from Amazon and read it on a Kobo without any extra nonsense aside from sideloading.
This is a clever move by Amazon. Now they’re effectively moving the blame of having locked down DRM’d ebooks onto the shoulders of authors and publishers. By giving everyone that publishes on the Kindle platform the option to offer ebooks in DRM-free EPUB and PDF formats, people can no longer complain that Amazon is the one keeping the Kindle platform locked down. It’s entirely up to authors and publishers moving forward.
Amazon gets a lot of flack for creating a DRM system that actually works, unlike Adobe, but it’s the publishers that insist on keeping the archaic DRM system in place. If enough people start boycotting publishers that use DRM then maybe we can finally get them to change.
It’s also nice to see that Amazon is going to start offering truly DRM-free ebooks once again. For a long time they’ve been advertising DRM-free ebooks on their website that aren’t really DRM-free because KFX ebooks always have some form of DRM. But once this change goes into effect and publishers like Tor that don’t apply DRM to their ebooks start making their ebooks downloadable in EPUB and PDF formats you’ll be able to easily get DRM-free copies directly from Amazon.
via: MobileRead
The biggest casualty of Amazon’s war on users has been their bookstore for non-Kindle customers. For a couple of years before this latest Amazon attack, the Amazon bookstore was my go-to source for books on my Kobo & Pocketbook. Pretty sure I wasn’t alone. Then it became impossible and that impossibility didn’t drive me back to the awfulness that is Kindle, it made me find other sources for books.
This new policy seems to be Amazon finally understanding that they can profit from readers of non-Kindle books..
Better late than never but it kinda makes you wonder about the morons who’ve been running that place before this because none of this is exactly rocket science.
Wow! I’m stunned. This will be so great for self-published authors who are Amazon-exclusive. I will still buy the majority of my books elsewhere, but it is good to know that Amazon will again be an option for truly DRM-free books on titles that should be.