Price the promise, not the page count. Buyers aren't paying for a PDF; they're paying for dinner going right. Price with that in mind and a digital cookbook holds a real price without apology.
What do digital cookbooks actually sell for?
The working range for a focused, well-made digital cookbook is $15–$35 one-time. Under $15, buyers read “cheap” and creators lose most of the sale to fixed costs — which is why mykitchen.bio sets $15 as the minimum one-time price. Themed, specific books (“30 high-protein dinners”) support higher prices than general collections.
One-time or subscription?
Both work; they sell different promises. One-time sells a finished thing. A living cookbook sells a relationship: subscribers (minimum $9/month or $35/year) get every new recipe you add, automatically. The strongest recent example in food media is a recipe subscription priced at “the price of a cookbook” per year — Caroline Chambers' What to Cook built a seven-figure business on exactly that model. If you post recipes regularly anyway, subscription pricing turns your normal output into recurring income.
How much do I keep?
The math is simple on purpose: sell a $15 cookbook on Pay-as-you-go and the all-in fee is $1.50 — you keep $13.50, card processing included, before refunds and payout timing. On Pro the fee drops to 7.5%. (Compare that with traditional publishing, where a book publisher typically keeps 85–92% of the cover price.) Sales tax, where required, is collected separately at checkout — your price stays your price.
A simple way to choose your number
Start at $19–$24 for a themed one-time book. If your audience asks for more recipes rather than more discounts, you priced it right. Raise prices on your next book, not your last one — early buyers becoming “I got it early” fans is a feature.