About the KDP Keyword Formatter
KDP gives every book seven keyword boxes, and each box has a character limit. Most authors collect far more phrases than fit: ideas from Amazon's search bar, competitor listings, notes and research tools. Sorting that pile by hand, removing repeats and juggling phrases between boxes is slow and easy to get wrong.
Paste your whole list and this formatter does the tidy work. It splits phrases on new lines, commas, semicolons, tabs or pipes, removes punctuation if you want, sets consistent capitalization and removes duplicates, including near duplicates such as "Keto Diet!" and "keto diet" or "low carb recipes" and "recipes low carb". It then packs the unique phrases into seven fields without splitting a phrase across boxes.
Each field shows a live character meter, the number of characters left and a text status, plus its own Copy button so you can paste straight into KDP. Phrases that did not fit and phrases that are too long for any single box are listed separately so you can decide what to cut. You can also download the cleaned list as a .txt or .csv file for your records. For choosing which phrases deserve a place, read how to choose KDP keywords.
How It Works
The list is split into phrases, extra spaces are collapsed and, if selected, punctuation is stripped while apostrophes and hyphens inside words are kept. Your capitalization choice is applied before duplicates are checked, so recased copies are caught too.
Duplicate checking can be exact or normalized. Normalized matching ignores letter case, punctuation and apostrophes, and can also ignore word order. The first version of each phrase is kept.
Pack efficiently places the longest phrases first and puts each one in the first field with room, which usually fits the most phrases. Keep my order places phrases in the order you typed them, so your highest priority phrases land in the first fields. A space is added between phrases in the same field and counts toward the limit.
Formula
- Field length
- Field characters = sum of phrase lengths + one space between each phrase
- Fits in a field
- Current length + 1 + phrase length ≤ character limit per field
Example
Twelve keto phrases, lowercase, normalized duplicates, ignore word order, packed efficiently
- 12 phrases are pasted, including "Keto Cookbook for Beginners!" (a recased copy of "keto cookbook for beginners") and "recipes low carb" (a reordered copy of "low carb recipes").
- Both are removed as duplicates, leaving 10 unique phrases.
- Longest first: field 1 becomes "intermittent fasting for women over 50 keto snacks" (50 characters) and field 2 "keto cookbook for beginners air fryer keto recipes" (50 characters).
- Field 3 holds 39 characters, field 4 holds 48 and field 5 holds "quick keto meals" (16).
All 10 phrases fit in 5 fields with no overflow, leaving fields 6 and 7 free for more relevant phrases.
Important Notes
- The character limit per field and the number of fields come from the site's central KDP settings. Check KDP's current keyword guidance when you publish.
- Characters are counted as your browser stores them. Most letters, accented letters included, count as one; some emoji count as two.
- The tool does not judge relevance or search volume. It only cleans, dedupes and fits the phrases you give it.
- Your list never leaves your browser.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should keyword fields be phrases or single words?
Either works, but phrases that match how readers actually search tend to be more useful. Because Amazon can match words across a field, you can place several short phrases in one field separated by spaces, which is exactly what this tool does.
Do I need commas between phrases in a field?
No. Spaces are enough, and commas only use up characters. The formatter joins phrases with single spaces.
Why did a phrase end up in Did not fit?
All seven fields were too full to take it. Remove weaker phrases, shorten long ones, or drop words that already appear in your title, subtitle or another field.
What is the difference between Pack efficiently and Keep my order?
Pack efficiently sorts longest first, which usually squeezes in more phrases. Keep my order respects your ranking, so if your list is sorted by priority, the most important phrases are guaranteed a place even if fewer phrases fit overall.
Does capitalization matter for Amazon keywords?
Amazon search is not case sensitive, so lowercase is the simplest and most consistent choice. Title Case and Sentence case are available if you prefer how they look in your notes.
Will removing punctuation break phrases like don't or self-help?
No. Apostrophes and hyphens inside words are kept. Only stray punctuation such as exclamation marks, quotes and trailing commas is removed.
Can I put author names or other book titles in keywords?
KDP's keyword guidelines do not allow other authors' names, trademarks you do not own, or misleading terms. This tool does not check for those, so review your list against KDP's rules.
Related KDP Tools
- Keyword Character CounterCount characters in each of your seven keyword fields against the limit.
- Keyword DeduplicatorFind and remove exact or near-duplicate keywords from a list.
- Keyword List CleanerStrip punctuation, extra spaces, empty lines and duplicates from keyword lists.
- Keyword CombinerCombine prefixes, core keywords and suffixes into keyword phrase ideas.