How to Buy Kindle Books on Your iPad Using Amazon

Advertisement Amazon's Kindle app is a popular app for reading books, but it has an unexpected and frustrating omission you can't use it to purchase Kindle books. Because Apple claims 30% of all in-app content sales, Amazon doesn't offer in-app purchases for Kindle books. Instead, you have to make the purchases on the Amazon

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Amazon's Kindle app is a popular app for reading books, but it has an unexpected and frustrating omission — you can't use it to purchase Kindle books. 

Because Apple claims 30% of all in-app content sales, Amazon doesn't offer in-app purchases for Kindle books. Instead, you have to make the purchases on the Amazon web site — you can't do it in the Amazon store app, either. 

Here's exactly how to do that. 

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Check out the products mentioned in this article:

iPad (From $329.99 at Best Buy)

How to buy Kindle books on your iPad

1. Start the Safari app on your iPad. 

2. Open Amazon.com and sign into your Amazon account. 

3. If you prefer, you can do this in a browser on a computer. It doesn't matter where you log in — the important point is that you log into Amazon using the same Amazon account that is associated with your Kindle app on the iPad.  

4. Find the book you want to purchase and make sure that you choose the Kindle version. 

Find the book you want to buy on the Amazon website and be sure you have selected the Kindle version. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

5. Follow the usual steps to complete the purchase.

6. You may see a dropdown menu to choose where to deliver the Kindle book to. This menu will list all the devices on which you've installed a Kindle app. It doesn't matter which one you choose. 

You can choose your iPad from the dropdown list if you want, but it doesn't really matter — you can access all purchased books from all devices and Kindle apps associated with this Amazon account. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

7. After the purchase is complete, start the Kindle app on your iPad. 

8. Tap "Library" at the bottom of the screen and then tap "All" at the top of the screen. 

9. If you don't see the book you just purchased, tap "Sort" at the top right of the screen and then in the dropdown menu, tap "Recent." 

  • You might also need to swipe down from the top of the screen to refresh the app.
The newly purchased book should appear in the library of your Kindle app. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

10. Tap the book to download and begin reading it.

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Dave Johnson

Freelance Writer

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