ISBNs are issued by national agencies, and each agency sets its own price. The result is one of publishing's stranger facts: the same 13-digit number can cost an author $125 or nothing at all, depending on their address.
United States
Bowker, through myidentifiers.com, is the sole ISBN agency for the US. As listed in September 2026, the prices are:
| Quantity | Price | Per ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $125 | $125.00 |
| 10 | $295 | $29.50 |
| 100 | $575 | $5.75 |
| 1,000 | $1,500 | $1.50 |
Prices change, so check the current page before buying. The shape of the table is the point: a single number is priced to push you to the block of ten.
A barcode is sold separately, typically $25 per barcode. You do not need to buy one; see ISBN vs barcode.
United Kingdom and Ireland
Nielsen is the agency. It charges for ISBNs, with a single number and blocks of ten, a hundred and more. Prices are lower per unit in larger blocks, following the same logic as the US.
Canada
Library and Archives Canada issues ISBNs free of charge to Canadian publishers, including self-publishers. You register as a publisher, then request numbers as you need them.
Elsewhere
Agencies in several countries, including India, issue ISBNs free. Australia (Thorpe-Bowker), Germany (MVB) and many others charge. The International ISBN Agency's website lists every national agency; the price is whatever your agency says it is.
How many do you need?
One ISBN covers one format of one edition. A paperback, a hardcover and an ebook of the same book are three ISBNs. A substantially revised edition is a new ISBN. A reprint with a corrected typo is not. A price change is never a new ISBN.
Most independent authors with one book in paperback and ebook need two. If a second book is likely, the block of ten is cheaper than two singles bought a year apart.
Free ISBNs from platforms
Amazon KDP, IngramSpark and some aggregators will assign an ISBN at no charge. The trade-off is that the platform, not you, is recorded as the publisher, and the number is usually locked to that platform. For authors who only ever sell through that one channel, this can be fine. For anyone planning to move printers or sell to bookstores, it is a false economy. We cover this in The free ISBN trade-off.
What the ISBN price does not include
Whatever you pay, an ISBN gives you a number. It does not give you a barcode file, a page for the book, a way to update its details after they have spread across retailer systems, or any information about who is scanning or buying it.
ScanSpine supplies those for $40 a year per title, whether or not you have an ISBN. If you do, we draw the official barcode for it, price add-on included. If you are in Canada or India, that combination of a free ISBN and a $40 service is as cheap as managing a book gets.