Best Coloring Book Niches for KDP (2026): 26 Niches Checked on Amazon

Nov 4, 2026 · Rey Midas · Counted from Amazon.com search results that day

Five niches let new books in: trucks and construction for kids, capybara, Christmas, axolotl and dinosaurs for kids. In each, at least three of the top 10 books on Amazon have fewer than 100 ratings and still rank under #100,000 in Books. The “low-competition” niches that KDP vendor blogs recommend are a different story. Golden retriever, highland cow, zodiac mandala and grumpy cat do have few books. They also have few buyers: the median top-10 book in those four ranks between #182,522 and #2,223,412.

We searched 26 niches on November 4, 2026 and opened the first ten books of each, 233 different books in all. Disclosure: we sell a coloring book generator, so weigh our conclusions with that in mind. The counts are below for you to check.

Picked a niche? Every row below has a Draw a sample link that opens our generator with that theme filled in. Draw a free page here (about 15 seconds, no signup), or make the full book for $9.99.

All 26 niches, counted

Niche	Results	Median ratings	Median rank	Newcomers selling	Verdict
Trucks & construction (kids) “truck coloring book for kids”	40,000+	69	#30,133	5 of 9	Room for a new book	Draw a sample →
Capybara “capybara coloring book”	7,000+	17	#84,410	4 of 9	Room for a new book	Draw a sample →
Christmas (adults) “christmas coloring book for adults”	50,000+	485	#1,438	4 of 10	Room for a new book	Draw a sample →
Axolotl “axolotl coloring book”	6,000+	34	#136,402	3 of 9	Room for a new book	Draw a sample →
Dinosaurs (kids) “dinosaur coloring book for kids”	50,000+	903	#46,263	3 of 9	Room for a new book	Draw a sample →
Large print for seniors “large print coloring book for seniors”	40,000+	617	#9,701	2 of 10	Possible with a sharp angle	Draw a sample →
Dogs (adults) “dog coloring book for adults”	50,000+	171	#32,913	2 of 10	Possible with a sharp angle	Draw a sample →
Flowers (adults) “flower coloring book for adults”	50,000+	299	#24,491	2 of 9	Possible with a sharp angle	Draw a sample →
Ocean (adults) “ocean coloring book for adults”	20,000+	1,411	#45,550	2 of 10	Possible with a sharp angle	Draw a sample →
Horror “horror coloring book”	30,000+	305	#28,098	2 of 10	Possible with a sharp angle	Draw a sample →
Bible “bible coloring book”	50,000+	249	#19,751	2 of 9	Possible with a sharp angle	Draw a sample →
Swear words “swear word coloring book”	20,000+	746	#30,106	1 of 10	Possible with a sharp angle	text pages
Bold and easy “bold and easy coloring book”	50,000+	1,650	#2,004	1 of 10	Possible with a sharp angle	Draw a sample →
Unicorns (kids) “unicorn coloring book for kids”	50,000+	848	#31,519	1 of 9	Possible with a sharp angle	Draw a sample →
Kawaii “kawaii coloring book”	50,000+	449	#11,699	1 of 10	Possible with a sharp angle	Draw a sample →
Cozy “cozy coloring book for adults”	50,000+	6,700	#375	0 of 10	Crowded at the top	Draw a sample →
Mandala “mandala coloring book for adults”	50,000+	2,700	#26,601	0 of 8	Crowded at the top	Draw a sample →
Cats (adults) “cat coloring book for adults”	50,000+	721	#15,445	0 of 10	Crowded at the top	Draw a sample →
Toddler “toddler coloring book”	50,000+	1,200	#3,434	0 of 9	Crowded at the top	Draw a sample →
Mushrooms “mushroom coloring book”	10,000+	95	#131,317	1 of 10	Few buyers	Draw a sample →
Highland cow “highland cow coloring book”	2,000+	9	#182,522	1 of 10	Few buyers	Draw a sample →
Golden retriever “golden retriever coloring book”	2,000+	1	#915,863	1 of 10	Few buyers	Draw a sample →
Cottagecore “cottagecore coloring book”	10,000+	53	#182,658	1 of 9	Few buyers	Draw a sample →
Birds (adults) “bird coloring book for adults”	30,000+	187	#113,072	0 of 10	Few buyers	Draw a sample →
Grumpy cat “grumpy cat coloring book”	977	67	#510,950	0 of 9	Few buyers	Draw a sample →
Zodiac mandala “zodiac mandala coloring book”	1,000+	0	#2,223,412	0 of 9	Few buyers	Draw a sample →

How to read it. Results is the count Amazon shows for the search (it stops at “over 50,000”). Median ratings and median rank cover the first ten organic books that are coloring books on that theme; rank is the Best Sellers Rank in all of Amazon Books. Newcomers selling counts top-10 books with under 100 ratings that rank under #100,000. Verdicts follow one rule, in this order: 3 or more newcomers selling = room for a new book; otherwise a median rank above #100,000 = few buyers; otherwise 1–2 newcomers = possible with a sharp angle, and 0 = crowded at the top. “Swear words” has no sample link because those books are lettering, and our generator draws pictures.

How we counted

Amazon.com, Books department, delivery set to a US ZIP code (Nashville), on November 4, 2026 around 16:10 UTC. Page 1 only, as a buyer sees it. We found no result labeled Sponsored on any of the 26 pages.
For each search we opened the first ten books and read the Best Sellers Rank, publication date, page count and publisher. We dropped sticker books, velvet art, a licensed Zodiac Academy fan book, and books whose title doesn’t name the theme. That last rule matters once: Cats Being Dicks (1,100 ratings, #9,540) sits on the grumpy cat search page but isn’t a grumpy cat book. Style searches (cozy, bold and easy, toddler, kawaii) count every coloring book Amazon put there except sticker books. Median rank leaves out books with no rank at all (2 in mandala, 3 in zodiac mandala, 1 in grumpy cat).
A Best Sellers Rank is a snapshot of recent sales that changes through the day. We use it to compare niches on the same afternoon, not to estimate copies. Rank calculators disagree widely, and Amazon publishes no sales per book.

Where new books are getting in

Trucks and construction, for kids. The median top-10 book has only 69 ratings, and all 9 rank under #60,000. Two independent books published in March 2026, Big Monster Trucks Coloring Book (7 ratings, #30,133) and Big Trucks Coloring Book for Toddlers Ages 2–6 (14 ratings, #36,764), sit next to a 2017 book with 2,300 ratings. The clearest opening in this count.
Capybara. 7 of the 9 top books have under 100 ratings, and 5 came out in 2026. Random House’s Cozy Capybara leads at #1,449, but three independent books with 9, 12 and 48 ratings rank between #54,327 and #84,410. The shelf is young and still filling.
Christmas, for adults. Every top-10 book ranked under #10,000 that afternoon; only cozy ranked higher. An independent book from August 28, 2026 with 28 ratings is #2 on page 1 at #999 overall, and one from September 9 with 13 ratings ranks #4,062. It is a short window: we counted how late is too late.
Dinosaurs, for kids. Big names hold the top (Dover, Z Kids), but three 2026 books with 5 to 23 ratings rank between #16,583 and #74,164. All three name an age band in the title (two “ages 4–8”, one “toddlers”).
Axolotl. 8 of 9 top books have under 100 ratings, but only 4 rank under #100,000, so it is a small shelf: room to be seen, less to sell.

The “low-competition” niches with few buyers

Vendor lists recommend narrow subjects: grumpy cats, capybaras, highland cows and axolotls (KDPBuilder), a golden retriever book over a generic dog book (BookCoversLab), and zodiac mandalas with “about 200 competitors” earning “about $1,200 a month”, a figure one blog credits to KDP Easy (WisePPC). Narrow is good advice. Capybara holds up, and axolotl does on a small scale. The rest didn’t on November 4:

Zodiac mandala: Amazon shows over 1,000 results for the phrase, against the “about 200 competitors” claimed. 6 of the top 9 books came out in 2026 and 5 have no ratings at all. The best-ranked is #213,865; the median, #2,223,412. Many people are publishing it; few are buying.
Golden retriever: all 10 top books have under 100 ratings (median 1), and 9 of them rank worse than #100,000. The median is #915,863.
Grumpy cat: the top two are 2014 and 2016 Dover books tied to the meme, now ranked #1,214,313 and #1,816,303. None of the top 9 ranks better than #239,916.
Highland cow: healthier, with a median rank of #182,522 and the best two around #48,000–53,000, but 5 of the top 10 are 2026 books and none of those ranks under #100,000.

The lesson isn’t “avoid small niches”. It is to check that the books at the top still sell before you treat a short shelf as an opening.

The shelves that are taken at the top

Cozy, mandala, cats (adults) and toddler have strong demand and no newcomers in their top 10. The median top-10 book has 6,700 ratings for cozy, 2,700 for mandala and 1,200 for toddler, and Random House publishes 4 of the 10 cozy books. A new general book won’t catch them. Combine the style with a subject from the first list instead: cozy capybaras, bold and easy trucks, Christmas for seniors. Our count of Amazon’s top 100 shows the same pattern.

Test your niche: draw a free sample page

One click draws a real line-art page in about 15 seconds. Change the theme or style if you like. Free, no signup.

Bold & Easy page drawn by the generator: a puppy with a ball — Real output: “puppy”

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What the top books have in common

About 100 pages. Across the 233 books, the median is 96 pages, and 128 of 231 with a page count run 80–110. That is room for about 40–50 designs printed on one side.
Priced near $9.99. The median price shown was $8.99, and 70 were at exactly $9.99, the lowest price that earns KDP’s 60% royalty.
Audience in the title. “For toddlers ages 2–6”, “for seniors”, “for adults and teens”. In the kids niches nearly every newcomer names an age.

What this count can’t tell you

It is one afternoon on Amazon.com. Christmas will fade after December, and a niche can fill up in a month: capybara gained 5 top-10 books this year. Page 1 mostly shows books that sell. It says little about the many that sell nothing, and that is the number you most want. Plan as if your first book sells little. At $9.99 a sale earns $3.15, so ten copies a month is $31.50. If a book costs you about $10 to make, four sales pay it back.

Test a niche for $9.99

The Coloring Book Machine turns a one-line theme (“big trucks and construction vehicles for toddlers”) into a print-ready 8.5 × 11″ KDP interior PDF plus a cover: up to 30 designs with blank backs, about 60 pages. One limit to know: the median top book in this count has 96 pages, so a 30-design book is shorter than most of them. No subscription.

Make my coloring book →

Questions

What is the best coloring book niche for KDP in 2026?

In our November 4, 2026 count of 26 niches on Amazon.com, five had at least three books in the top 10 with under 100 ratings that still ranked under #100,000 in Books: trucks and construction for kids (5), capybara (4), Christmas for adults (4, until the season ends), axolotl (3) and dinosaurs for kids (3). That is a sign new books get seen and sell there. It is a one-day snapshot, not a guarantee.

Are low-competition coloring book niches worth it?

Often not. Golden retriever, highland cow, zodiac mandala and grumpy cat all have few competing books, but their top-10 books had median Best Sellers Ranks of 915,863, 182,522, 2,223,412 and 510,950. Short shelf, few buyers. Check that the top books rank well before you treat a small niche as an opening.

How do I check whether a coloring book niche sells?

Search the exact phrase on Amazon in Books. Open the first ten books and note two things: ratings and Best Sellers Rank. Several books with under 100 ratings that still rank under about #100,000 mean new books get in. Thousands of ratings everywhere mean the top is taken. Ranks mostly in the hundreds of thousands or millions mean few buyers.

How many pages do top coloring books have?

Across the 233 distinct books in our 26 top-10 lists, the median was 96 pages, and 128 of 231 with a page count had 80 to 110 pages. That is room for about 40 to 50 designs printed on one side with blank backs.

What price do coloring books sell for on Amazon?

The median price Amazon showed for those 233 books was $8.99, and 70 were at exactly $9.99. On KDP, $9.99 is the lowest price that earns the 60% royalty rate, so a standard 8.5 × 11 inch book earns about $3.15 a sale there versus $2.15 at $9.98.