How to get an ISBN in Canada
In Canada, ISBNs come from ISBN Canada (Library and Archives Canada). They're free. Here is what to know before you get yours.
The facts
- Agency
- ISBN Canada (Library and Archives Canada)
- Cost
- Free.
- Good to know
- Free, once your account is approved. French-language publishers in Quebec apply to BAnQ instead.
- Ebook
- ISBN optional. Optional on KDP, Apple Books, Kobo and Google Play, which give ebooks their own IDs. Your own ISBN names you as the publisher and is the same in every store.
- Paperback
- Needs an ISBN. Every print book needs one: your own, or KDP's free ISBN, which is only for publishing through KDP, on Amazon and through Expanded Distribution, and shows "Independently published" as the imprint.
- Hardcover
- Needs an ISBN. A hardcover needs its own ISBN, separate from the paperback's: your own, or KDP's free one, for Amazon only.
A worked example
A novel as an ebook, a paperback and a hardcover, each with its own number, needs three ISBNs, and in Canada they cost nothing. A translation into another language is a new edition, with new numbers for each of its formats.
Other countries
Publishing from somewhere else? ISBN agencies in every country lists them all.
Plan your ISBNs in PenStranding: it counts the numbers your books need, keeps them in one ledger and prints the barcode. You register them with the agency yourself.
Join the waitlistSources
Checked on 12 October 2026 against ISBN Canada (Library and Archives Canada), International ISBN Agency directory. Stores, agencies and laws change their rules: their own pages have the final word.