How much is Rupi Kaur Worth? Rupi Kaur Net Worth in 2026
Rupi Kaur’s net worth is estimated at $5.5 million as of November 2026. In August 2016, a poetry book first self-published by a recent University of Waterloo graduate was selling about 30,000 copies a week. Her first three collections have since passed 11 million copies, and the one earnings number on record, nearly $1.4 million from poetry sales in 2018, fits our model.
| Net worth | $5.5 million (our estimate, range $4 million to $7 million) |
|---|---|
| Estimated annual income | About $1.4 million (2018 figure, the only one reported) |
| Born | October 4, 1992, Punjab, India (age 34) |
| Country | Canada |
| Known for | milk and honey, the sun and her flowers, home body |
| Main income sources | Book royalties, live shows |
How much is Rupi Kaur worth in 2026?
About $5.5 million after staff, agents, tax and a decade of living. Copy counts come from her publisher. What she keeps per copy is unknown, since her Andrews McMeel contract is private, so this is a rough estimate. Ontario, where she moved back into her parents’ home during the pandemic, has a top combined tax rate of 53.53 percent in 2026, and tax takes more out of this figure than anything else.
Public estimates sit between about $5 million and $10 million. One reason they drift upward: pages keep crediting milk and honey alone with 11 million copies. The publisher’s own 10th anniversary listing says more than 6 million for that book and more than 11 million for all three collections together.
How Rupi Kaur built it
- Designed the first book herself. She used InDesign and Illustrator from co-op jobs and self-published milk and honey in November 2014.
- Took the poems on stage. She performed live on tour, including a 12-stop American run in 2018.
- Released her own special. When streaming services turned down Rupi Kaur Live in 2021, she put it out herself.
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Get the Alux appHow we got to $5.5 million
| Source | Our estimate | What it rests on |
|---|---|---|
| Book royalties | $15 million | Assumption: 12 million copies at an average $1.25. That’s the publisher’s 11 million for the first three collections plus an assumed 1 million for later titles. Terms aren’t public. |
| Live shows | $1.5 million | Assumption: 150 shows at 800 seats, with $12.50 a seat reaching her. Wikipedia says her crowds reach as many as 800, so that seat count is generous. |
| Staff, agents and tour costs | minus $2.5 million | Assumption: 15 percent of the $16.5 million above. |
| Tax | minus $7 million | Assumption: 50 percent of the $14 million left, a little under Ontario’s top rate because early income fell in lower brackets. We assume she is taxed there; her current home isn’t confirmed. |
| Living costs | minus $1.5 million | Assumption: $150,000 a year for 10 years. |
| Total | $5.5 million | Our figure. Investment returns and property are left out because none are documented. Her Prime Video special’s fee isn’t public either. |
The one reported number, tested
Wikipedia’s biography says she earned nearly $1.4 million from poetry sales in 2018. Divide that by our $1.25 a copy and it implies about 1.12 million copies that year, by our calculation. Publishers Weekly reported in 2016 that milk and honey alone was moving about 30,000 a week, which is 1.56 million a year at that pace, and a second book arrived in 2017. A million-plus in 2018 looks plausible, so $1.25 survives the test.
The other sum is less cheerful. Of $16.5 million in gross, our model leaves her $5.5 million, or exactly one third. Each 25 cents in the royalty assumption moves the total by about $1.3 million, which gives our range of $4 million to $7 million.
A bestseller she laid out herself
She learned InDesign and Illustrator during co-op terms and used them to design the book, the University of Waterloo wrote in 2016. She self-published in November 2014 and sold roughly 15,000 to 17,000 copies, depending on the account, before Andrews McMeel took over. The Globe and Mail reported a first Canadian printing of about 150,000 for the sun and her flowers in 2017.
Live work came next. A 2018 report put Madison’s Shannon Hall as the second stop on her 12-stop American tour. When streaming services turned down her 2021 poetry special, Rupi Kaur Live, she released it herself before it reached Amazon Prime.
Selling the poems again in 2026
Love Poems came out on January 13, 2026, at $19.99 in hardcover: love poems from her first three collections, a new introduction and some postcards. The anniversary milk and honey did something similar in October 2024 at $24.99, adding 40 new poems. Home body, from 2020, is the most recent of the three collections her publisher counts. A new collection or another world tour is what would move this figure.
Rupi Kaur net worth FAQ
How much did Rupi Kaur make from milk and honey?
No book-level figure is public. At our assumed $1.25 a copy, 6 million copies would be about $7.5 million before costs and tax.
How many books has Rupi Kaur sold?
Her publisher says more than 11 million copies of her first three collections, in over 43 languages. More than 6 million of those are milk and honey.
How much does Rupi Kaur earn a year?
The only reported number is nearly $1.4 million from poetry sales in 2018. We have no later yearly figure.
How old is Rupi Kaur?
She was born on October 4, 1992, in Punjab, India, and moved to Canada at age three. She is 34 as of November 2026.
Did Rupi Kaur self-publish milk and honey?
Yes, on CreateSpace in November 2014. Andrews McMeel later re-released it, and by August 2016 the book had reached nearly half a million copies.
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How we estimate net worth
Our estimates are based on public reporting, company valuations, and deal and earnings figures all compiled in an internal valuation model. They are approximate, and figures change over time as new information emerges.
Last updated: November 2026.
Photo: Baljit Singh / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped