Given finite metric spaces (X, d X ) and (Y, d Y ), we investigate the persistent homology P H * (X × Y ) of the Cartesian product X × Y equipped with the sum metric d X +d Y . Interpreting persistent homology as a module over a polynomial ring, one might expect the usual Künneth short exact sequence to hold. We prove that it holds for P H 0 and P H 1 , and we illustrate with the Hamming cube {0, 1} k that it fails for P H n , n ≥ 2. For n = 2, the prediction for P H 2 (X × Y ) from the expected Künneth short exact sequence has a natural surjection onto P H 2 (X × Y ). We compute the nontrivial kernel of this surjection for the splitting of Hamming cubes {0, 1} k = {0, 1} k−1 × {0, 1}. For all n ≥ 0, the interleaving distance between the prediction for P H n (X × Y ) and the true persistent homology is bounded above by the minimum of the diameters of X and Y . As preliminary results of independent interest, we establish an algebraic Künneth formula for simplicial modules over the ring κ[R + ] of polynomials with coefficients in a field κ and exponents in R + = [0, ∞), as well as a Künneth formula for the persistent homology of R + -filtered simplicial sets -both of these Künneth formulas hold in all homological dimensions n ≥ 0.