5 Audiobook Services You Won’t Believe Offer Free Trials

If you want to start your audiobook journey, the best way is to join an audiobook service trial to find out if the audiobook format is ideal for you.  

One of the common questions about audiobooks is which audiobook service is best for beginners.

This article shares 5 best audiobook platforms that offer free trials to give you a taste of what to expect from their membership plans.

Here are 5 best platforms for free audiobook trials

1. Audible
2. Audiobooks.com
3. Spotify
4. Everand
5. Kobo

1. Audible Free Trial

Audible offers a 30-days free trial that gives you access to all membership benefits for one month.

As part of the Audible’s free trial, you get

• 1 Audible Credit: One Audible credit gets you one audiobook, regardless of its price. You can use the credit to get any title from Audible’s premium selection, including bestsellers and new releases. The audiobook is yours to keep forever.
• Plus Catalog: You get unlimited access to the Plus Catalog with over 70,000 audiobooks. You can stream (or download for offline listening) as many audiobooks as you want from an extensive collection of audiobooks.
• Deals and Discounts: Audible regularly offers sales and deals where members can get their favorite titles for huge discounts. During your trial period, you can take advantage of members’ exclusive sales and deals and get a 30% discount on all cash purchases.

Audible also offers to join the trial for 2 free credits several times every year.

If you are an Amazon Prime member, you are invited to start your free trial with 2 free credits.

Audible also occasionally offers 3 months of free trials for Prime members, enabling them to enjoy free membership for 3 months and get 3 free credits.

Most special offers and deals are offered in the last quarter (October to December), so you can expect good Audible deals during the holiday season and on Black Friday.

You can cancel Audible’s free trial anytime, no questions asked.

How to start Audible free trial

You can go to Audible’s free trial page and click on Try Audible Free to start your free trial.

You can also go to Audible’s membership plans page and click on Start my free trial under the membership plans that you like.

Tip: Between Audible’s Plus and Premium Plus membership plans, i recommend joing the trial for the Premium Plus plan. Premium plan gets you a free audiobook every month and access to exclusive sales and deals

You need an Amazon account to use Audible like any other Amazon product or service. Sign in using the Amazon account or create a new account if you do not have one already.

Once you are signed in, you must add a bank card if you do not have a bank card attached to your Amazon account.

You will not be charged until your free trial expires and you decide to continue the Audible membership.

You can cancel the Audible trial anytime you want. You will also get an email reminder before your free trial expires.

How to cancel the Audible free trial

It is a simple process to cancel the Audible free trial or membership.

To cancel the free trial

• Go to Audible’s website and sign in your account
• Click on Account Name > Account Details

• Click on Membership Details from the side menu and click on Cancel Membership

This is the simple process to cancel your Audible free trial without any explanation.

2. Audiobooks.com Free Trial

Audiobooks.com is a major Audible competitor that offers over 500,000 audiobooks in its catalog.

You can sign up for a free trial for audiobooks.com and get

• 1 free audiobook
• 2 free audiobooks from the VIP selection
• Access to member-exclusive benefits like 2-for-1 monthly deals and sales

After the free trial, you can continue the subscription for $14.95/ month and get 1 free audiobook and 1 VIP title every month or cancel the trial anytime, no questions asked.

To join the audiobooks.com free trial, go to the free trial page

You can sign up for the free trial using your Apple, Google, or Amazon account. In the billing section, provide your bank card information or choose PayPal, Google Pay, or Amazon Pay as payment method.

Click on the Start Free Trial option after providing all required information you are all set to enjoy Audiobook.com’s free trial.

Here are a few important things to know about Audiobooks.com’s free trial

• Once your free trial expires, your monthly subscription will be automatically charged to the billing information on your account unless you cancel the free trial
• The free trial begins the day you sign up. If you signed up for a free trial on July 1, your membership billing date is July 31^st
• Cancelling your free trial will remove your free trial book and your VIP selection from your account

If you had not used your free trial credit, it will also be removed from your account when you cancel the free trial. You can keep any audiobooks that you purchased after the cancellation.

To cancel your Audiobooks.com trial or subscription, go to audiobooks.com

• click on My Account (top right of the screen)
• Next, click on the Cancel Subscription option

Once you confirm, the audiobooks.com trial will be cancelled and the audiobooks you got as part of your trial benefits will be removed from your account.

3. Spotify Free Trial

Spotify introduced audiobooks in October 2023, with over 150,000 audiobooks available as a part of a Spotify Premium subscription.

Members can listen to 15 hours of free audiobooks each month as part of their membership plan.

Spotify has become the second largest audiobook retailer behind Audible in a few months.

For users looking for a free trial for audiobooks, Spotify offers a 30-day trial of its Premium membership that also gives you a chance to access the audiobooks for 30 days.

The following Premium plans include 15 hours of free listening time per month

• Premium Individual
• Premium Family (plan manager only)
• Premium Duo (plan manager only)

Note: The Premium student plan is not eligible for free audiobook listening time.

Here are a few important things to know about how audiobooks work in Spotify’s Premium plans.

• Any unused listening time from the month will not transfer to the next month and can no longer be used
• If you run out of 15 hours of free listening time, you can top up audiobook hours in increments of 10 hours
• If you have free audiobook listening time and top-up hours in your account, the free listening time gets used first

To join the Spotify Premium free trial, go to Spotify website and either click on Try Free for 1 month to join the individual plan or click on Premium from the top navigation bar to explore different types of Premium plans and join a plan you like.

You will need to enter a valid payment method to signup for the trial. This is used to confirm your country or region and payment is only deducted if you continue using the Premium subscription after the trial ends.

You will get a reminder 7 days before the trial ends, giving you enough time to cancel or continue.

Once you join the free trial, you can access 15 hours of free audiobook listening time. Audiobooks that are part of the subscribers’ catalog are labeled as included in Premium.

If you are looking for a specific title, go to Search and under Browse All select Audiobooks. Here you can browse featured titles or scroll down to browse by category.

If you only want to join Spotify for audiobooks, you can join their Audiobooks Access Plan.

This plan gives you 15 hours of free listening time for audiobooks and ad-supported access to music and podcasts and does not include other Premium features.

Know more from the Audiobooks Access Plan page.

You can cancel the Spotify Premium trial at any time from your accounts page. After cancellation, you will lose access to the Premium benefits, and your account will switch to the free service.

4. Everand Free Trial

Everand (formely Scribd) gives you access to millions of eBooks, audiobooks, podcasts, magazines, newspapers, and more for $9.99/ month.

Everand offers a 30-day free trial that includes access to Everand, Scribd, and SlideShare.

Everand is a favorite destination of book lovers who enjoy both audiobooks and eBooks and want to access more books on a flat monthly fee.

Here are a few important things to know about Everand’s free trial

• You can cancel the free trial anytime you want. You will be notified about the trial expiration date beforehand
• Your card will be charged after 30 days if you do not cancel the free trial and decide to continue
• There are monthly limits for some titles on Everand. If you encounter a limit on a particular title, it will be inaccessible to you till the next billing cycle

You can join the free trial by visiting the Everand website and access the content through the website or by using the Everand app (iOS and Android).

To cancel your Everand trial or subscription, visit your Accounts Settings.

5. Kobo Audiobooks Free Trial

Kobo subscription offers a monthly credit for $12.99/ month. You can use the credit to get any audiobook from their collection, regardless of its listed price.

Kobo also offers a 30-day trial where you can get your first audiobook for free. You can cancel the free trial anytime, no questions asked.

You will not be charged until your free 30-days trial has expired. The audiobook you get as part of the free trial is yours to keep forever.

To join the free trial, go to Kobo Audiobooks and click on the Start Free Trial button

You can sign up using your Facebook, Google, or Apple account or create a new account using your email address.

Kobo also offers audiobook deals and sales to get your favorite titles at discounts.

Conclusion

If you are looking for a free trial for audiobook services, I recommend starting with Audible.

You can get unlimited access to the Plus Catalog with a huge collection of audiobooks from different genres and also one credit to redeem for a favorite title that stays with you after the trial ends.

It is also a good idea to use Spotify’s free listening hours if you are a Premium member.