One of the major concerns about the audiobook format is that audiobooks are expensive as compared to eBooks and physical books.
A common question I get from people who want to get started with audiobooks is how to get paid audiobooks for free.
This article shares 6 ways to get your favorite audiobook for free, so let’s start.
- Free Audiobooks by Premium Platforms
- Join a Free Trial
- Use Existing Subscription
- Get Audiobooks from Your Library
- Get Audiobooks as a Gift
- Get Audiobooks from Free Platforms
1. Free Audiobooks by Premium Platforms
Some of the top audiobook platforms, which are go-to places for audiobook enthusiasts, also offer free sections to give you a taste of their offerings.
Audible’s Free Listens Section
Audible offers hundreds of free titles in its Free Listens section. You do not need a membership plan or trial to listen to these audiobooks.
The wide-ranging and rotating selection includes free audiobooks in every genre. The best part about Audible’s Free Listen section is that it offers a wide selection of new releases, bestselling novels, and celebrity memoirs.
The free section also offers Audible Original audiobooks that you will not find anywhere else and scripted podcasts performed by all-star casts.
You can listen to free titles on the Audible website, but I recommend using the Audible app, as you can download titles for offline listening. You just need an Amazon account to get started.
Chirp Audiobooks
Chirp is one of the best platforms to get audiobooks for cheap. You do not need any kind of subscription to use Chirp and receive emails about the latest sales and deals that offer audiobooks at huge discounts.
Chirp also offers a list of free audiobooks that you can listen to without any payment. The audiobooks are handpicked by Chirp editors and include titles from all genres.
You can download the Chirp app [iOS | Android] for the best listening experience and listen to the narration sample from the title details page.
Audiobooks.com
Audiobooks.com is one of the most popular audiobook platforms which offers over 500,000 titles in its catalog.
Audiobooks.com also offers over 10,000 audiobooks that you can listen to for free without a subscription or trial.
You can listen to free titles on the Audiobooks.com website or through the app [iOS | Android].
Sort audiobooks by bestselling, highest ratings, newest arrivals, length, and more.
The free audiobooks from premium platforms include some of the most popular titles that you will not find on the free audiobook services that only offer books in public domains.
2. Join a Free Trial
I have covered 5 audiobook platforms that offer free trials in the past. If you are looking for how to get paid audiobooks for free, a free trial is the best way to get any audiobook of your choice without paying.
Here are 4 popular audiobook services that offer free trials.
Audible Free Trial
Audible offers a free 30-day trial that gives you access to the following membership benefits without any payment
- 1 Free Audiobook of your choice: You get one credit that can be redeemed for any title of your choice from Audible’s entire catalog including bestsellers, new releases, and other popular titles.
- Plus Catalog: As part of the free trial benefits, you get unlimited streaming access to the Plus Catalog with over 70,000 titles from all categories
- Deals and Discounts: During your free trial, you can get discounted audiobooks from members’ exclusive sales and get at least a 30% discount on all cash purchases.
Amazon Premium members get 2 free audiobooks when they join the Audible trial. You can cancel the free trial anytime you want. The free audiobooks are yours to keep forever, even after you cancel the free trial.
Audiobooks.com Free Trial
Audiobooks.com is another major platform that offers you a free 30-day trial to get you started. The free trial benefits include
- 1 Free audiobook of your choice from the entire catalog of over 500,000 titles
- 2 Free audiobooks from the VIP Selection
- Access to members’ exclusive sales and deals to get audiobooks at a huge discount
You can cancel the trial anytime you want. You will lose access to the free audiobooks upon canceling your trial.
Sign up for Audiobooks.com Free Trial
Everand
Everand is home to millions of eBooks, audiobooks, podcasts, newspapers, magazines, and more for a flat monthly fee of $9.99/month [or $84.99/ year].
Everand offers a 30-day free trial that gives you access to Everand’s entire catalog (including eBooks and audiobooks) for one month without any payment.
You can cancel the free trial anytime time you want and get a reminder on day 14 of the free trial, giving you enough time to cancel or continue.
Note: Although Everand gives you unlimited access to the entire catalog, there are monthly limits on some titles. If you encounter a limit on a particular title, it is inaccessible till the next billing cycle. You can enjoy other titles in the meantime.
Join the free trial from Everand website
Kobo Audiobooks
Kobo’s subscription costs $12.99/ month and comes with 1 credit that you can redeem for any audiobook of your choice.
Kobo offers a 30-day free trial of their membership that gets you one free audiobook and other membership benefits.
You can cancel the free trial anytime you want and the free audiobook is yours to keep forever.
Go to Kobo Audiobooks to sign up for the free trial.
The best thing about joining a free trial of the audiobook platform is that you can get any paid title for free, including bestsellers, new releases, and other popular titles.
3. Use Existing Subscription
If you have Spotify or Kindle Unlimited subscriptions, you can get audiobooks without any payment.
Spotify offers 15 hours of free audiobook listening time to its Premium members. If you do not have a Premium subscription, you can join the 30-day free trial of Spotify’s Premium membership and enjoy free access to audiobooks for 1 month.
The following Premium plans come with 15 hours of free listening time
- Premium Individual
- Premium Family [Plan Manager only]
- Premium Duo [Plan Manager only]
Note: The Premium Student is not eligible for free audiobook listening time
You can sign up for a Spotify Premium trial from the website
You will receive a reminder seven days before the trial ends, giving you enough time to cancel or continue.
While Kindle Unlimited is primarily an eBook service, it also has over 6000 audiobooks (Audible books) that members can borrow without paying.
Audiobooks feature a headphone logo with a Read and Listen for Free button.
KU also allows you to purchase tens of thousands of audiobooks at huge discounts. Kindle Unlimited also offers a free 30-day trial which lets you use the service for 1 month without paying.
4. Get Audiobooks for Your Library
You can borrow audiobooks and other digital content from your local library using your library membership card.
Libby and Hoopla are two major apps supported by most libraries.
Libby by OverDrive
Libby is the first choice for many when looking to get paid audiobooks for free. The app lets you borrow audiobooks, eBooks, magazines, and other digital content from your local library for free.
You only need your library card to access content through Libby. Libby app is number 2 in the Books category on the App Store and has over 10 million downloads on Google Play Store.
Millions of users from 78 countries use Libby to access free content using their library membership card.
Learn more from
Hoopla Digital
Hoopla works pretty much the same way as Libby. You only need a library membership card to unlock audiobooks, eBooks, and other digital content from your library.
One major benefit of Hoopla, over Libby, is that there is no wait and queue. Users receive a certain number of instant borrows per month.
Hoopla also offers movies, music, comics, and TV shows that you can access through the app on your smartphone, computer, or TV.
The Hoopla app has a sleek and easy-to-use interface with plenty of sorting and filtering options.
- Get started with Hoopla
- Audiobooks on Hoopla
- Popular audiobooks on Hoopla
- Hoopla app for iOS
- Hoopla app for Android
5. Get Audiobooks as a Gift
Nothing makes a better gift for audiobook lovers than their favorite title in audio format. Amazon, Audible and other platforms allow users to gift audiobooks to their loved ones.
Your family members and friends can either gift you your favorite title or buy subscription plans as a gift.
Following platforms can be used to gift audiobooks and subscription plans to others.
- Audible Gift Center: You can gift individual titles and Audible subscription plans of 1, 3, 6, and 12 months.
- Audiobooks.com Gift Center: Audiobooks.com allows users to gift subscription plans of 1, 3, 6, or 12 months. There is no option to purchase individual titles as gifts on Audiobooks.com
- Audiobooks Now Gift Center: AudiobooksNow allows users to purchase individual titles as a gift or give gift certificate and let the recipients choose their favorite audiobooks.
- Libro.fm Gifts: Users can either purchase individual audiobooks or buy credit bundles and let the gift recipient pick their favorite audiobooks.
Amazon also allows users to purchase any audiobook as a gift.
6. Get Audiobooks from Free Platforms
If you are looking for classic titles and public domain books in audio format, here are some of the best websites that offer them for free.
- LibriVox: LibriVox gives you unlimited access to over 45,000 audiobooks from the public domain. You can find classic bestsellers and out-of-print treasures in over 30 languages from different genres.
The books are narrated by volunteers, meaning narration quality can be amateur, but most of the narrations are pretty good. The best way to listen to LibriVox content is through the app [iOS or Android]. - Digital Book: Digital Books features public domain audiobooks and eBooks in 12 languages. You can browse trending and popular titles or explore audiobooks by genre or language. You will find classics, new releases, and everything in between. Watch the how it works video from Digital Book to know more.
- Open Culture: Open Culture is not strictly an audiobook website, but it offers roughly 1000 free audiobooks. Find great works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and more.
There are plenty of other websites offering free audiobooks including Project Gutenberg, Free Classic Audiobooks, and Learn Out Loud.
I hop you like 6 ways to get the paid audiobooks for free. Let me know in comments if you have any questions or want to add more.
Sohail Ahmed
I love Audiobooks and this blog features my first-hand experience with all major audiobook apps and services … Know More