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Resolve to Read More This Year? Find Cheap Audiobooks at These 11 Places

Updated December 19, 2024

A woman smiles as she lays on her couch listening to audiobooks on her AirPods. — Getty Images

The convenience and portability of audiobooks let you enjoy your love of reading on the go. But how do you find the cheap audiobooks you want? There are a number of audiobook services available, but the options can be overwhelming. Finding the right audiobook service is a matter of finding the best one for how you like to read. Here’s our rundown of some of the best audiobook services where you can grab a book for your ears.

1. Audible

Audible is a big name in audiobooks. As a part of Amazon, it’s heavily marketed and easily available, but it has its pros and cons. For example, Audible boasts one of the largest audiobook libraries out there with more than 760,000 titles. Whatever you like to read, you can probably find it on Audible. You’ll also get to keep any titles you read even if you cancel your subscription. Speaking of subscriptions, Audible has two different subscription plans, the cheapest being $7.95 per month. With the Audible Plus plan, though, you are unable to earn extra credits and you won’t get discounts on premium selection titles or access to exclusive sales. The other membership plan option is Audible Premium Plus, which costs $14.95 per month. This includes the entire Plus catalog plus one premium title per month (12 credits per year). Unused credits expire after one year. They also expire when you cancel your membership. Also, if you’re an Amazon Prime member, you can try Audible free for 30 days.

2. Audiobooks.com

Audiobooks.com is another subscription service, much like Audible. It has a very large selection with more than 450,000 titles plus more than 10,000 free audiobooks as well as access to more than 100 million podcast episodes for free. A subscription to Audiobooks.com is $14.95 per month and includes one book per month. You can buy extra credits as needed. With your subscription, you also get free extra VIP books each month with no additional charge. VIP titles are older, less popular books, but they aren’t all obscure. And with a free 30-day trial you get one book free and can also select two books from the VIP collection that changes monthly.

3. Scribd

Scribd is a subscription service that allows you to access “unlimited” audiobooks and also offers features like ebooks, podcasts and even sheet music. At $11.99, it’s cheaper than Audiobooks.com, and you get to listen to as many books as you want. There are a lot of extras like Kindle books, magazines and even sheet music available with your subscription. You can also choose from more than 2 million ebooks, 300,000 audiobooks and 1 million magazine and news articles through its partner, Everand. However, the term “unlimited” isn’t 100% accurate. Users in the iPhone app store complain that after two or three popular books, your ability to read new and popular titles becomes very limited for the rest of the month. And with Scribd, you’re renting rather than buying the books, so you cannot keep them.

4. Downpour

For $12.99, subscription service Downpour gives you one credit (good for any one book) per month. You can spend them as you go or save them up. Or you can simply rent or buy books without a subscription, but you’ll pay a little more for each title. You do own the books and can keep them even if you cancel. Downpour has a smaller selection with 80,000 titles.

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5. Chirp

Chirp is a sister site of Bookbub, an ebook site. When you sign up for the service, you get a daily email featuring special deals. Many of the deals are $5 or less for each book and there is no subscription — you only pay for what you buy.

6. Apple Books

Apple Books is a store for Apple users to purchase audiobooks. It’s not a subscription site, just a pay-for-what-you-want store. New and popular books are available, as well as classics. Plus, Apple editors curate general lists to help readers find new books. With Apple Books, you keep your audiobooks right on your phone or iPad.

7. Google Play Books

Google Play Books is much like Apple Books, but for Android and PC users, and with a few more perks. You can listen to previews before committing. There are some free books and Google Play Books can not only be used on Android and PCs, but also iPhones and Macs.

8. Libro.fm

Libro.fm is the independent bookstore of audiobook services — the anti-Audible if you will. There is no membership required and Libro.fm donates a portion of every purchase you make to the locally owned bookstore of your choice. However, you have the option to become a member for $14.99 per month, which gives you an initial audiobook credit, then one per month after and 30% off individual purchases There are more than 450,000 audiobooks are available, including 99% of all New York Times bestsellers. You own the books you buy, even after you cancel your membership. Libro.fm also offers free iOS and Android listening apps.

9. Blinkist

Blinkist is a unique service in that it offers condensed versions of popular nonfiction books for people who don’t feel like they have time to listen to entire books. It’s fairly inexpensive with the Blinkist Yearly plan at only $99.99 per year (or $8.34 per month if divided by 12). However, if you choose the Blinkist Monthly plan, you’ll pay $15.99 per month. Your membership includes access to more than 6,500 bestselling nonfiction books in dozens of categories. Most audiobooks can be listened to in 30 minutes or less. And if you like the condensed book, you can upgrade to the full version.

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10. LibriVox

The LibriVox audiobooks website declares “acoustical liberation of books in the public domain.” So what does that mean? Basically, it’s a free library of audiobooks that are old enough to have outlasted their copyright. They are read by volunteers. It’s completely free to use and there are lots of great classics like “Moby Dick,” “Frankenstein” and “The Life and Times of Frederick Douglas. However, LibriVox has a limited selection with no recent titles.

11. Your Public Library System

To find free audiobooks, you can always go to your local library and check out audiobooks on CD, but that’s so 2005. These days most library systems are hooked up with apps like OverDrive, Libby or Hoopla so you can check out audiobooks digitally on your phone, tablet or reader. And with a library card, these services are completely free.

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