We love audiobooks on Book Riot. We love listening to ’em on our commutes. While we’re cleaning the house. While we’re running. Or, even while we’re cooking. It’s a lot of time for audiobook listening. Thankfully, these 11 websites offer thousands and thousands of free audiobooks online, with many that you can access any time and anywhere. Thousands and thousands. That’s a lot of books. Get to listening.
Mar 15, 2016 Long considered the best free audiobook app for Android, Akimbo is no longer being supported. For this reason, many users are switching to a newer option, the Listen Audiobook Player for Android. While not free (you’ll have to shell out a whopping $2), it’s a solid investment. Controls are basic but deliver all you need for an engrossing. Found 138691 Free Android Ringtones. Download Android Ringtones for free to your mobile phone or tablet. Why not share and showcase your android ringtone downloads with Mobiles24? Click here to upload your ringtones to Mobiles24 or make ringtones from your own music with our MP3 Ringtone Maker. Page 1 of 138691 free Android Ringtones. Download or stream an audio book to your Android phone or tablet and start listening to a great story instantly. Audiobooks.com will transform your commute, household chores, work out sessions. Open Culture website has a section of Free Audiobooks which contains links to free audiobook downloads from different resources including Audible, iTunes, YouTube, Spotify, and some public domain sites. The library contains chiefly classics which is usually free on all resources.
Where to find free audiobooks online
We’ll discuss each in more details, but the best places to find free audiobooks online include:
- Librivox
- Lit2Go
- Loyal Books
- Mind Webs
- Open Culture
- Overdrive
- Podiobooks
- Project Gutenberg
- Spotify
- Storynory
- SYNC
Important note! These are all free audiobook options, but they’re legal. Sure, you can get illegal copies I’m sure somewhere on the internet, but that doesn’t help the authors or publishers you know and love. Instead, check out these free resources and then make sure to leave reviews for these books on GoodReads, Amazon, and other review sites.
1. Librivox
Librivox is a non-profit initiative to record public domain books and release them as free audiobooks. The site boasts over 10,000 projects, with a diverse set of titles ranging from War and Peace to Leaves of Grassto The Dream of the Red ChambertoAnne of Green Gables.
You can even volunteer to read sections for books-in-progress!
2. Lit2Go
Lit2Go offers audiobooks, plays, short stories, and poems that have been tailored for use in classrooms. Along with each free audiobook, you’ll get citation information, play time, and word count. Some, like Shakespeare’s Hamlet, have an accompanying PDF that can be used to read-along with the text.
3. Loyal Books
Loyal Books shares free audiobooks from titles in the public domain. You’ll find options like John Milton’s Paradise Lostand Sir Author Conan Doyle’s The Return of Sherlock Holmes, among others.
You can also submit reviews and read what others have had to say about each of the titles.
4. Mind Webs
As I wrote about previously, Mind Webs was a perfectly-executed, haunting old-time radio dramatization of over 150 of the most classic science fiction short stories.
You’ll find free science fiction stories from Ursula K. Le Guin, Kurt Vonnegut, and H.G. Wells, among others.
5. Open Culture
Open Culture has combed through the same audiobooks offered other places online, and compiled them into one list to browse. While you’ll still find many of the same classics offered elsewhere, like Frank L. Baum’s The Wizard of Ozaudiobooks, you’ll also find stories by James Baldwin, Ray Bradbury, and Virginia Woolf. Or poetry by Maya Angelou and Charles Bukowski.
Or, even a video of Neil Gaiman reading Coraline.
6. OverDrive
OverDrive provides access to the most ebook and audiobook content you’ll find on this list, by pairing with local libraries.
They have over two million books and videos, and partner with more than 30,000 libraries. You’ll find the newest audiobook releases through OverDrive, and they’re all free.
That means the free Harry Potter audiobooks you’ve been dying to read (or more likely re-read)? You can probably find them through your awesome local library’s Overdrive access.
7. Podiobooks
Podiobooks is a great option for newer releases, with many of the books read by the authors themselves. These free audiobooks are provided in a serialized form, so you can listen to small chunks that fit into your commute.
Podiobooks also encourages listeners to donate money directly to the authors of the books, with authors receiving 75% of donations.
8. Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg, of course, is the classic site for free books that are in the public domain. And now, their section on human-read free audiobooks offers an even wider collection of books. Stand-outs include Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Colors of Space, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, and The Book of Teaby Kakuzo Okakura.
Project Gutenberg also offers computer-read audiobooks, but imagine Siri reading you Moby Dick(thankfully, you do have a human-read option here).
9. Spotify
Check out Spotify’s “Audiobooks” playlist for a list of audiobooks that are always being added to by the service. Spotify is free to listen, or you can go premium if you don’t want the ads.
Spotify’s list currently features The Great Gatsbyaudiobook, as well as 1984and Pride and Prejudice.
10. Storynory
Storynory offers free audiobooks for kids, with a mix of classics, fairy tales, and original stories.
They’re meant for kids, of course, but they’re really for anybody who wants to hear Brothers Grimm folk tales, Aesop’s fables, or stories from 1,001 Nights again.
11. SYNC
Every summer, teens (or adults!) looking for YA audiobooks can head over to SYNC, a free summer audiobook program for teens, sponsored by AudioFile Magazine and delivered by OverDrive.
2016 books included Cristina Henríquez’sThe Book of Unknown Americansand Walter Dean Myers’ Juba!
Even more free audiobook Websites
Since this post originally went up, I’ve found out about a few more sites for audiobooks. Some of these aren’t as user-friendly as others, but with a bit of work, you can get your free listening on at these sites as well.
- Learn Out Loud, for educational audiobooks and videos
- Free Classic Audiobooks for, you guessed it, classics
- Digital Book, which boasts thousands of books and a clean interface
If you love smoochin’, other Rioters also put together some great primers for finding the best free romance novels and audiobooks.
Not free, but cheap audiobooks online
If you can’t find the audiobook you want for free, you can always look at other services for cheaper options. Audible now has a sharing service where you can send a free book to anyone you want. Downpour allows you to rent audiobooks for a fraction of the cost.
Or, you can always sign up for Book Riot’s Deal of the Day newsletter, where Jeff occasionally features cheap audiobooks on sale.
And, just for Book Riot readers: sign up for an Audible account, and get two free audiobooks! If you love their monthly subscription, you’ll get one audiobook a month for just a few bucks.
How can I download audiobooks on my iPhone or Android?
One thing you’ll notice, and quickly, when using these sites to find free audiobooks is that, well, they’re often difficult to connect to your phone (or whatever device you’re listening to your audiobooks on).
Other Rioters swear by the Bound app, which downloads your audiobooks directly from a DropBox account onto your Bound app. It also allows you to use bookmarks and can remember where you paused your book. And it’s simply prettier and easier to use.
The Audiobooks app is another place to find free audiobooks, with a much easier-to-use interface.
Finally, if you don’t want audiobooks, you can find so, so many free ebooks online for your reading pleasure.
What are your favorite places to find audiobooks for free or cheap?
Post originally published in September 2016; last updated in November 2017.
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15 Cool Sites to Get Audiobooks & Listen on the Go
When you are on the go, audiobooks can be a great substitute for ebook downloads. There is a plenty of options to listen to a talking book when you’re online: iTunes, podcasts, apps. But what to do when there’s no stable Internet connection? Happily, there are numerous websites offering free & cheap audiobook downloads. Most of them provide almost any possible book in the form of digital MP3, M4B (for iOS) or OGG files. So you can easily download and transfer audiobooks you want to your phone, tablet, cloud storage and enjoy them at anytime. Let’s compare 15 best sites with audiobooks downloads.
SEE ALSO: Top 5 Time-Tested Audio Players for Windows
SEE ALSO: 5 Great MP3 Download Tools to Get Music Free
7 Most Popular Websites to Download Audiobooks
1. Audible
Audible.com is Amazon-owned audiobook service that has the top choice of audiobooks in the universe: clasics, fiction, kid books, poetry, etc. All the audiobooks are of high quality and available for all mobile devices – iPhone/iPod, Android, Kindle Fire and Windows Phone. The service offers 30 day free trial and $14.95 subscription for one book per month thereafter.
Library: over 180,000 audiobooks
Price: free 30 day trial, then $14.95/monthly or from $20 per item.
2. YouTube
You might be surprised to see YouTube on the list of audiobook download sites, still it’s a nice option to save money on monthly subscriptions. All you need is to find the book you need, for example use the query [your book title] + audiobook. Then copy the link of the page with the audiobook, insert it into Freemake YouTube to MP3 Boom and click “Download”.
Some books are split into chapters and united into one playlist (see how to download full YouTube playlists). Other audiobooks have duration up to 20 hours, so it’s up to you to choose which listening way you’re more comfortable with.
PRO TIP: Use Freemake Musicbox to find and listen to YouTube audiobooks on iPhone or iPad. Wi-Fi or cellular data connection is required.
Library: over 500,000 audiobooks
Price: free
3. AudiobooksNow
AudiobooksNow.com is a new rental service for downloading and streaming audiobooks developed by BookLender.com. Here you can stream or download audiobooks from a website, Android, Nook or Apple iOS apps. The site offers a large selection of bestselling and classic titles. The prices are low, there is always a section of free books.
If you like hunting for deals, AudiobooksNow.com offers up some great bargains. For example, get 50% Off your first digital audiobook.
Library: over 100,000 audiobooks
Price: free 30 day trial, then $34.98/monthly.
4. Learn Out Loud
Learn Out Loud offers a selection of over 10,000 free educational audiobooks. No account or subscription needed, you find an audiobook you want and download it. The books are mostly about politics, religion, philosophy, science. The site also has a great collection of lectures, sermons and interviews to download.
Library: 10,000+ audiobooks
Price: free
5. Scribd
Scribd audiobooks section appeared not long ago, but already made some passionate Audible users cancel their subscriptions. There are two type of book titles on Scribd: books which require credits to be added to the library (they are marked with “!” sign on the cover) and those which don’t. As a premium Scribd member, you’ll automatically receive 1 credit per month which you can use to access any title in Scribd’s audiobook catalog. Additional credits may also be purchased at any time for $8.99 each.
Library: 100,000+ audiobooks
Price: 14 day trial, than $7.25 or $8.99/month
6. Librivox
Librivox is a public domain of free audiobooks made by volunteers. There is a good choice of book titles of various genres. You can download a whole audiobook as a ZIP file, torrent or subscribe via RSS or iTunes. The website provides a lot of information about the audiobook: dubbing cast, duration, archive file size, as well as related links to the author’s biography, online text and other audiobook download options (e.g., in M4B format).
Library: 9,000+ audiobooks
Price: free
7. Librophile
Librophile is a really user-friendly audiobook website. It has a good navigation, so you can easily sort books by genre, price, author, etc. All the books listed in the catalogue go with a description, book cover, chapters preview, and download link. There is an option to listen to audiobooks online and save to your collection. If you want to get an audiobook from paid section, you’re likely to be directed to Audible.
Library: 100,000+ audiobooks
Price: from free to $79.77
8. Simply audiobooks
Simplyaudiobooks is a resource with thousands of audiobooks on CDs which you can rent or buy. The site grants 15 day free trial, after that you have to buy a monthly subscription for $19.98. It lets you rent as many audiobooks as you wish during a month, you just need to return the book (by mail!) in order to get a new one. Simplyaudiobooks takes care of shipping, so you don’t need to pay any additional costs.
Library: more than 50,000 audiobooks
Price: free 15 day trial, then $19.98/$29.98/$39.98 monthly
7 Audiobook Websites with Smaller Collections
9. PodioBooks
PodioBooks library is also small as it contains serialized audiobooks delivered via RSS. You won’t see famous names among authors, most of them are just getting exposure for their work. To download an audiobook, go to the Comments section and switch to the Download Episodes tab. Then save chapters one by one with right-button menu option “Save as..”. If you loved the book, you may donate the author.
Library: 1000+ audiobooks
Price: free
10. Storynory
Storynory hosts free audiobooks for kids. Here you’ll download fairy tales, myths, stories, and classic books for children in the audio format. The download options are either MP3 files or iTunes podcasts.
Library: several hundreds of audiobooks
Price: free
Price: free
11. Open Culture
Free Audiobook App
Open Culture website has a section of Free Audiobooks which contains links to free audiobook downloads from different resources including Audible, iTunes, YouTube, Spotify, and some public domain sites. The library contains chiefly classics which is usually free on all resources. However, some book titles will require you to buy Audible subscription.
Library: 700 audiobooks
Price: from free to $14.95
12. ThoughtAudio
ThoughtAudio is a tiny website which contains various audiobooks, mostly classics and fiction. You can download books by chapters (no full audiobook download), as well as PDFs with transcripts. Another drawback is that there is no search bar on the website, so that you need to browse the threes pages of audiobook downloads.
Free Downloads For Android
Library: 100 audiobooks
Price: free
13. Educational Technology Clearinghouse
Educational Technology Clearinghouse collects audiobooks forstudents. The genres are: science, adventure, epic, fable, fantasy, history, mystery, philosophy, etc. Search for an audiobook, download it in MP3 or get a PDF transcript if necessary. for your ease, the books are split into parts.
Library: about 200 audiobooks
Price: free
14. Free Classic Audiobooks
Free Classic Audiobooks website has a bunch of popular classic books in English which you get using search box. The sites looks very outdated and has a lot of advertising banners, still the audiobook library is rich. You can find here such authors as O’Henry, Mark Twain, Jack London, Arthur Conan Doyle, even Alexandre Pushkin. Download this audio content in MP3 and M4B formats.
Library: 100+ audiobooks
Price: free
15. Project Gutenberg
In contast to the above listed sites, Project Gutenberg offers computer-generated audiobooks. This open-source project doesn’t have a convenient search. It’s also hard to figure out what the numerous MP3 files for one and the same book are. However, there is a good list of audiobooks on more than 50 languages.
Library: 2000+ audiobooks
Price: free
Most websites mentioned above offer audiobooks in MP3 format, still you can find books in other audio containers. To be able to listen to those files on your smartphone, convert them to MP3.
Where do you get audiobooks? Share your findings in the comments below.
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