Over the past 3 years, I’ve turned into an audiobook junkie. With that new obsession, I needed to find out how to listen to audiobooks for free because…budget.
It’s funny how many people add “read more books” to their goals for the beginning of the year or middle of the year, but don’t think about how they will be able to do that on a tight budget. This is how.
To be fair, I’ve now budgeted my audible subscription into our lifestyle (more on that in the article below).
But, there are a ton of ways to listen to audiobooks for free that you may not know of right now.
Free Audiobooks on YouTube
Oh, you didn’t know you could listen to audiobooks for free on YouTube? YouTube is a magical place where you can learn anything, and also hear most books that have an audio version.
YouTube Audiobook Hack: Create different playlists of the genre of books you like to listen to, and “save” those books there. This will also show you how many books you’ve listened to over the year, and what genres are the most interesting to you.
When we made our Finance Books That Don’t Make You Feel Like Crap list, we found that most of those audiobooks were right on YouTube. Pretty cool.
OverDrive app
OverDrive hack: have every family member create a library card, then use each library card number as a separate account. This will ensure you can checkout more items at a time. OverDrive also doesn’t have late fees.
Hoopla app
If you’ve already tried the OverDrive app, Hoopla will be right up your alley. I kind of love the platform of Hoopla a little better than OverDrive, but it’s the same premise. Hoopla is use all around the country, just like OverDrive, so take full advantage of the amount of audiobooks you can listen to for free.
The Libby app
I haven’t personally tried this app, but I’m hearing it’s another great option for those that are obsessed with audiobooks. Libby was also created by the OverDrive team, so if you already love that app, give this one a go.
{Related: Best Audiobooks Narrated By The Authors}
Audible app
OK, you’re going to think I have 3 heads for saying the one app that actually has a paid audiobook subscription. But, did you know that even audible offers audiobooks for free?
They have books they offer monthly for free on the app, most are new or classics, and you don’t have to wait for someone to “check in” the book for you to listen to it.
Audible Hack: did you know that once you reach 5 credits on Audible, they stop charging your account? Until you use those credits, they will halt your automatic charge. Use this “break” to listen to free books on the platform, or catch up on audiobooks you bought in the past.
Yes, you’re still paying for the service, but you at least get a breather while still benefiting from being on the platform.
Audiobooks.com
This was a hidden gem for me when I started to listen to audiobooks. Not only does this app let you listen to audiobooks for free, they have about 8000 free audiobooks at the ready. It took me a minute to get used to the platform, but there are some great, free audiobooks available on here.
Are you using any special platforms or app to listen to audiobooks for free? Comment down below, and we’ll be sure to add it to this list.
This post contains affiliate links.
