Project Gutenberg & LibriVox. The two services work together, with most audiobooks available on Project Gutenberg coming from the LibriVox site. Each site does have some books the other doesn’t have, so it’s worth checking them both out. Both sites let you listen to books right on the website, subscribe by iTunes.
While many people associate iPhones and iPods with apps, music, and movies, they're also a great way to listen to audio books. Whether you're out for a walk, at the gym, on a plane, or in the car, you can bring dozens of audio books with you on your iPod or iPhone. Even better, lots of sites that offer audio books have significant libraries of totally free audio books for you to download. If you're looking for some new books to listen to, check out these 10 websites that offer free, downloadable audiobooks for your enjoyment.
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All You Can Books (limited free)
What We Don't Like
- Expensive monthly charge.
- Must enroll in trial before accessing the catalog.
All You Can Books is a subscription service that offers audiobooks for a monthly fee – with a twist. It offers a 30-day free subscription period (after that ends, you'll pay $19.99/month) during which you can download unlimited books, free. It's hard to know what kind of selection the site has – you can can't browse its library of over 40,000 titles without subscribing – but since the first month is free, the risk seems low.
Make sure to cancel your subscription before the first 30 days are up and you'll have a ton of free books.
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Archive.org (truly free)
What We Don't Like
- Not much contemporary, quality content.
- Can be difficult to navigate.
Archive.org is a gigantic collection of all kinds of free media. From software to ebooks to video and images and beyond, it's likely the largest collection of free media on the Internet. Among that content is over 15,000 free audiobooks. All content on Archive.org is totally free, but it also tends to be either public domain or content released by self-publishing authors. As a result, don't expect to find the biggest names or the latest hits, but you will find a nearly inexhaustible supply of great listening.
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Audible.com (free trial)
What We Like
- Huge selection.
- Many current releases.
- Free trial.
Perhaps the best-known provider of downloadable audio books, Audible.com has been going strong since 1997. While it's primarily a subscription service — it costs $14.95/month after a 30-day free trial — it does offer free audio books as part of its promotions to attract new subscribers. Audible sponsors many popular podcasts, including
and other top shows, and provides free audio books through those ads. Be alert when listening to those podcasts to get free audio book offers.
Audible has a free iPhone app (Download at the App Store) that provides access to your Audible library, too.
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eStories (free trial)
What We Don't Like
- Several pricing plans, some of which are expensive.
- By-the-book download fees.
A spin-off from the subscription-based music store eMusic, eStories is the new version of that site's audiobook download business. Literature fans can choose from plans that offer 1, 2, or 5 audiobook downloads per month. Plans also offer rollover of unused downloads and support for playback on multiple devices.
Subscriptions run from $11.99-$49.99/month, with discounts applied for full-year purchases. The audio book selection is robust and includes the latest big-name titles and authors as well as less-well-known works.
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LibriVox (truly free)
What We Like
- Great selection of classics.
- Free and volunteer-curated.
- MP3 downloads without DRM encumbrances.
What We Don't Like
- Hit-or-miss selection.
- No meaningful contemporary catalog.
This volunteer-powered site offers public domain books in audio format read by people from all over the world (and, as a result, offers books in many languages). Audio books are available as 64 kbps or 128 kbps MP3s. Since these are public domain-only books, you won't find the latest titles here. But, if you're looking for a wide selection of classic titles, especially if you're interested in hearing them in a wide variety of languages, LibriVox is a good bet.
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Lit2Go (truly free)
What We Like
- Focus on education, including bite-sized chunks of larger pieces.
- Free.
- Learning materials included.
Teachers may find Lit2Go to be a particularly good resource for their students. This site, which offers a couple hundred free audiobooks, collects classic literature into bite-sized chunks. For instance, a long novel like
appears as 12 separate downloads for easy assignment and listening. Even better, each selection comes with reading strategies, transcripts, and more that can be used in class or as part of homework assignments.
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Loyal Books (truly free)
What We Like
- Public domain content.
- Downloadable MP3s.
What We Don't Like
- No current catalog.
- Not a major market player.
Another site that offers public domain audio books (meaning books whose authors have been dead for, in most cases, at least 75 years). Most of its over 7,000 titles are drawn from Project Gutenberg and LibriVox. The audio books here are completely free and can be downloaded either as a podcast or as an MP3. Titles are offered in multiple languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, and more.
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Project Gutenberg (truly free)
What We Like
- Growing audiobook catalog.
- A venerable source of classic and public-domain ebooks.
- Supports many different formats.
What We Don't Like
- Hit-or-miss whether an audiobook associates with an ebook.
- No contemporary catalog.
Project Gutenberg is the most prominent provider of free, public domain ebooks on the web. It also offers audiobook versions of some of its titles. You won't find the latest books by the biggest authors here, but if you're after the classics, or quirky obscurities, it's a great resource for truly free books. Download the books in MP3, M4B audiobook, Speex, or Ogg Vorbis formats.
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Scribl (truly free)
What We Like
- Can discover some interesting stuff here.
What We Don't Like
- Crowdpricing model penalizes readers of successful writers.
- Major publishers not well-represented.
- Lots of self-published rubbish to wade through to find the gems.
Scribl offers audiobooks, podcasts, and ebooks using what it calls a 'crowdpricing' system. This means that works that are more highly rated by its users cost more, while lower-rated titles cost less, with many offered for free.
Another nice feature of the service is that all audiobooks come with an ebook version of the title for free.
For writers, Scribl also a self-publishing platform. That means you're more likely to find up-and-coming indie authors here than big names. Still, there are tons of titles across many genres, so you're likely to find something that interests you.
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ThoughtAudio (truly free)
What We Don't Like
- Not a major market player.
- Fairly limited catalog.
ThoughtAudio is another source of free audiobooks using public domain texts. You'll find dozens of free MP3s, with longer books often broken up into multiple files. ThoughtAudio offers a nice bonus: PDFs of the text being read. Since the works it offers are a pubic domain, it can provide these books for free, doubling the bang for your non-existent buck at the site.
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#1AudioBook Bay
AudioBook Bay is a popular website that offers various ebooks and audiobooks for free. Through this website, you can download audiobooks for free or share them in a safe way and with high quality.FreeDiana ShawWritten on July 16, 2018'This website stood out among the rest for me because it offers hassle-free download. Unlike the other websites that asks me to log in, sign up, or even aask for my credit card credentials, this website just lets you download any audiobook for free. Well, aside from that, I like that it has some categories according to the age of the reader. For my younger boy, they have a great selection pre-arranged and categorized for me. It safe, don't worry. :D Thumbs up!'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.#2ThoughtAudio
ThoughtAudio is an audiobook hosting site that offers free audiobooks that are divided per section. The website offers various audiobooks from classics to philosophical novels.FreeOlivia ShiWritten on July 16, 2018'LOL the first time I tried downloading an audiobook here, I clicked the play button and suddenly I was shocked when someone spoke. You can actually stream the audio right on your web browser if you dnt wanna download it. It is in mp3 format. You just have to right click on the link and choose save as MP3 and voila!'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.#3LibriVox Audio Books
LibriVox Audio Books provides free access to over 24,000 audio books in more than 30 languages. Each audiobook can be streamed over the internet or downloaded for later use. All LibriVox audio books can be freely listened to and shared.Web, iOS, AndroidDaniel CruzWritten on July 16, 2018'Guys, this is also availabe in ios so it's a plus for me! It is not some sort of a torrent site so if you are expecting torrents, this is not for you. Their catalogues can be browsed according to genre/ language/ author and it gives you two options when you go to their page, either listen or read :D Great site!'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.
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#4ExtraTorrent
Extratorrent is a free website used to download and seed torrent files for various electronic resources. Downloadable files from the site include movies, music, software, program, applications, e-books, documents, and many more.FreeRocío OlveraWritten on July 16, 2018'When I actually get bored from listening to an audiobook, I literally download movies from the same site. Not only it offers books but also movies and other digital materials. Different mirrors and the health bar is displayed so makesure before you download an ebook or an audiobook, be cautious. No annoying ads in here so i loive it!'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.#5Torrent Off
A great website offering not only eBooks, but also movies, music, and other content. Just head over to the Books category and you will see the list of titles available. There is no need of registration on this site. *NO LONGER AVAILABLE*Tyler PetersonWritten on July 16, 2018'Website is minimalist compared to other websites. Although it reminds me of some torrent sites out there. If y'all gonna ask me if this site is safe, lemme tell you that no torrent site is 100% safe! Hello? Because it's a torrent. You just have to make sure your connection is secure and you are downloading safe file. Review the audiobooks first! This site gives a quick and easy access to book point and download is the way to go.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.#6Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is a website that offers over 45000 free ebooks what will fill your needs. It has a variety of categories such as music, history, education, fiction, and more.FreeAnnie XuWritten on July 16, 2018'Honestly, I find the name of the site very weird..but interesting enough for me to visit. The site can be read in different languages but what amazes me is that it doesnt require any purchase, or any other third party software for you listen to your audiobook. You just download and listen over your cup of coffee. But the selection of audtio books for me is fewer then the other. BTW cool QR code is posted on the right side I tried scanning it and it lead me to their mobile app :D'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.#7Lit2go
Lit2Go gives us a free online collection of audio stories, poems and texts in audiobook format. We can find also abstracts, citations playing time and word count for the passages we select to listen to. You can also download the text in pdf to help you read if you need it. The books and texts are from public domain, mainly.FreeRamón HurtadoWritten on July 16, 2018'Whoa there, there is a written transcription of the audiobooks that you download in pdf form. So if you are worried that you might not be able to catch on, you can get it from this site. :D'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.#8Open Culture
The biggest shared resource you're going to find on the Internet. Open Culture offers hundreds of free audiobooks, mainly on classic novels such as Jane Austen's Pride and the Prejudice and many more.FreeSummer GaoWritten on July 16, 2018'Classic audiobooks can be found here. Works of Tolstoy, Twain, and other renowned authors are in their catalouge. However, the interfae of the website is a bit not user friendly for me as direct download button is not displayed.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you don't like it!Thank you for sharing your experience!Your comment will be reviewed and published shortly.