Top 10 Free Sites to Download and Listen Audiobooks 2024/25
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| Top 10 Best Free Websites to Download or Listen Audiobooks Right Now |
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When you start looking for free audiobooks online, it won’t be long before you start coming across less-than-reputable websites.
While some might genuinely request your credit card information, others might grant you access to prohibited content. However, you can legally stream and/or download free audiobooks from a variety of platforms. Among them are LibriVox, OpenCulture, and Project Gutenberg.
If you're looking for a comprehensive list of locations where you can find audiobooks that you would normally have to pay for, you probably won't find anything on this list. Fortunately, there are a handful of top-notch websites that offer free audiobooks. Millions of books are available for free download or streaming on these websites.
However, sorting through so many websites to identify the ones that have the greatest and most titles can take a lot of time. However, you're not required to do that! We've done the research and found the best free audiobook websites so you can stream and download a wide variety of books.
The Benefits of Audiobooks
Audiobooks are perfect for people who don't have much room or can't afford to store physical books. or those who move around a lot for work, school, or other reasons. When stored on a device, audiobooks occupy very little space and are highly portable.
They reside on the device you choose to keep them on, so you can enjoy them wherever you go as long as you have that with you. As with printed books, audiobooks can be listened to while driving, taking public transportation, reading in a park, or simply lounging in a café.
Listening to audiobooks frequently gives you the same enjoyment as watching a podcast, TV show, or film. That significantly reduces the scary factor, particularly if you choose to read a long book.
If you look at the number of pages in a physical copy, you might be discouraged from ever starting to read. While it may seem like a treat or even a challenge to realize that listening to the same book for 60 hours will take time. Consider listening twice as quickly. If you tried to complete it in two days, what would happen? It gives you multiple chances to gamify the process, which adds to its enjoyment.
Top 10 Best Free Websites to Download or Listen to Audiobooks 2023/2024
1. Lit2Go
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| Photo: Lit2Go |
Lit2Go is a great place to find audiobooks. Almost all books that have entered the public domain can be easily downloaded from this site.
You can use the title, author, or genre of your book to quickly search for it. It's interesting to note that Lit2Go uses the Flesch-Kincaid grading system to rate books based on how well they can read.
When you choose a book, Lit2Go automatically breaks it up into chapters for you. Numerous details about the book are available on this page, such as the word count, readability score, genre, release date, and more.
Website: https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/
2. ThoughtAudio
With ThoughtAudio, you can get classic books on literature and philosophy as audiobooks for free. You can browse the complete list, perform a book search, or see the titles arranged by the most recent books added to the library's collection.
You have the option to listen to the audiobooks in their entirety on the website or download them in segments by right-clicking on the segments you wish to save.
These audiobooks also have transcripts in PDF format that can be downloaded.
Website: http://thoughtaudio.com/
3. Storynory
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| Photo: listennotes |
Storynory is the best online resource for children's audiobooks. You can listen straight from the website, explore content on YouTube, or download stories using the iOS app. There are fairy tales, original stories, tales by famous writers, and even educational materials available.
Storynory offers a variety of free audiobooks for kids that include fairy tales, classics, and original works.
They're obviously aimed at children, but really, they're for anyone who wants to hear stories from 1,001 Nights, Aesop's fables, or the Brothers Grimm fairy tales again.
Website: https://www.storynory.com/
4. Open Culture
If you're looking for something with a little more diversity in its content, why not give Open Culture a try? The goal of the website Open Culture is to make cultural and educational media freely accessible.
This website provides online learning opportunities, degrees, diplomas, and audiobooks. You can download every one of the more than 1,000 free audiobooks.
You should have no trouble finding what you're looking for because they are arranged both by author and alphabetically. Several of the audiobooks also include links to the eBook versions, in case you're interested in those as well.
Website: https://www.openculture.com/freeaudiobooks
5. Overdrive
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| Photo: Overdrive |
Overdrive partners with local libraries around the country to offer quick and easy access to ebooks and audiobooks. Once you have an Overdrive account, you can connect to your local library and use your digital library card to borrow audiobooks from Overdrive (as long as the library accepts Overdrive, which most do). Unlike many public domain audiobook websites, Overdrive gives you access to contemporary novels, including those that are listed on The New York Times bestseller list. Overdrive also has a mobile app available for iOS and Android.
Website: https://www.overdrive.com/
6. Digital Book
Digitalbook.io is an excellent resource for free podcasts, e-books, and audiobooks. Despite not having any apps, the website is very easy to use. You can search directly for books on the homepage, peruse popular and highly rated titles by swiping down, or peruse books by genre.
Once you've found a book you want to listen to, click the cover image's play button to begin streaming. Click "Free audiobook" next to the title on the right side of the screen to start downloading the free audiobook file. Note that certain files can only be accessed through third-party providers (like LibriVox or Gutenberg), but you can still download those files from Digitalbook.io.
Website: https://www.digitalbook.io/
7. LibriVox
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| Photo: YouTube |
Volunteers have recorded portions of books that are in the public domain for the great majority of the free audiobooks that are available on LibriVox.
You can find one by doing a search by book, author, genre/subject, language, or title. You can also download new releases as podcasts, view just the latest additions, and search the entire archive.
You can read more about a book and even listen to specific chapters once you visit its description page, all without having to download every chapter.
However, you can download the entire audiobook in a ZIP file straight from LibriVox, which includes every chapter. Some are also available as M4B files and torrents.
Website: https://librivox.org/
8. Project Gutenberg
With over 60,000 free audiobooks, Project Gutenberg is one of the free libraries that provides free audio book services. On its website, it offers both computer-generated audio books and reads by humans. You don't need to register or have an account with Project Gutenberg in order to stream the desired audio book. Public domain titles and multiple formats are where they rank highest.
It is known that Michael Hart conducted extensive research in 1971 before creating Project Gutenberg audio books.
Website: https://www.gutenberg.org/
9. Internet Archive
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| Photo: epubor |
You can search the Internet Archive's vast collection of free audiobooks by subject, keyword, or by using the search box.
Here, sorting the books by view count to identify the most popular ones is our preferred method of book discovery. Among them are Dracula, The Art of War, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Jane Eyre, The Swiss Family Robinson, Moby Dick, and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Certain books are available in multiple formats, such as MP3 or OGG, which you can download.
There are a number of vintage science fiction audiobooks available on the Internet Archive, including the MindWebs page.
Website: https://archive.org/
10. Learn Out Loud
Learn Out Loud is a website that specializes in audio and video learning. Together with audiobooks, you can also get movies, podcasts, classes, and more. Unfortunately, not everything is publicly available.
You can click on a title to find out more information when you find one that catches your eye. Some audiobooks are only available as an audio sample, while others can be streamed online. A box on the right side of the screen might contain the link or links to the free file downloads. Further down the page, you can read listener reviews and ratings in addition to a synopsis of the book.
Website: https://www.learnoutloud.com/
Not Free but Cheap Audiobooks Online
If the desired audiobook is not available for free, you can always look for more reasonably priced options from other providers. Audible now offers a sharing service that allows you to send a free book to anyone you choose. Downpour offers audiobook rentals at a significantly lower cost. Chirp Audiobooks is another source for inexpensive audiobooks. Check out our review of Chirp in its entirety here.
Alternatively, you may sign up for Book Riot's Bargain of the Day email, where our staff members highlight occasionally some great deals on audiobooks.
You can also get two free audiobooks exclusively for Book Riot readers when you register for an Audible account! If you like their membership service, you can get one audiobook every month for a meager fee.
Physical Books vs. Audiobooks: Which Is Better?There is no clear winner between audiobooks and physical books. There are benefits and drawbacks to both physical and audiobooks, ranging from minor concerns like storage to more significant ones like accessibility. Audiobooks are the best choice for people who have difficulty holding up a book, such as those who are blind or have issues with their motor control. Print copies are also recommended for those with hearing impairments. There is no need for you to choose between the media. Instead, use both. An audiobook is the best choice for a busy day full of housework. For leisurely reading when you want to unwind, you should have a physical copy. The format that allows you to read a book doesn't really matter as long as you're reading it. |
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