13 of Our Favorite Places to Download Free Audiobooks in 2025

Listen to new releases and classics at no cost on OverDrive, LibriVox, Digitalbook.io, and more

By
Stacy Fisher
Profile photo of Stacy Fisher
Stacy Fisher
Technology Educator
  • Emporia State University
Stacy is a professional technology educator with over 25 years' experience. She has published hundreds of articles, co-authored a book, and has appeared on national and local TV.
lifewire's editorial guidelines
Updated on January 7, 2025
Pair of headphones plugged into a book
Tuan Tran/Moment/Getty Images

Many websites provide totally free, full-length audiobook downloads, and I've tested them to pinpoint the very best choices. Unlike many "free" audiobook sites, these sources are entirely legal.

This access is possible either because the audiobooks are in the public domain or because the websites have explicit permission from the authors.

Looking for more free books in other formats? I keep a list of my top sources for free Kindle books and another for free Nook books.

01
of 13

OverDrive

overdrive free audiobook titled In Charm's Way
What We Like

  • Borrow free audiobooks from your local library.

  • Works with tens of thousands of libraries.

  • Listen from the website or the app.

  • Includes free audiobooks samples.

What We Don't Like

  • Must have a library card from a supported library.

  • Possible long wait times to borrow titles.

If your local library has a subscription to OverDrive (check OverDrive's library finder to find out), then this is a great place to find over 500,000 free audiobook downloads of recent fiction and non-fiction books, including bestsellers.

You'll check these out just like you would a library book, and they'll be returned at the end of the loan period. You can even do it all from the Libby mobile app for iOS and Android.

One thing I can't pass up mentioning is how easy searching for audiobooks here can be. Not only are you able to sort the list by popularity and release date, but filters let you ensure that it's just the audiobooks (not e-books) that you see, and they can be in a specific language and/or by a particular publisher or creator.

Download For:

02
of 13

Chirp

The audiobook In Our Time as a free download at Chirp
What We Like

  • See ratings and read reviews.

  • No website ads.

  • Available as a mobile app.

What We Don't Like

  • Requires an account.

  • Small collection.

Chirp is used mainly to purchase audiobooks, but it also has this awesome one-page list of free titles. Some of the books are from John Grisham, Ernest Hemingway, Agatha Christie, and H. G. Wells.

Each download page includes a sample of the audiobook, a full description, and reviews by other listeners.

While it might feel like you're paying for these titles because accessing them happens through a traditional checkout page, they're free to download if they say "FREE" on them. You can stream from the web page or use the mobile app.

Download For:

03
of 13

LibriVox

librivox free children's fiction books
What We Like

  • Listen to specific chapters without downloading them.

  • Several ways to find a specific title.

  • Receive new audiobooks by podcast.

  • Available in many languages.

  • Works on mobile devices.

What We Don't Like

  • Can't sort by most popular.

  • Reading quality varies by narrator.

  • Audio quality isn't always consistent.

LibriVox has a huge selection of free audiobooks that are recordings of volunteers who have read chapters from books that are in the public domain.

You can find one by searching by title, author, genre/subject, or language. You can also browse all the titles in the catalog, view only the most additions, and subscribe to new releases as podcasts.

Once you reach a book's description page, you can read more about it and even listen to the chapters individually without having to download each of them. 

However, if you do want to download the whole audiobook, every chapter included, you can do so in a ZIP file, directly from LibriVox. Some are also available through a torrent and M4B file.

Something I like about this site, that I recommend you use too, is the advanced search tool. It lets you find a book in any genre by searching for keywords and other things like language and status (to make sure you get fully finished books).

Most of the time, books download as MP3 files (or sometimes WMA or AAC files) that can play on your computer, tablet, phone, iPod, or MP3 player. There are free audio converter software programs you can use if you need the audiobook to be in a different file format.

These books are also available through a mobile app for iOS and Android, so you can download them to your phone or tablet, or stream them on the go.

Download For:

04
of 13

Digitalbook.io

Free trending audiobooks at digitalbook.io
What We Like

  • Launch audiobooks in iOS Podcasts app.

  • Several ways to locate a new free audiobook.

  • Lots of well-known and lesser-known titles.

  • Several languages and categories to choose from.

What We Don't Like

  • Relatively small collection.

  • Includes titles that are free only with Audible.

Digitalbook.io (formerly Librophile) is a directory that makes finding public domain audiobook downloads easy. You can download the whole audiobook, play just a clip, or open the book as a podcast.

Though the collection isn't very large, I like that I can browse by trending or popular audiobooks to find one I might like, or look through the list of genres, authors, or languages. This website is incredibly clean and easy to use. I never have any difficulty finding something interesting.

There are over 100,000 items here, and while some are audiobooks, others are regular e-books.

05
of 13

Google Play Books

free audiobooks on Google Play
What We Like

  • Two simple genres.

  • Great for existing Google Play Books users.

  • M4A exporting is an option.

What We Don't Like

  • Very small collection.

If you like to keep your book collection in your Google account to read in the Google Play Books app, you'll enjoy the free options offered to you.

Visit the link below, and then scroll down to the Explore AI-narrated audiobooks or Explore nonfiction sections to see the free audiobooks Google offers. There aren't many, but they are totally free and legal, and will be added to your account in just a few moments.

Listen to these audiobooks through the Google Play Books website or with the app for Android or iOS. If you use the website, you can export an audiobook to M4A to play it elsewhere.

Download For:

06
of 13

Internet Archive

Archive.org Audio Book and Poetry website
What We Like

  • Has thousands of audiobooks.

  • Several sorting options for searching.

  • Filter by certain criteria.

  • Usually multiple audio download formats.

  • Download in bulk or by individual chapter.

What We Don't Like

  • Poorly named titles; hard to recognize at first glance.

  • Few non-English audiobook downloads.

The Internet Archive also has a ton of free audiobook downloads that you can browse through by subject, keywords, or using the search box.

My favorite way to find books here is by sorting by view count to find the most popular ones. Some of those include The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Jane Eyre, The Swiss Family Robinson, Moby Dick, The Art of War, and Dracula. 

Some are available in multiple formats so that you can download the book in MP3 or OGG format, for example.

The MindWebs page is one part of the Internet Archive that has several dozen classic sci-fi audiobooks.

07
of 13

Audible

Audible categories and recommended books
What We Like

  • There's a huge selection.

  • Get two audiobooks completely free.

  • They're yours to keep forever.

  • Listen from a mobile device or computer.

What We Don't Like

  • The trial period is only for one month.

  • Limited to one download.

  • Must pay after the trial to keep downloading audiobooks.

This one isn't technically free forever, but it is free for 30 days. I include Audible because of its great selection of audiobooks. You'll be able to find just about any title you're looking for, including bestsellers and new releases.

After the trial, you can get one book each month for $14.95/month, no matter the price of the book. You can download any audiobook of your choice, or two if you're a Prime member, for free during that time.

Don't want a trial? See Audible's free audiobooks for a small collection of books that you don't even need a trial for.

Download For:

08
of 13

Light Up Your Brain

Light Up Your Brain's Windswept audiobook
What We Like

  • Audiobooks are geared toward kids.

  • A text version is available below each audiobook.

  • Most audiobooks are under 10 minutes.

What We Don't Like

  • Unhelpful if you're looking for adult books.

  • Site is overloaded with ads.

Light Up Your Brain has several clearly read, short, free audiobooks that are just for kids. Stream them or download the audiobooks to your computer.

One thing I like is that transcriptions of the stories are provided on the same page as the audio stream. This feature is great if you like to read along to what you're listening to.

There are also some free games for kids here that are all made to challenge their minds and keep their brains active.

09
of 13

LearnOutLoud

The Think and Grow Rich free audiobook at Learn Out Loud
What We Like

  • Sorting and filtering options.

  • Over a dozen categories of free audiobooks.

  • No user account necessary.

  • Lists all the free books together.

What We Don't Like

  • You won't find newer releases here.

I like using LearnOutLoud for free audiobook downloads because I can access the download in just a few minutes—without a user account. The site is built well enough that it's super easy to search through the 4,000+ titles that are available.

Something else I want to mention are the unique audiobook categories. Beyond the normal ones like history and science, are others like travel, arts & entertainment, philosophy, and sports & hobbies.

Some of the more popular free audiobooks you can get here are from authors like Napoleon Hill, C.S. Lewis, Earl Nightingale, and Marcus Aurelius.

10
of 13

Loyal Books

Loyal Books free science fiction audiobooks
What We Like

  • Multiple language options.

  • Makes finding the top 100 audiobooks easy.

  • Audiobooks are organized in several genres.

  • Thousands of choices.

What We Don't Like

  • Few sorting options.

  • Lots of website ads.

It's easy to use Loyal Books (formerly Books Should Be Free) to download free audiobooks. You can view the audiobooks by the language, the Loyal Books top 100, and by genre like Children, Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery, and more than a dozen others.

You can listen to these books on the website, download MP3s of the chapters altogether at once in one ZIP file, download the whole audiobook in one M4B file for iPhones, save specific chapters only, and even get the book through an RSS reader. There's also a Loyal Books mobile app for iOS and Android.

These are public domain books, so you might not see anything here that differs from the other public domain audiobook websites I've already mentioned.

Download For:

11
of 13

hoopla

hoopla's popular English audiobooks
What We Like

  • Easy-to-use website.

  • Access from a variety of devices.

  • Lots of genres to pick from.

  • Helpful sorting and filtering options.

  • Includes a kids mode.

What We Don't Like

  • Requires a valid library card.

Much like OverDrive, listed above, hoopla has thousands of free audiobook downloads, but only if you have a library card at a supporting library.

Browse hoopla's most popular audiobooks for titles like The Coworker, Harry Potter, Finders Keepers, Never Lie, and The Roaring Days of Zora Lily. I also like to dig through hoopla's trending audiobooks page when I'm not sure where to start. In addition to those pages are genres and collections, such as Family Fun and Celebrity Memoirs.

When searching through these free audiobooks, you can filter the results by user rating, release date, date added, and language. There's also a Children's section to show just kid-friendly audiobook downloads.

You can stream these audiobooks from your computer or on various devices.

12
of 13

Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg's Fairy Prince audiobook download
What We Like

  • A massive source of free downloads.

  • Supports lots of languages.

  • Save audiobook chapters or download entire book.

  • Ad-free website.

What We Don't Like

  • Computer-read audiobooks aren't as easy to listen to.

  • Most chapters don't have descriptive titles.

Project Gutenberg has audiobooks that are read by humans and some that are computer-generated. These titles are public domain books that have been turned into audiobooks that are now available for free for anyone who's interested.

The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection lets you listen to these books through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other services. My preference when downloading audiobooks from this website is to browse the human-read books.

There are several formats for downloading audiobooks and you can save files to your computer or an online storage site like Google Drive.

13
of 13

Open Culture

Open Culture free audiobook list
What We Like

  • Hundreds of free audiobooks.

  • Audiobooks are listed in alphabetical order.

What We Don't Like

  • Can't sort or filter the list of audiobooks.

  • No option to search through the list.

  • Some are only streams, not downloads.

Open Culture has 1,000 fiction, non-fiction, and poetry audiobooks you can download for free. Scroll down the alphabetized list to browse through everything they have to offer.

These audiobook downloads are located on a variety of other websites, so some of them may be direct links to the MP3, while others might be streamed from their respective download page—but not available for download.

I'm not a fan of the barebones list because I can't search or filter anything. But it is nice to see everything on a single page.

Besides free audiobooks, this site also has free online movies, courses, language lessons, and e-books.

There are lots of other websites that offer free audiobooks that you can download through torrent websites. However, you should know that while that method of sharing books (or anything, like music and movies) may seem completely fine, it's normally illegal in most countries and is typically considered an unsafe method for sharing files since it's a common way to transmit malware.

Was this page helpful?