For customers who enjoy listening to books, Audible offers millions of audiobooks to download and relish.
But purchasing books through Audible is significantly more expensive than books from a used bookstore or your local library. If you love Audible but don’t want to spend too much money on audiobooks, here are some easy ways to get credits for Audible for free.
How Audible Works
So how does Audible work exactly, and what do credits mean anyway?
Audible is a subscription service with five basic membership plans. They include Audible Plus, which includes access to a selection of Audible books and meditation programs, and then their + options. Plus 2 credit means you get the Audible Plus catalog plus a credit to download a book, Plus 2 Credit gets you two book downloads, and Plus Annual Credits get you 12-24 credits for the whole year.
One title from a broad range of new releases and greatest sellers is available for each credit. If you’re an Audible member, you can continue to purchase titles at a 30% discount after your credits for the month or year have been utilized. Additionally, the app, which works with iOS, Android, and Windows devices, lets you listen to Audible books at your convenience.
Pricing
So how much does Audible cost? The plan options include:
- Audible Plus – $7.95/month
- Audible Premium Plus – $14.95/month
- Audible Premium Plus 2 Credits – $22.95/month
- Audible Premium Plus Annual 12 Credits – $149.50/month
- Audible Premium Plus Annual 24 Credits – $229.50/month
As you can see, you will save a bit of money by paying annually or getting more books in one month.
If you sign up for a free trial for the monthly membership, you can get multiple books for free in a single month, just remember to cancel if you don’t plan on keeping the membership.
1. Free Audible Trial
The first (and easiest) way to get free audiobooks via Audible is to sign up for their free trial. For new customers, Audible offers a 30-day free trial that includes one or two free Audible credits.
During the free trial, you can use the free credits to purchase any audiobooks you’d like, including new releases.
2. Choose the Premium Plus Membership
Yes, choosing the Premium Plus Membership means spending more money each month ($14.95 per month vs. $7.95 per month). However, upgrading to the Premium Plus Membership option can actually save you money.
This is because the Premium Plus plan comes with 1 free credit each month. So, each year, you get 12 free credits. And the best part about this plan is that you can keep your monthly credits for up to a year, so you can let them roll over if you don’t find any books you’d like to buy for the month.
3. Return Books Occasionally
If you’re an Audible Premium Plus member, you’re permitted to return books without losing credits. So if you decide to return an audiobook that you bought with a credit, you will receive your credit back.
Whatever payment method you used to make the transaction, Amazon will reimburse you. But I wouldn’t advise doing this too frequently because it can be considered fraud (besides, returning audiobooks for a refund after enjoying them might be considered unethical).
However, you can return a book for a refund and receive your credit if you decide you don’t like it after purchasing it. Remember that returns must be made within 365 days of your purchase.
4. Take Advantage of Discounts
Sometimes, Audible will offer special discounts on certain books, like books that were recently released or that have sequels coming up (among other reasons). While you’ll need to be on the lookout for these deals, you can score a free, or deeply discounted, book that you’ve had on your list to read!
5. Try Household Sharing
You can share your Amazon/Audible material with another Amazon account using the Amazon Household feature. This helps you easily share the audiobooks you’ve already bought with others if, for example, you want to share books with your spouse or kids, but don’t want to have to spend more credits.
Up to four children and two adults can be members; adults would both need accounts, but kids don’t need to have an account.
But keep in mind that you can’t give the other member of your Amazon Household access to your Audible Premium Plus membership credits or the titles in the Plus Catalog. You will also be sharing your payment methods if you share your Amazon/Audible content with another Amazon account.
6. Get a Kindle Unlimited Trial
With Whispersync for Voice and the Kindle Unlimited membership, you get access to thousands of audiobooks as well as hundreds of thousands of Kindle eBooks. There are no due dates and you can keep ten eBooks at once. Essentially, this means that throughout your free 30-day trial, you can listen to audiobooks without paying a cent!
Additionally, if you purchase a Kindle Unlimited eBook that comes with a free audiobook companion, you will instantly get access to it.
On the majority of Kindle devices and some free Kindle reading apps, you can listen to Kindle Unlimited audiobooks. Remember that audiobooks that come with Whispersync for Voice are not free after the trial. Only books marked “with narration” are offered for free.
7. Use Free PayPal Cash to Purchase Audible Credits
Need to buy more credits? You can earn money by doing things like viewing movies, completing surveys, and playing games, using reward websites like Swagbucks, QuickRewards, and other sites that are similar to them.
You can choose to be paid via PayPal on a lot of these websites once you cash out your rewards. Then you can use those funds to purchase Audible credits, but essentially, they’d be free because you aren’t spending your own money!
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8. Refer Family and Friends
Each month, you are allowed to invite ten friends or family members to join Audible. After Audible accepts your referrals and they finish signing up, you will get a confirmation email with the credit in your Audible account within seven days.
However, you won’t be qualified for the credit if a referral doesn’t finish the sign-up procedure within 30 days of clicking your referral link.
Additionally, if three of your referrals sign up for monthly Audible subscriptions (either through an Audible membership or an Amazon Prime membership) within 60 days of signing up, you’ll get an extra three months of Audible membership for free.
9. Visit Audible’s Free Section
Did you know that Audible provides a section dedicated to free books? Numerous free audiobooks and podcasts are available on Audible.
In fact, if you look under “Free Audiobooks and Podcasts,” there will be a “Buy for $0.00” button that you can use to get the item for free. This is great if you run out of credits but want to continue reading.
10. Free Audible Credits Hack – Whispersync Voice
As mentioned earlier, you can use Whispersync Voice to get free “audiobooks”. Essentially, Whispersync for Voice enables you to read Kindle eBooks that go along with certain audiobooks.
The playback location, bookmarks, and notes will automatically be maintained between devices if your Whispersync for Voice-capable device has access to a Wi-Fi connection. So if you have an ebook, and want to listen to it instead of read it, Whispersync for Voice helps with that.
11. Cancel Your Membership
Audible will try to keep you as a member by giving you a discount on your membership if you’re trying to cancel. Why? Because they want you to keep spending money, of course! So why not save some money for being a loyal member?
Keep in mind that this deal is only triggered if you’re on the premium plan for at least 30 days, have one or zero credits left on your account, and you’re using the desktop site, not the app. This offer saves you 50% off your plan, essentially giving you an audiobook for free!
Credits for Audible for Free Summary
Getting credits for Audible for free is actually fairly easy — especially if you use the above 11 different ways.
Whether you want access to new books or just want to listen to audiobooks while completing other hobbies, you don’t have to spend a fortune to do so.
FAQ
How do I get 3 free credits on Audible?
To get 3 free credits on Audible, you’ll need to sign up for the Audible Premium Plus 2 Credits trial. This gets you access to two additional audiobook credits in addition to the premium membership credit.
Is Audible free with Amazon Prime?
No, Audible is not included with an Amazon Prime membership. Any Audible membership is separate from your Prime membership.
How can I get an Audible free trial?
Each Audible membership comes with a free 30-day trial, so all you need to do is click here and sign up to get your free credits. Keep in mind that you have to be a newcomer in order to get the deal. If you’ve signed up for a trial before, you won’t be able to get another.
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