Well, you might have already noticed that Audiobooks are very expensive. Not everyone can afford them at their original price. Even if you can, you would still want to get them for some discounts or even for free if possible.
Whether you are a new Audible member wanting to get started with Audible the cheaper way or an existing member who just want to save some money on Audible credits, you are at the right place.
In this article, you will get to know 27 Amazing tips & tricks on how to get audible credits at affordable rates. And let me assure you that all the methods mentioned in this article are 100% legal.
You might already be familiar with some of these tricks. But, trust me, you will get to know many new money saving ideas that you might not have even heard of!
Before you continue, Please Note:
- It is a detailed article. Along with the tips, I have also tried to explain how you can actually use and save Audible credits or money by using those tricks.
If you find any tip that may not apply to you, please feel free to skip to the next tip. You will surely find many tips that you can benefit from. - Some of these tips are location-based. You will be able to enjoy those benefits only if you live or study in the United States.
Let’s get started and see how to save money on Audible credits with these mind-boggling tips & tricks:
1. Get 2 Free Audiobooks in your 30-day trial
Please Note: This offer seem to have expired in October, 2019! Now only 1 free audiobook of your choice is offered along with 2 Audible Originals.
If you have already used Audible free trial, you may skip this section because you can only use the free trial once. If you haven’t, then get ready for your 2 Free Audiobooks!
When you start using Audible for the first time, you will get an offer to use Audible free for a period of one month. You get 2 free credits to start with. You can choose any two audiobooks of your choice. And those audiobooks will be yours to keep forever, even if you cancel your membership!
Besides the 2 audiobooks, you also get 2 Audible Originals, which are basically audio format books found exclusively on Audible only and nowhere else!
However, there is a small trick for getting 2 free audiobooks. If you visit Audible’s official website. You will see that it is offering only one free audiobook.
But, when you browse Audible membership on Amazon’s Website, you can see that you will be getting 2 Audiobooks of your choice.
Though sometimes Audible does offer 2 free credits from their official site too, I would still suggest you to get your free trial from Amazon’s website. You are assured 2 credits that way.
You are under no obligation to continue your membership with Audible. If you don’t like its services, or if you feel that Audible won’t work for you, then you can cancel anytime. And you won’t be charged if you cancel before your free trial ends.
Interestingly, you can keep your audiobooks (including the ones purchased during free trials) for lifetime even if you cancel your membership.
If you want to know more about Audible and its working, you can refer to my article: How does Audible work?
2. Return audiobooks that you did not like
Audible has a Great Listen Guarantee policy. Which means if for any reason you are not happy with the audible book you purchased, you can simply return it and exchange it with a different book.
Here are some important points regarding this policy:
- You must be an Audible member to return audiobooks
- You must return the audiobook within 365 days of purchasing it.
- This policy is applicable during your free trial as well.
- You can return your book even if you have already listened to it.
- You will be refunded in the same way you bought it, that is, if you paid with a credit, you get back a credit. If you paid using a card, you get your money back.
However, you should not abuse this policy. Return your book only if you did not actually like the book or if you bought the wrong book by mistake.
Please bear in mind that if you return a certain number of books – may be two or three, you will no longer get the option to return the book yourself.
In that case, you will have to contact customer care, who will return your book after you give them a satisfactory reason. In some cases, your account may even be suspended if you abuse this policy.
Besides, returning book is not supported on Audible app. You will have to use the Audible website to return the book. You can refer to my article on how to exchange audible book to know more.
3. Get 3 months membership at 50 % discount price
I’m sure this trick is going to surprise you if you haven’t used it already.
Audible does not want to lose its customers. So, if you try to cancel your membership, Audible will try to lure you in with some great offers. 3 months membership at 50 % discount is one of them. Here’s how it works:
First, try canceling your membership (You don’t actually have to cancel your membership, just pretend that you want to cancel it).
Go to Audible’s Official Website and sign in. Click or hover over your name and from the menu choose Account Details.
In the membership details page, you will see the option to cancel your membership.
Please note that membership cancelation option is not available on Audible app. You will have to do it from the desktop site.
If you are on a mobile, just go to the official website and click on ‘Full Site’ at the bottom of the page. You will be redirected to the desktop site. And then follow the above steps.
Now click on ‘Cancel Membership’. You will be asked to choose the reason for canceling your membership. Choose ‘It’s too expensive’. And then click on ‘Continue canceling’.
There comes your offer. You will be given an offer to ‘keep listening for less’. You will get the Audible credits for the next 3 months at 50% off. You can opt for it and get your first credit of the offer immediately at $7.49. See screenshot below.
So that’s how you get 50% off for the next three months on Audible membership. From $14.95 to $7.49 per month. I think that is a pretty good deal.
4. Audible Student Membership
If you are a student attending college or university in the United States, you have a very exciting offer coming up your way.
Audible has an Exclusive Student Membership plan under which a student from the United States can get access to Audible membership at just $9.95 per month. Yes, a flat $5 off every month!
Not only that but, you also get a one-time $10 Amazon.com credit which you can use to purchase products on Amazon.
So, if you are an eligible United States student, here’s an article on Audible Student Membership Plan to help you redeem this offer. The article also explains other terms and conditions of this plan.
However, you should first get your free audiobook using the free trial offer and also use the three months 50% off offer before opting for the student membership plan. You may not get a free trial if you directly start the student plan.
5. Receive a Free Audiobook Via Audible App
Audible has an option to send a book from your library to any other Audible user. If you have never accepted a book from anyone on Audible through this method before, you can use it to get a free book.
It is basically your third free audiobook from Audible!
The only challenge for you would be to find a friend or Audible user who has the book of your interest in his Audible library. (It is free for both sender and receiver).
Suppose you are sending a free book from your library to someone else, here’s how you can do it:
1. Go to the library section of your Audible app.
2. Locate the book you want to share and click on the icon (three dots) on the right of the title.
3. From the options, choose ‘Send this Book’
4. You will get three options to share – Message, Mail, or WhatsApp.
5. Choose one and send.
6. An auto-generated message with a link will be sent to your friend. He will then be able to get the book for free from the link.
And that’s how you can get a free audiobook. You can refer to the full article on ‘Sending book via Audible app’ here.
There are many offers in this article and obviously, you cannot use them all at the same time. So, I highly recommend you to bookmark this page so that you can refer to it whenever you start a new plan.
On a desktop or pc, you can simply bookmark any page by pressing Control + D (Command+ D on Mac).
6. Buy extra Audible credits at a discounted price
This trick will come handy if you listen to audiobooks on a regular basis.
If you have used up all your available credits and still want to purchase a new audiobook, you can consider buying extra credits at discounted price.
In many cases, you may automatically get the offer to buy extra Audible credits after you have used up all your credits. Here’s an example from my account in February this year:
On clicking the Buy 3 extra credits, you will be taken to the offer page.
If you do not get the extra Audible Credits Offer, just contact Audible customer care and ask them for the offer. They will activate it for you.
However, you will have to buy 3 credits at once using this offer. Depending on your membership plans, the amount charged per credit will vary. It is usually cheaper for members with annual plans.
Generally, this is the offer that you will get.
| Plan Name | Price for 3 Extra Credits |
| Gold Monthly | $35.88 |
| Gold Annual | $29.90 |
| Platinum Monthly | $34.41 |
| Platinum Annual | $28.68 |
7. Turn on Audible Daily Deals Notification
By default, Audible daily deal notifications are turned off for your account. And if you haven’t turned it on yet, you might be missing out on huge deals.
Audible sends a daily deal notification to their subscribers and the discounts are often huge – sometimes up to 90% off!
In most cases, the books in the deals are based on your browsing and listening history on Audible. So, they might just be one of the books you were actually interested in listening to.
However, if you are very particular about the genre and types of book you prefer, you may not always find the best book in the deals. But even if you get one good book per month from the deal, I think it is a big money saver!
So, if you haven’t turned on your notification yet, do it today. Here’s how to do it:
Go to your Account Details page on the Audible desktop site. Click on ‘Notifications’ and then check the option for Audible Daily Deals.
That’s it. You will now receive the notifications for daily deals.
8. Get Audible Escape Plan
According to the statistics mentioned in the Bustle, 29 % of all fiction readers in 2015 were Romance readers! In 2013, romance novel sales exceeded $1 billion, according to Romance Writers of America.
So, if you are one of those Romance novel enthusiasts, Audible has a special Package for you! It is called the Audible Escape Plan
This plan allows you to listen to thousands of romance audiobooks! You can borrow up to 10 romance books at a time with the Audible Escape Plan and can return them whenever you like, to borrow more.
Just like other Amazon products,you get one month free trial for Audible Escape Plan too.
After the free trial ends, Kindle Unlimited and Audible Gold or Platinum members can continue with the Escape Plan at only $6.95/month. For other members, the package costs $12.95/month.
Whether you are currently an Audible member or not, whether you have used Audible’s free trial or not, you can still get to try one-month free Escape Plan.
And unlike Audible’s other memberships, there is no limit on the number of books you can listen to every month, not even during the free trial. You don’t need to have Audible credits to enjoy these books.
9. Add the Audible books you want to purchase to your Wishlist.
Create an Audible wishlist of books you want to listen to. Add them to wishlist even if they are currently too expensive.
Every now and then, Audible comes up with discount offers and sales for particular books. If the books on your wishlist happen to be on sale, Audible will notify you via Email.
So make sure that you keep your wishlist filled with good books.
To add the book to your wishlist, simply search the book, go to its description page and then click on the ‘Add to Wish List’ option.
10. Buy audiobooks along with their Kindle e-book versions
This is one of the best tricks to save money on Audible.
Instead of buying a book using your credit or money from Audible, buy the Kindle version of the book from Amazon and while you are about to buy the Kindle book, buy the audiobook version too which are available at discounted price.
Here’s an example that will make you clear on how this trick works.
The book ‘Beneath a Scarlet Sky’ by Mark Sullivan is available on Audible at a regular price of $27.59. An Audible member can either get the book using their Audible credit or they can get it at $19.31 using 30% member discount benefit.
However, when you buy the same audiobook along with Kindle on Amazon, it will only cost you $4.48 ($2.49 for the Kindle book and $1.99 for the audiobook)! You can check it out yourself.
So what would you prefer now?
Well, if you are getting a $19.31 book for just $4.48, it is a no brainer that you would definitely go for the latter.
However, not every book will have a cheaper Audible version. So, before you purchase an audiobook on Audible, just check the Kindle price and the cost to add the audiobook on Amazon first.
This choice will be even better if you use Whispersync for voice feature, using which you can switch between reading the Kindle book and listening to the Audible narration without losing your place.
11. Sign up for Kindle Unlimited & listen to audiobooks for free
If you are a Kindle Unlimited member, you might already know about this trick. But if you are not yet the member, then this trick will really excite you!
In trick number 10 above, I told you about how you can get an audiobook at a much cheaper rate when you purchase them together with a Kindle book. But, what if I told you that you can actually listen to some of those audiobooks for free! Yes, Absolutely FREE!
You just need to start your Kindle Unlimited Free trial, which will be free for a period of one month and then it costs $9.99/month. You can cancel your membership anytime.
Once you start the Kindle membership, search for the title you would like to listen to. You can check for the books with narration in Kindle Unlimited here.
If the title is available as Kindle Unlimited, and it has an audio version too, you can add the title to your Kindle library and your Audible for absolutely no cost!
So, with the Kindle Unlimited membership, you can add the book ‘Beneath a Scarlet Sky’ to your Kindle as well as Audible library for free as it is mentioned under ‘Kindle Unlimited’.
However, for some Kindle Unlimited titles, the audiobooks will not be free. But again, the price to add the audiobook from Amazon with your Kindle membership will be much less than buying from Audible.
One thing you should keep in mind though. If you end your Kindle Unlimited Membership, all free e-books and audiobooks will be returned.
But the ones you purchased at a discounted rate along with Kindle Unlimited books will remain in your library for lifetime unless you delete them.
You can also purchase those free Audiobooks available with Kindle Unlimited at a nominal price.
So, this is definitely one of the best ways to save money on Audible. Start your Kindle Unlimited Free trial today and enjoy your free and discounted audiobooks!
12. Scan your existing Kindle library for eligible Whispersync Audible upgrades
If you already use Kindle and if you want the audio version of a particular book too, then you can scan your existing Kindle library for eligible Whispersync Audible upgrades.
In many cases, you can get the available audiobook at a nominal price.
13. Share Audible library with someone using Amazon Household
If you have heard of Amazon Household, you probably know about this trick already.
Amazon Household is a feature that allows you to share your Amazon’s selected contents and benefits with another adult, teens, and children in your household while still maintaining your own account’s security and privacy.
Though you can have up to 10 members (2 Adults, 4 teens & 4 children) in your Amazon household, Audible allows only the two Adults to share their Audible library with each other.
So, how to use this feature to save money on Audible?
Well, in a way it is quite simple. First, find a friend with a common reading or listening interests (Or probably someone with a large Audible library 😉 ).
And if both of you have not joined any Amazon household in the last 180 days, then create one with you and your friend as the two adult members. (And yeah, you obviously have to convince your friend first)
Once you join Amazon household, you both can now listen to audiobooks in each other’s library without any restriction!
Isn’t that amazing?
The only drawback, however, is that you both will also have to share your Amazon wallet (payment details). But that can easily be protected by removing your card details from Amazon and using them only when required. And if you can trust each other with payment details, then you don’t even have to worry about that.
So if you think you can benefit from this trick, you can refer to the article, How to share Audible books with family and friends for free. Everything is explained there with pictures!
14. Ask your family members to join Audible with their credit cards
Does any of your family member have a credit card and is still not using Audible?
If yes, then what are you waiting for? 😉
Ask him/her to sign up with Audible and get the two free Audiobooks with the Audible Free trial.
You can then share those audiobooks with yourself using Amazon household if you do not have anyone else to join it with you.
And yeah, it is totally LEGAL!
Please Note: Amazon does not allow managing multiple accounts by the same user. So, if you have another credit card of your own, I would highly recommend you NOT to try making a different account with that card.
Never indulge in any dodgy methods. If Amazon finds out, you may be suspended or even permanently banned from using any of the Amazon services.
So, make the best out of every offers and tricks, but do it the right way!
15. Search Audible books by price on Amazon for cheaper options
If you have tried to sort Audible books by price, you would already know that there is no such option in Audible. Currently, Audible does not support sorting or searching audiobooks by price. (Except the books in your wish list)
So, what if you want to listen to some books on a particular topic like ‘Habits’ or by a particular Author or narrator and prefer to listen to the cheaper books first?
How do you find such books?
Well, On Audible, you will have to go through each of the books to find out their price.
The only method to do it is by using Amazon Advanced Search Option.
Here’s how to do it:
- Go to Amazon Advanced Search Page. You will land on a page with options like this:
- In the advanced search options, Choose ‘Audible Audio Edition’ under Format, and under Sort Results by, choose ‘Price: Low to High’
- Then enter Author’s name in the Author box or just enter some relevant keywords.
- Click on Search. You will now get the books sorted by price
However, this method may be slightly different for mobile devices and there are some glitches too. Refer to the article, How to search Audible by Price for detailed instructions with pictures.
16. Check out Audible’s Free-Listens List & Best Books Under $10 List
Audible has a collection of books that are priced under $10. You can check out the list here. Whether the books in that list are Best or not, I leave that for you to decide.
But if you have recently started listening to Audiobooks, you can surely find some titles there that might be of your interest.
Audible also has a list of free audiobooks. You can check out the free-listens here.
17. Choose Annual Plan If you listen to audiobooks a lot
If you compare Audible’s different membership plans, you would notice that the price per credit reduces considerably when you choose higher plans.
So, if you listen to audiobooks a lot, it totally makes sense that you go for the annual plan to save money on Audible.
Here’s a comparison of Audible’s different plans highlighting their cost per credit.
| Plan Name | Price | Credits | Cost Per Credit |
| Gold Monthly | $14.95/month | 1 per month | $14.95 |
| Gold Annual | $149.50/year | 12 per year | $12.46 |
| Platinum Monthly | $22.95/month | 2 per month | $11.46 |
| Platinum Annual | $229.50/year | 24 per year | $9.56 |
18. Keep an eye on Audible’s Deals page and Home page for member-only sales
Audible holds quite a number of sales that are available only for its members.
Besides the huge discounts on some books, they come up with offers like 2 books for 1 credit, or 3 books for 2 credits, etc. Here’s an offer from February 2019.
These are the times when you get that opportunity to transfer some of the books from your wishlist to your Audible library at a much cheaper rate!
Make the best use of such offers.
19. Activate the secret Silver membership plan
Audible has a secret Silver membership plan. For some reasons, they do not advertise it on their website.
Under this plan, you will get 1 credit on alternate months at a price of $14.98. Your billing will also be done on alternate months, that is, you will be paying $14.98 for two months.
The advantage of this plan is that you still get to enjoy all the benefits of a premium Audible member, like 30% discount on any purchase, Daily deals, access to Member-only sales, etc. at a cheaper rate.
You will also get 2 audible originals every month. That means you can get 4 Audible Originals for free during every two months membership term.
So if you don’t listen to audiobooks very often, this plan will be better for you than the Audible Gold Monthly plan.
To activate this offer, again use the similar trick as explained in point number 3 above.
Go to the Account Details page and click on Cancel Membership. In the reason now, choose ‘I don’t use it enough’ and then click ‘Continue Canceling’
Once you click on continue canceling, you will land on a page with two offers, one with the Silver membership offer as shown below and the other with an offer to place your membership on hold, which I have explained in next section.
Now, choose ‘Switch Membership‘ and accept the offer.
If for some reason you do not get the above options, you can contact Audible Customer Care, they will activate it for you.
20. Place your membership on hold
If you already have some unused credits in your account and you do not want to get billed for the next few months, you can do that by placing your Audible membership on hold.
That way you won’t be charged and your credits will remain unchanged until your membership is resumed. You will enjoy most of the member benefits even if your membership is on hold. It’s just that you won’t get any more credits and Audible originals during that period.
To get this offer, follow the steps in the previous trick and then choose this offer:
However, Your Audible Membership can be placed on hold only once every 12 months for a duration of up to 3 months.
Let’s say you put your membership on hold for two months beginning March 1st. When your plan restarts again on May 1st, you cannot put your plan on another hold for a full 12 months from that first resumed bill date, that is, May 1st.
Please Note: Placing your membership on hold does not mean canceling your membership. If you cancel your Audible account, any unused credits associated with your account will be terminated with your membership.
However, if you do not have any credits left on your account, you may consider canceling your account if you are not really using it. Do not worry, you will not lose any earlier purchased audiobooks. Once you buy an audiobook, you can keep it forever!
You can restart your subscription again whenever you want.
21. Opt for Audible $9.95/Year Plan
Just like Audible’s secret Silver Membership Plan, there’s yet another plan that Audible does not advertise about. It is the $9.95/year plan, which is sometimes also referred to as Audible Listener Light Membership plan.
However, under this plan, you do not get any credits or even the Audible originals, or 30% off on books.
Then why people opt for this offer?
The basic reason why many people prefer this plan is because, under this plan, you continue to receive member exclusive offers like your Daily Deals, wish list discounted books, etc. which are emailed to you.
And also, if you have any current credits in your account, you can keep that too and use it anytime within that one year time.
As I mentioned above, once in a while you will get deals notifications for the books that you were looking for or that might interest you. And those books you can get at up to 90% discounts!
So, if you do not listen to books more often, you can opt for this plan.
To start this plan, you need to follow similar steps in point number 3. Only that now you need to choose the reason as ‘I’m using another service’ or ‘I didn’t know I was in a Membership’. And then click on ‘Continue Canceling’
You will then be taken to a page showing two offers, one of them will be the $9.95/year plan.
If the offer does not appear by above methods, you can contact Customer Care. They will do it for you.
22. Use credits before they expire
Yes, Audible credits expire. If you do not use them on time, you may lose them.
Recently, Audible updated their credits expiry policy. As per the new policy, any credits issued after April 1, 2019 will expire 12 months after they are issued.
Here are the important points from the updated policy.
- Any credits received or issued after April 1, 2019 will expire 12 months after they are issued.
- Monthly plan credits issued prior to April 1, 2019 expire after six months. (For example: A credit issued on February 17, 2019 will expire on August 17, 2019)
- Annual plan credits issued prior to April 1, 2019 expire after 24 months.
Whether you have a monthly plan or an annual plan, all credits will expire after 12 months from the date of their issuance. Check out this article for more details.
So, do not wait too long to use your credits. If you want to take a break for a few months on Audible or if you do not want any more credits for a few months, you can simply keep your membership on hold. Or you can choose the Audible Light $9.95/year plan and save your credits.
23. Don’t miss to grab your free Audible Originals
On first Friday of every month, Audible rolls out 6 Audible Originals for their members.
An Audible member can choose any two of those six audiobooks for free!
Obviously, you might not get a book of your interest every month, but in many cases, their Audible Originals collection are worth a listen. Some of those even have thousands of 5-star ratings!
So, don’t miss them. You will have the entire month to collect your two books. Next month, the previous Audible Originals are removed and 6 new Audible Originals are added.
However, the removed Audible Originals will still be available on Audible, but now you will have to either pay or use your credits to get them! So, better get it when it’s free.
24. Use credits for expensive books
This is a no brainer, still, I have seen people buying books under 14 dollars using Audible credits. Try not to do that.
You can use your credit to buy a 5-dollar book or a 50-dollar book, it is all up to you. But obviously, using them on expensive books makes more sense and is a more economical option.
25. Get 30% off on cheaper books
For cheaper books, you can buy them directly using money. Audible offers flat 30% off on all books for its members. That means you can get even a $20 book for just $14.
So, if you see a book priced above $15, first, check how much it would cost you after the 30% discount. If the price comes below the cost of your Audible credit ($14.95 for Gold members), then you can buy them using money rather than using your valuable credit.
26. Get your local library card and borrow audiobooks via OverDrive
If you live in the United States, you probably have your local public library member card already. If you do not have it, I highly recommend you to get one.
The local public library card is free of cost. And based on the library’s collections, you can borrow a good number of audiobooks via OverDrive’s Libby app and keep it with you for up to a period of 21 days.
You can find libraries near you directly from OverDrive as shown above, and then you can see the audiobooks collection of that particular library!
You obviously won’t get all the books you want, but it will surely have some collection of books of your interest in most cases.
For instance, The Los Angeles Public Library currently shows a collection of about 30,000 audiobooks in Fiction and non-fiction.
Besides, you can also borrow e-books and read different magazines that your library has subscribed to. And with borrowed Kindle e-books, you can again buy their corresponding Audible books for a discounted price!
However, you may have to wait a lot sometimes to borrow your audiobook. This is because the number of digital copies of a particular title in a library are limited. And other listeners may have already borrowed it or placed in their waitlist before you. So, if you can wait and have patience, you should surely try this.
27. Get free audiobooks from alternative sources
The final tip on saving money on Audible is to look for your books on alternative sources like Scribd, Audiobooks.com, etc.
Wondering how you can save money on Audible by using alternative sources?
Well, many alternative services give you 1 month free trial just like Audible. You can get free audiobooks from there. Now, if you are looking for an audiobook for just one-time listen, then why not listen to it for free from other sources than using your Audible credits?
So these were 27 tips and tricks on saving money on Audible and/or get Audible credits at cheaper rates. I hope this article was helpful to you.
If you have any doubts or questions regarding any of the tips mentioned above, please share it in the comment section below. I would be glad to answer them as best as I can.
Did they stop letting audible users in the U.S. share books? Hopefully I a missing something because that sounds like the coolest feature ever!
Unfortunately this is no longer offered in Australia. I had used this here many years ago. Disappointing.
Can you gift books from you libraries to multiple people, or is that a one time thing?
You can gift it to maximum 10 members!
Learned a few things here. Some I know, some I don’t. Fun to see my friend Mark Sullivan’s book in 2 of the tips. Beneath A Scarlet Sky is a terrific read.
That being said, I have an additional saving tip for you. For any of your Kindle library books, you can have Alexa read them too you through the Alexa App on iOS (maybe Android too, but I don’t have that phone). Not the best read and can be kinda choppy at times, but for someone like me that consumes more through Audiobooks than paper or Kindle books, this is a blessing.
I don’t get an option to add Audible to a Kindle purchase. It’s a 1 click button. Am i missing something obvious?
Hi Martha!
If the Audiobook for the Kindle version is available, then there shouldn’t be problem adding it. Just follow the steps mentioned above.
Great article, thank you so much for all the tips!
This was super useful, thanks.
As of 25/06/2019, I didn’t get the £9.95 for a year option, I instead got an option to pay £3.95 per month for three months.
You are welcome, Lars. And yes, as I have mentioned in the article, some tricks may not work for everyone.