A lot has changed with Audible and its subscription plans over the last few months. And these changes can also be noticed in how Audible works with Amazon Prime.
In August 2020, Audible introduced a new membership plan – Audible Plus and renamed its Gold & Platinum membership plans as Premium Plus.
Further, it has also tried to incorporate the idea of Unlimited listening through the Audible Plus Catalog feature in its membership plans.
It also seems to have discontinued its Amazon Prime Audible Channels feature, which among other benefits, included more than 50 free audiobooks for Prime members.
However, it is not all bad news for Amazon Prime members as you will see later in this article.
PLEASE NOTE!
The offers mentioned in this article are as on the date this article was last updated and are subject to change. You can check the current Audible offers for Prime members from This Official Page on Amazon!
Is Audible Free With Amazon Prime?
Currently, Audible is not free with Amazon Prime. Both Audible Plus and Premium Plus memberships are separate from Prime membership. However, many Audible offers and benefits are available exclusively for Prime members.
For instance, Prime members are invited to start their 30-day free trial with 2 free credits. Non-Prime members get only 1 free credit. You can use each credit to purchase a Premium title of your choice from a collection of over 500,000 titles.
If you are not eligible for the Audible Free Trial, you can still get other Prime exclusive Audible offers and benefits. Keep reading to know more.
During the free trial, you will also get access to Audible Plus Catalog – a collection of over 12,000 titles that you can listen to without any limitation!
You can cancel your free trial membership anytime and you will not be charged if you cancel before the end of your free trial period. Besides, you can keep the books purchased with your free trial credits for a lifetime.
However, if you have already taken the free trial before, you may not be eligible for another free trial. In that case, you can choose from other Prime exclusive offers.
Here I have put together a sequence of options (best options first) that you can choose from. This may apply to both Prime as well as non-Prime members. Please skip the first option if you are not eligible for the free trial.
1. 30-day Free Trial with 2 free Premium Audiobooks
A free trial is always great a way to start any new subscription plan. And in the case of Audible, Amazon Prime members are in for some extra treat!
Prime members get 2 free credits, each worth any title from the Audible Premium library. This is like getting two months’ worth of Premium Plus membership absolutely for free!
So, if you have not already taken the 30-day free trial, forget about other Audible plans for now and get your 2 free Premium titles first.
2. Discounted Audible Membership for Prime Members
Every now and then, Amazon comes up with many lucrative Audible offers exclusively for Prime members. And although Audible is not included with Prime, these offers will no doubt make you feel even more privileged as a Prime member!
So, How much is Audible with Prime?
Although there isn’t any fixed discount rate, Amazon has offered Audible membership at a discount of even more than 75% to its Prime Members in the past.
For instance, in 2018 and 2019, as a Prime Day offer, Audible membership was available at just $4.95/month. Amazon has also offered Audible membership for as low as $3.95/month on many occasions in the past to its Prime members.
However, these discounts are generally available only for a limited period and may not always be Prime-exclusive.
You can check the Current Audible offers for Prime members from This Official Page on Amazon!
3. Get the Cheaper Audible Plus Membership
If you are not eligible for any of the above two offers, you can go for the cheaper Audible Plus plan which costs $7.95/month. This plan gives you unlimited access to Audible Plus Catalog.
However, if you want to listen to some specific books or the ones that are recently released, DO NOT go for this membership plan as it will only have a limited number of titles.
For more details, please check out the article on Audible Plus vs Premium Plus.
4. Audible Premium Plus Annual Plan
Audible Annual Premium Plan may not look very attractive, especially when its price is 149.50/year.
However, this can be a better option for you if you are (or expect to be) a regular Audible Premium listener. It will give you 2 extra credits in comparison to Premium Monthly membership in a time horizon of 12 months. (12*$14.95/month= $179.40/year)
Besides, there are discount offers even for the annual plans. Last year, Amazon had offered the annual membership at $99.50/year for a limited time (a flat $50 off!).
You can check the Audible Annual membership offers on This Oficial Page on Amazon.
5. Audible Premium Plus Monthly Plan
If you are not eligible for the first two offers and are also not interested in either the Audible Plus or the Annual Premium Plan, you can consider going for the Premium Monthly plan. It will cost you $14.95/month.
So, you can see that though Audible is not included with Prime membership, many Audible discounts and benefits are offered to Amazon Prime members. Other benefits include free podcasts and 2-for-1 sale (2 Premium audiobooks for 1 credit), etc.
I hope this article on how Audible works with Amazon Prime was helpful to you. If you have any doubts regarding the Amazon Prime Audible offers mentioned in this article, please share them in the comment section below. I would be glad to answer them as best as I can.
I read and listen to books. Do I need Kindle unlimited, audible and Amazon prime? Currently I have all three. I guess I’m asking due to the expense of all 3. If I only have Amazon prime, would I get free books to read or listen to. ?
How do I cancel my audible membership?
Hello Suzanne,
Here’s an article that will guide you to cancel your membership:
https://gladreaders.com/how-to-cancel-audible-membership/
I want to cancel my Audible free trial and future membership.
If you want to cancel your membership you can go to profile>click the settings gear at the top right-hand corner>Click help and support>Under trending topics>click cancel. It will walk you through canceling your membership or you can go through Amazon’s help section and contact audible to cancel.
does audible have subjects such as self help and business books as well? I’ve looked for this info but not having luck!
Yes, Audible has a good number of books in these categories. To check these categories, visit Audible website, click on ‘Browse’ and then click on ‘All Categories’ option. You will get the list of all available categories in Audible.
I hope that helps!
Why can’t we just purchase an audible book??? why all the hazzle? My father is visually impaired and I would love to buy him his choice of books…audible does not allow this…why? help!
Lita, there is a library service intended for folks who are visually impaired. They send a player and you can choose audios for free. Please contact your library . I cannot remember the name, but it is free.
Hi Lita, You can buy a lot of them. I see many of them for 19.95.
They do allow this option you just have to do it through the audible website and not the app. For some reason you can only purchase books with tokens through the app. A lot people choose not to do it this way because of the price behind it. Audible books if not on sale can cost between $10 and $40 without the tokens. If you are an Amazon prime member you can also buy some audible book at a discount through Amazon. I hope this helps.
Yes they do!
Good morning,
I’m a member of both Prime and Kindle unlimited and have been pleasantly surprised how many books are offered with a complimentary audible add on. So great if you listen in the car but still like to actually read. Thanks for the above article. Super informative.
You are welcome, Jayna. I’m glad that it was helpful. ?
Why didn’t you explain how to access the Prime content via iOS? I’ve been lost for months.
Because I don’t have an iOS device, Jennifer! :-p
Hi! I have (had) a lot of audible books I purchased. It was great until last week the app stopped working and disappeared. It appears there is no free download so I can keep listening to my books? I am a prime member but didn’t used to have to pay for audible, which seems to have a lot of features I won’t use.. can I still get to my purchased books without going through the whole audible membership?
I’m an existing Audible member enjoying a free trial of Amazon Prime. Is Amazon planning to provide a bundle for these two services since I’m not planning on paying full price for both? I currently enjoy the full selection of Audible so a limited free selection wouldn’t be worth it.
I have no idea about that, G.
Do i need to buy Audible as an add on to Amazon Prime membership?
Not an add on exactly. But yes, you need to pay for Audible membership separately!
Can I listen to my purchased audio books without the audible app?
Hello Nanette,
Yes, you can listen to your audiobooks without the Audible app. Please refer to this article to know more https://gladreaders.com/how-does-audible-work/#devices-compatible-with-audible
I want to find the free audio book list through our Prime account. I can’t find what you mention. I am using my fire tablet which came with the Prime Video which is white with blue and black print and the Audible app which is orange and showing a book. Are you using a different app?
Hi Lynsta.
I don’t know about the working of Audible app on the Fire Tablet. But in the android and iOS phones, you can browse these free audiobooks using the method explained above.
Besides, the method mentioned above is for Amazon.com and Audible.com accounts. This might be different for other regional Audible and Amazon services.
I’m sorry, I’m still not clear, can you use Audible to download audio books and listen to them? Even is your purchased the audio book somewhere else?
No, Allen. It doesn’t work like that.
Through Audible, you can listen to audiobooks purchased from Audible’s official website and Amazon only.
I am a Prime member and I downloaded the Audible app, but I don’t see the “channels for prime” option.
Hi Natalie. The method mentioned in this article is based on Audible.com account.
If you are using any other country specific Audible account like Audible.co.uk, Audible.ca, etc, then this method method may not work for you. Please contact your regional Audible customer care to confirm the availability of this service.
If you are already a member of both Audible and Amazon Prime and the Prime day comes around can you get your current membership amount reduced or are you forever at the original amount or higher as rates go up?
I’m not really sure, Robin. But you can wait till Prime day (It’s on 15th & 16th July this year) and see if you get your current membership amount reduced. If not, you can cancel your membership and restart it with the Amazon Prime Day offer. But before you cancel your membership, please make sure you do not have any unused credits in your Audible account. You will lose them. Better you use them first.
Hello,
I am a prime member and I signed up for audio books And the first month is free. I have viewed two books using my 2 credits. If I cancel my audiobooks account within 30 days I think it says you can keep those two free audio books. My question is how do you view the two books if you no longer have an audio book account?
My other question is if I decide to keep the account can I also download books onto my PC or MP3 player or can you only view on the audio book platform?
Thank you
Hello Robert,
Even if you do not have an audible membership, you can still login to your audible account. Whatever books you have purchased (even during the free trial), those will be there in your Audible library for lifetime. You can access them anytime.
You can listen to them online from your PC but to download them you need to install the Audible App from respective stores depending on whether you are using Windows or Mac.
And I’m afraid, it might not be available for download on MP3 player…
I hope that helps!
My research did not explain it well, so THANK YOU for finally clearing this up and for the list of actual “free” audiobooks through Prime.
You are welcome, Raine. I’m glad that it was helpful. 🙂
I am confused . So the amazon prime membership does not give free access to the “free” audiobooks? I don’t believe I signed up for a membership plan. But you will charge me $14.95 monthly to listen to the “free” audiobooks? I that case I better unsubscribe asap!
That is not how it works, Saundra. Sorry that you got confused by this article.
Let me make it clear that you DON’T HAVE TO SUBSCRIBE TO AUDIBLE MEMBERSHIP TO LISTEN TO THE “FREE” AUDIOBOOKS. You just have to be an Amazon Prime member. That’s it.
I have explained the method to access free audiobooks in the article above. Please go through it.
And don’t worry, you won’t be charged $14.95 until you subscribe to Audible membership.
I am currently an Amazon prime member. I was looking to see if Amazon had any specials for Audible yearly payments instead of monthly payments and if so what are the advantages of paying yearly.
Thank you
Hi Mindy!
Yes, Amazon is offering the annual plan at just $119.5/year instead of the regular $149.50/year for the Prime members. This offer is valid till 31st July, 2019!
The obvious advantage is the Price which is considerably lower for the Annual plan (At least now that the annual subscription is available at $119.50 ). If you listen to audiobooks more often. You may go for Annual subscription.
Is the annual subscription for any books I don’t like any of the originals. I’m almost done with my trial but $14.95 for 1 book isn’t a good deal.
Why only “1” book for $14.95 month.