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Audible is one of the largest and most popular audiobook services out there, and with good reason, as it gives you access to a huge library at a competitive price. Unlike Libby—which is also an excellent audiobook platform—you don’t have to sit on a wait list for popular titles, and purchases are (mostly) yours to keep. These are the tricks you need to know to get the most out of Audible and save some money along the way.
Add narration to Kindle to get audiobooks for free or at a low cost
If you like to have the option to either read or listen to your books, you can take advantage of Kindle and Audible crossovers to get the audio version of certain titles for free, or at least less than what you’d pay if you bought them outright on Audible. One option is to add audio upgrades to your purchased Kindle books: you can see which books are eligible and how much the narration add-ons cost using the Matchmaker tool. If you have a Kindle Unlimited subscription, you can also get lots of Prime Reading books with Audible Narration at no additional cost. Finally, when adding a Kindle book to your cart, look for the Add audiobook checkbox to see how much the companion Audible version costs—in some cases, it may be cheaper to purchase the bundle than to use an Audible credit or buy them separately.
Pause your membership instead of canceling to avoid losing credits
For users on Audible’s monthly subscription plans, credits are use it or lose it—if you cancel, your unused credits expire even though you’ve already paid for them. If you fall behind on your listening or forgot that you’ve been paying for Audible and want to catch up, you can temporarily pause your membership instead of canceling. This way, you retain your credits without being charged the ongoing fee. You can pause your membership for up to 90 days every 12 months. In the app, go to Profile > Membership > Manage > Pause Membership.
Use retention offers to get a free credit or discounted subscription
If you threaten to cancel your Audible subscription, Amazon may try to keep you by giving you a discount on your membership or applying a free credit to your account. This one isn’t a guarantee, but users report that the cancellation flow frequently includes retention offers. There’s no harm in trying, and you don’t have to confirm the cancellation if there’s no incentive. On the Audible web interface, tap your name > Membership Details > Cancel membership. Note that if your subscription is billed through Apple or Google, you have to cancel through the App Store or Google Play Store and may not receive a retention offer.
Opt for an annual plan to get credits up front
With Audible’s standard monthly billing plan—priced at $8.99—you get a credit added to your account each month and listening access for as long as you maintain your membership. If you cancel, you lose unused credits and your existing library. A premium subscription billed monthly at $14.95 lets you keep books purchased with credits even if you cancel, though unused credits will expire immediately. But if you sign up for an annual subscription, you get 12 credits up front, meaning you don’t have to wait for your plan to renew to add books to your library, and you don’t lose unused credits if you cancel. This plan is also about $2.50 cheaper per credit than a monthly premium subscription, and you get access to additional sales and discounts.
Share audiobooks with another user via Amazon Family
If you try to share a single Audible account with multiple users, you won’t be able to listen to the same book at the same time without disrupting each other’s progress. But you can share purchased titles with other members of your Amazon Family account, which allows keeps individual progress and listening histories separate. An Amazon Family can include two adults and up to four children. Note that you can’t share unused credits—only purchased books.
Customize your skip times to shorten replay intervals
The default skip forward and back times in Audible are 30 seconds, but you can customize these intervals to as little as 10 seconds and as long as 90 seconds. If you frequently find yourself rewinding, especially when listening to dense material, you may want to shorten the interval so you don’t have to go back and listen to a longer segment each time you need to repeat a sentence. Note that back and forward can be set at different lengths. Go to Profile > Settings > Player > App display > Back 30s Forward 30s to change the skip times.
What do you think so far?
Audible’s Clip feature saves short segments from your books to reference later. You can also add notes to clips so you don’t have to keep a separate document or write down start/end times for snippets. Tap +Clip on the title’s player screen to automatically save a 30-second segment, then click Edit on the confirmation banner and use the sliders to mark the exact beginning and end points and enter notes. To play a saved audio clip, open the title’s player screen, tap the Clips & Notes button, and identify the clip you want to listen to. You can either play just the clip or start listening again from the clip.
Add items to your wish list to track deals and discounts
If you’re waiting for audiobooks to go on sale before you buy them, add titles to your wish list to see deals and discounts at a glance all in one place. You can use the list to regularly check for price updates, and Audible may also send email or push notifications when titles you’ve saved are on sale. In the Audible app, tap Add to Wish List on the title’s detail page, and then view your list via Library > Lists > Wish List.
Return purchased titles if you don’t like the book or narrator
Audible has a fairly generous return policy, so if you don’t like a book or a narrator, you can get your credit back to use on a different title. You must be a Premium subscriber to take advantage of returns, and only audiobooks bought with credits (versus cash) are eligible within 365 days of purchase. Note that you may lose this privilege if you abuse it, so you probably shouldn’t listen to every title all the way through and then try to return it. Also, always listen to the book sample if available to make sure you don’t hate the narrator.
Use Libation or OpenAudible to download and back up your books
If you purchase titles on Audible, you’d expect that the files are yours to keep—just like a physical book—but this isn’t a guarantee. Third-party platforms like Libation and OpenAudible allow you to download, back up, and convert your audiobook files so you can store and listen to them locally. Libation is free and open source but some users note that it’s a bit more technical. OpenAudible has some free functionality, but you’ll have to buy either an annual or lifetime subscription to get access to file conversion and other premium features.
