So you’ve heard about Audible and maybe know a few people who use it, but is this audiobook subscription service right for you? And more importantly, is Audible worth it or will it just be a waste of your money?
If you’re trying to decide whether Audible is worth it or not, then this complete and honest Audible review is for you. In this review, you’ll learn everything you need to know to determine whether this audiobook subscription service will be worth it or not!
What is Audible?
So to start, what is Audible? Audible is an audiobook subscription service run by Amazon with over 470,000 titles available in its library. With so many hundreds of thousands of audiobooks available, it is one of the largest audiobook subscription services in the world!
But beyond the vast library, the key that makes Audible so popular is that it offers you access to incredible audiobooks at a discounted rate, so you never have to pay full price for an audiobook ever again.
How Does Audible Work?
When you sign up for Audible using your Amazon account, you can choose the best subscription plan for your needs (we’ll talk about the different plan options in a minute).
But no matter which plan you choose, you will receive access to what Amazon calls the Plus Catalog (a limited catalog that you can borrow an unlimited number of audiobooks from). And then, depending on your plan, you may also be able to download one or two Audiobooks each month that you will own instead of just borrowing!
Audible’s service for buying discounted audiobooks works on a system of “credits,” where you pay a fixed fee (usually $14.95 per month) and receive a credit in return to use on any audiobook you like. These credits work as “currency” to exchange for audiobooks, so you pay the same fee for every audiobook no matter what the audiobook usually costs to purchase outside of Audible.
You can learn more about how Audible works, how to download audiobooks on Audible, and more in this detailed article explaining how Audible works.
How Much Does Audible Cost?
Before we can talk about whether Audible is worth it, we first need to discuss the different plan options and how much they cost. So what are the Amazon Audible subscription plans? And how much does each one cost?
There are three main plan options (plus the option to be charged annually on some plans for a discount). So in total, there are five different plans to choose between.
The first option is called Audible Plus. This subscription is the cheapest at $7.95 per month, and allows you to borrow an unlimited number of titles each month from the Audible Plus Catalog. While you can listen to as many books as you want each month on this plan, you should keep in mind that this catalog only consists of around 11,000 audiobooks…so it does not contain every audiobook in the full Audible library. However, with 11,000 books there are still a ton of great listens that you will enjoy!
The second (and most popular plan) is Audible Premium Plus. This plan costs $14.95 per month, and allows you to listen to any or all of the titles in the Audible Plus catalog. However, on this plan you will also receive 1 credit each month which you can exchange for any audiobook in the entire 470,000+ Audible catalog. So the difference with this plan and the credit you receive is that you can choose any audiobook out of the entire Audible library, and the audiobook you choose is yours to keep forever (instead of just borrowing).
The third plan is the Audible Premium Plus – 2 credits plan, and this one costs $22.95 per month. This plan is exactly like the Audible Premium Plus plan, but rather than only receiving 1 credit you instead get 2 credits you can use to exchange for audiobooks you can keep forever.
While those are the three main plans, you can also choose to pay annually for 12 credits ($149.50 per year) or annually for 24 credits (229.50 per year). Both these plans still give you access to unlimited listening in the Audible Plus catalog, but when you pay annually you basically only pay for 10 months’ worth of credits and actually receive 12 months’ worth. So paying upfront for the whole year is like getting two months of credits completely free!
Audible Subscription Plans
Here is a breakdown of the costs and benefits of each plan, so you can easily see the Audible pricing at a glance and determine which one might be best for you:
| Audible Plus | $7.95 per month | No credits |
| Audible Premium Plus | $14.95 per month | 1 credit per month |
| Audible Premium Plus – 2 credits | $22.95 per month | 2 credits per month |
| Audible Premium Plus Annual – 12 credits | $149.50 per year | 12 credits per year |
| Audible Premium Plus Annual – 24 credits | $229.50 per year | 24 credits per year |
Try Audible for free for 30 days!
Benefits of Audible
Now that we’ve talked a bit about what Audible is, how it works, and what it costs, it’s time to get down to the big question: is Audible membership worth it? To do this, we’ll compare the pros and cons of an Audible membership, starting here with exploring the benefits of Audible.
1. Access to a HUGE Audiobook Collection
Whether you love or hate Amazon, you have to admit that they have done a pretty good job becoming the go-to resource for pretty much everything. And that includes audiobooks!
Audible is such a big name in the industry that pretty much everyone wants their audiobook to be available on this subscription service. So you can rest assured that pretty much all the big-name, popular books and authors have their audiobooks available here! (You may not be able to find as many self-published or less well-known books/authors on here, but that’s usually because they don’t have audiobook versions of their books out yet).
Why does this matter? Well, there are a lot of different audiobook subscription services out there…but none of them can match the sheer quantity of books Audible has available. For example, Audiobooks.com is another semi-popular option, but most definitely falls short when you’re looking for popular books to listen to…and Kobo probably comes closest to Audible’s range of books (especially from major publishers) but still can’t quite compare.
So not only do you get great discounts on audiobooks when using Audible, but you also get unparalleled access to choose pretty much any audiobook in the world to listen to. If you want to listen to a lot of popular books and books from major publishers, then this is a huge benefit to consider when thinking about whether Audible is worth it or not.
2. IMMEDIATE Listening Access to the Books You Choose
I’m a huge fan of saving money, which means you’ll often find me scoping out the audiobooks available from my local library. But sometimes that means I’m waiting on a list forever for an audiobook to become available to me. So the thing that I absolutely love about Audible is that you get immediate access to any books you choose—yes, that means absolutely no wait lists!
So, for instance, if you wanted to listen to the Harry Potter books…well, my library is currently saying I’ll have to wait 2 MONTHS to get an audiobook copy of one of the books. But with Audible credits, I could get immediate access and have the audiobook forever in my personal library to listen to whenever I want. So if you need (or just want) to listen to an audiobook right now, you may find Audible is very much so worth the cost.
3. Unlimited Borrowing from the Plus Catalog
The Audible Plus catalog introduces a whole new world of fun to Audible, since you can listen to an unlimited number of audiobooks from this catalog each month without paying any extra. Sure, there’s “only” around 11,000 audiobooks you can choose from…but I guarantee that’s plenty of options for you to find a ton you’ll enjoy!
4. Discounted Audiobooks to Own
One of the biggest benefits of Audible is the access to discounted audiobooks that you can keep forever (on the premium plans). Why? Well, if you were to purchase audiobooks outside of Audible, you would quickly discover that most audiobooks run in the upper $20-30 range…which makes purchasing audiobooks super expensive.
But instead, with Audible you can get one credit for $14.95 (or less, depending on your plan). That means each audiobook costs only $14.95 instead of full price…which is a savings of usually at least $10 per audiobook!
5. 30% Discount on Extra Audiobooks
If you use up your credits each month but find you still want to buy more audiobooks, Audible also offers some amazing deals for this situation. Occasionally, you may be able to find deals for extra credit bundles (which I talk more about in this article), but even if you can’t find one of those special deals you will always get 30% off any audiobooks you buy when on an Audible premium plan.
If you read a lot of audiobooks, this discount definitely helps! For instance, say you want to buy an audiobook that is normally $29.99 but you don’t have any credits left. With the 30% discount, you would only pay $20.99 which is a pretty big savings! Of course, it’s still more expensive than you’d spend using the $14.95 monthly Audible credit, but if you’ve run out of credits then this is an excellent deal!
6. Credits Roll Over if You Don’t Use Them
Worried about having to choose an audiobook each month before your credit expires? Worry no more! You don’t actually have to use your credit each month when you receive them because your credits roll over if you don’t use them.
You actually have an entire year from each credit’s issue date to use it (so if you received it in August, you have until August of the next year to choose an audiobook). This is spectacular because you don’t have to worry about using it or losing it each month, but instead can let it roll over until you’re ready to decide what audiobook you want. (Note: you can store and roll over a maximum of 6 credits at a time).
I often like to let my credits roll over in busier months, and then use them when I have more free time. So for me, that means I generally tend to leave credits until December or until the summer months…or I use my credits whenever I have a road trip or the like planned when I have a huge chunk of time to fill with things to listen to.
But regardless of what works for you, it’s nice to know you don’t have a 30 day deadline to choose your audiobooks!
7. Selection of Free Audiobooks
Another cool thing about Audible is that they offer a rotating selection of free audiobooks for members. You can find the current selection here. So if you are on a free 30 day Audible trial or are on an Audible subscription plan, you can download (and keep forever!) any or all of the audiobooks on the free list.
You’ll usually find a range of Audible originals to download for free, as well as some other interesting finds and occasionally a classic or two. You never really know what will be offered, so you should just check in from time to time to see what’s new!
8. Daily Deal Audiobooks
The Daily Deal is another wonderful feature of Audible’s subscription service. This option is available for Audible Premium Plus members, and essentially Amazon just offers a different audiobook for a special price each day. You can find books for super cheap (like $2.95 or so) which means this is a spectacular deal!
While the audiobooks offered through Daily Deal might not always be of interest to you, you should definitely keep an eye out in case any audiobooks pop up that you want. Getting an audiobook on a Daily Deal is a far better price than even just the usual already-discounted Audible credit cost, so definitely snag any audiobooks you want when you see them available as a Daily Deal!
9. Return Audiobooks You Don’t Like
If you purchase an audiobook and discover you don’t like it for any reason (including storyline, audio quality, narrator, etc.) then you can return or exchange it for free without losing your credit.
This is amazing, because it allows you to take a chance occasionally on an audiobook you aren’t sure about. As long as you purchased it within the last 365 days, you should be able to return it easily
Some people try to hack the system and get more audiobooks to listen to by returning or exchanging books this way, but please don’t do that! If lots of people try to hack the system this way then Audible may be forced to remove this benefit for all of us. Plus, Audible can catch on pretty quickly if you are trying to hack the system, and if they find you are overusing this benefit then they will limit or remove this benefit for your account.
But in the occasional instance where there really is something wrong with the audiobook you chose or you really don’t like it, then this Audible return feature is a lifesaver and an amazing benefit to have with your Audible membership!
10. Listen on Multiple Devices
Audible also offers the option to listen to your audiobook on multiple devices, and automatically syncs your audiobooks to where you left off. So you can listen on your computer, and then if you decide to listen on your phone later it will pick up right where you left of when listening on your computer!
This option is great as it allows you to listen no matter where you are and no matter what device you use, and you’ll never lose your place.
11. Whispersync Between Audiobook and Ebook
Similar to syncing between devices when listening to your audiobook, Amazon also offers something called Whispersync for syncing between your Audible audiobook and the Kindle ebook version (if you own it).
So let’s take our Harry Potter example again and say I own both the audiobook for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and the Kindle ebook for it. If I’m listening to the Audible audiobook on the way home from work and then want to read the ebook once I’m home, the ebook will automatically open up to the place I left off in the audiobook! It also works the other way around, so wherever you leave off in the ebook will automatically start up in the audiobook version next time you listen.
This feature is incredible and allows you to switch back and forth between audio and text seamlessly. While you may not use this feature all the time, it is definitely a benefit to keep in mind!
12. Amazon Household Family Library Sharing
Amazon offers a cool feature called Amazon Household that allows you to share your audiobooks with other members you designate as part of your family household (each household can consist of two full adult accounts plus a few teen and children accounts).
While Household does not allow you to share your Plus Catalog borrowing privileges, it will allow you to share any audiobooks you purchase using your subscription credits or with money. So if you have audiobooks in your library and want to allow your family to read them too, then this is an excellent benefit!
13. You Can Cancel at Any Time
Another aspect of Audible I love is that when you are on the monthly plan, you can cancel your subscription at any time. You are not locked into the subscription, so if you try it out and find it isn’t for you then you can easily cancel!
14. You Can Pause Your Membership
If you find you’ve got too many credits building up and not enough time to use them, Audible also offers a great feature where you can pause your membership for a time. All subscription plans are allowed to place their account on hold one time every 12 months, and you can choose the duration of your hold to be anywhere between 1-3 months.
In order to use this feature, you will have to contact customer service and ask them to pause it for you. During the time your membership is on hold, you will not be able to listen to or borrow from the Audible Plus Catalog (however, members with credits can use their credits while the membership is paused).
This benefit is a great way to catch back up on using your credits if you find you are falling behind and don’t want to outright cancel your membership, so be sure to reach out to customer service if you find yourself in this situation.
15. Audiobooks You Purchase are Always Available, Even If You Cancel
This is probably my absolute favorite feature about Audible: even if you cancel, the audiobooks you purchased or bought using credits will always be available to you!
This means if you ever decide to cancel your membership, you can still access and listen to all the books you paid for with money or Audible credits. It’s your personal library and belongs to you forever!
Drawbacks of Audible
While there are tons of benefits of Audible, there are a few downsides as well. So here are the biggest drawbacks of Audible to help you make an informed choice.
1. It is a Subscription Service
One of the biggest drawbacks of Audible for many people is that it is a subscription service, which means you are charged each month and get a credit each month rather than being able to pick and choose when you receive credits.
If you don’t listen to audiobooks often, then a subscription model like Audible will likely not be worth it. Of course, as mentioned earlier you can cancel or pause your membership as needed, but Audible is really intended to be a subscription service so if you don’t want to pay each month for audiobooks then it is probably not the best option for you.
2. Credits Expire When You Cancel Your Membership
Another downside to Audible is that your credits expire when you cancel your membership. This means if you decide to cancel but have built up credits by rolling them over each month, then you will lose those credits when you cancel.
This drawback can be fixed by choosing audiobooks with your credits before you cancel your membership (remember, once you’ve exchanged a credit for an audiobook it is yours forever!). It’s only unused credits that expire, not your access to audiobooks purchased with credits.
But it can be a bit stressful having to choose so many audiobooks at once if you’ve built up credits. So the fact that they expire when you cancel your membership is a bit sad, as it means you won’t have the full one-year life of the credit to decide on an audiobook.
3. Audible Plus Catalog Titles are Only Borrowed
If you’re hoping to grow your audiobook library, then you may also find it a bit of a bummer that the Audible Plus titles are only borrowed and not owned. This means that if you cancel your membership, you will no longer have access to any of the audiobooks you listened to that are included with the Plus Catalog.
That’s why the Audible Premium Plus plan is so popular—because you have the chance to build up your personal audiobook library and keep the audiobooks you choose with credits forever. The Plus Catalog is a nice added bonus for the subscription plans, but on its own it may not be worth it.
4. Audible Plus Benefits Do Not Work With Amazon Household
Another downside to the Audible Plus borrowing feature is that it is only for one account and cannot be shared using Amazon Household. Of course, if you share your Amazon account login information with someone else in your family then they can use your Audible Plus benefits that way, but the Plus Catalog borrowing benefits are not transferrable using the Household feature.
So is Amazon Audible Worth It?
So we’ve talked about all the pros and cons of paying for an Audible subscription, but the question remains: is an Audible subscription worth it?
So is it worth subscribing to Audible? Yes, 100 percent…at the very least to try it out! You can get a free 30 day Audible trial which includes access to the unlimited borrowing library plus one free audiobook to keep forever (no matter whether you continue your subscription or cancel at the end of your trial). So really, it’s a no brainer to at least give Audible a try and see if you like it!
As far as whether an Audible membership is worth it when you’re paying for it, I think the answer is both yes and no (depending on the type of person you are).
To me, the Audible Plus membership is not worth it (remember, this is the plan where you pay $7.95 per month and can borrow from a specific catalog of included books). I personally find that most of the audiobooks available with this plan are ones with lower or nonexistent waitlist times at my library, so I would prefer to just get those for free instead of paying $7.95 a month. But if your library isn’t great or you want immediate access to the audiobooks all the time, then you may find this lowest Audible subscription tier to still be worth it.
HOWEVER, when we’re talking about the premium plans that give you credits you can use on audiobooks, I think it’s a different story entirely and that Audible can be very worth it. So let’s break down who an Audible premium subscription is perfect for, and who might not find it worthwhile.
Audible is for you if…
- You love audiobooks
- You regularly listen to audiobooks (or at least listen to an average of one a month)
- You want to read more but don’t have time to sit down with a book
- You want to own audiobooks, not just borrow them
- You want to listen to audiobooks without having to wait for them to become available at your library
- You want to get audiobooks for huge discounts
Audible is not for you if…
- You don’t actually like audiobooks
- You don’t listen to audiobooks regularly
- You’d rather wait for audiobooks to become available at your library instead of spending $14.95 a month
So the question you need to ask yourself now is which category you fall into? If you identify more with the list of items saying Audible is for you, then you have your answer that it is indeed worth it! And if you don’t, then that’s perfectly fine too.
I enjoy using Audible as it frees me up to enjoy a book even while I’m doing other things, like running, driving, etc. and I also love the immediate access to audiobooks and the discounts on buying audiobooks as well. But whether it is worth it for you is something only you can answer, now that you’re armed with all the information you need by reading this Amazon Audible review!
But like I already said, whether you do or don’t think Audible is worth paying for, you should definitely get your free trial. Because it’s completely free, and you can enjoy this service at no cost for 30 days plus get an entirely free audiobook to keep forever! What’s not to love?
But if you’ve read all this and are still not sure, you can learn more about how to use Audible here or check out one of my favorite Audible tricks for getting audiobooks for less!