How to Get Cheap Audio Books Under $1.25

Oh, I’m so excited to share today’s post with you! You see, I’m an avid reader but I also am a frugal reader who loves to save money. When I discovered how to get free and cheap audio books from Audible, I knew I couldn’t keep this secret to myself!

For as long as I can remember, I have always loved curling up with a good book to read. Now that I’m a mom of four little ones, I’m not reading the 100 books each year that I used to read (Yes, I am fast reader, too) but I am still reading quite a bit. What’s most important is that I am reading to and with my children because I want to instill a love of reading in them.

Since my time for reading is more limited now, I have learned to read whenever I find spare time. I have thoroughly embraced the free Kindle app on my phone and love that I can pick up my book whenever I have a couple spare minutes.

I also have learned to enjoy listening to audio books. While my main source of audio books used to come from the library, I have since discovered several ways to get free or cheap Audible books on Amazon. I’m building up quite the free audio library and I wanted to share these tips and tricks with you.

This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. You can read more in my disclosure policy.

You see, as a former early childhood teacher, I accumulated over a thousand picture books in my decade teaching. I am in the process of sorting through them, organizing them and making sure I keep the best quality ones that the children and I both enjoy reading. (I firmly believe that if you don’t enjoy reading it, your child won’t either. Just pick a different book!)

Now, I’m in the process of building up a library of classics, particularly those in audio book format so the kids and I can listen to books together as they grow older. I have chosen to use Audible as the format for building this library for a couple reasons.

First and most importantly, what I purchase at Audible now, stays in my account until I am ready to download it. Second, Audible is affiliated with Amazon so there are good deals to be found! And finally, I love that you can download the audio books in various formats or listen to them on the Audible app.

How do I get free audio books from Audible?

  1. Sign up for a free trial of Audible. Right now, when you sign up for a free 30 day trial you can get 2 free audio books from Audible!
  2. Choose your free books using your credits.
  3. Run the Amazon / Audible Matchmaker by clicking here. This link will search all the Kindle books you’ve ever purchased and show you what the price is for any Audible whispersync upgrades. It will be a steep discount from the regular Audible price.

What is the best way to get audio book deals on Audible?

The best way to get cheap audio books from Audible is to watch for WhisperSync deals. Here’s what I mean. Amazon is turning many of their print books into companion books for Audible. That means, when you purchase a print book that is labeled whispersync , you’ll have the option to also buy the Audible book for a highly discounted price. It’s amazing how many Audible books under $5 you will find this way!

To get the best deals, you must purchase the Kindle book FIRST. This is important because not all Kindle books have an Audible upgrade available. After you purchase the Kindle book, you will see an option to add the Audible upgrade for a discounted price. If you choose not to purchase the Audible deal at that time, you can always run the Matchmaker search at a later time to add the Audible upgrade.

You do not have to have an Audible subscription to purchase these deals. You can still listen to the audio books through your account or on the Audible app. I still recommend signing up for the Audible trial to claim your 2 free audio books.

What are some cheap audio books available on Audible?

While Whispersync is a great way to get deals on audio books, there are many cheap audio books available by purchasing them directly from Amazon! Look for the “Buy with One Click” button price to get a great deal without an Audible subscription. Then, you can save your Audible subscription for more expensive books!

Here are some other cheap audio books to add to your collection. Some of these are classics for adults and some are picture books for kids. All these Audible books you can get at a great price by purchasing the audible book directly.

In fact, I have found 30 cheap audio books for under $1.25 on Amazon, that you can purchase right now – and have in your Audible library forever!

Note: Amazon prices may vary but as of February 2024, these are some of the best audible book deals on classics. Also, Amazon policy states that I am unable to share specific prices so I have grouped them as best I can. 

Cheap Audio Books Under $1

More Cheap Audio Books Under $1.25

When I started compiling this list years ago, it was easy to find books priced at $0.50 or less than a dollar. Unfortunately, inflation has finally hit cheap audio books as well! There are still many good deals to be found right above a dollar now. Here are some of those deals.

More than 60 cheap audio books for kids are found here.

What else do I need to know about Audible to get more cheap audio books?

It’s important to make good use of your credits! For example, if I have a free credit, I would much rather use it on an audio book that normally costs $29.99 (like this entire Ramona Quimby series) than a $3.95 one. Use your credits on the more pricey audio books.

Once you purchase an Audible book, it stays in your account forever. Whether you are paying for an account or not, your audio books are always yours. You can listen to them at any time from your computer or on the Audible app.

You do not need an Audible subscription to take advantage of Audible deals. Yes, I still recommend you sign up for the free trial because you can get two free audio books to start your collection. After that, it’s easy to cancel your account and purchase the deals whenever you notice a good one.

Start a wish list in Audible. Make a list of audio books you would like to add to your listening library. That way, whenever a credit deal comes along you can easily select a new audio book for free.

If you’re looking for a particular audio book, try searching in the kindle store for that title and add whispersync after it. Then, look at the Kindle price and where it says “Add Audible for…”. This will help you find more good audible deals, particularly if you don’t have credits to use at the moment.

If you want to find more cheap audio books especially for your kids, be sure to read about all the audio books for children I found. 

This how I’m building a frugal Audible library of cheap audio books! Are you as excited as I am? This could be a total game changer for family read aloud time and homeschooling families! Feel free to share with those you now who would love to get free or cheap Audible books.

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12 Comments

  1. You can also listen to out of copyright books for free on Libravox on (website or app). Several of the books listed above fall into this category

  2. FINALLY! I knew there had to be a way to find the audio prices for Kindle books you already own. THANK YOU for posting the Matchmaker link!!!

    1. You are certainly welcome, Jennifer! I was quite excited when I discovered the Matchmaker trick too. I’m always happy to help fellow readers score good audible deals!

  3. Thank you so much for posting this!

    I looked into buying the kindle ebooks like you mentioned and found out that kindle unlimited currently has a similar free month subscription. After using up my two free audible credits, I signed up for the free kindle subscription and started ‘buying’ the books with the 1.99 or 2.99 audible files…

    Long term, this $10/month fee, combined with your trick, might be an alternative solution to audibles monthly subscription.

    1. You are welcome, Karl! I’m so glad you found it helpful! And I’m going to have to look into the Kindle unlimited. Thanks for sharing that idea as well! I’m so happy you are finding some good audio books to read for cheap now! 🙂

  4. I love Audible! I already used my free credits, but definitely plan on buying more books through them since I enjoy going on walks or hikes and listening to books rather than music.

  5. Oh thank so much for writing this post. I have a 44 mile commute one way every day for work. I purchased the audible subscription and received my two free books. I have purchased one more month and will probably cancel it. Good to know I can still take advantage of the good deals. I love that I can listen to something other than the same old music over and over again.

    1. I’m glad it was helpful, Jackie! That is quite a long commute. Audio books will be a perfect solution! Keep looking for those good deals, and you’ll build up quite the library before you know it! 🙂

  6. Our library has a really big selection of audible books as they are part of a consortium of libraries that shares this content between libraries. This is pretty nifty but I don’t like listening to books, I prefer reading them, so I’m hoping to see more eBooks made available in the future to satisfy my wishes.

    1. I read most of my books in paper or ebook form, too. There’s still something to be said for having the pages in front of me! That said, I’ve discovered that audio books do help my drives to go faster! I’m with you in hoping that our library continues to add more ebooks, too!

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