How much is an audiobook? If you went onto audible, you’d see prices up to $60, and you might think that to be the case, but the answer is closer to $9-$15.

Brandon Sanderson does a good explaination of why Audible kind of sucks and I suggest everyone read it. I’m going to ignore all that for the purposes of this post, but it is important to keep in mind that Audible takes 60% of the sale of audiobooks If you are exclusive to them and 75% if you you aren’t. So, if you want to support an author, paying $60 for their audiobook is a pretty bad way of doing it.

Audible’s pricing is all arranged in a way to convince you to subscribe, because once you’re subscribed, they have you and you won’t go looking to download audiobooks anywhere else. Now, this doesn’t mean its a bad deal to subscribe for you as a user, but they do this to keep their dominate market share, which allows them to keep their terrible royalty rate, which locks in authors which… you see how it’s circular.

Alright, thats not what this post is supposed to be about. Ignoring the super mega corporation in the room, how much do audiobooks cost on Audible?

Subscription levels

If you don’t subscribe to Audible, its a rip off and you should really just not use it. Books sell anywhere from $12 to $60 depending on the length.

The first tier of the subscription “audible plus” gives you access to some free books, some of which are good, but if you’re here from r/Progressionfantasy, you won’t find a whole lot up your alley. The real purpose of subscribing is for the discounted credits. Each tier above the $7.95 one comes with credits. Any tier is able to buy a 3 pack* of credits for $32-38 (price based on tier and if they have 2 or less credits) making the cost of a credit $10.66-$12.66)

Tier	Price/time	Credits	$/credit
Audible Plus	$7.95/month	0
Premium Plus	$14.95/month	1	$14.95
Premium Plus – 2	$22.95	2	$11.45
Premium Plus Annual – 12	$149.5	12	$12.46
Premium Plus Annual – 24	$229.5	24	$9.56

The best two tiers are obviously the 2 credit a month tier and the 24 a year tier. If you have the money now, and listen to 2 books a month, its a no brainer but $229.50 is a lot to drop all at once. You really should never use the basic $14.95 tier.

A word of warning, if you cancel your membership, you loose all unspent credits, but keep all titles. So don’t buy more credits than you expect to use, or at least spend them before you cancel.

Whispersync

Whispersync is a feature that allows you to buy the audiobook versionof a ebook you already own (or have access to via Kindle Unlimited). You can also use it on books you recieved on sale or for free. Typically whispersync costs $7.50 and is an option when you view a book on it’s Amazon page and select the audio option. Whispersync has the potential to actually be the cheapest option, assuming all the books you want to read use it, are available on KU, and you listen to 3+ books a month.

Books/ month	Cost	$/book
1	$19.5	$19.5
2	$27	$13.5
3	$34.5	$11.5
4	$42	10.5
5	$49.5	$9.9
6	$57	$9.5

So, if you listen to 6 books a month, which is a LOT, you should consider looking into this avenue of listening. You can tell if a book is available for this option by clicking on the audiobook page on Amazon and scrolling down. Some books are are low as $1.99, but most are $7.50. If you can pick up ebooks when they are discounted to $0.99 or free, you can take advantage of this without the KU subscription to supliment an Audible subscription.

Apparently this is also available for books you borrowed from the library through your kindle but I don’t have any confirmation of that, and the books in the litRPG/PF sphere are rarely there.

Sales

Regardless of your plan above, you shuold always keep an eye our for sales. With audible basing book cost on length, and credits all being equal, it makes buying short books feel bad. Fortunetly, shorter books often go on sale for less than the price of even the cheapest credit. Keeping a long wish list lets you get notifications when books you want go on sale.

2 for 1 Sale

Buy two titles for one credit. These titles are usually on the shorter end under 14 hours but not alway.

Monthly Deals

Every month a bunch of books are on sale for $5-8

If you haven’t yet signed up for audible you can use the link below to get a free month of Premium Plus, which will give you 1 credit and access to the premium library along wiith sales. This is an affiliate link, so if you do sign up, I’ll make $5 whole dollars which is about what Audible pays authors for a book sale made via a credit.

Which is for you?

To start, if you haven’t tried Audible before, you can try Audible Premium Plus and Get Up to Two Free Audiobooks using this link. So, if you are trying to get audiobooks on the cheap, nothing’s cheaper than free. (This is an affiliate link and I will get a bonus if you do sign up, but YOU also get the free credits.) This offer is valid for new audible subscribers and (I think) people who have not been a subscriber for at least a year. Sign up, get your credit, buy your book, and then cancel if the Audible route isn’t right for you.

The chart below has some assumptions. It assumes you are subscribed to whichever tier for a whole year. It assumes you buy all extra credits with the 3 pack, and that all your Whispersync books are both available on KU and cost $7.50. Obviously the Premium Plus benefits from 2 for 1 sales, but Whispersync can also get you books for $2. The annual plan is the best deal hands down if you listen to exactly 24 books a year but each book you read beyond that pushes the average value up. At 79 books, Annual and KU+Whispersync match and from there on KU + Whispersync get cheaper.

Books Per Year	Best Plan	Cost per book
<24	Premium Plus (2/month)	$11.45
24-79	Premium Plus Annual (24/year)	$9.56-$9.31
80+	KU + Whispersync	$9.31 max

Free Audiobooks

Libby and Hoopla are available with your local library card and grant access to the libraries digital catalogue. These books are going to be primarily traditional published books, but I recommend browsing your options.

Libby works like a library. There are limited copies and you wait for them. Hoopla has no waiting but limits the number of borrows you get a month.