Blog – Posted on Monday, Sep 16

20 of the Best Places to Get FREE Kindle Books

We’re all about directing you to your next glorious read at Reedsy Discovery. Looking for the next audiobooks that will turn your road trip into an epic adventure? We’ve got you covered. Want a book that will tide you over between Stranger Things seasons? Check these out. Creating a list of books you absolutely need to read in your lifetime? This list will come in handy! 

Our newest list is perhaps one of the most useful ones we’ve featured yet! Because it will open not one, but twenty potential doors to free reading for you. Without further ado, here are our top picks of places to find free Kindle books.

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the number of great books out there, you can also take our 30-second quiz below to narrow it down quickly and get a personalized book recommendation 😉

Where to find free ebooks for Kindle

When it comes to scoring free Kindle books, there are two main groups of readers: those with Amazon Prime, and those without. If you have a Prime account, Amazon offers a number of ways to bury your nose in an ebook at no cost — well, other than the cost of your Prime account, of course, which you might already have for the handy one/two-day shipping perk. 

But for Prime-less readers who typically wait 10-12 business days for Amazon packages to arrive, there are still a number of ways to find free Kindle books. Let’s start with those.

1. Amazon Best Sellers - Top 100 Free Ebooks 

Sometimes it just makes sense to go straight to the source. If you’re a fan of genre fiction, the list of 100 best selling free Kindle books on Amazon will be for you. There are romance, crime thrillers, and urban fantasy abound, and downloading your free copy is never more than two clicks away as you browse your way through.

Check it out if: nothing quite conjures up the same level excitement for you as the words “free,” “genre,” and “fiction.”

2. Free Popular Classics

This section of Amazon’s Kindle bookstore includes both free and low-priced classics — currently Les Misérables and A Tale of Two Cities tops the list — as well as a number of translated classics, particularly Arabic and Russian editions. Been a while since you read Ivanhoe? This list has got you covered. Lost your old copy of David Copperfield? Download the ebook free here.

Check it out if: there’s something poetic to you about consuming literature that was written centuries ago on a piece of technology only a little over a decade old.

3. Overdrive 

Popular children’s TV show Arthur told us: “Having fun isn’t hard when you’ve got a library card.” We’d like to add an addendum to that pearl of wisdom that reads: “Reading free Kindle books isn’t hard when you’ve got a library card at a library that works with Overdrive.” 

Overdrive allows book-lovers to access free ebooks and audiobooks — including new releases or current best sellers — through their local libraries. At the moment, Overdrive is partnered with more than 30,000 libraries in 40 countries. See if that includes one near you with their library locator tool! 

Check it out if: obtaining your driver’s license was far less exciting than pocketing your first library card.

4. Project Gutenberg 

This is another good pick for lovers of classic literature. It boasts over 60,000 ebooks, most of which are older titles with expired US copyright. The best part: Project Gutenberg is powered by thousands of volunteers who digitize the books so the rest of us can enjoy them for free.

Check it out if: you enjoy both gratis reads and gothic banners.

5. Weber Books Kindle Buffet

Every day, the kind folks at Weber Books post several top picks for free or discounted Kindle books, including a blurb for each book and the download link. You can also subscribe to their list and have their recommendations delivered directly to your inbox each morning. 

Check it out if: you prefer to be directed towards books, instead of perusing them on your own.

6. The eReader Cafe

Like the other aggregators on this list, The eReader Cafe posts new listings every day for free Kindle — and also free Nook — books. The handy rating shown at the top of each listing will help you find your next read if you’re a four-star only kind of bibliophile.

Check it out if: you think nothing quite goes with free novels like a cup of joe.

7. Free Kindle Books & Tips

New free and discounted ebooks is the name of the game with this site! An added bonus, though, is their search feature, which lets you search for gratis reads based on whatever keyword you want.

Check it out if: you want to subscribe to a newsletter about free ebooks.

8. Many Books 

While many of the other sites in this post have a fairly basic-looking interface, Many Books has a definite leg up in the aesthetics department — making it not only a useful site for finding no-charge novels, but also one you’ll enjoy using. 

Check it out if: you want the option to search for no-charge reads by genre.

9. DigiLibraries

As their site professes, “DigiLibraries.com offers a digital source of free eBooks for any taste, a vast range of titles in digital format and our free eBooks collection is growing all the time.” As with Many Books, one of the handy functions of this site is to search by genre and category.

Check it out if: you want to be able to download titles in either EPUB, PDF, or MOBI formats.

10. Centsless Books 

What sets Centsless Books apart from the rest of the gang is their newsletter, delivered every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, promising freebies, gift cards, and giveaways. Seriously, who doesn’t want to wake up three times a week to the prospect of book-ish goodies?

Check it out if: you sometimes go to Costco just for the samples — this site has your love of “free” covered.

11. BookBub

BookBub is something of a household name in the world of ebooks. As their site boasts: 

BookBub is a free service that helps millions of readers discover books they'll love while providing publishers and authors with a way to drive sales and find new fans. Upon joining, members receive unbeatable deals selected by our expert editorial team, handpicked recommendations from people they trust, and real-time updates from their favorite authors.”

Check it out if: you don’t want to be limited in terms of genres — BookBub has a wide variety of categories.

12. Freebooksy

Free Kindle and Nooks books are advertised on Freebooksy, as well as no-charge reads from Kobo, Google, and Apple. It’s a free book-lovers paradise! Make sure to check-in often as new titles are posted every day — and sometimes several of them go up at once.

Check it out if: you have an insatiable hunger for complimentary ebooks on a daily basis.

13. One Hundred Free Books

One Hundred Free Books alerts you to the latest limited-time free books in the Kindle store. Quick false advertising disclaimer, though: One Hundred Free Books is actually home to a number closer to 7,000 books. 

Check it out if: you’re all about getting in on limited-time offers.

14. Free Books Hub

Variety is the spice of life, and Free Books Hub knows it. That’s why they offer a number of different lists: dollar books, featured free Kindle books, free Prime books, and free Smashwords books. 

Check it out if: you’re an Amazon Prime member who wants an aggregator all for themselves.

15. Ebook Daily 

Three new free Kindle books are added to a range of different genres every day on the Ebook Daily site. The best part? You can sign up for a free account and set your preferences for personalized reading recommendations on the regular.

Check it out if: you enjoy the personal touch.

16. PixelScroll

Perhaps you’re not completely committed to free books exclusively. Perhaps you’re also interested in no-charge audiobooks, or are willing to spend a few dollars on a heavily discounted — and typically pricey — piece of literature. Pixel Scroll to the rescue! Their pick of the days, featured deals, and bargain features will give you all of the above.

Check it out if: your purse strings aren’t irrevocably locked, and are willing to budge just a little.

If you have Amazon Prime

Signing up for AmazonPrime ($99/year) to read for free is a bit of an oxymoron. Prime itself isn’t free, so technically the reading you do through the program isn’t free either. But if you work your way through enough of the titles that are available at no extra-charge to Prime customers — then the membership really does end up paying for itself! So if you’re someone who’s looking to consume more mainstream content in the cheapest way possible, you and Amazon Prime will likely get along nicely.

17. Prime Reading 

We get it –– you love your Kindle but you don’t want to be tied down to just one ereader. Prime Reading not only offers thousands of free books, magazines, comics, and more, it also allows you to read this content on any device. Our favorite part: Prime Reading includes books with Audible narration, meaning you can switch back and forth between reading and listening to your chosen titles. 

18. Kindle Singles

Kindle Singles offers a vast variety of reporting, essays, memoirs, narratives, and short stories that serve to entertain and educate. We believe that short fiction and non-fiction is an ever-increasingly popular form of literature, and Kindle Singles is a great place to start! And, of course, it’s free from Prime members.

19. First Reads

Love to be the first in the know? You’ll like First Reads. It gives Amazon Prime members two free pre-release (and typically highly anticipated) books every month. There’s a number of different genres you can choose from, including thriller, contemporary fiction, historical fiction, psychological thriller, true crime, suspense, fantasy, and children’s.

20. Kindle Unlimited

This is another “not technically free” option, but again, if you do enough reading, it ends up being worth the cost. Kindle Unlimited is widely known as “the Netflix for books,” as it allows people to read as much as they’d like in exchange for the cost of a monthly subscription  — $9.99/month. 

Kindle Unlimited is separate from Amazon Prime — the latter is Amazon’s premium subscription service for all products, while the former deals exclusively with books. 

While Kindle Unlimited is currently home to about 1.5 million books, many of the titles are from self-published authors, so it’s important to weigh your reading expectations against what the program offers before signing up. Check out our Kindle Unlimited 101 post for a full rundown of the service! 

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