Thousands of free e-books are at your disposal. You don’t even need an e-reader to enjoy them.
You just need to know where to find these freebies galore. And we’ve identified 11 websites that offer them, covering virtually every book genre and every reader age.
So, following you’ll find where to go to put thousands of e-books at your fingertips without spending a dime.
If you prefer physical books or audiobooks over e-books, however, you might want to start by checking out:
1. Amazon
You’ll find free e-books for Kindle, which is Amazon's line of e-readers, on the e-commerce giant’s “Cheap Reads for Kindle” webpage.
To explore the free offerings, click on a genre listed under “Top Rated Free Books” on the left side of that page.
Note, though, that Amazon says free books sometimes vary in quality or don’t support all Kindle reading features. The company recommends first checking out reviews and ratings for free books you’re considering downloading.
If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you have access to even more freebies via Prime Reading.
If you’re not a Prime member, know that you can test it out for free. Just sign up for the free 30-day trial.
2. Barnes & Noble
You’ll find free e-books for Nook, which is Barnes & Noble’s line of e-readers, on the retailer’s “Free eBooks” webpage.
To explore the offerings, click on any of the many genres listed under “Subjects” on the left side of the page.
3. Kobo
You’ll find freebies for Kobo, a line of e-readers from Rakuten Kobo, on the Kobo website’s “Free eBooks” page.
4. Google Play
The Google Play store includes a “Top Free in Books” webpage offering a sampling of freebies.
5. Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg describes itself as “the first provider of free electronic books” and now offers more than 56,000 free titles.
Its website explains:
“You will find the world’s great literature here, especially older works for which copyright has expired. We digitized and diligently proofread them with the help of thousands of volunteers.”
To start exploring the Project Gutenberg website, try the:
- Search page
- Most-frequently downloaded books
- Top 100 authors over the past month or over the past week
6. ManyBooks
ManyBooks offers discounted and free e-books, with more than 33,000 free titles. There is some overlap with Project Gutenberg’s offerings, although ManyBooks’ website is arguably more user-friendly.
From the home page, you can use the search bar or browse by genre, author or popularity, among other options.
7. Sesame Street
The “Free eBooks of the Week” page on the Sesame Street website offers a few free children’s titles each week.
You can’t download them, but you can read them right from the website using any device with an internet browser — such as a smartphone, tablet or computer.
8. University of Chicago Press
The “Free E-book!” page on the University of Chicago Press website offers one free title each month.
9. InTechOpen
InTechOpen considers itself the world’s largest publisher of free books on science, technology and medicine. Its mission is “to help academics make a greater impact by giving readers free access to all published work.”
Since 2004, InTechOpen has published more than 3,200 books and more than 48,000 scientific works.
To check out the offerings, visit the “Books” page or click on “Subjects” in the horizontal menu near the top of the site.
10. O’Reilly Media
O’Reilly Media is a media company geared toward technology and entrepreneurship.
It offers e-books as well as webcasts and tutorials for free.
11. Your local library
Many libraries allow their members to borrow e-books. Ask your local library system if it offers this option.
Do you know of any other places to find free e-books? Let us know below or over on our Facebook page.
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