10 Life Hacks Every Audible User Should Know
Audible is one of the largest and most popular audiobook services , and for good reason, as it offers access to a huge library at a competitive price. Unlike Libby , another excellent audiobook platform, you don’t have to wait in line for popular titles, and your purchases (mostly) are yours to keep forever. Here are some tips to help you get the most out of Audible and save money.
Add audio narration to your Kindle to get free or low-cost audiobooks.
If you enjoy reading or listening to books, you can take advantage of the Kindle and Audible partnership to get audio versions of some titles for free, or at least for less than if you purchased them directly from Audible. One option is to add audio versions to your purchased Kindle books: you can see which books are available and how much additional audio versions cost using the Matchmaker tool . If you have a Kindle Unlimited subscription, you can also get many Prime Reading books with Audible audio versions at no extra cost. Finally, when adding a Kindle book to your cart, look for the “Add Audiobook” checkbox to see how much the accompanying Audible version costs—in some cases, purchasing a bundle can be cheaper than using Audible credit or purchasing the audio versions separately.
Instead of canceling your subscription, pause it to avoid losing your bonus points.
Audible monthly subscriptions are “use it or lose it”—if you cancel your subscription, your unused credit will expire, even if you’ve already paid for it. If you’ve fallen behind on your listening schedule or forgotten about your Audible subscription and want to catch up, you can temporarily pause your subscription instead of canceling. This way, you’ll keep your credit without paying the current subscription fee. You can pause your subscription for up to 90 days every 12 months. In the app, go to Profile > Subscription > Manage > Pause Subscription .
Use customer retention offers to earn free credit or a discount on your subscription.
If you threaten to cancel your Audible subscription, Amazon may try to retain you by offering a subscription discount or crediting a free credit to your account. This isn’t guaranteed to be successful, but users report that the cancellation process often includes retention offers. It doesn’t hurt to try, and you don’t need to confirm the cancellation unless there are incentives. In the Audible web interface, click your name > Subscription Details > Cancel Subscription . Note that if your subscription is paid through Apple or Google, you must cancel through the App Store or Google Play Store, and you may not receive a retention offer.
Choose an annual plan to get bonuses upfront.
With Audible’s standard monthly plan—$8.99—you get a monthly refill and access to audiobooks for the duration of your subscription. If you cancel your subscription, you forfeit any unused credits and your existing library. A Premium subscription, with a monthly payment of $14.95, allows you to keep the books you purchased with credits even if you cancel, although any unused credits expire immediately. However, if you sign up for an annual subscription, you’ll receive 12 credits immediately, meaning you don’t have to wait until renewal to add books to your library, and you don’t forfeit any unused credits if you cancel. This plan is also approximately $2.50 cheaper per credit than a monthly Premium subscription, and you gain access to additional sales and discounts.
Share audiobooks with others through Amazon Family.
If you try to share an Audible account with multiple users, you won’t be able to listen to the same book simultaneously without interrupting each other. However, you can share purchased books with other members of your Amazon Family account, allowing you to keep individual progress and listening history separate. Amazon Family can have two adults and up to four children. Please note that you can’t share unused credits—only purchased books.
Adjust the skip time to reduce the repeat playback intervals.
In Audible, the default fast-forward and rewind intervals are 30 seconds, but you can adjust them to 10 and 90 seconds. If you frequently rewind, especially when listening to longer material, you may want to shorten the interval to avoid having to return to a longer section every time you need to repeat a sentence. Note that you can set the fast-forward and rewind intervals to different lengths. Go to Profile > Settings > Player > App Display > Backward 30 sec / Forward 30 sec to change the rewind time.
Use the Clip tool to save and add annotations to individual audio fragments.
Audible’s Clips feature saves short excerpts from your books for later use. You can also add notes to clips to avoid maintaining a separate document and recording start/end times for clips. Tap “+Clip” in the player screen to automatically save a 30-second segment, then tap “Edit” in the confirmation message and use the sliders to mark the exact start and end points and enter notes. To play a saved audio clip, open the player screen, tap the “Clips and Notes” button, and select the clip you want to listen to. You can either play the clip alone or restart the audio from that clip.
Add products to your wishlist to keep track of promotions and discounts.
If you’re waiting for audiobooks to go on sale, add them to your wishlist to see all deals and discounts in one place. You can use this list to regularly check for price updates, and Audible can also send email or push notifications when your saved books are on sale. In the Audible app, tap “Add to Wishlist” on the book’s detail page, then view your list via Library > Lists > Wishlist .
Return any books or audiobooks you purchase if you don’t like them.
Audible has a fairly generous return policy, so if you don’t like the book or the narrator, you can get your money back and use it to buy another book. You must be a Premium subscriber to receive a refund, and refunds are only available for audiobooks purchased with funds (not cash) within 365 days of purchase. Keep in mind that you can lose this privilege if you overuse it, so it’s probably not a good idea to listen to every book to the end and then try to return it. Also, always listen to a preview of the book, if available, to ensure you don’t dislike the narrator.
Use Libation or OpenAudible to download and back up your books.
When you purchase audiobooks from Audible, you expect the files to remain yours forever—just like physical books—but this isn’t guaranteed. Third-party platforms like Libation and OpenAudible allow you to download, backup, and convert audiobook files so you can store and listen to them locally. Libation is a free, open-source platform, but some users find it a bit more complicated to use. OpenAudible offers some free features, but file conversion and other premium functionality require an annual or lifetime subscription.