Reading doesn't need to be expensive. Here's where to find books online for free.

Who doesn’t love freebies?

On your birthday, you can snag everything from shopping discounts to free coffee. And nearly every other week in the calendar year, there’s a special holiday like “National Croissant Day” where companies dole out free promotional food.

Yes, there are ways for readers to get in on the deals too. After all, it can be an expensive hobby. But if you’re an e-reader, you may not have to worry about shelling out $30 for the latest special edition hardcover.

Where to read books online for free

Here are our five tips for nabbing those free digital deals, from library hacks to securing unreleased advanced copies. If you’re looking for other low-cost ways to read, check out our guide on all the best places to buy cheap books.

Borrow from your library

Plenty of libraries are going digital and allowing members to rent e-books or audiobooks for a short period. Libby, owned by digital distributor OverDrive, is one of the most popular e-book rental apps. Readers can borrow e-books for free and download them or send them straight to their Kindle. Hoopla and CloudLibrary are other popular alternatives.

Take advantage of ‘Stuff Your Kindle’ days

Kindle runs “Stuff Your Kindle” days several times a year to help indie authors grow their work. For 24 hours during this promotion, readers can stock up on a large number of e-books for free.

But Kindle offers free e-books all of the time. Simply search “Free books on Kindle” to find a list of thousands of no-cost titles.

Get a free audiobook instead

Spotify hopped on the audiobook train in 2023 when it began offering 15 monthly listening hours under its Premium Plan. Amazon Music joined in late last year – the service’s Unlimited plan now includes one audiobook per month.

If you’re already a subscriber, this is an easy way to secure an audiobook at no additional cost. But if you want a completely free solution, check out the selection of free titles on Audible, Libro.fm or Librivox, a volunteer-read site with public domain works.

Request in exchange for a review

If you want to dip your toes into the world of book influencing, check out NetGalley, a one-stop shop for advanced review copies of books. In addition to sending early copies (sometimes called “galleys”) to press and big influencers, publishers sometimes like to garner attention for an upcoming release by sending it to readers before publication.

If you're an avid online reviewer, you can request a title on NetGalley in exchange for a review on social media or apps like Goodreads or Storygraph. Publishers approve you title-by-title, but the more you leave reviews, the more you can prove you’re a good fit as an early reader.

Other websites and apps that offer free e-books

If none of these tips work, you might have luck with BookBub – a discovery service that catalogs where you can find titles for free across Amazon, Apple Books, Google Books, Kobo and Barnes & Noble.

Publisher Simon & Schuster also offers a free e-book after signing up for their mailing list.

Looking for your next great read? USA TODAY has you covered.

Taste is subjective, and USA TODAY Books has plenty of genres to recommend. Check out the 15 new releases we’re most excited about in 2025. Is dystopian your thing? Check out these books that are similar to “The Hunger Games” and “1984.” Or if you want something with lower stakes and loveable characters, see if a "cozy mystery" or "cozy fantasy" book is for you. If you want the most popular titles, check out USA TODAY’s Best-selling Booklist.

Clare Mulroy is USA TODAY’s Books Reporter, where she covers buzzy releases, chats with authors and dives into the culture of reading. Find her on Instagram, check out her recent articles or tell her what you’re reading at cmulroy@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Free books online: How to find no-cost reads