Tips and tricks on how to save money on Audible membership for new and existing users. Also see this post for more tips on how to get audiobook discounts using the Whispersync feature. [Last updated: Oct 5, 2018]
What You’ll Learn in This Article
1. What you’ll get from the Audible Gold Membership.
2. Special promotions when you sign up for membership. Use the Free Trial!
3. How to get reduced membership fee after the free trial and you’ve
become a member.
4. Other lower cost membership plans (i.e., AudibleListener Light
and Silver Membership).
5. How to pause membership.
Audible is the Amazon audiobook subscription service. Being a member allows you to purchase and listen to over 180,000+ audiobooks, get discounts, and special sales that Amazon holds.
I’ve had an Audible subscription for years now, and I’ve discovered a few tricks on how to save money on Audible membership. Here, I’ll share several tips on how to maximize your savings when you sign up for an Audible membership and how to save when you are already a member.
To read all about the different Audible membership levels and their pricing, go to this article:
Audible Subscription Plans & Prices: Which One is Right for You?
But first, what does an Amazon Audible subscription offer?
What you get from an Amazon Audible membership
The subscription cost for an Audible Gold Membership, the most common membership level that Amazon advertises, is $14.95/month. This includes:
- 1 audiobook credit each month, which you can use to purchase any audiobook, no matter how long or short, expensive or cheap the original price is. In essence, this is equivalent to buying an audiobook for $14.95 each month. Since an Amazon audiobook is generally quite pricey–above $14.95–this means that you’re getting a decent value on audiobooks. If you sign up through Amazon, you get the first month free and 2 audiobook credits, i.e., 2 free audiobooks just for trying Audible. The best perk of this promotion is that you get to keep the 2 free audiobooks forever, even if you cancel your subscription after the free trial. [Update 1/9/18: Currently, this is the best sign up offer available]
Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks
- Discounted audiobooks. As a member, if you purchase audiobooks without the credits, you will get discounts on all titles (usually 30%).
- Member-only sales. Audible holds quite a number of sales that are accessible only to members. They send emails with daily deals, many for less than $5. They also do special events like get 2 books for 1 credit, 3 books for 2 credits, etc., which I’ve taken advantage of many times.
- Whispersync for Voice. This is one of the neatest features of Audible, in my opinion. Many books offered by Amazon are Whispersync for Voice-ready enabled, meaning that when you have both the audiobook and Kindle ebook versions of the same title, they will be synced with each other, allowing you to pick up where you left off from the audio or ebook version. Now, why would you want to buy both versions? When you buy either an audiobook or a Kindle ebook that is Whispersync for Voice-ready, Amazon will give you an offer to buy the other version at a heavily discounted price. Sometimes, the total price for this combination, by taking advantage of the special sales or daily deals, will be lower than the original price of either the audio or ebook version. I usually prefer ebooks, since I like to go back to certain sections of the book, get quotes, etc, which would be difficult with the audio version. A few times, I’ve found out that buying the audiobook first, then taking advantage of the Whispersync offer, I get a lower total amount spent and I have both the ebook and audiobook versions in my library. For more on this and tips on how to get audiobook discounts via Whispersync, check out this article:
How to Take Advantage of Whispersync and Get Audiobook Discounts
- Return books at any time. If you don’t like any audiobook that you’ve purchased, you can simply return and exchange it with another book, no questions asked.
6. Listen to Audible original series, interviews, news, comedy, etc. with Audio Shows (previously called Channels).
7. NEW in 2018! Two free Audible Originals each month. Audible decided to be more awesome in 2018! Now, with your membership, you get 2 free Audible Originals each month. They’re typically shorter, up to about 4 or 5 hours lengthwise. But they are more than just books. In September, I picked Girls & Boys, which is a play that was on off-Broadway earlier this year by Carey Mulligan. The Audible Original is also narrated by Mulligan, whom I love. The other selection that I picked is the X-Files. For October, I see that there are more selections for theater lovers, comedy lovers, etc. For a theater enthusiast who lives so far away from New York City, I’m loving these productions! If you’re a member already, don’t forget to grab these Audible Originals soon!
If you’re a big audiobook consumer, this membership package is not a bad deal overall. But for me, sometimes 1 audiobook/month is too much to keep up. An audiobook can take 10-12 hours of listening, and since I only listen to them during commutes, it can take me a while to finish. Plus, $14.95/month is not insignificant.
The good news is there are other offers that you can take advantage of both during sign up and after you’ve become an Audible member.
How to save money on Amazon Audible membership
The tips here are for 2 groups of people:
1. Those who don’t have an Audible membership yet, but would like to sign up.
2.Those who have an Audible membership already.
How to maximize savings when you sign up for Audible
If you have never been an Audible member and would like to try/sign up, there are multiple offers you can take advantage of. It’s essentially equivalent to getting a discount on the Audible membership.
Option 1. Sign up via Amazon. Their offer is a one-month free membership, so the $14.95 charge only starts on the second month. Additionally, they also give you 2 credits upon sign up, which means that you get 2 free audiobooks just by trying Audible for a month. (Note: some links only offer 1 free credit. Use the link below to get 2 free credits). Try it for free, cancel anytime (or change membership level), and the 2 books are yours to keep forever!
Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks
Option 2. Sign up via shopping portals. The better deal is to sign up via shopping portals or discount websites such as Groupon or Swagbucks. [Update 1/9/18: While these portals worked in the past, it seems that these promotions are no longer offered at this point.]
2a. Swagbucks is a shopping portal where you can get points for doing online shopping. These points can then be converted into merchant gift cards. (Read an overview of Swagbucks from this awesome blog.) Swagbucks currently has an Audible offer for $2 for 2 months, after which the regular membership price will be charged to you. This means that your total spending for 2 months = $2, instead of $14.95 via Amazon.
2b. Groupon currently has an offer for $1.95/mo for 3 months. [1/4/2017 Update] Current offer is 2 months free. Click here to view it or search for Groupon Audible coupons in your search engine.
Note: These offers may change over time. Be sure to browse around first before signing up for Audible.
How to save when you already signed up for Audible
Once you are a member, you can’t take advantage of the sign up offers anymore. But it doesn’t mean that you’re stuck with a $14.95/mo. Of course, you can always cancel the membership, but these tips are for those who would like to keep subscribing to Audible and enjoy all those membership benefits mentioned above.
The good news is that there are options to reduce your subscription costs. Note that Amazon may offer different things to different members, so you may not see the options below in the same order. But if you see other offers than listed here, please let me know in the comments section and I’ll add them to the list.
Option 1. Pause membership. Maybe you need time to catch up on the audiobooks in your library, or you want to suspend the charges to your credit card. Audible allows you to hold your membership for up to 90 days. During this time, you’ll still have your existing unused credits, but you won’t get any new ones. You’ll still have access to the other benefits (e.g., discounts, etc.), though. They will resume charging your credit card after the 90 days period. The caveat is that this option is only available to you once, so once you’ve used it, it’s not available anymore (i.e., you can’t suspend your membership forever).
[reader’s comment: someone found that this option is available once every 12 months. So maybe it’s not just once forever after all. Ask the customer rep!]
Option 2. Reduced rate offer. When you are a member, you can also get an additional offer of $7.95/mo for 3 months. To get this, do the following steps. Go to My Account, click Cancel my Membership. When they ask the reason for cancellation, choose “The membership fee was too expensive for me”. Once you click Continue, Audible will bring you to an offer page that lets you continue your membership for a reduced rate of $7.95/mo for 3 months. Once you accept, this deal will show up in the Membership Plan Description section of My Account.
Option 3. AudibleListener Light Membership – Annual. If you’ve noticed above, the only advertised membership level is the Gold Membership at $14.95/mo. But it turns out that Amazon has other Audible plans that you won’t find unless you ask a customer service representative or Audible offers them to you.
After exhausting options 1 and 2, I still felt that the membership fee and 1 audiobook per month was too much to keep up. So I took the steps to cancel the membership again, as described in Option 2. This time though, Audible gave me an AudibleListener Light Membership offer at $9.95/year. This is much cheaper than the Gold membership, but it doesn’t include the 1 credit/mo. However, I still have access to the email deals, which for me, are worth more than $9.95/year. Some of these email deals have huge discounts. Note, however, that you also won’t have the 30% discount that you would normally have with the Gold membership.
Option 4. Audible Silver Membership. After using the Listener Light Membership for about a year, I decided to upgrade my membership level again, since there just have been so many great audiobooks published. But I still thought the Gold Membership was too much to keep up with. Hence, the Audible Silver Membership is the perfect choice for me right now. Again, as in Option 3, this membership level is not advertised by Audible, so you’ll have to ask a customer representative to set it up. For me it took a few pain-free minutes.
What does the Audible Silver Membership entail:
- Silver membership costs $14.00 (plus tax) every other month. So instead of 1 credit per month, you’ll get 1 credit every two months.
- You are eligible for the 30% discount of any audiobook you buy.
- You get all the perks of being a member as in the Gold Membership (e.g., sales, 2-books-for-1-credit promotions, free audiobooks that Audible gives away).
Note: I’d recommend exercising any of these options at the end of your membership month (i.e., just before they charge you for the following month), to prevent you from losing value for the month that you already paid for. In my experience, whenever you accept a new offer, they charged my credit card and restarted the new membership plan right away.
If you still want to cancel your Audible membership
Make sure to redeem all of your unused credits before canceling, since they will disappear once you cancel. The rest of your library will always be available to you.
Conclusions
In short, these are the tips on how to save money on Audible Membership
1. Take advantage of sign up offers
– Sign up via Amazon (first month free + 2 free audiobooks)
– Sign up via shopping portals such as Groupon, Swagbucks, etc. for reduced rates (recommended)
2. Reduce your monthly membership fee
– Pause membership for up to 90 days (only available once)
– Get the $7.95/mo for 3 months offer by going through the steps to cancel membership
– Get AudibleListener Light Membership – Annual at $9.95/year by going through the steps to cancel membership.
– Get Audible Silver Membership at $14.00 every other month and still get all the perks of being a member.
If you’ve found out more options than listed here, please let me know in the comments section and I’ll include them in this post. I’ll also update this post when I find more tricks on how to save with Audible in the future.
Want ideas on which audiobooks to start listening to? Check out my favorite books from 2015, 2016, and 2017.
Try Audible for free today!
Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks
Other tips on audiobooks and Audible:
Audible Subscription Plans & Prices: Which One is Right for You?
How to Take Advantage of Whispersync and Get Audiobook Discounts
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Product links on this post are affiliate links, which means I get credits if you sign up through them. Would appreciate it if you do!
These are great tips, especially if you can front load the costs of the credits.
Although these are some ways to get a discount from Audible.com, these are not the best discounts available. I have also been a member with the company and the parent company for a couple of years now and I have some better suggestions for the web developer and those reading the comments.
1: Contact the company and ask for the PLATINUM membership. This gives you two credits a month for the cost of $22.95. That is the equivalent of $11.48 per book per month. If you are in a tax state, then after taxes the price comes to (NC tax rate) $24.56 which divided by two is still only $12.28 per credit.
2. If you have the money on hand and want additional credits do not wait a full month for additional credits. Cancel your account immediately. Call back in, and speak with the agent and request a subscription to PLATINUM membership.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 over and over as necessary. I did this 4 times in a time span of 30 minutes with no questions asked and received all my purchases at this low discounted price.
4. While being a member you see a book cost less then the $11.48 for non-tax states or less then the tax rated price for your tax state tax rate ($12.28 in NC) then purchase that book at the 30% discounted rate prior to cancelling your subscription.
5. You can get one book freely gifted to you. In my case I was so happy with one of my book audibles that I gifted it to my mother. Then I realized she had to create an account in order to receive her free gifted book. I returned my book, no questions asked by Audible, and had my mother gift it back to me. You can only do this once but based on the book price, take the price of that book and then subtract the total price and you just got a book for 100% off.
6. If you are even more wealthy you could purchase the annual plans “GOLD or PLATINUM” for an even better discount and get 12-24 credits at once (based on your plan) and use them all at once and repeat steps 1 and 2 the same way. Note*** I am not this wealthy and have not been able to test this method.
Ah yes. Thanks for this input!
I live in Surabaya. Hoping can travel to many parts of US one day 🙂
One more thing that may be you can add in the post is “The option to place your membership on hold is only available once every 12 months for a maximum of 3 months.”
That’s the explanation from Audible Representative. In your post above, you said it can only happen once.
Thanks.
Yes, I saw your name and knew you’re Indonesian =). Are you in the US too?
I think I should update the post to clarify this 30% discount issue. Thanks!
Oh unfortunately… For me the 30% discount that make me stay with the gold membership. I already asked to Audible support to make my account dormant, buat they have record that I already in dormant period from Oct’15 to Jan’16 so they state member can request 3 months dormant every 12 months.
Thanks anyway for your info and sharing!
Btw, I just read your About page and suprise..suprise.. You’re from Indonesia too 🙂 It’s great to know an Indonesian fellow really strive in US. Wish u all the best!
Hi Sukarto,
No, the Light Membership doesn’t give the 30% discount, but you still get the email deals (sometimes 50% off or more).
What a great tips! Thanks a lot 🙂 I’m also feel $14.95 membership is too much. thanks again. One question, is the Light Membership give 30% discount deal?
Hi Aiko! Yea, I think they offer different deals for different people. Which is smart of them. I don’t have the 30% off anymore too, but I still get the sales notifications through email. Since I rarely buy audiobooks, this worked out fine for me. Btw, they also are beta testing this things called Audible Channels, which is kind of like podcasts, with Audible flavors added. I just started checking it out this past week and I’m liking it so far.
Thanks for this tip, Jo. Last year I signed up with Audible with a deal of some sort, and later put my membership on hold for 90 days, which came to an end about the time I read this post. I paid for another month, and then went through the steps to cancel, but didn’t get the same options you listed. The first offer was for a $20 coupon, which I accepted, and just now tried to cancel again. I wasn’t offered the Inactive Light option, but I called Customer Care and they switched me without any hassle. I’m interested to see what benefits I still get with this plan, if I’ll have access to all the sales active members do. I don’t have the perk of 30% off audiobooks anymore.
Sigh..commute sucks the life out of me. No commute is better.
I bet I would be a lot more into audiobooks if I had to commute though. 🙂
Yours is probably the better and more cost-efficient addiction! I love cool finds from used bookstores too. I’ve also been enjoying ebooks and audiobooks from the local library, which need a bit of patience as you wait for the queue, but absolutely free!
Thanks for the pingback, Josephine! Love the tips, I’ll have to keep them in mind. I’ve never given audiobooks an honest try before. It might have something to do with my bad habit (addiction) for cheap physical books from used book stores…