Where to Find Free Audiobooks for Homeschooling

Audiobooks are an asset to homeschooling, and you and your kids can do a lot of listening to books and stories for free.

Jump to:

• Why audiobooks?
• Free audiobooks
• Other resources

Why audiobooks?

Listening to audiobooks can help kids build reading fluency and comprehension. Audiobooks can help kids learn about other times and places, just like regular books. And audiobooks develop children's relationship to literature.

And that's not all. Read 21 Ways Your Homeschool Can Benefit from Audiobooks for even more benefits.

Free audiobooks

The free audiobooks from the sources below make it possible to add the benefits of audiobooks to your homeschool without added expense.

Your local library

Libby. In addition to having audiobooks on CD, most public libraries offer streaming audiobooks using apps like Libby. The app has most of the same features available as the Audible app (such as filtered searching and sleep timers). If you have multiple library cards, you can enter them all under the same Libby account and switch between systems easily.

Audiobooks from the library have the same availability and time restrictions as physical books. Occasionally, relevant collections may be offered on an "always available" basis. When an audiobook is due, it will be removed from your collection the next time the device is connected to the internet.

Hoopla. Some libraries also offer content on Hoopla. Unlike Libby, Hoopla allows libraries to set a limit to the number of items checked out per month (licensing payments are based on the number of books checked out, so it is a cost-control measure for libraries). In addition to audiobooks, Hoopla offers eBooks, comics, movies, TV, magazines, and music. Hoopla only allows one library card per account, but you can create a second account for additional cards.

If your library has reciprocal agreements with libraries in neighboring locales, you might find joining those libraries beneficial. You can use both cards to access audiobook loans for additional availability. Some libraries even offer memberships for individuals living outside of their service area for a modest annual fee (my library charges $30/year for the whole family).

A helpful free tool for accessing which titles your library has available for loan is Library Extension. Install the add-on to your browser and when you are looking at an audiobook or book for sale it will give you library information for the title. It will tell you if it is held by the libraries you have added in the extension settings and how many copies are currently available. The extension even gives availability information about other formats of the title.

Open Culture

Over 450 free audiobooks are available at Open Culture (which also has free movies, textbooks, ebooks, and MOOCs). You'll find classic literature like The Wizard of Oz, Grimm's Fairy Tales, The Chronicles of Narnia, Anne of Green Gables, Aesop's Fables, and more. Since these are not streaming, once they are on your device you can use them without an internet connection.

Project Gutenberg

As with its book section, Project Gutenberg's audiobooks are all public domain books, so expect to see classics. Project Gutenberg also has a collection of computer-generated audiobooks, but they sound like you would expect computer-generated audio to sound (in other words, they are painful to listen to). You can also find free ebooks of most of the same titles on the site. Students who want or need to read and listen at the same time (or like to switch off) may appreciate both ebooks and audiobooks.

Lit2Go

Lit2Go offers an audio collection of fiction, memoirs and other non-fiction titles, poetry, Presidential messages, and speeches. The site has its collection sorted by genre, author, title, collection, and Flesch-Kincaid reading level.

LibriVox

LibriVox is a great online source for well-known classic fiction, nonfiction, and children's books. It supports both streaming and offline use, allowing use with or without an internet connection after files are on your device. LibriVox, like Project Gutenberg, is comprised of books in the public domain.

Internet Archive

The Internet Archive features audiobooks and poetry "from the Naropa Poetics Audio Archive, LibriVox, Project Gutenberg, Maria Lectrix, and Internet Archive users."

Loyal Books

Also a source for public domain titles, Loyal Books has thousands of free audiobooks from the LibriVox library that can be accessed as mp3 files, through iTunes podcasts, or as m4b files. They can also be streamed directly from the site.

Spotify

Spotify members sometimes put together playlists of free audiobooks like this one (preview for suitability). Free registration is required. For premium members, Spotify membership includes a limited number of hours of audiobook listening to paid titles (ten hours per month as of this writing). Additional hours can be purchased.

Audible Free Listens

Audible's Free Listens is a small selection of free audiobooks with a range of titles. For Audible paid members on all plans, the Audible Plus titles are free for as long as you are a member. The Plus catalog contains many popular titles and often includes selections from book series, presumably in an effort to get readers invested in the series.

Other resources

Although not free, Learning Ally is an affordable option for families whose children have "a demonstrated learning disability, visual impairment, or physical disability" that makes traditional print books a difficult option. For an annual membership fee ($135 in 2025), members have access to unlimited audiobooks. Documentation from a qualified professional is required.

Storyline Online features celebrated actors reading children's books aloud, paired with creatively produced illustrations inspired by each book. Storynory is a podcast and website with free but ad-supported audio streaming stories—fairy tales, myths, poems, educational stories and more.