Buy & listen to audiobooks

You can listen to audiobooks on your computer, mobile device, Google Home, and Google Assistant.

Buy & download audiobooks

You can explore and buy available audiobooks to listen to on Google Play Books.

1. On your computer, open Google Play Books.
2. Click Shop and search for the audiobook you’d like to buy.
3. To learn more about an audiobook, click the cover image.
4. To download the audiobook, click the price Buy. To listen to a sample, click Play Sample.

Tip: Some audiobooks come with PDF attachments. Learn how to get the PDF attachments.

Listen to audiobooks you've downloaded

After you’ve downloaded an audiobook, you can listen to it on multiple devices.

Tip: If you start listening on one device, then open the audiobook on another device, the audiobook will start playing from where you left off. You’ll start listening at the closest natural stopping point from the last time you listened.

1. On your computer, open Google Play Books.
2. Click My books open an audiobook Play.
3. Optional: You can also change how the audiobook is played:
   • To jump ahead 30 seconds, click Forward 30 seconds .
   • To go back 10 seconds, click Replay 10 seconds .
   • To change how fast or slow the book is read, click the playback speed. The default speed is 1x.

Add & remove a bookmark

1. On your computer, open Google Play Books.
2. Open an audiobook.
3. At the bottom of the player, click Bookmark .
   • To delete a bookmark, select the “Bookmarks” tab click More  Remove Bookmark.

Export the audio files

You can only export the audio using your computer. To transfer the file to another device or app, download the M4A file.

1. On your computer, open Google Play Books.
2. Click My books  Audiobooks.
3. Select the book you want to download, click More Export.

Tip: Some audiobooks may not be available for export. Open the book's details page, scroll to “Additional information,” and check under "Export option."

Download PDF for an audiobook

Depending on the publisher, your audiobook may come with additional materials such as visuals, charts, graphs, maps, or other appendices.

1. On your computer, open Google Play Books.
2. Click Library or My Books Audiobooks.
3. Open the audiobook  click More  Download accompanying PDF.

Types of audiobooks

Abridged audiobooks

An abridged audiobook is a shorter version of an audiobook that has been edited for length. You’ll still understand the major plot points of the book, but minor details will be left out.

Abridged audiobooks are available as a separate item in the Play Store from the full length version of the audiobook. Double check which version of the audiobook you want to buy before you finalize your purchase.

Auto-narrated audiobooks

Auto-narrated audiobooks use text-to-speech technology to create audio from an ebook.

These audiobooks use a digital voice to read ebooks. You might encounter:

• Mispronounced words
• Pauses in places that don’t make sense
• A mismatch between the tone or emotion of word pronunciations and the content

At this time, auto-narrated audiobooks are only in English.

If you find an issue with your auto-narrated audiobook, contact us to share your feedback.