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.
- On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Play Books app
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- Tap Shop and search for an audiobook.
- To learn more about an audiobook, tap the cover image.
- Tap the price
Buy Audiobook.
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Buy Audiobook.Download using Wi-Fi only
To avoid data charges, you can download audiobooks using Wi-Fi only. To turn this feature on or off:
- On your phone or tablet, open the Google Play Books app
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- At the top right, tap your profile picture.
- Tap Play Books Settings
Download over Wi-Fi only.
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Download over Wi-Fi only.Tips:
- You can choose to download standard or high quality audio. In Play Books settings, under "Audiobook playback," tap Audio quality. High quality audio requires more device storage space and bandwidth to download.
- Some audiobooks may 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. 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.
- On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Play Books App
- Tap Library.
- At the top, tap Audiobooks.
- Tap the audiobook you want to listen to. It will start playing automatically.
- Optional: You can also change how the audiobook is played, or set a sleep timer:
- To jump ahead 30 seconds, tap Forward 30 seconds
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- To go back 30 seconds, tap Replay 30 seconds
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- To change how fast or slow the book is read, tap the playback speed. The default speed is 1x.
- To automatically stop the book after a set time period, or at the end of the chapter, tap Sleep Timer
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- To jump ahead 30 seconds, tap Forward 30 seconds
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.Add & remove a bookmark
- On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Play Books app
- Open an audiobook.
- At the top, tap Bookmark
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- To delete a bookmark, tap Contents
- To delete a bookmark, tap Contents
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Export the audio version
You can only export the audio using your desktop. Learn how to export the audio file.
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.
- On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Play Books app
- Tap Library
- Select the audiobook.
- Tap More
Types of 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 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
