Should you buy the audiobook or the ebook?
Buy the audiobook if you will mostly read while doing something else (commuting, walking, chores) and the ebook if you read sitting down, want to highlight, or read faster than a narrator speaks. Ebooks are usually cheaper to buy and easier to borrow from the library; audiobooks cost more but credits flatten the price of long ones. Ownership depends on the store, not the format: a DRM-free Libro.fm audiobook is more yours than a Kindle ebook.
What decides it: when you read, or what it costs?
When you read. Price differences are real, but the book you finish is the bargain and the book you do not finish is the waste. If your reading time is a commute, a dog walk or the washing up, an audiobook turns dead time into reading time. If your reading time is in bed or on a train seat, an ebook is faster and cheaper.
Ask one question about the book itself: will you want to look things up? Maps, family trees, footnotes, tables and dense nonfiction all work better on a page. Character-driven fiction with a good narrator often works better on audio.
Which costs more?
Audiobooks, nearly always, when you buy them outright, because narration is expensive to produce. Credits change the picture: one Audible or Libro.fm credit ($14.95 or $14.99 a month) buys any title regardless of list price, which makes long audiobooks good value. Ebooks are cheaper to buy outright and go on deep sale more often.
Through the library, both are free. Ebook holds queues and audiobook holds queues differ title by title, so check both formats in Libby before you wait for one.
Subscriptions blur it further. Kindle+ and Kobo Plus Read & Listen include both formats for one fee, Everand includes both, and Spotify Premium includes a monthly allowance of audiobook hours.
Which do you actually own?
Ownership follows the store, not the format. Kindle ebooks and Audible audiobooks both stay inside Amazon's apps with no supported export. Apple Books purchases stay inside Apple's apps. Kobo sells plenty of DRM-free ebooks and reads EPUBs you add yourself. Libro.fm audiobooks are DRM-free files you download and keep. Our what-you-keep resource has the full table.
If owning your library matters, the format question becomes a store question: Kobo or DRM-free ebook shops for reading, Libro.fm for listening.
Does listening count, and do you remember as much?
For most of what people mean by reading, yes. One study comparing listening, reading and both together on a nonfiction text found no significant difference in comprehension between the groups; our guide on whether audiobooks count as reading goes through what it did and did not test. Where print keeps an edge is in looking back: it is easier to reread a paragraph than to scrub back on audio.
That is also the weak spot of audio for long fiction: when you return after a break, finding your place and remembering who is who is harder without a page in front of you. Typing the last phrase you heard into Magic Bookmark, for supported titles on iPhone, gives you a recap and cast list up to that point; a written cast list does the same job for any book.
When is buying both worth it?
When you will switch between them often: reading at home and listening on the move. Amazon's Whispersync for Voice pairs a Kindle ebook with its Audible audiobook so your place carries across, sometimes at a reduced price for the audio when you own the ebook. Kindle+ includes companion audiobooks for thousands of its ebooks. Outside Amazon, keeping two formats in sync is manual, so buy both only if you know you will use both.
| If you... | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Read while commuting, walking or doing chores | Audiobook | Turns time you already spend into reading time |
| Read in bed or seated, and read fast | Ebook | Faster than narration and cheaper to buy |
| Want maps, tables, footnotes or highlights | Ebook or print | Looking back is easier on a page |
| Want to own files you can move | Libro.fm audiobook or DRM-free ebook | Ownership follows the store, not the format |
| Pay nothing | Either, from the library | Check both formats' holds queues in Libby |
| Switch formats daily | Both, if Whispersync or Kindle+ covers it | Your place carries across inside Amazon |
Questions readers actually ask
- Are audiobooks more expensive than ebooks?
- To buy outright, usually yes. With a credit membership the cost per audiobook is fixed at about $15, which makes long audiobooks good value. From the library, both are free.
- Do audiobooks count as reading?
- For enjoying a story and understanding it, yes for most readers. One study of a nonfiction passage found no significant comprehension difference between listening and reading. Print keeps an edge for looking back and studying.
- Can you switch between the ebook and the audiobook?
- Inside Amazon, yes: Whispersync for Voice pairs a Kindle ebook with its Audible audiobook and keeps your place. Kindle+ includes companion audiobooks for thousands of its ebooks. Elsewhere you keep your place by hand.
- Which format is better for long fantasy series?
- Whichever you will finish. Audio carries you through slow stretches; ebooks make it easier to check names and maps. Many readers keep a cast list either way.
Sources
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