Are you an avid reader looking to enjoy more Kindle books for less? Maybe you’ve just bought your first Kindle device that came with a Kindle Unlimited free trial?
In this guide, we’ll explain everything you need to know about Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited subscription service. We’ll tell you how much it costs and what you’ll get with your subscription.
Our passion is helping you save money, which is why we’ve also got all the information you need to decide whether a Kindle Unlimited membership is worth the price, based on your reading habits. Read to the end for some bonus ways to get more from Kindle Unlimited.
What is Kindle Unlimited?
Kindle Unlimited is Amazon’s eBook subscription service. It offers a way for keen readers to access thousands of titles without paying full price for each individual book.
The Kindle Unlimited digital library has a rotating catalogue of eBooks, audiobooks and magazines for you to download and read whenever you like.
A Kindle Unlimited subscription costs £9.49 per month and works as a rolling monthly contract, which means you can pause or cancel at any time.
How does Kindle Unlimited work?
You can think of Kindle Unlimited like an eBook-borrowing service. You can download up to 20 books and magazine issues at once and read them on your Kindle or on your mobile phone, tablet or computer via the free Kindle app.
There are no due dates for returning books you’ve downloaded. As long as you still have your Kindle Unlimited membership, your books will remain on your device. This applies even if the book is removed from the Kindle Unlimited offering – you can keep it until you decide to return it or cancel your subscription.
What do you get with Kindle Unlimited?
Amazon claim to have over a million titles available on Kindle Unlimited, and their offering regularly changes. This means there are lots of books to choose from – certainly enough to keep even heavy readers occupied.
So, where does the ‘unlimited’ part come in? Unfortunately, it doesn’t apply to the books themselves, as not all Kindle books on Amazon are included in your Kindle Unlimited subscription. You do, however, get unlimited access to the books that are included, which means you can read as many as you like each month.
The most prominent genres represented on Kindle Unlimited are romance, romantasy, fantasy, sci-fi, thrillers, cosy mysteries and non-fiction (including self-help and true crime). You’re less likely to see literary fiction, mainstream bestsellers, new releases, classics and memoirs. Here are some of the authors we often see on Kindle Unlimited:
Shari Lapena
K.L. Slater LJ Ross Freida McFadden
Dani Atkins Elle Kennedy Colleen Hoover Alice Feeney
Thousands of books included with Kindle Unlimited come with audiobook downloads too, so you can decide whether you read, listen, or do both in tandem. As well as this, you’ll also get access to thousands of magazine subscriptions, including popular publications like Good Housekeeping, Grazia, Ideal Home and Good Food.
How much does Kindle Unlimited cost?
Kindle Unlimited works as a rolling monthly subscription, which costs £9.49 a month. Payments are automatically charged to your connected debit or credit card each month, which means you can’t pay annually or use gift cards.
Amazon don’t usually offer Kindle Unlimited discounts (not even for students or Prime members). However, you can usually find a free trial offer so you can try before you buy. The standard Kindle Unlimited free trial is 30 days, but sometimes it can be as long as three months. We’ve also seen new-member offers where you can get your first two months at a discounted price.
Is Kindle Unlimited worth it?
Whether or not Kindle Unlimited is worth it for you will depend on a few factors. These include how many books you read each month, what kinds of books you read, whether you want to keep books after you’ve read them, and how much money you usually spend on books per month.
The monthly fee of £9.49 is roughly what you could expect to pay for one full-priced Kindle eBook or paperback. For this price, you get unlimited access to thousands of different books.
With that said, the books on Kindle Unlimited are actually – ironically – pretty limited. If you don’t enjoy reading the types of books available, you might not use your subscription enough to justify the monthly fee.
There are also other ways to get cheap Kindle books, without committing to a subscription. You can always find discounted eBooks on the Amazon Kindle Deals page, with different titles reduced to as little as 99p every single day.
You could buy 10 Kindle books at 99p each and spend roughly the same amount of money as you would for a month of Kindle Unlimited. Not only can you find discounted eBooks that you won’t find on Kindle Unlimited, but you also get to keep them forever – once you’ve bought them, they’re yours to keep.
Here’s a round-up of the main reasons for and against Kindle Unlimited memberships:
Kindle Unlimited might be worth it for you if…
- You’re happy reading anything and everything
- You read a lot of romance, romantasy, fantasy, sci-fi, thrillers, mysteries, self-help or true crime
- You’re happy to give your Kindle books back after you’ve read them
- You would usually spend £10 or more on books in any given month
Kindle Unlimited might not be right for you if…
- You’re picky about the titles and genres you read
- You want to read litfic, mainstream bestsellers, new releases, classics or popular memoirs
- You don’t want to lose access to your Kindle books after you've read them
- You don’t usually spend money on books, preferring to borrow or buy second-hand
My experience with Kindle Unlimited, as someone who enjoys reading on a Kindle regularly:
I enjoy reading literary fiction and horror, which means I can’t usually find books that interest me on Kindle Unlimited.
When I bought my Kindle, I qualified for a three-month free trial of Kindle Unlimited. During those months, I only read two Kindle Unlimited titles.
If I’d been paying for the subscription for those three months, I’d have spent £28.47. That means I’d have paid nearly £30 to read just two books. I chose not to continue my subscription, which meant I lost access to those two downloads and couldn’t read them again.
During the three months of free access to Kindle Unlimited, I also bought and read four Kindle books costing 99p each. This totalled just £3.96 for four eBooks I can now keep forever.
Rhi at TopCashback has saved money with her subscription:
'I can’t deny I’ve saved money with Kindle Unlimited. I’ve read over 10 books already this year, so paying £9.49 a month has probably worked out a lot cheaper than buying them all separately.
So, while the selection isn’t quite as unlimited as I’d hoped, it has still been good value for me overall.'
How to get more from Kindle Unlimited
If you think a Kindle Unlimited subscription might be something you’d enjoy, there are ways to reduce your costs and unlock more value.
Don’t miss out on a free trial
We recommend you sign up for a free trial of Kindle Unlimited before you part with any money. Amazon nearly always have a free trial offer, giving you at least 30 days to try Kindle Unlimited for free. This is a great way to see if you’re likely to get enough value from your subscription to keep it up.
Amazon usually have a 30-day free trial as standard, but they sometimes extend this to as long as three months. A three-month trial would save you £28.47, so it’s well worth opting in.
If you want the free trial but don’t want to pay for a subscription afterwards, you’ll need to make sure you cancel your subscription before it renews. You can find details on the Your Memberships & Subscriptions page in your Amazon account.
If you’re buying a Kindle through Amazon, you can often add a three-month Kindle Unlimited free trial to your purchase at no extra cost.
Take advantage of flexible subscriptions
Kindle Unlimited is a rolling monthly subscription, which means it offers a great deal of flexibility.
Because you’re not tied in, you could treat it as something to dip in and out of. Sign up when there are lots of books you want to read (even better if you take advantage of a free trial), then just pause or cancel your Kindle Unlimited subscription when you run out of books you’re interested in.
This will stop you wasting money on a subscription you don’t use, and you can always restart your subscription at a later date.
Use Amazon Family to share Kindle Unlimited with your household
If you have Amazon Prime, you can share your subscriptions with the people you live with. Amazon Family allows you to share your benefits with one other adult and up to four children (as long as you all live together).
Even though Kindle Unlimited isn’t part of Prime, Prime members who also subscribe to Kindle Unlimited can share their books with the other people on their account. This means multiple people under one roof can benefit from just one Kindle Unlimited subscription, saving you money and sharing the joy of reading at the same time.
Prime Reading vs Kindle Unlimited
If you’re already an Amazon Prime subscriber, you will have access to Prime Reading as one of your member perks. Prime Reading works in much the same way as Kindle Unlimited, but the book offering is smaller.
As Prime Reading is free for customers already paying for Amazon Prime, it could be worth checking this subscription out first. With Prime Reading, you’ll get:
Unlimited reading from a selection of over a thousand books, magazines and comic books (borrow up to 10 at any one time)
Download one Kindle First Reads book each month, which you can keep forever (even if you cancel your Prime subscription)
Read a bonus short read for 99p each month
Kindle Unlimited FAQs
Still got burning questions about how Kindle Unlimited works? Have a look to see if we’ve answered your question below, or leave a comment at the end of this guide if you still need help.
How much is Kindle Unlimited?
Kindle Unlimited costs £9.49 per month.
Does Kindle Unlimited come with Prime?
No, Kindle Unlimited is not included in Amazon Prime memberships. However, Prime members do get access to Prime Reading as part of their subscription. Prime Reading is a similar eBook-borrowing service, offering over a thousand books, magazines, comic books and more.
If you already have Prime, you might want to try out Prime Reading before paying for Kindle Unlimited. However, you’ll likely find far more reading options on Kindle Unlimited.
How much is Kindle Unlimited with Prime?
Kindle Unlimited costs £9.49 a month, with or without Amazon Prime.
How does Kindle Unlimited work?
Kindle Unlimited is an eBook-borrowing service on Amazon that allows you to download up to 20 books and magazines to read on your Kindle device or app. For a monthly fee, you’ll have unlimited access to over a million titles.
How do I cancel my Kindle Unlimited?
To cancel Kindle Unlimited, log in to your Amazon account and go to the Your Memberships & Subscriptions page. Click Membership Settings, then select the Cancel Kindle Unlimited option.
How many books can you have on Kindle Unlimited?
You can have up to 20 Kindle Unlimited books downloaded to your Kindle device or app at any one time. If you want to download another book after this, you’ll have to return one of your existing downloads.
Bookmark these savings
Now you’re clued up on everything you need to know about Kindle Unlimited, so you can decide whether the subscription is right for you.
To summarise, it might be worth it for you if you read a lot of romance, thrillers or fantasy books, especially if you’d normally spend £10 or more on books each month anyway. However, if you’re more into reading new releases, literary fiction or award nominees, Kindle Unlimited might not be the best option for you. Instead, why not check out our guide to find free and cheap Kindle books?
Don’t worry if you still can’t make up your mind. Try out Kindle Unlimited for free with a 30-day trial (or longer, if Amazon have an offer on). Remember, you can dip in and out if you want to, so why not start with a month and see how you go? Just make sure you cancel your subscription before it renews if you don’t want to be left out of pocket.
Have you tried out Kindle Unlimited before? What did you think? Let us know about all your book-buying bargains in the comments.
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