Kindle Unlimited Amazon: Is It Worth $ 9.99 / Month?

If you've ever heard the term `` Netflix for books, '' you're already familiar with the for books subscription model. Book subscription services allow readers to 'borrow' books from vast reserves of reading materials - a kind of virtual library.

And if you're a serious book lover, chances are you've at least thought of subscribing to one of them! Which means you've probably heard of Kindle Unlimited, one of the most prominent book subscription services on the market today.

However, the inner workings of Kindle Unlimited remains a mystery to many readers. You probably have a lot of questions such as: What is Kindle Unlimited? How does it work? Can it compare to Amazon Prime? And, perhaps most crucially, is Kindle Unlimited worth the $ 9.99 per month price tag?

We answer all of these questions and more in this comprehensive guide to Amazon Kindle Unlimited. However, if you have a particular question in mind, you can jump to that section using the table of contents below.

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the number of great books out there, you can also take our 1 minute quiz below to get a personalized and refined book recommendation quickly.

What is Kindle Unlimited?

Kindle Unlimited, or KU, is Amazon's subscription service for books, audiobooks, and magazines. Subscribers have access to a pool of over a million titles, plus a selection of accompanying audiobooks. Users can borrow up to 10 items at a time and return them at any time.

You can now subscribe to Kindle Unlimited using the link above! And you can use it on any device you want, not just a Kindle, through the Kindle app or on the Kindle Cloud Reader.

You'll also need an Amazon account, of course, but that's easy enough to sign up (if you've somehow managed to do without it for so long). The only other qualification is that you live in the United States, or at least change your country to "US" on Amazon, which you can do in your account country / region settings.

How much does Kindle Unlimited cost?

A Kindle Unlimited subscription costs $ 9.99 per monthor $ 119.98 per year. There is also a 30-day free trial so you can test it out in advance.

Keep in mind that Amazon sometimes offers price promotions on Kindle Unlimited, such as deals on three-month and one-year subscriptions:

keep an eye out for these promotions if you're hoping to get a deal on KU. Pending eligibility, they should appear on your digital subscription page. You can get there from any page on Amazon by selecting 'Accounts and Lists' (at the top right corner) → 'Your Kindle Unlimited' → 'Click here to join'.

Is Kindle Unlimited free for Prime members?

Amazon Kindle Unlimited is not included with Amazon Prime, Amazon's premium subscription service for all products. KU is a completely separate service that focuses on written content. However, Prime members do get access to Prime Reading, which is similar to Kindle Unlimited (which we'll cover in more detail below).

How Kindle Unlimited Works

With Kindle Unlimited, you can borrow up to 10 books, audiobooks, and magazines at once, then return them when you're done! Again, you can read KU titles on any device - not just a Kindle - as long as you have an Amazon account.

Featured items that you can borrow appear on your Kindle Unlimited dashboard, which tailors the suggestions to your browsing history. On Amazon, you can access this dashboard by clicking the 'Shop by Category' icon (which looks like three horizontal lines in the top left corner) and then 'Kindle E-Readers and Books' → 'Kindle Unlimited'.

From there, you can also view the full Kindle Unlimited catalogBrowse, under 'the catalog' on the right side of the dashboard.

To borrow a book from your dashboard, just hover over it and click the green button that says 'Read now'. If you want to keep it for later, click 'Add to library'.

To borrow a book from the KU catalog, click on the product page and then click on the yellow button on the right that says "Read for free". The same button appears when you browse as usual and come across a Kindle Unlimited title, so you never accidentally pay for a book you can get through KU.

You can also find Kindle Unlimited audiobooks by selecting "Show results for: Audible Narration eBooks" on the left side of the catalog. This should filter the results to show only books that also have audiobooks on KU. If an audiobook is available, the yellow button on the product page will say 'Free Read & Listen'.

Finally, to see which books you've borrowed and to return them when you're done, go to the Your borrowed items page. You can find it under 'Accounts and Lists' → 'Your Kindle Unlimited', under information about your membership.

Click on the yellow "Back" button to return a book. But feel free to keep any book as long as you like - unlike a physical library, it's not like preventing someone else from reading it! The Borrowed Items page also keeps track of books you've read in the past, so you can be proud of your literary prowess. 💪

What types of books are there on Kindle Unlimited?

Contrary to the name, the reading material on Kindle Unlimited is not completely 'unlimited'. Yes, there are plenty of Amazon Kindle books to choose from, but you can't read just anything you want.

The vast majority of the KU library consists of self-published books, in part because each author who enrolls in KDP Select is automatically added their book. This is great for readers looking for up-and-coming titles that haven't entered the mainstream yet, and even better for those authors looking to get more exposure.

However, it is not ideal for people who want to read many of today's bestsellers. While KU excels in the indie department, it is rather lacking in mainstream books. There are a few recent bestsellers available, such as the Hunger Games books and the Harry Potter series (which KU is trying to promote, as you can see below). But these are few and far between compared to the number of self-published titles on KU.

But that doesn't mean that the quality of the books available on Kindle Unlimited is lower than, say, a real library. Indeed, thousands of KU titles are rated 4 stars or higher! You may have to search them to find something up your alley, but you shouldn't discount KU just on literary caliber as there are some great self-published books out there.

As of January 2020, here are the 10 top-rated books available on Amazon Kindle Unlimited, along with the number they have:

Is Kindle Unlimited Worth It?

So, are the Kindle Unlimited benefits worth the $ 9.99 per month ($ 119.98 per year) price, or would you be better off investing in something else?

As we touched on in the 'types of books' section above, the deciding factor for most people considering KU will be what they like to read. If you've already read tons of self-published and indie books on Amazon, Kindle Unlimited can be a great way to get ahead! But if you're attracted to Big 5 titles, you're likely to get frustrated with KU's less than regular squads.

The other important factor to consider is how many books you read per month. As some KU skeptics have pointed out, the regular prices of many self-published books on Amazon are very low - often $ 5.00 or less. This means you need to read two or three Kindle Unlimited books a month to make your subscription worth the money… money you might otherwise spend on regular books in the Kindle Store.

Kindle Unlimited vs. Prime Reading

Readers may also be curious to see how Kindle Unlimited fares against Amazon Prime. Again, KU isn't included in Prime - it's a completely separate service. But Prime does offer a similar option to KU in the form of Prime Reading.

Prime Reading allows subscribers to borrow from a library of over 1,000 books, magazines, comics, and other works. As with Kindle Unlimited, readers can grab 10 books at a time and return them at their leisure. There is also a higher ratio of regular titles to indie titles on Prime Reading, which will appeal to those in the zeitgeist.

However, readers looking for a truly comprehensive library may be disappointed by Prime Reading. Yes, over 1,000 titles sounds like a lot , but compared to the 1,000,000+ Kindle Unlimited books, the Prime Reading library is actually pretty puny. On the other hand, you may still find that its small regular pool is preferable to KU'S massive ocean of indie books.

As for how to enjoy these books, Kindle Unlimited and Prime Reading basically offer the same reading options. On the plus side, neither requires you to own a Kindle device; you can access both KU and Prime Reading material through the Kindle app or the Kindle Cloud Reader. Like KU, Prime Reading offers accompanying audiobooks for some works, but certainly not all.

Now let's tackle the million dollar question (no pun intended): How do they compare in terms of prices? As mentioned above, Kindle Unlimited costs $ 9.99 / month or $ 119.98 per year. An Amazon Prime subscription, including Prime Reading, costs $ 12.99 / month or $ 119 / year.

Arithmetic will see Prime subscribers get a $ 35 discount on that annual payment option, making these prices a little difficult to compare - not to mention that Amazon Prime includes a lot more than just Prime Reading. And if you're looking for a full lifestyle update with expedited shipping on all products, Prime Video, Prime Music, and so on, the full Prime membership is the way to go.

But if you don't want any of those and just care about reading…

The Bottom Line

If you're a greedy, indie-book-loving reader, Kindle Unlimited could be perfect for you. If you want to read more indie books (or if you just want to binge-read the entire Harry Potter series) you can always give the 30-day trial a shot!

But if you're only going to read one or two books a month and want those books to be bestsellers, skip the Kindle Unlimited membership. For those inclined to read more mainstream, Prime Reading is a better option - as long as you don't mind blaming Amazon Prime. (And if you already have Prime and haven't used Prime Reading yet, do it right now!)

If you've already subscribed to Kindle Unlimited and want to cancel, follow the instructions below. Or if you think a non-Amazon plan might be a better fit for you, check out our list of KU alternatives at the end of this article!

Canceling Kindle Unlimited cancel

It's easy toyour Kindle Unlimited membership if you're not using it (or if you want to unsubscribe before the 30-day trial period ends). You can click here to do it now, or navigate to the page on Amazon yourself: "Accounts and Lists" → "Your Kindle Unlimited" → "Cancel Kindle Unlimited Membership" (on the left).

You will need to reconfirm the cancellation on the next page, but otherwise you will need to be set! Once you cancel, your card will no longer be charged, but your KU subscription will run until the next day of the billing cycle, so you don't lose what you've already bought.

However, if you paid for a long-term plan and canceled before it ends (for example, cancel six months in an annual plan), you will get a refund for the remaining months. However, keep in mind that if you do this, you won't be able to restart your subscription later - so be 100% sure before canceling your Kindle Unlimited membership.

Alternatives to Kindle Unlimited

1. Scribd

Scribd has more than 80 million subscribers and access to more than a million published titles. Since its humble beginnings as a document sharing platform, Scribd has grown to include works by a wide variety of authors… and, perhaps most importantly to users, titles from Big 5 and other major publishers! Still, the price is lower than Kindle Unlimited, which is only $ 8.99 per month after a 30-day free trial.

Those disappointed by KU's lack of mainstream titles will be much more satisfied with Scribd. But of course it's not without a catch: despite well-known claims that their library is completely "unlimited", Scribd still has to limit users to three ebooks OR two audiobooks / month to remain profitable. After you hit this limit, your reading options will be reduced to a much smaller collection of books.

When you consider how much this kind of regular content would normally cost, Scribd is still a pretty good deal - but if you thought unlimited bestsellers sound too good to be true, you're right.

2. Bookmate

Closer to KU in size and number of subscribers (only a few million) is Bookmate, which has a library of about 500,000 books. Distribution agreements with HarperCollins and Bloomsbury give it a mainstream edge, although no other service can really compare to Scribd on that front.

What makes Bookmate unique is its social element: users can create custom profiles and follow friends to see what they've read and what's on their TBR 'bookshelves'. Think of it as KU meets Goodreads - if you enjoy sharing books and talking about them with other people, you'd probably like Bookmate. You can try it for free for 7 days, then it costs $ 9.99 / month.

3. 24 Symbols

There are also 24 Symbols, a subscription service whose biggest advantage is the price: just $ 7.99 / month or $ 90 / year. Like KU, 24symbols offers access to over a million books that are mostly lesser known or published independently, with only a handful of mainstream titles on offer, such as The Alchemist and Rupi Kaur's Milk and Honey. You can read online or easily download books to your favorite device with the 24symbols app.

In general, whether or not you should subscribe to KU depends entirely on you as a reader. What kind of books do you like, where do you find them and how many would you like to read each month? Your decision will depend on your answers to these questions - consider them carefully, and they will steer you in the right direction.

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