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How to Get Kindle Unlimited

For less than the cost of buying one book a month, Amazon's Kindle Unlimited gives you access to millions of ebooks and thousands of audiobooks.

 & Chandra Steele Senior Features Writer

Our team tests, rates, and reviews more than 1,500 products each year to help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.

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A Kindle is somehow smaller than a book but bigger than a bookstore, allowing you to browse Amazon's virtual shelves from the palm of your hand and purchase books with just a few taps. But as is true with a physical bookstore, what you buy can really add up—especially if you're an avid reader. But don't worry; you don't necessarily have to buy every book you want outright. Thanks to Amazon's Kindle subscription service, it's now possible to access as many books as your heart desires, all for less than what it would cost you to buy one physical book per month.

This service, known as Kindle Unlimited, costs $11.99 a month (plus tax) and is available in the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, and the UK. With Kindle Unlimited, you can borrow from more than 4 million ebooks and comics, listen to thousands of audiobooks, and get magazines delivered to your device. 

Check It Out

Before you sign up, you can visit the Kindle Unlimited Library page to see what’s available. You can navigate through all the genres of books available, as well as look through the audiobooks and magazines.

(Credit: Amazon)

How to Get It

To get Kindle Unlimited, you need an Amazon account with a form of payment attached to it. Log into your account, then visit the Kindle Unlimited page to sign up for a membership. You’ll get a free trial for one month, so you can fully check it out before you commit. At the time of this writing, in addition to the introductory trial period, the first two months are billed at a reduced cost of $4.99 plus tax. 

How to Gift It

If you think unlimited ebook access would be the perfect gift for someone you know, you can give a Kindle Unlimited subscription to someone else by going to the gift page. There are options for six-month, twelve-month, and twenty-four-month gift subscriptions. You just need the recipient’s email and then you can schedule a date for digital delivery. 

How to Cancel It

If you decide that Kindle Unlimited isn’t for you after all, visit the Kindle Unlimited Manage Your Membership page to cancel. 

About Our Expert

Chandra Steele

Chandra Steele

Senior Features Writer

My Experience

My title is Senior Features Writer, which is a license to write about absolutely anything if I can connect it to technology (I can). I’ve been at PCMag since 2011 and have covered the surveillance state, vaccination cards, ghost guns, voting, ISIS, art, fashion, film, design, gender bias, and more. You might have seen me on TV talking about these topics or heard me on your commute home on the radio or a podcast. Or maybe you’ve just seen my Bernie meme

I strive to explain topics that you might come across in the news but not fully understand, such as NFTs and meme stocks. I’ve had the pleasure of talking tech with Jeff Goldblum, Ang Lee, and other celebrities who have brought a different perspective to it. I put great care into writing gift guides and am always touched by the notes I get from people who’ve used them to choose presents that have been well-received. Though I love that I get to write about the tech industry every day, it’s touched by gender, racial, and socioeconomic inequality and I try to bring these topics to light. 

Outside of PCMag, I write fiction, poetry, humor, and essays on culture.

My Areas of Expertise

  • Making incomprehensible tech news easy to understand
  • Expanding the boundaries of topics covered in the industry
  • Figuring out tips and tricks in apps and on devices and letting you know about them
  • Putting together gift guides for everyone in your life 

The Technology I Use

All that gadgets is gold for me: my iPhone 11 Pro, my fifth-generation iPad that I use only for streaming videos and music, my iPad mini 4 that I like to take with me whenever I carry a bag that can fit it, and my MacBook Pro. Why are they all different shades of gold, though? What’s going on, Apple? 

None of them quite live up to my two past loves: my LG Lotus LX600 phone and my Sony Walkman NW-E005 MP3 player. 

I've never given up wired earbuds so I was ahead of all those trend pieces. I use a Mangotek Lightning-to-3.5mm headphone jack adapter to connect them to my phone. 

I have had so many ebook readers, but I prefer paper to them all. Still, my Kindle Paperwhite is perfect for traveling or when I’m too impatient to wait for a book to be released in paperback.

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