How Much Do Kindle Books Cost? [With Data Proof!]

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. – meaning I may get a commission if you decide to purchase through my links, at no additional cost to you.

So you’re considering purchasing a Kindle and wondering about the cost of the books, or perhaps you already own a Kindle and you think you’re overpaying! Either way, it is important to know how much Kindle books cost!

In general, the cost of a Kindle book typically ranges between $4 and $15. The average price of Kindle books is around $11. Some Kindle books are also available for free or at a substantially lower price (like $0.99). Kindle books are usually cheaper than hardcover or paperback books.

I’ve done some extensive number crunching to answer this question for myself. So, in this article, I’ll share with you exactly how I arrived at these figures. Plus, I’ll also share with you ways to get books for FREE for your Kindle!

So, without further adieu, let’s get started!

A Quick Note Before We Begin – if you plan to buy a Kindle for reading, I’d recommend purchasing the Kindle Paperwhite version as you get the best bang for your buck with this model! It is waterproof, has adjustable warm light, and has better screen resolution and front light than the basic Kindle. It also has most of the important features from the more expensive Kindle variants!

Do You Have to Pay for Books on Kindle?

Many people think that since you are paying to buy a Kindle, you don’t have to pay for the books separately. After all, that does make sense (at least, in a perfect world!). 

I mean, if you think of it, why should people pay for a Kindle and also the books to read on a Kindle when they can simply purchase and read the books directly in the first place [Check out my other article to learn how to read Kindle books without Kindle!]! Shouldn’t Amazon just provide you free books since you paid for a Kindle?

The reality is that Kindle has many advantages over physical books and you do have to pay for a Kindle (the device) and the Kindle books individually. 

The good news is that the Kindle books are usually cheaper than the hardcover or the paperback versions of the same book! So, you do save money by reading books on a Kindle. Plus, there are ways you can read books for free on your Kindle (which I will discuss later in the article).

In fact, in my other article where I try to figure out if Kindle is still worth buying, I actually did some number crunching and figured you can easily recover the cost of your Kindle in just about 6 months of casual reading!

So, even though you have to pay for books when you read them on a Kindle, you will actually save money in the long run by reading the Kindle edition of the books!

How Much Do Kindle Books Cost?

I’ve already alluded to the indicative cost of Kindle books earlier in the article. 

What’s interesting is that although you can see the cost of each Kindle book before you make a purchase, you can’t really know how much you typically pay when purchasing Kindle books on average. 

So, I did some research, and some number crunching. 

I analyzed about 54 books on Amazon for their price. The books that I chose for this research were almost all either labeled as “Editor’s Pick” or “Best Seller”. 

I wanted to consider the highest-selling books so that we could arrive at a more realistic number and replicate the general user behavior as closely as possible (most people like to read books that do well).

Here’s the data collected for the research in a tabular format –

Based on this research, here’s what I found out about the price of Kindle books!!

• The cost of the best-selling Kindle books typically ranges between $4 to $15.
• The most expensive Kindle book in the range was priced at $19.36
• The cheapest Kindle book was priced at about $3.99
• The average price of a Kindle edition of a book was $11.80

Granted 54 books are perhaps too small a data set as per some standards. However, this does give an indication of what you can expect the price range of Kindle books to be.

Are Kindle Books Cheaper Than Normal Books?

The next thing that you may be wondering is whether Kindle books are cheaper than their hardcover or paperback counterparts!

Generally speaking, the Kindle editions of books are usually cheaper than the hardcover or paperback versions of the same book on Amazon. On average, the Kindle version of the book is 36.5% cheaper than the hardcover version, and 32% cheaper than the paperback version of the same book.

Again, this is a generalization based on data from multiple books. So, when you purchase a single book on Amazon, the difference may vary. However, you will see a similar trend for several books that you purchase over a period of time. 

During the research that I mentioned earlier in the article, I also collected the prices of the hardcover and paperback versions of the same set of books.

Here are some conclusions that I was able to derive from the data – 

• The price of the hardcover books typically ranged from $13 to $22
• Likewise, the price of the paperback version of the books usually ranged between $11 and $20
• On average, the Kindle editions of the books were 36.56% cheaper than the hardcover versions of the same books
• The Kindle editions of the books were 31.97% cheaper than the paperback versions of the same books on average
• Paperback versions of the books are usually cheaper than the hardcover books by about 6.75% on average

Furthermore, some Kindle versions of the books are significantly lower in price than their hardcover or paperback versions.

Here’s an example of the book from Jennifer Armentrout “The War of Two Queens”. As you may notice, the Kindle edition of the book costs less than a third of the hardcover version, and less than half of the paperback versions!

There are multiple other similar cases that you will encounter when you purchase books over a period of time.

Fun Fact – you can save money on some books by changing the country of your Kindle Store. Be sure to read my other article on how to change the Kindle store country to potentially save money on buying books!

Another interesting observation was that there was only 1 instance out of the 54 books where a hardcover version of a book was cheaper than a Kindle edition.

However, there were 9 instances out of the 54 books where the paperback version was cheaper than the Kindle edition! That said, the difference was usually $1 to $2. 

If this makes you think, “should you buy a Kindle?”, my answer to that would definitely be yes!

Can You Get Free Books for Kindle?

Thankfully, there are a few different ways in which you can get free books for your Kindle. There are actually quite a few different sites where you can get free ebooks. However, not all the sites are legitimate. 

That said, here are some of my favorite methods to get free books to read on Kindle!

1. Using Prime Reading

One way to read free books is through Prime Reading. You will need to be an Amazon Prime Member in order to access books with Prime Reading. You get access to thousands of books through a rotating catalog in Prime Reading. 

However, you can only read about 10 books at a time for free. That said, you will be able to read more books as you return the previous books.

Check out my detailed article on Amazon Prime Reading and how to access prime reading regardless of whether you are an Amazon Prime member!

2. Free Books on Amazon

There is also a hidden way to find free books on Amazon! It is hidden since there is no direct link to access these books. (I too struggle to locate it from time to time.)

However, you can easily access the free books on Amazon using this link! Books available on this link keep changing as the prices changes. 

Here’s an example of a book that is free to read on your Kindle (for $0). 

One thing to note is that sometimes, not all the books displayed on the link are free. So, make sure you check the price of the book before you download it.

3. Using Kindle Unlimited

Another way to read free books is through Kindle Unlimited. 

Kindle Unlimited offers access to millions of books. It allows you to read as many books as you like with no limitation or stipulation. So, in that sense, it really is free. 

However, there is a subscription cost attached to the service. It is priced at $9.99 per month. So technically, it is not free. However, this does reduce the cost of books drastically as you can read as many books as you like!

4. Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg is an online library of free books. It is one of the best free resources for getting books online.

It is an open-source project where you don’t need to pay for reading ebooks. However, their collection is a bit limited and not as huge as Amazon’s. However, you can access over 60,000 books to read.

5. LibriVox

LibriVox is another one of my favorite sites to get legitimate free ebooks to read. 

Librivox is a non-commercial, non-profit, and ad-free project completely run by volunteers. What’s really cool is that you also get to access audiobooks for some of the classics! So, you can use the sites not just for ebooks but also for audiobooks.

More Related Articles

1. How Many Books Can a Kindle Hold? [8GB vs 32GB]
2. Does Kindle Work Without Wi-Fi? [Here’s Everything to Know!]
3. How Long Does a Kindle Last? [A User’s Experience!]