TL;DR: Kindle Unlimited (about $11.99/month) is all-you-can-read e-books. It is a bargain for heavy genre and indie readers (romance, sci-fi, fantasy) and pays off at a few books a month, but it is light on big-name bestsellers and the catalog rotates. Try it with a free trial before you pay.
Kindle Unlimited is an all-you-can-read subscription for e-books. Whether it is a bargain or a letdown depends almost entirely on what you like to read.
The basics
For around $11.99/month you can borrow from a catalog of 4 million or more titles, keep up to 20 books out at once, read offline, and get Audible narration on many titles so you can switch between reading and listening. There is no per-book charge: borrow, return, repeat.
Who it's great for
- Voracious and genre readers. It pays for itself at roughly two to three books a month. A 10-book indie series that would cost $40 to $60 to buy can be read for free.
- Romance, sci-fi, fantasy, thriller and LitRPG fans. The catalog is deepest here, thanks to prolific independent authors.
The catch
- Few big-name bestsellers and new releases. The library leans heavily self-published, and a lot of mainstream hardcover headliners simply are not in it.
- The catalog rotates. Titles leave, so a book on your list today may be gone next month.
- If you read one or two mainstream bestsellers a month, borrowing from your library or buying individually may be cheaper.
Try it free
Because the catalog is so genre-dependent, a trial is the only real test. Start a Kindle Unlimited free trial, search for a few authors you love, and see how much of your list is actually included before you pay. Check the current price and trial length at signup.