How to Search and Download Ebooks for Free in 2025

Are you an avid reader of books and are currently scouting through Amazon and other similar websites that offer books for your next read? Well, hold your horses, as in this guide, we will give you some of the best sources from which you can download ebooks for free. Ebook readers are there in plenty; however, the interest quickly dies down as soon as they find out that their next read is costing them a good chunk of money, either in physical form or digitally.

The good news is that there are a good number of ebook websites where bookworms can find and get their hands on ebooks for free. Some websites even offer audiobooks, so you can continue with the story while you are driving or on the go. Some websites even allow you to borrow ebooks, just like you would normally do at a local public library. Do note that there isn’t any guarantee that you will find the book you are looking for free in the sources that we have listed. But at least you can scout through and get your next ebook without paying a dime.

How to search and download an ebook

Below, we have listed a bunch of free ebook websites that you can use to download ebooks without paying a single penny. Let us go through each one of them, one by one:

Open Library – Find books related to almost all topics

Open Library is a free ebook search tool that pulls ebooks that you search for from the Internet Archive. There are thousands (even millions) of ebook titles to search for, and in case the Internet Archive is a bit confusing for you, you can use the Open Library. I found almost all the ebook titles that I was searching for in the Open Library (maybe my book reading isn’t that strong), such as Game of Thrones, Sherlock Holmes, etc.

However, I did find that most of the ebooks are available to be borrowed, or they aren’t simply available. Still, the library is huge, so you will find something interesting in the Open Library. The free and available ones are available to be read right away without any sign-in or log-in, but the ones that are available for borrowing require you to create an Open Library account.

The sorting is also great, and you can easily get your ebook based on different categories. Another good feature of Open Library is the Library Explorer, which lets you explore ebooks from different categories as if you were looking through a real bookshelf. The ebooks are available to download in multiple formats, including PDF, ePub, and Daisy.

Pros:

• Great sorting of ebooks based on categories
• Millions of free ebooks are on offer
• Offers downloading of ebooks in multiple formats

Cons:

• To include a book on the site, you need to make a donation
• Many books are available only for borrowing
• Just pulls the ebooks from the Internet Archive

ManyBooks – Offers ebooks in multiple formats

ManyBooks is another great source for free ebooks. It offers over 50,000 ebooks ranging from a variety of different genres. The best part about ManyBooks is that it gives you the option to download ebooks in multiple formats, including EPUB, PDF, AZW3, and FB2, apart from regular formats.

All you need to do is sign up to the website and get your ebooks instantly. You can use the Discover drop-down on the website’s top bar to explore ebooks from different categories. ManyBooks also has an Android and iOS app that you can download to read ebooks directly. You will find more ebooks in other genres than classics.

You can also get ebooks for free in different languages and explore ebooks by author as well. If you aren’t sure which ebook you should start next, then you can make use of the ManyBooks Articles page, which will show you some hand-picked ebooks to read. If you wish to download an ebook, you need to create an account or read straight from their web-based ebook reader.

Pros:

• More than just classic books
• Offers ebooks in different formats
• There is a discussion form to clarify your doubts about engaging in a conversation about the ebook

Cons:

• Not all books are free

Read More: Best EPUB Readers for Android and iOS

Project Gutenberg – One of the best sources for classic ebooks

If you are into classics, then Project Gutenberg is the place for you to explore. The website was launched in 1971 and is the world’s oldest digital library, hosting over 70,000 titles. While most books are available in English, I also found ebooks in other languages. Everything on the website is available for free to the reader and doesn’t require registration.

What I like about this website is that you can explore books by subject, language, type, popularity, and some other different filters. You can also check out the Frequently Downloaded section to get the top 100 books ranked by popularity. There is a Recently Added section where you can grab the recently added and updated ebooks.

There is an Audio Book section as well, where you can download either human-read or computer-generated audiobooks. It offers the option to download ebooks for free in multiple formats. Sometimes, the downloads may not work outside of the US.

Pros:

• Over 70,000 ebooks to download and read
• Allows download in a wide variety of formats
• Exploring ebooks is pretty easy
• Offers a collection of free audiobooks

Cons:

• You will mostly find English books
• Downloading books may be difficult outside of the US

Free-ebooks.net – Great place for newer ebooks

Free-ebooks.net does exactly what the name says. You get access to thousands of ebooks for free. This website, which offers ebooks for free, adds thousands of new authors in multiple categories every month which are available for free. One of the best features that I liked about this website is the categorization of ebooks, which is granular, allowing you to look for exactly what you are looking for.

Apart from fiction and non-fiction, you can also read textbooks, academic texts, classics, and many more ebooks for free on the website. To use the website, you need to register a free account. One of the downsides of this website is that you only get five books for free in a month. So, you need to be pretty wise in selecting those five ebooks.

You can head over to the Best Books section at the top toolbar to read the best ones. There are some audiobooks also. If you are a slow reader, then five ebooks per month should be sufficient for you to get through the month. There is also a dedicated Android app available where you can download ebooks for free and read them directly.

Pros:

• A diverse selection of ebooks
• Some audiobooks are also on offer
• You can also get academic books from the website for free
• Offers a dedicated Android app

Cons:

• You only get five ebooks for free in a month

The Online Books Page – Millions of ebooks to read

The University of Pennsylvania maintains the Online Books Page and has a basic website. However, it would be best if you didn’t go by the looks, as it boasts over three million ebooks to read. Some reviews also claim that The Online Books Page has an expansive digital library of ebooks and that if there is a book on the internet, there is a great chance that this website has it.

The website offers free ebooks to download in different formats. The good part is that, unlike other free ebook websites, it is updated regularly with new additions. You can easily search for any ebook according to the author, new listings, date, title, subject, etc. The Online Books Page hosts ‘A Celebration of Women Writers’, which gives you access to “a comprehensive listing of links to biographical and bibliographical information about women writers.”

Moreover, you can also read ebooks that have been awarded major literary awards and find books that have been banned because of censorship. There is a search tool that will help you perform a partial search by author or title. You can also find foreign language ebooks on the website.

Pros:

• Has an extensive library of over 3 million books
• Gives you access to new listings and books based on different genres
• Offers a separate section where you can find books solely authored by women
• The website is updated frequently

Cons:

• The website is basic, without any graphics
• Gives you links to other websites to download the ebook

Standard eBooks – Well-designed free ebook website

The Standard eBooks website offers free ebooks and is also free from copyright claims. The best part about this website is the user interface. Searching for ebooks on the website is very easy, and it gives you all the details, such as word count, updated history, reading score, etc., for each book page.

The ebooks offered on this website are carefully curated with curly quotes, ellipses, en-, em-, and double-em-dashes, indentation, hyphenation, and more to make the reading experience better. You can download the ebook for almost any platform and in multiple different formats.

Editors of this website select cover art for the ebooks available in the public domain and they also “carefully typeset, cleaned of ancient and irrelevant ephemera, take full advantage of modern reading technology” to give the best quality and maintain consistency.

Pros:

• The website user interface is great
• Editors of the website clean up an ebook before publishing to maintain consistency and quality
• Gives you details such as word count, update history, etc., for an ebook

Cons:

• You will mostly find classic ebooks and not many modern best-sellers

Smashwords – A decent collection of free ebooks

Smashwords offers over 101K free ebooks to download and read. The website offers a great soring mechanism, where you can look for free and paid ebooks. You can also sort free ebooks based on the word count. You can read new releases, classics, and various ebooks from different genres.

The website also has Android and iOS apps that act as ebook readers. The app lets you sync your ebook library across devices and offers features such as night mode, landscape orientation, and more. Many books that may be available for a price are also available free of charge after some days.

You can either download the ebook from your Smashwords library to your DropBox or get it directly on your ebook reading device. Moreover, you can also sell your ebooks if you have a good bunch of them on the website. The website offers a great set of different genres to choose from.

Pros:

• Books are available in different genres
• Many free ebooks to read
• Has a dedicated Android and iOS app

Cons:

• Books collection is okay-ish

FAQs about free ebook websites