UPDATED: Sept 1st 2013
If you have heard the hype on the Kobo ereader you know there are supposedly 1 million free ebooks for it. Where are they? They don’t show up in the Kobo Desktop software. They are online so just follow this simple process to find those freebees:
MAKE SURE YOU SIGN IN BEFORE doing any of the three below or you will not find any free Kobo ebooks.
EASY WAY:
Click http://www.kobobooks.com/search/search.html?q=&t=free
STILL EASY WAY:
Click the FREE EBOOKS link near the top of the page.
As of August 2013 that link goes to www.kobo.com/free-ebooks
Take note tha
t these instructions apply to INTERNET EXPLORER. For some reason when you sign in with Firefox it takes you to STORE.KOBOOOKS.COM and not WWW.KOBOBOOKS.COM
HARD WAY:
- Surf to www.kobobooks.com
- Search on any key word, like mystery
- Then set the ‘filter’ drop down to FREE ONLY
- OPTIONAL – set the ‘sort order’ drop down to TOP RATED
THIS search will bring up ab0ut 1800 “mysteries” sorted by their user rating.
36 Comments
ann · August 2, 2014 at 11:26 am
the filter no longer exists that you mention in your instructions. Update your blog or whatever this here page is called.
Ian Matthews · August 6, 2014 at 8:50 pm
I swear they are trying to make this difficult and the links do seem to be gone from the Canadian site.
However, I did a SEARCH for a title and then clicked the SORT BY drop down box (top right of the window) and selected PRICE: LOWEST TO HIGHEST and now I see many free books:
http://store.kobobooks.com/en-AU/Search?Query=free+eboooks&fcmedia=Book&sort=PriceAsc
http://store.kobobooks.com/en-AU/Search?Query=cheese&fcmedia=Book&sort=PriceAsc
Bipin · December 29, 2014 at 9:06 pm
Kobo is cheating people with fake ads like ” over 1 million of free ebooks”
Very sad after purchasing kobo. Unable to find free books. Not even 100 books were found. Most of them are sample books.
They should have given separate link of free
selfingertech.com · June 22, 2014 at 10:00 am
This really is certainly excellent… Thank you so much as well as continue
the great job…
Carla · February 2, 2014 at 5:42 am
I have tried all your tips on finding free books but none work. I have Firefox as my browser and dont really want to change. I’m also in the UK which seems to cause a problem!
You mentioned library free books, which I have downloaded for my Sony Ereader, is it an easy process? Is there anyway of downloading free ebooks from other non-Kobo sites?
Thank you 🙂
Ian Matthews · February 5, 2014 at 9:20 pm
Yes, you can go to your public library and they will almost certainly have an easy process for you to get eBooks on your Kobo. My father lives in a Town of 20,000 and even their local library supports Kobo (and most all ereaders).
Tam · December 29, 2013 at 11:12 pm
Ah, when I did try again I found some 6 free categories, but when I clicked on any of them it said “these are not available in your region”. Is it cuz I’m in Canada??
Ian Matthews · December 30, 2013 at 7:18 pm
I have never seen that limitation. I would click my account icon (top right) then CONTACT and then I would call them to ask what the restriction is. In Canada this is available http://kobo.frontlinesvc.com/app/ask?___store=ca-en&style=onestore&utm_source=koboindigo?___store=ca-en&style=onestore&utm_source=koboindigo
Jonathan · December 25, 2013 at 6:40 am
I have bought a Kobo touch, living in the UK we don’t seem to get the “free books” option on the drop down menu after searching. Taking it back to the shop and will buy an iPad.
Ian Matthews · December 26, 2013 at 4:57 pm
Hi Jonathan;
An iPad is a poor replacement for a Kobo. A backlit overpriced tablet with nutty Apple licensing is not competing with an epaper inexpensive book reader (note that the key differentiator is NOT the price, it is ePaper vs backlit LCD… this massively changes weight, batter life, size…)
Regardless, if I lived in the UK I would just call UK support, which I found in < 1 min on the UK's Kobo play.com site: Email: if you would prefer to email the team, our email address is customercare@play.com
Phone: call us free on 0808 131 1311 from a landline or 0333 313 3311 from a mobile
I hope this helps.
Tam · December 29, 2013 at 11:08 pm
I have google Chrome as a browser and can’t see free anywhere, although I did find it and download a bunch of free ebooks about 4-6 months ago.. Are they possibly fazing out the free books? Maybe they think they will sell more books if they stop giving them away free?
I’m disappointed because I touted the free category and got my dad a glo for Xmas, and now he can’t even test the darn thing without shelling out cash…
Ian Matthews · December 30, 2013 at 7:24 pm
They certainly do seem to be making it more difficult and I think there are three things to be done about it:
1: CALL them and complain. All these companies know that 1 actual complaint = 30+ upset customers and that is bad for business
2: Use other sources of free ebooks like your library (even my Dad’s tiny local library in Ontario has thousands of free ebooks)
3: Go through the more difficult Kobo process and get those free books as explained http://www.kobo.com/help/shopping-library-account/response/?question=How+do+I+get+free+books%3F
tabby · November 30, 2013 at 10:11 am
I didn’t even get any free books at all.
Ian Matthews · December 4, 2013 at 12:05 am
Were you not able to find the free books or did you have problems downloading them?
Carole · November 23, 2013 at 12:33 pm
Just bought our new Kobo aura readers and can not get into the list of free e books by any of the methods you describe.
Ian Matthews · November 29, 2013 at 12:01 am
What browser are you using and what part of the world are you connecting from?
pauline · November 4, 2013 at 7:12 am
I have tried to get onto kobo but no free books. I type in kobo.com and it takes me to the store. I have signed in and still no free books link of filter drop down box.
Ian Matthews · November 4, 2013 at 9:49 pm
I see you are in the UK. Perhaps the free books are not licensed for that market. I would call Kobo/Chapters/Indigo and ask. We love ours and hear VERY few complaints about them so I hope this works out for you.
Huguette · October 17, 2013 at 7:54 pm
Since the site has been changed I cannot access the free books section. Have tried all options. I believe this is
really miss representation on their part.
Ian Matthews · November 3, 2013 at 2:41 pm
Have you tried different Browsers. I really like Internet Explorer but for some reason, Kobo has set different browsers to show different content.
Graeme · September 17, 2013 at 1:19 am
In New Zealand none of the kobo websites has free books.
Sure it says free but when under each of the options is a price. Free Romance for example gives 3 books ranging from $4.99 to $6.28
My view of free is with no cost!
On searching, irrespective of the site, or the browser, there is no filters under the search bar.
I am now questioning the value of Kobo and wonder if they have a new owner.
Ian · December 26, 2013 at 8:38 am
same here in Canada. Says “free” but each book has a price attached to it.
Ian Matthews · December 26, 2013 at 5:04 pm
Hi Ian… Fine name by the way.
I just logged into Kobo and checked the site again. They appear to moved the free content AGAIN! Their HELP system indicates that you can now access the free ebooks:
1. Navigate to http://www.kobobooks.com.
2. Sign in to your account with one of these options, depending on what you see:
• Click the Profile icon at the top right of the page, then click Sign In.
• Click the Menu icon at the top left of the page, click the Profile icon, then click Sign In.
3. Locate a free book by completing these steps: a. Type any part of the author name, book title, series or publisher name in the search field.
b. Press Return or Enter on your keyboard.
c. Click the Sort by filter at the top right of the results list.
d. Select Price: Low to High. Any free books will appear at the top of the list.
4. Click Free eBook under the book that you’d like.
5. Click Add to Library.
6. Sync your eReader or tablet to see the covers of your new free eBooks in your Library.
Gwen · May 23, 2014 at 6:33 pm
It worked, finally!!! Nothing else did, no “free books” link at top, no “free books” filter. Thanks!!
arty · August 24, 2013 at 8:50 am
Tried all above suggestions,still cannot find Kobo free ebooks for Kobo Touch
Ian Matthews · August 25, 2013 at 4:59 pm
They have changed the system and now all you have to do is log in to http://www.KOBOBOOKS.com and then click the FREE EBOOKS link near the top of the page. I have just updated the instructions to reflect this third option (STILL EASY WAY).
If these methods don’t work for you, you like have not signed in. You need a Kobo account to get free books for the Kobo.
Shena Deuchars · August 26, 2013 at 9:07 am
As far as I can see the problem is that the Kobobooks site works very differently in Chrome or Firefox from the way it does in Internet Explorer. For example, the Free books link does not exist in the other browsers.
Ian Matthews · August 31, 2013 at 6:48 pm
Interesting… just tried this with FireFox and with IE and you are right, they do take you to different pages after login. I use and like IE for 99.9% of sites but keep Firefox mainly for testing. What I found was that Firefox takes you to STORE.KOBOBOOKS.COM while IE takes you to http://WWW.KOBOBOOKS.COM after login. The good news is that all I had to do to “fix” Firefox was change the URL to WWWW.KOBOBOOKS.COM and all was well.
Based on this I have updated the section labeled STILL EASY WAY with a screen shot showing the difference.
gill · May 4, 2013 at 4:14 am
I have just tried this & there is no ‘free only’ on the filter drop down now
Ian Matthews · May 8, 2013 at 8:05 pm
Good Day Gill;
I just:
1: went to http://www.kobo.com
2: clicked the GO button to the right of the search box near the top right corner of the window (i.e. I did not type anything in the search)
3: clicked the FILTER drop down and selected FREE
see: http://www.kobobooks.com/search/search.html?q=&t=free&f=keyword&p=1&s=none&g=both&l=
Jon · February 12, 2013 at 5:23 am
Just search for nothing.
Displaying results for: “”
1 – 10 of 1,895,785 Results
Filter:Free only.
enjoy!
Ashley · January 10, 2014 at 8:04 am
This worked well for me too! Even though I did it by accident, ;p. I had a whole plethora of free books, until they updated their site, now you go to the free book section, click on a category and the books aren’t even free!? How does that make any sense? It doesn’t.
laura · October 24, 2012 at 4:50 pm
yes, this is frustrating. You can not browse all categories and find free books that way.
Instead, you have offered 6 (strange) categories and around 150 free books within them. So, if you are interested in some other categories, which are not listed among those 6, you have to browse by key words. And unless you know exactly what you are looking for, search like that can last ages! Im very dissapointed by this..
Phil Logan · December 3, 2012 at 2:28 am
Just got a kobo ereader and had equal frustration but method at top of this exchange does work well. Tried it using shakespeare and got 3495 items. That would also be a pain to search thru but I got quite a few hits in the first 30 or so items on the complete works so no need to go any further
Cathy · July 6, 2012 at 8:12 am
Really…… how do I get the free books? I followed the directions and I got a whole 10 books offered to me – what???????????????
Ian Matthews · July 6, 2012 at 10:15 pm
They have improved the site and now have a like just for free books:
http://www.kobobooks.com/free_ebooks
I currently only see 165 in the search result but also see the following note:
Note: 1 million free eBooks will not show up in a single search result.
So you will need to search on whatever you are interested in.
I hope this helps.