How audiobook credits work

Credits are a Premium feature. A Premium membership adds one audiobook credit to the account each month.

A Standard membership works the other way: you select one audiobook a month from the entire collection, and you can listen to the audiobooks you selected for as long as you stay a member.

For a Standard member, the ability to select one audiobook a month does not roll over to the next month.

For Premium members, every audiobook is worth one credit — no matter how long it is or how much it originally cost.

A credit is spent on a title Audible marks as credit-redeemable. The help pages draw the same line from the other side: a title without a 1 CREDIT label is in the included catalog, or already part of your Library.

The included catalog is opened by the membership, not by a credit. On the plan page it arrives with the monthly Premium membership, and listening to those titles costs nothing extra — Audible's own answer for a member changing plans is that you can still listen to included titles, with no credits needed.

An included-catalog title can still be bought — with cash or with a credit. Audible's included-catalog article keeps the two apart: what the membership opens is the catalog, and what a purchase produces is a title that is yours, whether or not it also sits in the catalog.

Extra credits can be bought at a discount for as long as you are a member. Audible's help article adds a boundary to that: members still inside the trial period are not eligible for the discounted price.

A Premium member does not have to choose a book each month. The credit waits, and the page says so in as many words.

Credits roll over month to month, and they stop rolling when they expire or the membership is cancelled.

The plan page's own FAQ gives the interval: credits expire 12 months after they are issued, or when the membership is cancelled.

Credits survive a change of plan. Audible's help pages state that switching from Premium to Standard keeps the credits in the account, usable until their regular expiration date — 12 months after the original issue date, which the change does not reset.

An audiobook bought with a credit is yours to keep even if you cancel the membership. The page states that twice, once in its plan description and once in its FAQ.

The same holds for a purchase made with cash: audiobooks bought either way are yours to keep after cancelling.

Adding an included title to the Library is not a purchase. Audible's help page says titles marked Add to Library are in the included catalog but are not owned; ownership comes from a credit or a cash purchase, and a title bought either way is kept even if it also sits in the catalog.

Cancelling does take two things away. Titles from the Plus Catalog stop being available, and so do the audiobook selections made as a Standard member. Both are marked with a lock icon in the Library, and both unlock again while you are in a membership.

A Plus Catalog title can be added to the Library and kept for as long as the membership is active and the title remains in the catalogue.