Kindle Unlimited costs $11.99 per month, but here's how to pay less

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Amazon's Kindle Unlimited (KU) got a price hike in 2023 that bumped up its subscription fee from $9.99 a month to $11.99. While the book-borrowing service gives you access to a catalog of over 5 million titles, paying basically $12 a month to do so hurts, especially in this economy. Worse, that expense is wasted if you're too busy to maximize your membership in the first place. The good news is that there are ways to get Kindle Unlimited for much less money, sometimes half the price, or even for free. 

To clarify, you're not required to get a Kindle Unlimited membership or to pay a monthly fee to keep using your ereader. You can simply purchase books from Amazon or from another marketplace, which you can then send to your device. This service is just nice to have if you're a voracious reader who can gobble up dozens of titles every month or want to explore the kinds of books you'd typically avoid spending money on. 

Share a single subscription with someone through Amazon Family

Amazon Family, previously known as Amazon Household, lets you share Prime benefits and digital content with one other adult and up to four children, as long as they have the same primary residential address. If you live with another adult who loves to read, you can just split the costs of one account and pay $6 each. To take advantage of this feature, you have to go to the Amazon Family portal and then select Add Adult to send the other person an invite. You will have to "share wallets," which means both of you will be seeing the last four digits and expiration dates of each other's payment methods, to basically prove you live together. 

Once that's done, you can start sharing books. On the Home screen of the Kindle app, select "Share your Kindle content" and then select your subscription partner. After that, you can choose the books you want to share with them — or they can select the books they want to share with you. Yes, the downside of this method is that only the primary Kindle Unlimited account holder, or the one who signed up for membership, can borrow books. Don't forget that you two will also have to split the maximum download limit of 20 titles at a time if you don't read the same things.

If that's not an issue and your tastes in literature are similar, you can turn on automatic sharing by selecting "Share Future Purchases and Unlimited titles by Default" under "Share your Kindle Content" in the app's home screen. That will automatically send titles you borrow to your partner's Kindle. Just take note that if the account owner returns the book, it will also disappear from all Family members' devices when they are connected to the internet. 

Take advantage of credit card discounts and rewards

Credit card companies sometimes run promos for Kindle Unlimited. They're not always available, so you will have to check your credit card portals, your monthly statements or the emails from your providers. Chase, for instance, sometimes sends out offers for a 20 percent discount on the service that will shave off $2.40 and bring the fee down to $9.60. Bonus: If you're sharing your account and splitting the fee equally, then each of you will just have to pay $4.80.

Amazon's own credit cards Prime Visa and Amazon Visa offer small cashback rewards for Kindle Unlimited memberships. Every time you renew or pay for KU, you can get 5 percent back (60 cents) with an eligible Prime membership or 3 percent back (36 cents) without. If you apply for a new Prime Visa or an Amazon Visa, though, you'll get a $200 and a $50 Amazon gift card, respectively, which you can then use to pay for Kindle Unlimited. 

You can also check your credit card's rewards portal to see if you can redeem points for Amazon gift cards or if you can pay directly with your points. Chase, Amex, Citi and Capital One all have rewards programs that allow you to pay with points at checkout on Amazon. 

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Don't forget to claim your free trial

You can usually get a 30-day free trial of Kindle Unlimited when you sign up, but Amazon sometimes runs promos that give you access to the service for longer than that. As part of Prime Day this June, Amazon is giving away a three-month subscription at no cost if you're a new member. 

If you've recently purchased a new Kindle, whether it's the Scribe or an older model, check out its landing page to see if it comes with a 3-month Kindle Unlimited subscription for free. Kindles don't automatically come with free subscription, so make sure to scroll down to the "Offer type" section in the device's Amazon listing and choose "With 3 months of Kindle Unlimited" before you buy. 

Those three months begin as soon as you place your order. The good news is that you can start reading KU titles on the Kindle app before you even get your new ereader. Be on the lookout for special promotions, as well, because Amazon sometimes bundles new Kindles with four to six free months of KU membership instead of just three. 

Keep an eye out for returning subscriber discounts

Like any other company, Amazon will try to keep you paying for its product if you attempt to leave. When you try to cancel your membership, you might get a promotional rate for the service that's good for the next few months. You could also receive an offer months down the line for discounts up to 50 percent off to try to get you to sign up again. Make sure to check the Kindle Unlimited portal every now and then for potential discounts. I have an expired subscription, and I'm seeing an offer for a two-month membership for just 99 cents.

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Gift (or get gifted) a subscription

This admittedly won't get Kindle Unlimited's price down by much, but hey you'll still get a $1 discount per month if you buy a 12-month gift membership. You can send these to people whom you know love the service, and maybe make it known to your loved ones that it would be a good gift for you, perhaps? However you receive the gift, make sure to redeem it using the email inked to your KU account. 

Cancel your membership before it expires

This is just a reminder that if you use any of our tips above to get a discounted subscription, don't forget to cancel your membership before Amazon bills you $11.99 after your promotional rate expires. Go to Accounts & Lists on the top right corner of the Amazon website and choose Kindle Unlimited in the drop-down menu. You can cancel your membership from there and then look for new deals or wait for offers to arrive in your inbox.