Libby: the library app

Books & Reference

8.2~~/10~~

Our score

★ 4.8 Google Play·10M+ installs

Reviewed by Editorial Team, ScoredApps editorial · updated 2026-10-03

Screenshots

Libby welcome screen with Apple Editor's Choice and App of the Day laurels and a chat-style prompt that guides you to your library

Libby Academy Public Library home with newest, popular, random and available now sorts above a Summer Sensations list

Fall Windfall librarian list of 32 titles with books and audiobooks tabs, showing Sally Rooney's Intermezzo with a Place Hold option

Dark-mode search screen with catalog filters for books, magazines, audiobooks, available now, kindle and skip the line

Filter panel offering to show 18,120 titles, with subject tags such as romance and mystery and a read-alongs format

Shelf screen listing Loans, Holds, Timeline and Notices, with a Tehrangeles ebook loan due in 21 days

About Libby: the library app

Libby is OverDrive's free app for borrowing ebooks, audiobooks and magazines from public libraries, with no subscription, no in-app purchases and no late fees: every loan returns itself on its due date. Your library, not the app, decides the catalog, loan length and borrowing limits, and you need a card from a library that lends through OverDrive. The catch is the wait list, because publishers often license each digital copy to one reader at a time.

App information

DeveloperOverDrive, Inc.

Version9.5.0 (Android) · 9.2.4 (iOS)

Size4 MB (Android) · 14 MB (iOS)

Price / In-appFree

Contains adsNo

In-app purchasesNo

Content rating9+

Requires (Android)Android 7.1+

Requires (iOS)iOS 10.0+

Offline modeDownloaded ebooks and audiobooks work offline; magazines need a manual download; libbyapp.com needs internet

Interface languagesZH, DA, NL, EN, FR, DE + 12 more

Store rating (Google Play)4.8 from 747,348 ratings

Installs10M+

Updated by developer2026-08-04

Data checked2026-10-01

Specs come from the official store listings and were last checked on 2026-10-01. Developers change pricing and requirements — check the store page before installing.

Libby Review: Free Library Books, Paid For With Your Patience

Free with a library card: 72-hour holds and limits your library sets

Nothing in the app costs money, and loans return automatically, so there are no late fees either. The limits come from your library instead: it sets how many loans and holds you can have, and only ebooks and audiobooks count toward them, not magazines or Extras such as Kanopy video. When a hold comes in, you have 72 hours to borrow it. Miss that window once and the hold is suspended without losing your place; miss the second one and it lapses. Copies marked with a shamrock are Skip the Line copies, with no wait list but no renewals and sometimes a shorter loan.

Read With Kindle: U.S. libraries only, and Amazon handles the return

At U.S. libraries, most ebooks can go to a Kindle instead of the built-in reader. Read With… > Kindle sends you to Amazon's site, where Get Library Book delivers the loan to every device on your Amazon account. If you already downloaded the same loan as an EPUB, Kindle delivery is blocked until you borrow it again, and a Kindle loan cannot be returned early in the app; that happens on Amazon's Your Books page or on the Kindle itself. Outside the U.S. the option is missing. NOOK and older Kobo readers need Adobe Digital Editions on a computer, and audiobooks cannot be moved to MP3 players at all.

Why holds take weeks: one copy, one reader, and licenses that expire

The wait comes from licensing: OverDrive's own guide for librarians describes Metered Access titles that expire after a set time or number of checkouts, 26 in its example, with renewals counted. When a license runs out, your hold shows Unknown Wait until the library buys the book again. Notify Me, reached through deep search on result lists under 100 titles, tells your libraries anonymously that you want a book they lack, and lending partnerships let some home cards borrow from partner libraries. hoopla works the other way: its Instant titles have no wait list, but each library caps monthly borrows, 30 at San Francisco Public Library.

OverDrive, KKR and Inspire Me: what the AI model receives

OverDrive, based in Cleveland, has been owned by the investment firm KKR since June 2020. Its Libby privacy statement of November 20, 2025 says it does not sell personal data, sells no ad space and sets no third-party cookies, and an email address is optional. Google Play's Data safety form declares no data shared, while crash logs, app interactions and an optional list of installed apps are collected for analytics. The friction point is Inspire Me, the large-language-model recommender launched in August 2025: used with a tag, it sends a random selection of that tag's titles and nothing else, yet librarians criticized it publicly. In January 2026 the company also said it does not exclude AI-generated titles, asking publishers to label them instead.

Pros

No subscription, in-app purchases or late fees; loans return automatically
Skip the Line copies, set aside by libraries, carry no wait list
Audiobook speed runs from 0.6x to 3.0x, with a sleep timer
Read With Kindle sends most U.S. library ebooks to Amazon devices
Notes, highlights and the borrowing timeline export as a table or spreadsheet
Libby for Kids preset hides adult titles from search, lockable with a passkey

Cons

Popular books mean holds, since copies usually lend to one reader at a time
Kindle delivery works only with U.S. libraries; audiobooks never reach MP3 players
Play reviews in 2025 and 2026 report launch failures and false no-connection errors
Content controls don't sync, so every device must be set up separately

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Verdict

We score Libby 8.2 for turning a library card into a free ebook, audiobook and magazine app with no ads, no in-app purchases and solid tools: Skip the Line copies, Kindle delivery in the U.S. and exportable notes. Take it if your public library lends through OverDrive. Look elsewhere if you need new releases without a wait, read on a Kindle outside the U.S., or need audio that never depends on a signal; Play reviewers still report stalls.

Core function8.5Ebooks, audiobooks, magazines and library Extras such as Kanopy in one app, though every catalog and limit depends on your library.

Ease of use7.5Smart tags, pinned filters and 72-hour hold windows help; Play reviewers cite partial-match search and repeated card verification.

Monetisation9.5No ads, no in-app purchases and no late fees; the real cost is wait lists set by library budgets.

Performance6.52025 and 2026 Play reviews describe launch failures and stalled audiobooks; OverDrive's help points to Android battery savers.

Privacy & permissions8.5No data sold or used for ads and no third-party cookies; Inspire Me sends tagged titles to an AI model.

8.2out of 10 · weighted average of the five scores above

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Frequently asked questions

Is Libby really free?

Yes. The app has no subscription, no in-app purchases and no late fees, and loans return themselves on the due date. Your library pays for the digital copies, so you need a valid card from a library that lends through OverDrive. Some U.S. libraries issue an Instant Digital Card in the app using a U.S. mobile number.

Can I send Libby books to my Kindle?

Yes, if your library is in the U.S. Choose Read With… and then Kindle, and Amazon delivers the loan to your account's devices. It will not work if you already downloaded the EPUB version, and Kindle loans can only be returned early through Amazon or on the Kindle itself.

Is Libby better value than Kindle Unlimited?

For your wallet, yes: Libby costs nothing, while Kindle Unlimited is $11.99 a month in the U.S. plus tax, with up to 20 titles at a time from Amazon's own catalog. The trade-off is time, because library copies usually go to one reader at a time and popular books mean holds. Prices vary by region and can change.

Does Libby work offline?

Yes, for downloaded loans. By default the mobile app downloads ebooks and audiobooks over Wi-Fi after you borrow them, while magazines must be downloaded by hand and libbyapp.com always needs a connection. Some Play reviewers in 2025 and 2026 report downloaded audiobooks that would not start without a signal.

Does Libby share what I read?

OverDrive's Libby privacy statement says it does not sell personal data or use it for third-party advertising. Your borrowing history is visible to you, your library and OverDrive, and the company's policy says it will try to challenge or narrow court orders for it. Menu > Reset Everything deletes some data in the app, and OverDrive's User Privacy Portal deletes it across its services.