Kindle Unlimited and Kindle Ebooks: Understanding the Difference

Q: When you say leaving Kindle Unlimited, do you mean I won’t be able to buy the ebook on Amazon anymore?

A: All ebooks on Amazon are considered Kindle ebooks. But NOT all ebooks on Amazon are part of the Kindle Unlimited Subscription Program (the all-you-can-read for one low price every month).

Kindle Unlimited is a subscription service offered by Amazon that lets you read as many ebooks as you want for a monthly fee so long as those ebooks are enrolled in the Kindle Unlimited Program. As I said before, not all ebooks available on Amazon are included in the Kindle Unlimited program, but all ebooks on Amazon are considered Kindle ebooks.

Leaving Kindle Unlimited program means that the ebook will no longer be part of the all-you-can-read service and can no longer be read as part of the subscription. But it doesn’t mean that the book can’t be purchased on Amazon as a Kindle ebook. You can still buy it as a normal eBook.

If you’ve never had a subscription to Kindle Unlimited or if you bought the ebook via Amazon and elected NOT to read it as part of your Kindle Unlimited Subscription, me saying a book is leaving Kindle Unlimited doesn’t change anything for you.

If you did elect to read the ebooks via your Kindle Unlimited Subscription, it means you can’t re-read them via Kindle Unlimited unless the author re-enrolls them in the Kindle Unlimited Program, making them exclusive to Amazon’s platform once more. That if you wish to read them again, you’d need to purchase the ebooks via Amazon Kindle ebooks.

As always, Amazon KU Terms and Conditions do apply, and they have the final say. If you borrow a book that is in the KU program, it may or may not be available later, depending on Amazon’s policy at the time.