How to Get Free Textbooks In College (I Saved $3,000!)

Trying to save money on textbooks? Here’s how to get free textbooks in college with methods that actually work!

Let’s be honest, college textbooks are very unnecessary.

Half way through your semester, you end up realizing that you could’ve made it through your classes without the textbook.

You know what that means… GIANT WASTE OF MONEY!

Not to mention, textbooks are the second largest expense in college after tuition.

But what if there was a way to get free textbooks in college (or at least for extremely cheap) and save thousands of dollars every year?

Hopefully after reading through this, you’ll have found multiple resources to help you get those overly-priced textbooks for free!

Let’s dive in…

How to Get Free Textbooks in College (4 Methods That Work)

Here are 4 ways you can find free textbooks to start off your next college semester with fuller pockets:

1) Online Websites

Below, you will find a list of online websites with a giant library filled of textbooks that don’t cost a single dime to download, sign up, or read:

Library Genesis is arguably the largest and most convenient platform for finding free textbooks online. Here’s how to download a textbook from Library Genesis (other websites are similar):

Open Library Genesis in your browser
Search for desired textbook by name, ISBN, author, etc. in the search bar
When you’ve found the correct book, select the title of the textbook
Click the first link next to where it says “mirrors:”
Select the “GET” button
The textbook pdf will start downloading immediately

That’s it! If the textbook pdf doesn’t start downloading, go back to the “mirrors” section and select another link. This should fix the issue.

NOTE: Modern Teen does not condone illegal downloading of copyright property. Please download with a VPN or other secure downloading network on your own personal device.

If you prefer to have access to your textbooks online, then this method will be your best bet. Let’s get into a few more options that you can use to read your textbooks on paper…

2) Facebook Groups

Facebook groups are an amazing way to learn, connect, save, and share resources amongst college students.

There are tons of Facebook groups out there for your specific college/university that are designed for the buying, selling, and sharing of textbooks nearby.

Before your next semester, look up the name of your college followed by the word “textbooks”. Chances are that you’ll find an active group that shares textbooks.

Trust me, you don’t need the mint condition, brand new version of the book. A used version is just fine since you’re barely going to use it anyways (depending on the class).

If you can’t get the textbook for completely free in Facebook groups, most students sell their books for under $10. That’s a steal for books that cost upwards of $200.

Pro Tip: Some Facebook groups have students that sell their notes or study guides for certain classes that will get you guaranteed A’s. You can also sell your own notes if they got you an A.

3) Friends

Using your friend group to everyone’s advantage is key to succeeding college. Here are a few things friends can help with:

Splitting the workload
Sharing test answers
Sharing studying advice and study guides
Doing assignments at the same time
Recommendations for future classes

On top of that, passing down textbooks or splitting the cost of one with friends can dramatically save your pockets!

Take advantage of the opportunity and get your textbooks from friends, shared costs, and other friend-related resources.

Making friends in specific classes is your best bet since they are guaranteed to need the same resources as you. See if they are willing to share textbook usage.

You might even get away with them allowing you to take pictures of the book and use it for completely free!

4) Slader

If you haven’t heard of Slader before, you’re missing out!

Slader is an online website and application that allows you to find textbooks based on name, author, ISBN, etc. and get free answers to everything inside.

If you are in classes that require you to answer questions inside of a textbook, check if Slader has your book to get all the answers for free.

This is especially useful for STEM majors that want to know the steps to answering a problem (which Slader provides step-by-step)

Again, this is not for everyone since a lot of majors don’t require any sort of on-paper problem solving, but I felt the need to include it as another way to access free textbook material.

Final Thoughts

If you don’t have to buy textbooks in general, please don’t. It’s an absolute waste of money that can go towards other useful things.

If these resources have helped me save around $3,000 worth of textbooks, then I 100% guarantee that they can help you save money too!

Fun fact: The average cost to produce a $200 textbook costs.. wait for it… $6!

Why are colleges charging such high prices for textbooks that cost them 3% of the full price to publish? The obvious answer would be that colleges want your money.

However, if we can’t fix the problem now, we should at least try and save our money by getting the textbooks for free.

Hopefully you can agree and start using these resources to your advantage.

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions leave them down below. Thanks for reading!