About this library
A free eBook library, curated since 2014.
We index 80,000+ legally free titles from Project Gutenberg, Open Library, Smashwords, and 340+ author-direct programs — searchable in one place, with no paywalls, ever. Read free. Read forever.
Why we built it
Why we built a free library, in plain words.
OnlineBooks4Free began in the back room of a used-bookshop on East 6th Street in Austin, in the summer of 2014. Our founder — a former librarian and a stubborn believer in the public-domain shelf — spent two weekends wiring a small crawler that pulled the then-modest Gutenberg catalog into a single search box. The first page had 4,200 titles. It was enough to prove the idea.
We are an index, not a publisher. We do not host, upload, or claim rights to the books you find here. Every title is sourced from its original home — Project Gutenberg, Open Library, Smashwords, or one of more than 340 author-direct programs — and we credit the source on every page. If a rights-holder asks us to remove a link, our DMCA pipeline responds within a 6-hour median. The library stays free because it is reader-supported by modest, non-intrusive advertising and a small annual donation drive — never a paywall, never a subscription, never a "premium tier."
Eleven years on, the catalog holds 82,614 titles across 31 genres, the team is fourteen full-time staff plus nine contracted genre editors, and the same rule still applies: no paywalls, ever.
The people behind the shelves
Six curators, nine genre editors, one inbox.
A library is only as trustworthy as the hands that shelve it. Meet the team that keeps the catalog fresh by the hour.
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Marisa Okafor — Head Curator
Sets the editorial bar for the catalog and signs off on the daily featured-title pick. Former reference librarian, eight years at the project.
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Daniel Reyes — Ingestion Engineer
Maintains OB4F-Crawler 4.1, the open-source engine that processes roughly 2,400 new sources every day.
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Helen Voss — Rights & Compliance Lead
Runs the DMCA and takedown pipeline, with a 6-hour median response time. Liaison to Project Gutenberg and Open Library.
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Aaron Petrov — Community & Press Editor
Writes the daily newsletter, answers reader mail, and handles BookRiot, Lifehacker, The Verge, and Mashable inquiries.
Plus nine contracted genre editors covering mystery, romance, science fiction, business, history, poetry, children's, religion & philosophy, and textbooks — credited on each genre page.
Eleven years, one library
The road from 4,200 titles to 82,614.
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2014
Founded in Austin, Texas.
A two-weekend prototype becomes a 4,200-title catalog. The no-paywalls rule is written into the founding documents on day one.
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2020
Carbon-negative hosting.
The entire infrastructure moves to renewable-energy data centers. Hosting has been carbon-negative every year since.
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2022 – 2024
Internet Archive Open Content Partner.
The only major free-eBook portal to earn the badge three years running — a recognition of catalog transparency and takedown responsiveness.
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2024 – 2025
Award-winning, certified accessible.
The 2024 Digital Publishing Awards "Best Free Resource" trophy joins the shelf, followed by WCAG 2.2 AA certification in May 2025.
By the numbers
Proof of scale, freshness, and compliance — told quietly.
- 11.4M monthly readers across 192 countries
- 82,614 titles indexed across 31 genres
- 340+ author-direct partner programs
- 6 hr median DMCA takedown response
Independent crawler, independent catalog, independent decisions. Every book page names its source.
Where the library has been named
Press roundups and awards.
- "Best Free Reading Sites" — annual roundup
- Featured free reading resource, 2023 & 2024
- Cited in "Where to find free eBooks legally"
- "Best Free Reading Sites" roundup
- Internet Archive Open Content Partner — 2022, 2023, 2024
- Digital Publishing Awards 2024 — Best Free Resource
- WCAG 2.2 AA certified, May 2025