QuireWhere to download free, DRM-free EPUB books legally
Short answer: start with Project Gutenberg, which has more than 75,000 free ebooks, and Standard Ebooks, which publishes carefully formatted editions of public-domain classics. Their EPUB files are free, carry no DRM, and open in any EPUB reader.
Both focus on books that are out of copyright in the United States. If you live elsewhere, check your own country’s rules.
Updated 15 October 2026. Details are from each site’s own help and about pages.
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg calls itself “an online library of more than 75,000 free eBooks”, and says they are “completely free and always will be”.
Its reading options page says which file to take:
- EPUB3 for most readers and devices, including Kobo, Nook and Amazon’s Send to Kindle.
- EPUB (the older version) for older Nooks.
- Kindle/MOBI only for Kindles from before 2013, copied over USB.
- Plain text, which every book also has, as the simplest fallback. You can also read online without downloading anything.
Standard Ebooks
Standard Ebooks is “a volunteer-driven effort to produce a collection of high quality, carefully formatted, accessible” ebooks, and they are “distributed free of cost”. The catalogue is much smaller than Gutenberg’s, so it is worth checking first for the classics it does cover, then falling back to Gutenberg.
Its help page recommends:
- the compatible epub for most e-readers and apps;
- the kepub for Kobo e-readers;
- the azw3 for Kindles, copied over USB, because it can’t go through Send to Kindle.
The “advanced epub” is, in its own words, “not yet suitable for general use”.
The copyright catch
Both sites work from United States copyright law. Project Gutenberg says “If you are outside the United States, check the laws of your country” before downloading or sharing. Standard Ebooks says its texts are “believed to be in the U.S. public domain”. A book that is free to copy in the US can still be in copyright in a country with a longer copyright term.
Free, but not DRM-free: library loans
Public libraries and the Internet Archive lend ebooks for free, but loans are protected and expire. The Internet Archive returns downloaded loans automatically “within 14 days”. Loans come as Adobe .acsm files or Readium LCP books, which need Adobe Digital Editions or an LCP reader such as Thorium. See how to open an .acsm file.
Reading what you download
DRM-free EPUBs open in any reader: Apple Books, calibre, Thorium, Google Play Books uploads, or Quire EPUB Reader, our Chrome extension. With Quire, a link that serves an EPUB file opens straight in a reader tab, and anything that downloads instead can be dropped on its library page. To read on a Kindle, see how to send an EPUB to a Kindle.
Questions
Are library ebooks DRM-free?
Usually not. Library loans are free to borrow but protected with DRM, such as Adobe DRM or Readium LCP, and they expire at the end of the loan.
Which file should I download from Project Gutenberg?
The EPUB3 file, which Project Gutenberg recommends for most devices, including Kobo, Nook and Send to Kindle. Use the older EPUB file for older Nooks, and plain text as a last resort.
Can I read these books in Chrome?
Yes. With an EPUB reader extension such as Quire EPUB Reader, a downloaded book opens in a Chrome tab. If a link downloads the file instead, drop it on the extension’s library page.