How to Buy E-Books on iPhone or iPad Using the Books App

Purchase books directly from your device with Apple Books

What to Know

  • Open the Books app on an iPhone or iPad and tap Book Store.
  • Browse the sections and recommendations or tap Search and enter a title or author name.
  • Locate a book and tap Buy. Confirm the order to buy the book.

This article explains how to buy e-books on an iPhone or iPad using the Books app in iOS 10.0 or later. It includes information on reading e-books and tips for acquiring samples and free books.

How to Buy E-Books on iPhone or iPad

Buying e-books through the Books app is easy; open the Book Store area of the app, make a selection and tap the Buy button. Before you buy e-books on your iPad or iPhone, download a sample of the book so that you can get at taste of the book before committing to it. Reading e-books you download is straightforward; use the same app that you used to buy the book.

The Books app must be installed on your iPhone or iPad device to buy e-books. Download the Apple Books app if you don't already have it.

  1. Open the Books app.

  2. Tap Book Store.

    Book Store icon in Books app on iPad
  3. Find and select the e-book you want to order to open its information screen.

    Apple Books New This Week section on iPad
  4. Tap Buy and then confirm the order to purchase the e-book.

    Buy button in Books app on iPad

Buying iBooks content is similar to buying things from the iTunes Store, with the one key difference being how the store is accessed.

How to Read Your E-Books

If you purchased a book or downloaded a free e-book, the information screen for the book changes to show a Read button. Tap Read to start reading the book.

Read button in Books app on iPad

Another way to read a book is to go to the Library. Every book you add to the Books app is stored there. This is true for books you ordered from the Books app, transferred to your device from other apps, or copied to your iPad or iPhone via iTunes.

Library tab of Books app for iPad

Once you're in the Library, select the book you want to read. It opens immediately. Swipe left and right to turn the pages or tap once to access the menu.

Free eBook open on iPad

To return to your other e-books, tap once to show the menu, then select the back arrow from the upper-left corner of the screen.

Tips on Buying E-Books With Apple Books

There's a lot to the Apple Books app. Here are a few tips:

  • Grab a free sample: Go to the download page for the book and tap Sample.
  • Download free books: Apple Books contains free e-books. To download free books, go to the information page for the book and tap Get.
  • Find e-books: Go to the Browse Sections area at the top of the Book Store tab. Locate new and trending books, e-books coming soon, books categorized into a specific genre, the top e-books people are buying, and free e-books.
  • Do more: Every e-book download page has options to send an e-book as a gift, add it to your Want to Read catalog, view more e-books (and audiobooks) by that author, view the top e-books in the same genre, see when the book was last updated, and read the system requirements needed to read the book.
  • Wait for the download: Some books take a while to download, so wait a little bit for it to become fully available to read. Watch the download progress bar for those books.
  • Update your Apple ID: An Apple ID is required to make e-book purchases from the Books app. Reset your Apple ID password if you don't know it.
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