How to loan a Kindle book to a friend or family member

Similar to handing a physical book to a friend as a loan, you can share a book you own on your Kindle Paperwhite. This is a great way to share a good book you just finished with a pal you know would enjoy it. The best part is that the person you’re loaning the book to doesn’t have to own a Kindle Paperwhite. They can use their supported eReader or the free Kindle app.

If you have a book on your Kindle that you want to loan, here’s how.

Holding a Kindle in hand and reading a book on it

Loan and accept a Kindle book

About loading Kindle books

Here are a few things to keep in mind for you and the borrower:

  • Just like with a physical book, you’re unable to read the book yourself while it’s on loan.
  • Your borrower has seven days to accept the invitation to borrow the book. If they don’t accept within that time, the book is back to you and available for you to read again.
  • You can loan a book for a maximum of 14 days.
  • There may be additional lending limitations, such as you can only loan the same book one time. Be sure to check for restrictions on the book you want to loan.

Book lending availability

Books you’re able to loan to others are marked as such in the Amazon Kindle Store. So if you want to be sure you can loan the book before you buy it, look for Lending: Enabled under Product Details for the book.

Amazon Kindle Details Lending Enabled

Also, if you don’t see the “Loan this title” or “Loan this book” options described below, you may want to revisit the product page and be sure you see Enabled for Lending as shown above.

Loan a book

You can loan a book to your friend from the device and content management area of your Amazon account or on the book details page itself. We’ll show you both. So, head to Amazon and log in.

Loan a book in Content & Devices

1) Select your name, Account & Lists from the top right and choose Content & Devices.

2) Be sure the Content tab is selected at the top.

3) Go to the book you want to loan in your list and click the Actions (three dots) button.

4) Choose Loan this title.

Amazon Kindle Loan This Title

5) Complete the details for your borrower, including email address, name, and optionally a message.

Note: Be sure to read the details on this page for lending limitations for the book.

6) Click Send now.

Amazon Kindle Borrower Details

An email will go to your recipient from Amazon, letting them know you’ve loaned a book to them. And if you go to your Content & Devices page, you’ll see Loan next to the book title.

Amazon Kindle Book Loaned

Loan a book on the product page

If you happen to be on the product details page for the book you purchased, you can loan the book directly from here too.

At the top of the page, you should see a message with when you purchased the book. Click the Loan this book link.

Amazon Kindle Book Details Loan This Book

You’ll be taken to the page to complete the borrower’s details to email them the invitation, just like in Step 5 above.

Accept a loaned book

If you want to let your borrower know what to expect or if someone else has loaned you a book, here’s how to accept it.

1) The borrower receives an email from Amazon letting them know you’ve loaned them a book.

2) They click the Get your loaned book now button.

Amazon Kindle Email for Loaned Book

3) This takes them to the acceptance page on Amazon, where they log in, if necessary, and see the book with your message.

4) They select their device or app from the drop-down on the right and click Accept loaned book.

Amazon Kindle Accept Loaned Book

If you and a friend or family member enjoy the same types of books, using the Kindle book lending feature is a terrific option. As long as you or your borrower can finish the book within the 14-day lending period, it’s a wonderful feature.

Are you going to loan a Kindle book to a pal? Or maybe you’re going to ask them to loan one to you? Let us know what you think of the process.

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