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How Many GB Does An Audiobook Take Up?

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When you enjoy audiobooks and listen to them frequently, you may be concerned about the amount of storage space which an audiobook is occupying on your smartphone. Today’s mobile devices often hold a great deal of data, without affecting the operations, but if you are loading audiobooks onto your device, how can you avoid overwhelming the storage capacity of your phone? 

Most audiobooks are not huge users of storage space. The main things to consider are the length of the audiobook, and the storage capacity of your phone. For the average size audiobook of eight hours running time, less than 250 MB of storage would be used. 

The audiobook service that you use will set parameters about whether or not you can keep the books you download. You may have to think about which books are most important to you, or if your plan allows, offloading to alternative storage.

How to determine the size of the audiobook download

On average, most audiobooks will require between 28 and 30 MB of space per hour of running time.  If you have an eight hour audiobook, this will take up less than 250 MB. An average audiobook is about 10 hours, or 280 MB.  A very short audiobook could run less than three hours, while some of the longest novels ever written might take considerably longer. 

Record holders for longest audiobooks

The unabridged War and Peace, a behemoth at 61 hours and 6 minutes, would come in at about 1.8 GB. Several other books lay claim to the title of the longest audiobook, but the Guinness Book of World Records holder for the title of longest book ever written is Remembrance of Things Past, by Marcel Proust. One audiobook version clocks in at over 154 hours, though it is split into seven volumes.

Another world record holder is The Holy Bible King James Version, Narrated by David Cochran Heath and published by Christian Audio, The listening Length is 72 hours and 1 minute. Several longest-book lists only include those available from a specific publisher, while others are more comprehensive. Many of the choices are over 80 hours of listening. Since new books are being released almost daily, the list can vary daily.

Having a book listed as the longest may not be important to you if you are not interested in the topic. Some of the lengthier choices are compilations of other books. One example is The Complete Wizard of Oz Collection (Length: 90 hrs and 58 mins). The author is L. Frank Baum, and the narrator is Eric Vincent, BookDar Publishing. According to the publisher, this is a collection of 22 stories written by the author.All 22 stories are fully complete. They include the dedication and the introduction of each story/book.

Smartphone capacity

Most people who purchase smartphones are looking for the latest features. Data storage can be considered, but other factors may take precedence. The majority of smartphones nowadays come with one of the following storage options: 8GB, 16GB or 32GB. 8 GB of storage is quite rare now, and will usually only be found in very cheap or old phones.

The high end phones may have even more internal storage. Phones with 256GB of internal storage allows you to take as many pictures and videos as you want without having to worry about running out of space.

512GB is more than enough even for the average laptop user, so on a phone, you really should have a plan for all that storage in order to justify the price it will cost you. 512GB of storage gives you enough room on your iPhone to carry ALL your media with you at all times. That means all your downloaded movies and TV shows, all your ebooks, all of your podcasts, all of your audiobooks, and all of your apps and games. Even then, you will still probably have plenty left over.

512GB is more than enough even for the average laptop user, so on a phone, you really should have a plan for all that storage in order to justify the price it will cost you. 512GB of storage gives you enough room on your iPhone to carry ALL your media with you at all times. That means all your downloaded movies and TV shows, all your ebooks, all of your podcasts, all of your audiobooks, and all of your apps and games. Even then, you will still probably have plenty left over.

How Many GB Does An Audiobook Take Up

Balancing storage and cost

The purchase of a smartphone is a growing priority among people of all ages. As new and more advanced phones become available, the decision of whether or not to upgrade or roll-over to a new phone will depend on cost, and needs. Maintaining support for phones that are just a few years old can become a problem. In rural areas support can be problematic as well.

As with any purchase, reviewing the options and picking those that best fit your budget and your needs is more important than obtaining the latest iteration of a smartphone. Most mobile devices today will hold all of the data storage needs of the typical user. If your audiobook storage needs are greater than the usual, a more data-centric phone might be warranted. At the same time, it pays to be aware of other options for audiobook storage.