Best Free Ebook Reader Apps for Android

Before picking, it helps to know what you are asking for. Most people want four things: open the formats they have, let them adjust fonts and switch to a dark theme at night, keep their place across devices, and not nag them with ads or accounts. The format question is the one that trips people up, so let me be specific. EPUB is the open standard most non-Amazon ebooks use. PDF is fixed-page and reflows badly on a small screen. MOBI and AZW3 are Amazon's older formats, and a DRM-free copy will open in several apps here, but a purchased Kindle title will not. If your library is mostly PDFs, you may be happier with a dedicated reader, and I cover those in the roundup of PDF reader apps for Android.

Play Books comes preinstalled on most Android phones, and that is its main appeal. You can upload your own PDF and EPUB files to your library and read them on any device signed in to the same account. To turn this on, open the app, go to Settings and check the box to enable PDF uploading, then share a file to Play Books or use Upload to Play Books. Uploaded files show up under Library, then Uploads. Bookmarks, highlights and notes sync across devices, and as of January 2026 those work on uploaded PDFs too, not just EPUBs. The honest limit: only PDF and EPUB are accepted for personal uploads, so MOBI files have to be converted first.

If you have a messy folder of mixed files, Moon+ Reader opens almost all of it. The free version reads EPUB, PDF, MOBI, AZW3, FB2, CBZ, CBR, CHM, DOCX, RTF, TXT, HTML and more, and it connects to OPDS catalogs if you pull books from an online library that offers one. The reading controls are deep to the point of being fiddly: you can remap taps, swipes and hardware keys to actions like bookmarks, theme switches and font changes. Night mode and custom themes are all there. It backs up and syncs reading positions through Dropbox or WebDAV. The free build runs ads in the menus; the Pro version, updated to 10.6 in May 2026, removes them and adds extras. Still, the free app is genuinely usable on its own.

ReadEra is the one I suggest to people who find Moon+ Reader overwhelming. It is free with no ads and no account, and it reads EPUB, PDF, MOBI, AZW3, DOC, DOCX, RTF, ODT, FB2, DjVu, TXT and CHM. It does not copy your books into its own store; it just indexes the files where they sit, notices duplicates, and remembers your page even if you move or delete the original. You get day, night, sepia and console color modes, adjustable font, size, weight, line spacing and hyphenation, and you can read two books at once in split screen. Recent updates improved full-screen reading on Android 15 and later and tidied up footnotes and furigana for Japanese text. There is a paid Premium tier, but the free version is complete enough that many people never need it.

Librera (the listing reads "Librera: EPUB & PDF Reader") handles a wide spread of formats, including EPUB, EPUB3, PDF, MOBI, AZW, AZW3, DjVu, FB2, RTF, ODT, CBZ, CBR and OPDS catalogs. It auto-scans folders you point it at, has day and night modes, offline dictionaries, text-to-speech read-aloud, and a scrolling mode some musicians use for sheet music. There is a free version with ads and a PRO version, and an open-source build lives on F-Droid with no tracking. Lithium is the opposite in spirit: it does one thing, EPUB, and does it cleanly with no ads. It auto-detects EPUB files on your device, supports highlights, notes, font tweaks and night and sepia themes, and its Pro tier syncs your position and notes through Google Drive. If all you read is EPUB and you want a calm interface, Lithium is a fair pick. If you ever need a dictionary while reading, pair any of these with one of the free English dictionary apps for Android.

The Kobo Books app is built around the Kobo store, but it will also read some of your own files. On Android you can import only non-protected EPUB files into your Kobo library; per Kobo's own help, PDF files cannot be imported into the Android app. A few more limits matter. If a file carries DRM from a third party, the app will not open it. Imported books also stay on the single device you added them to, so they will not sync to your other Kobo eReaders or apps. And Kobo does not read Amazon Kindle ebooks or audiobooks at all. So Kobo is a reasonable choice if you buy from Kobo and have a few loose DRM-free EPUBs to mix in, but it is not a general-purpose opener for whatever lands in your downloads.

Here is the part people wish were different. Kindle books you bought from Amazon are tied to Amazon's DRM and only open in the Kindle app. No EPUB reader on this list can read a purchased Kindle title, and converting one is against Amazon's terms. If your books live in Kindle, keep the Kindle app for those and use one of these readers for everything else. The second limit is library borrowing. Public library ebooks in North America run through OverDrive, and you read them in Libby using a valid library card. Some libraries even let you sign up inside Libby with your phone number. Libby is free, has no late fees, and lets you adjust font, layout and background, but the borrowed file lives inside Libby, not in your general reader. For a wider view of reading and study apps, the books, news and education hub collects the rest.

If you just want something that works and is already on the phone, open Play Books and upload your EPUB and PDF files. If you have a grab-bag of formats including MOBI and CBZ, install Moon+ Reader or, for a calmer interface, ReadEra. If you only ever touch EPUB and hate clutter, Lithium. If you want open source and folder scanning, Librera. Keep the Kindle app for Kindle purchases and Libby for library loans, and you have every base covered without spending anything.