A Complete Guide: How To Download Books From Google In PDF Format

By Nakodari on Feb 19 2009 108 Comments

Google Book Search has thousands of books, magazines, and documents available for free for the public. You can read them online, but what if you want to read them offline? Google should have a build-in feature to download books since most people are not always connected to the internet. What if I want to read a book while traveling and there is no internet connectivity? Google Book Downloader (link seems to be down, grab it directly here) a handy tool which you can use to download books directly from Google and save them directly in PDF format.

Update: Try out the new tools to download Google Books. For Windows, go here. For Mac, go here.

Here is how it works, you have to provide the book code in order to download it. But where exactly is the book code? It is given in the URL, the screenshot below will make it more clear to you.

google book id

The book code is the set of different characters after ‘id=’ and before ‘&’. In my case the Book code is ‘_kYBqLc5QoQC’. Now enter this book code in the tool and press Check.

melon google books downloader

It will begin retrieving data page by page, once the process is complete, click Download all. This will download every page of the book one by one which will take some time, you can see the status in the progress bar.

google books download status

Once the progress is complete, click Save Entire Book as button and save it anywhere in PDF format. It’s that easy. Enjoy!

Update: If you are one of those people who are having problem using this method, you can try an alternative method. If you are using Firefox browser, download the GreeseMonkey add-on and grab Google Book Downloader script. Now you will find the download button whenever you browse a book in books.google.com. :)

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  • http://www.jkwebtalks.com JK

    Nice share!thanks.

  • rhonda

    I couldn’t get this download to work. And based on the comments on the site, it seems like the app is buggy.

    • http://www.addicitivetips.com Nakodari

      It’s a little buggy, but works fine on my computer. Just follow the steps above and you can download the whole book, but it’s going to take some time since it reads and downloads the book page by page.

  • jose

    Its doesnt work. Was allright but threen days from now doesnt work?? Please help me¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡ Write the answer to me. Google discover me?? Thankyou. Jose
    josedanito@hotmail.com

    • http://www.addicitivetips.com Nakodari

      It worked for me, I don’t know what problem you are getting.

    • Jewel

      You must have MS .NET Framework 3.5 sp1 installed on your system.

  • Jiten

    Nice Post…………
    But what time will it take to download whole book………?

    • http://www.addicitivetips.com Nakodari

      That will depend on your internet connection, size of book, and many other factors.

  • Jiten

    Hey i an geeting error
    String reference not set to an instance of a String.

    Pls help

  • steven

    i have got 400 pages of a book (494 pages), it took my about 3 days.
    But this afternoon, i save it as a bin file as usually as i do, and when i restart mgbd.exe and open the bin file, the program failed and quit itself. I try again, fail again…
    Not for this bin file, other bin file saved before also fail to open.

    The mgbd.exe version is “GBD-0.1.0.alpha8′, installed on Windows XP.

    Could you please help me to secure my file data?

    Best Regards,

  • essraa

    Please tell me
    what time will it take to download whole book………?as example
    please i am waiting

  • Puneet

    Its been almost 3 hours since i clicked on “CHECK” but till now nothing has happened ??i do not see any pgs gettn dowloaded as you have shown.
    Could you plz help

    • http://www.addicitivetips.com Nakodari

      There could be be problems here, either you didn’t enter the Book ID correctly or maybe you didn’t Download All button after clicking Check.

      Post has been updated with alternative method, I hope it helps.

  • Lili

    thanks alot, i installed MGBD three months ago, it was working well, but now it doesn’t
    the Weblogs work but no pages appeare to download, i think it was a trial vision.
    Do you think so, or i have a problem?
    Please tell me what to do, i need it in my researchs.
    Thank you again

  • Aron

    very good tips. However, on my internet explorer it does not work! The second tip via firefox works very fine and is easy to do!!!

    Thnx!

  • chetna

    i have start downloading one book……it already 2.5 hr still checking is goining on…..
    will you help me how much time it will take for complete download, no. of page 256 ……..

    • http://www.addicitivetips.com Nakodari

      Like Aron said above, second method works fine. You can try the 2nd method, since I believe it will be more quicker.

  • chetna

    thanks, i will try……..

  • chetna

    firefox downloading give error 404 not found in most of pages……..

    • http://www.addicitivetips.com Nakodari

      Perhaps this is because Google Books might have added new restrictions. At the time I tested, it was working fine for me.

      • chetna

        thanks

        • http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/a-comple Aravindhan

          i tride to download the book but the MGBD is not reciving any pages from the google .. i entered the correct book code .. but still it not downloading…,

  • Jim

    How can I use this tool to download several books at one time, without having to check all the time if the previous download is done?

    • Ahmad Khalilul Hameedy bin Nor

      just click the appication back.

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  • asd

    Hi!

    But where does the script saves the pages?

  • sunny

    hi
    i have downloaded GBD 0.1.0 alpha8 but while i want to install it,it shows the msg “MSGD encounter a problem and need to close”.

    plz help me regarding this problem.

    best regards………….

  • tarun

    i hav download firefox & GreeseMonkey add-on but not getting the download option in the google book.

  • tarun

    please tell me what to do.

  • http://www.techmonk.com pramodh

    Thats a great trick… Will surely try it….

    • avinash

      how did u download the google books pllease tell me

  • Morgan

    When I search for a book using the Google book search I see a “Download” button. There are two different filetypes, one is PDF. I don’t recall the other

    If the methods above don’t work for you download the Firefox Add-on “PDF Download”. It allows you to download any page on the web as PDF. If PDF is not the default format PDF download will attempt to convert the file to PDF format.

  • http://Palprince.com/softwares PalSoftwares

    Great tool, I wish if we could download any book that way.

  • jayaprakash

    hey this downloader is good but not showing any response after clicking on search.just some links are seen like “downloading book info from so and so website”.Is that means the book is downloading or not?. Can u tell me what should be the options must be selected in “tools” of our downloader.

  • http://www.binz-ferienwohnungen-ruegen.de Janosh

    That article helps me, thx lot!

  • lakehali

    i can’t to setup melon google books downloader
    please help me

  • kamini

    hi…i am unable to download google books. I have downloaded greesymonkey and unscript google downloader but unable to install melon google book downloader as its link didnt shows India's Server.

    Please Reply for my Query…..

  • kamini

    This site http://www.codeplex.com/GoogleBookDownloader is also not useful in downloading Melon Software as it always shows “This project is not yet published”

  • 1907name

    same problem, after while i cant download any more, is google block İP ???

  • vijay

    where we get melon google book downloader?

  • Abs

    i have firefox…greasy monkey…and google book downloading script…but i still dont see the download button when i browse books…wherez it…PLEASE HELP…

  • Abs

    i have firefox…greasy monkey…and google book downloading script…but i still dont see the download button when i browse books…wherez it…PLEASE HELP…

  • Abs

    i have firefox…greasy monkey…and google book downloading script…but i still dont see the download button when i browse books…wherez it…PLEASE HELP…

  • shanky456

    heyy plz anyone mail to me at:

    ishan.aggarwal1987@gmail.com….

    searched whole net cant find the application plz….
    thanx in advance

  • http://www.karthikeyan.co.in/ Karthikeyan
  • http://www.itsashirt.com/ Itsashirt T shirts

    I'm downloading a book…. thnx for the tutorial!

  • http://firyfriends.blogspot.com iamjosh

    Hi post the correct download link for tool

  • HydraH

    Ok, I used the RS link since the Codeplex site wasn't showing any link to download the app. About the book, does it download the whole book, or only the limited preview that Google Books gives? Because I used the Firefox method, and it gave me a few pages as .png files, but not the whole book.

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  • darmenta

    this program has be 18 hours retriving data and none, not work, not book, only retriving, retriving y nothing, please help me, sorry my english is bad . . .

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  • http://www.google.com kanapukur

    unable to download google books downloader, plz help me where i can download this.

  • Jaman

    from where can i get download software Google Books Downloader?

  • Waqas

    Hey guys i need your help… google book downloader work for me good. but the problem i face is that it could not download the complete book from google… any body solve this issue??
    then plz mail me

    waqas_dreamboy1@hotmail.com
    thanks

    • Madhukar

      Of course it works. I have downloaded complete books with it. But you have to be patient. You can download different pages on different days. I means pages are hidden on a particular day are downloadable on other days.
      Relax and keep trying.

  • nikki

    plz say me how to download google book downloader…pzzzzzzzzzzz

  • http://www.books.google.com vijay

    sir google books downloader software is not working

    if possible send the full version to this mail id please sir

  • Smelly Queef

    Of course it won’t let you fetch the whole book but only a few “preview” pages from it. Google isn’t the pirate bay, it has strict policies that prevent assholes from stealing copyrighted material.

    • Madhukar

      I have downloaded a few books completely. It surely works on limited preview books, but over several days

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  • http://Hi Toroo

    Thank you, nice , very nace

  • adyniz

    Wow, thanks a bunch dude :D
    It worked perfectly although it’s a kind of draggy method but still it works.
    Yay :)

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