Audible

Audible is a Python low-level interface to communicate with the non-publicly Audible API.

It enables Python developers to create their own Audible services. Asynchronous communication with the Audible API is supported.

For a basic command line interface take a look at my audible-cli package. This package supports:

• downloading audiobooks (aax/aaxc), cover, PDF and chapter files
• export library to csv files
• get activation bytes
• add own plugin commands

Requirements

Python >= 3.11

Installation

Standard Installation

pip install audible

Recommended: With Performance Optimizations

Available in audible >= 0.11.0

For significantly better performance (5-100x faster cryptographic operations), install with optional high-performance crypto backends.

Option 1: cryptography (recommended)

Modern, actively maintained, Rust-accelerated library:

pip install audible[cryptography]

Option 2: pycryptodome

Mature, C-based cryptographic library:

pip install audible[pycryptodome]

Option 3: Both (best for development/testing)

pip install audible[cryptography,pycryptodome]

Using uv:

# With cryptography
uv pip install audible[cryptography]

# With pycryptodome
uv pip install audible[pycryptodome]

# With both
uv pip install audible[cryptography,pycryptodome]

# Or run with extras (in project context)
uv run --extra cryptography your_script.py

The library automatically selects the best available provider:

1. cryptography (preferred, Rust-accelerated)
2. pycryptodome (C-based)
3. legacy (pure Python fallback)

Performance improvements with optimized backends:

• 5-10x faster AES encryption/decryption
• 10-20x faster RSA operations
• 3-5x faster key derivation (PBKDF2)
• 5-10x faster hashing (SHA-256, SHA-1)

Provider Overrides (advanced)

Most applications do not need to interact with the crypto layer directly. Prefer configuring providers through high-level APIs such as Authenticator:

from audible import Authenticator
from audible.crypto_provider import CryptographyProvider, set_default_crypto_provider

# Force a specific provider for this authenticator instance
auth = Authenticator.from_file(
    "auth.json",
    password="secret",
    crypto_provider=CryptographyProvider,
)

# Optional: set a process-wide default provider, then reset to auto-detect
set_default_crypto_provider(CryptographyProvider)
...
set_default_crypto_provider()

get_crypto_providers() remains available for internal use, but it is not part of the supported public API.

Optional: High-Performance JSON Backends

Available in audible >= 0.11.0

For improved JSON serialization/deserialization performance (2-5x faster), install with optional high-performance JSON backends.

Option 1: json-full (recommended)

Complete coverage with best performance for all use cases:

pip install audible[json-full]

Includes:

• orjson: 4-5x faster for compact JSON (API responses, metadata)
• ujson: 2-3x faster with indent=4 support (auth files, library exports)

Option 2: json-fast

Optimized for compact JSON only:

pip install audible[json-fast]

Includes:

• orjson: 4-5x faster for compact JSON

Option 3: Individual providers

# orjson (Rust-based, fastest for compact JSON)
pip install audible[orjson]

# ujson (C-based, excellent for pretty-printed output)
pip install audible[ujson]

# rapidjson (C++ based, alternative to ujson)
pip install audible[rapidjson]

Using uv:

# json-full (recommended)
uv pip install audible[json-full]

# json-fast
uv pip install audible[json-fast]

# Or run with extras (in project context)
uv run --extra json-full your_script.py

The library automatically selects the best available provider:

1. orjson (Rust-based, 4-5x faster for compact JSON)
2. ujson (C-based, 2-3x faster with indent support)
3. rapidjson (C++ based, 2-3x faster)
4. stdlib json (always available)

Performance improvements with optimized backends:

• 4-5x faster compact JSON (orjson)
• 2-3x faster pretty-printed JSON (ujson/rapidjson)
• Smart fallback: orjson automatically uses ujson/rapidjson for indent=4

Provider Overrides (advanced)

Most applications do not need to interact with the JSON layer directly. The library automatically uses the best provider. However, you can override:

from audible.json_provider import OrjsonProvider, get_json_provider, set_default_json_provider

# Get auto-detected provider
provider = get_json_provider()
print(f"Using: {provider.provider_name}")

# Force a specific provider
data = {"key": "value"}
orjson = get_json_provider(OrjsonProvider)
json_str = orjson.dumps(data)

# Optional: set a process-wide default provider
set_default_json_provider(OrjsonProvider)

Read the Doc

The documentation can be found at Read the Docs

Contributing

Contributions are very welcome. To learn more, see the Contributor Guide.

License

Distributed under the terms of the AGPL-3.0, Audible is free and open source software.

Issues

If you encounter any problems, please file an issue along with a detailed description.

Credits

Thanks a lot JetBrains for supporting me with a free license This project was generated from @cjolowicz's Hypermodern Python Cookiecutter template.