Google Play Books
Accepts an uploaded AI audiobook if you mark it synthesised
In the Partner Center, an uploaded audiobook asks you to choose Human narrator or Synthesized voice. Google’s own help says: if you upload an AI-generated audiobook, select Synthesized voice.
Checked October 2026. play.google.com/books/publish
Market
Google Play Books is the bookshop inside Google’s store, on Android and on the web. It is a general bookstore, not an audiobook-only club.
No public figure from Google or the Audio Publishers Association gives Play Books a percentage of the 2025 US audiobook market ($2.43 billion). Treat reach as broad and the audiobook aisle as smaller than Audible’s.
Google also offers its own auto-narration, which generates a new recording from an ebook already on Play Books. That is a different product. It does not use your Listening Room files, and you do not need it if you are uploading this studio’s audio.
Contact
Files they prefer
Google accepts audiobook audio as MP3, AAC in an M4A, FLAC, or WAV, or a zip of those. For MP3 it prefers constant bit rate, at least 128 kbps if the file is mono, or at least 256 kbps if the file is stereo.
Listening Room files are 192 kbps at 44.1 kHz. That clears the mono bar. If a file is stereo, 192 kbps is under Google’s stereo minimum, so check the channel count before you upload and convert to mono if a file is rejected.
Narrator is required. Choose Synthesized voice, then Male, Female, or Unspecified. There is also “Based on real actor”, which does not apply to these voices.
A cover image is required. Google’s fetching guide also lists duration as required metadata when you send files in bulk.
Money
The percentage is in the Partner Center agreement, not on the short help page. Read that agreement before you set a price. It is the number that binds your account.
Publisher guides through 2026 still describe Play Books audiobook sales, including auto-narrated titles, as paying the publisher 52% of the list price. Use that only as a reported rate until you see your own contract.
You set the list price. The agreement is not an exclusivity deal: you can sell the same recording elsewhere.
Complete the payment profile and tax interview in the Partner Center or you will not be paid.
What else to know
Auto-narration is optional and uses Google’s voices, not Leo, Eve, or Orion. If you want the Listening Room performance on the store, upload your own files and still mark them Synthesized voice.
There is no public author email. Support is inside the Partner Center.
Keep the description honest. The Audio Publishers Association’s naming guidance is “Narrated by: [name] (AI Voice)”, or the plain synthesised-voice credit Google already asks for.