Where can I read the Big Book free, from A.A. itself?
In short:
- A.A. World Services publishes the whole fourth edition of Alcoholics Anonymous (the Big Book) free on aa.org, as one PDF per section: front matter, all eleven chapters, the personal stories and the appendices.
- The main page is https://www.aa.org/the-big-book. It also links to audio and American Sign Language versions, and to Spanish and French pages.
- Printed and e-book copies are sold through A.A.'s online bookstore, https://onlineliterature.aa.org.
- These are A.A.'s own copies, so they're the safest text to quote from. Page numbers in the PDFs match the printed fourth edition.
The chapters, with their pages
All links below are A.A.'s own PDFs and were checked on 2026-10-04.
Front matter - Preface (pp. xi–xii): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_preface.pdf - Foreword to the First Edition, 1939 (pp. xiii–xiv): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_forewordfirstedition.pdf - Foreword to the Second Edition, 1955 (pp. xv–xxi): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_forewordsecondedition.pdf - Foreword to the Third Edition (p. xxii): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_forewordthirdedition.pdf - Foreword to the Fourth Edition (pp. xxiii–xxiv): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_forewordfourthedition.pdf - The Doctor's Opinion (pp. xxv–xxxii): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_foreworddoctorsopinion.pdf
The program, pp. 1–164 (the 1939 text) 1. Bill's Story (pp. 1–16): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt1.pdf 2. There Is a Solution (pp. 17–29): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt2.pdf 3. More About Alcoholism (pp. 30–43): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt3.pdf 4. We Agnostics (pp. 44–57): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt4.pdf 5. How It Works (pp. 58–71): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt5.pdf 6. Into Action (pp. 72–88): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt6.pdf 7. Working With Others (pp. 89–103): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt7.pdf 8. To Wives (pp. 104–121): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt8.pdf 9. The Family Afterward (pp. 122–135): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt9.pdf 10. To Employers (pp. 136–150): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt10.pdf 11. A Vision for You (pp. 151–164): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt11.pdf
Personal stories (from p. 165) - Introduction: https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_personalstories.pdf - Part I, Pioneers of A.A.: https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_personalstories_partI.pdf - Part II, They Stopped in Time: https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_personalstories_partII.pdf - Part III, They Lost Nearly All: https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_personalstories_partIII.pdf
Appendices - I, The A.A. Tradition, with the Long Form (pp. 561–566): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_appendicei.pdf - II, Spiritual Experience (pp. 567–568): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_appendiceii.pdf - III, The Medical View on A.A. (pp. 569–570): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_appendiceiii.pdf - IV, The Lasker Award (p. 571): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_appendiceiv.pdf - V, The Religious View on A.A. (p. 572): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_appendicev.pdf - VI, How to Get in Touch With A.A.: https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_appendicevi.pdf - VII, Twelve Concepts (Short Form) (pp. 574–575): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_appendicevii_.pdf
Also: the title page, contents and copyright page are linked from https://www.aa.org/the-big-book.
Other formats and languages
- Audio recordings, from A.A.'s media library: https://www.aa.org/resources/media?terms=big+book&format%5B%5D=audio&items_per_page=24&sort_bef_combine=title_ASC
- The Big Book page in Spanish: https://www.aa.org/es/the-big-book
- In French: https://www.aa.org/fr/the-big-book
Which parts are oldest
The forewords and chapters aren't all from the same year. The Foreword to the First Edition is printed as it appeared in 1939 (p. xiii), and the Preface says the program portion, Chapters 1–11, "has been left largely untouched" since then (p. xi). The Foreword to the Second Edition describes A.A. as it was in 1955 (p. xv). The personal stories have changed from edition to edition, and the appendices came with the second edition, 1955, except the Twelve Concepts, added in the fourth (pp. xi–xii). See: Which A.A. books are oldest, and why does the date matter?
Read the whole chapter
Because the PDFs are free, there's no reason to rely on a single quoted line. A sentence from the first page of a chapter can read very differently once you've read the pages that follow. See: How can I tell when a quote has been taken out of context?
Sources
| Source | Pages | Date |
|---|---|---|
| aa.org, The Big Book page and its linked PDFs (all links checked 2026-10-04) | — | fourth edition, 2001 |
| Alcoholics Anonymous, Foreword to the First Edition; Foreword to the Second Edition | xiii; xv | 1939; 1955 |
Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. The Big Book is © A.A. World Services, Inc., which publishes these free copies.
These pages answer questions about A.A. from A.A.'s own published literature, read in full, with every quote checked word for word against the page it cites. Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. What we read, and when each source was written.