Books remain great learning devices — even in the age of AI. But why spending money when you can get them for free?
This article compiles a list of 101++ FREE Python books to destroy any excuse of not learning Python. Everyone can afford to read free books!
Before I’ll give you the list, feel free to check out our free course on AI Engineering. It’s 100% free, no signup required, and it might open a new six-figure tech career for you that’ll carry you through the age of disruption:
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How To Use This List?
Most likely you don’t belong to the 0.01% of nerds who will read each and every book on this list. Prioritization is king!
To help you with the big task of finding the best book for you, I have added a few indicators whether the book is interesting for you or not.
👉 Note: I don’t give the link to Amazon as this is a list of FREE Python books and Amazon mostly focuses on paid books in their stock.
Above The Fold Books
These are my top picks of free Python books in alphabetical order. Get all of them and store them on your PC!
Free Book 1 – Coffee Break Python: 50 Workouts to Kickstart Your Rapid Code Understanding in Python – Dr. Christian Mayer
What many people don’t know is that this best-selling puzzle-based learning book is available for free on the thank-you for signing up page after subscribing to the Finxter email newsletter (focused on teaching Python and AI Engineering).
Keywords: Beginner + Email Course + PDF
Free Book 2 – Coffee Break Python Slicing: 24 Workouts to Master Slicing in Python, Once and for All – Dr. Christian Mayer
Slicing is one of the most basic skills of a Python developer. This is THE most comprehensive book on slicing in existence.
Keywords: Beginner + Slicing + Email Course + PDF
Free Book 3 – Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python 3rd Edition – Al Sweigart
Another great book about computer games from Al Sweigart. The book specifically addresses kids but is also interesting for adults who like gaming.
Keywords: Beginner + Games + PDF
Free Book 4 – Learning Python – Mark Lutz
This book is one of the most comprehensive Python books I have ever seen. Sometimes this can be a bit dry – but the author does a great work in making it interesting for the reader.
Keywords: Beginner / Intermediate + PDF
Free Book 5 – Learn Python the Hard Way – Zed A. Shaw
This is a very popular book that asks you to perform programming exercises in your terminal. By putting in the actual effort (and typing in all the little commands), you learn more thoroughly (at the cost of a larger time investment).
Keywords: Absolute Beginners + HTML (Only Parts)
Free Book 6 – Making Games with Python & Pygame – Al Sweigart
This excellent book is all about inventing, coding, and implementing small Python games using the Pygame framework. It’s from the author of the most popular Python book “Automating the boring stuff with Python”
Keywords: Beginner + Games + PDF
Free Book 7 – Problem Solving with Algorithms and Data Structures using Python – Brad Miller and David Ranum
The book is an interactive HTML page with exercises and more practical material to support your learning progress. Highly recommended!
Keywords: Intermediate + HTML
Free Book 8 – Python One-Liners (Videos) – Dr. Christian Mayer
Python One-Liners will teach you how to read and write “one-liners”: concise statements of useful functionality packed into a single line of code. You’ll learn how to systematically unpack and understand any line of Python code, and write eloquent, powerfully compressed Python like an expert.
Keywords: Beginner / Intermediate + One-Liner Training Videos are free on the website
Free Book Think Python: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist – Allen B. Downey
“This hands-on guide takes you through the language one step at a time, beginning with basic programming concepts before moving on to functions, recursion, data structures, and object-oriented design.”
Keywords: Beginner / Intermediate + HTML
Free Bonus Resource: A Beginner’s Guide to AI Engineering (Full Course) — Dirk van Meerveld
You’ll learn how to create an intelligent AI agent. This agent will generate news articles from publicly available SEC filings from large companies such as NVIDIA. 100% automated!
There are >20k such companies so this could be the basis of a huge automated financial news website reaching millions of visitors (and, in turn, generating millions for you – its owner). 😉
I love these types of projects because they show the true power of AI: automatic “passive” value creation.
🤖 AI Engineers are the new masters of the universe! 🌌
Keywords: Beginner + AI Engineering + Python APIs + Generative AI
A Comprehensive List of Free Python Books
The list of free Python books is sorted alphabetically. Lose yourself in this list to find the Python book that suits your current needs most!
- A Beginner’s Python Tutorial – Wikibooks
- ⭐ A Byte of Python (Python 3, HTML, PDF, EPUB, Mobi)
- A Guide to Python’s Magic Methods – Rafe Kettler
- ⭐⭐⭐ Automate the Boring Stuff – Al Sweigart
- A Whirlwind Tour of Python – Jake VanderPlas (HTML)
- Biopython (PDF)
- Build applications in Python the antitextbook (Python 3, HTML, PDF, EPUB, Mobi)
- Building Machine Learning Systems with Python – Willi Richert & Luis P. Coelho
- Building Skills in Object-Oriented Design – Steven F. Lott (Python 2.1, PDF)
- Building Skills in Python – Steven F. Lott (Python 2.6, PDF)
- ⭐ Byte of Python – Swaroop C. H. (Python 3, PDF)
- Codeacademy Python
- Code Like a Pythonista: Idiomatic Python
- Composing Programs (Python 3)
- Data Structures and Algorithms in Python – B. R. Preiss (PDF)
- ⭐⭐ Data Structures and Algorithms in Python – Rance D. Necaise (Python 3, PDF)
- ⭐⭐ Dive into Python 3 – Mark Pilgrim (Python 3, HTML)
- Django Girls Tutorial (1.11)
- Django Official Documentation (PDF) (1.10)
- Djen of Django
- Effective Django (1.5)
- Explore Flask – Robert Picard
- From Python to NumPy
- Full Stack Python
- Functional Programming in Python (email address requested, not required)
- Google’s Python Style Guide
- Google’s Python Class (Python 3, HTML)
- Hacking Secret Cyphers with Python – Al Sweigart (Python 3, PDF)
- Hadoop with Python (email address requested, not required)
- Hitchhiker’s Guide to Python! – Kenneth Reitz (Python 3, PDF)
- How to Tango With Django (1.7)
- How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: Learning with Python – Allen B. Downey, Jeff Elkner and Chris Meyers
- Intermediate Python – Muhammad Yasoob Ullah Khalid (1st edition)
- Introduction to Programming Using Python – Cody Jackson (Python 2.3)
- Introduction to Programming with Python (Python 3)
- Introduction to Python – Kracekumar (Python 2.7.3)
- Kivy Programming Guide
- Learning Python – Fabrizio Romano
- Learning to Program
- Learn Pandas – Hernan Rojas
- Learn Python, Break Python
- Learn Python in Y minutes
- ⭐⭐ Learn Python The Hard Way (Python 2)
- Lectures on scientific computing with python – J.R. Johansson (Python 2.7)
- Mastering Python for Data Science
- Math for programmers (using Python)
- Modeling Creativity: Case Studies in Python – Tom D. De Smedt (PDF)
- Natural Language Processing with Python (Python 3)
- Non-Programmer’s Tutorial for Python 2.6 – Wikibooks (Python 2.6)
- Non-Programmer’s Tutorial for Python 3 – Wikibooks (Python 3.3)
- Picking a Python Version: A Manifesto
- Porting to Python 3: An In-Depth Guide (Python 2 + 3)
- Practical Programming in Python – Jeffrey Elkner (PDF)
- Program Arcade Games With Python And Pygame (Python 3)
- Programming Computer Vision with Python (PDF)
- Python 2 Official Documentation (Python 2, PDF, HTML, TEXT)
- Python 3 Official Documentation (Python 3, PDF, EPUB, HTML, TEXT)
- Python 3 Tutorial
- Python Bibliotheca
- ⭐⭐⭐ Python Cookbook – David Beazley and Brian Jones (HTML)
- Python Data Science Handbook – Jake VanderPlas (HTML, Jupyter Notebooks)
- Python for Everybody Exploring Data Using Python 3 – Charles Severance (PDF, EPUB, HTML)
- Python for Fun
- Python for Informatics: Exploring Information (Python 2)
- Python for you and me (Python 2)
- Python for you and me (Python 3)
- Python in Education (email address requested, not required)
- Python in Hydrology – Sat Kumar Tomer
- Python Koans (Python 2 or 3)
- Python Module of the Week (Python 2)
- Python Module of the Week (Python 3)
- Python Notes for Professionals – from StackOverflow docs (Python 3)
- Python Practice Book (Python 2)
- Python Practice Projects
- Python Programming – PDF
- Python Programming – Wikibooks (PDF, Python 2)
- Python Scientific Lecture Notes
- Quick Tutorial for Pyramid
- Scipy Lecture Notes
- Snake Wrangling For Kids (Python 3)
- Supporting Python 3: An In-Depth Guide (Python 2 + 3)
- Test-Driven Web Development with Python – Harry Percival (Python 3)
- Text Processing in Python – David Mertz (Python 2)
- The Definitive Guide to Jython, Python for the Java Platform – Josh Juneau, Jim Baker, Victor Ng, Leo Soto, Frank Wierzbicki (Python 2)
- The Flask Mega-Tutorial – Miguel Grinberg (0.9)
- The Little Book of Python Anti-Patterns (Source)
- The Programming Historian – William J. Turkel, Adam Crymble and Alan MacEachern
- The Python GTK+ 3 Tutorial
- The Standard Python Library – Fredrik Lundh
- Think Complexity – Allen B. Downey (PDF, HTML)
- ⭐⭐⭐ Think Python – Allen B. Downey (Python 2 + 3, PDF)
- Tiny Python 3.6 Notebook – Matt Harrison (Python 3)
- Tornado: Learn Web Programming
- Web2py: Complete Reference Manual, 6th Edition (pre-release) (Python 2)
- Welcome to Problem Solving with Algorithms and Data Structures – Brad Miller and David Ranum
- Wikibooks: Python Programming
Do you have any updates? Please send them to me, so that I can keep this list fresh and updated. 🙂
I know – this flood of learning material is overwhelming! That’s why I have created a free Python email course for you. It guides you, one step at a time, through the really important Python concepts. My subscribers love it, so join us now! It’s an easy route to Python mastery…
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