Where to study in Tbilisi

Tbilisi has a national library that gives anyone a free reader card, city libraries with quiet tables for a few lari a month, university reading halls, bookshop cafés, and plenty of cafés and coworking spaces for when you need to talk. Here's where to go, what each costs and when it's busiest, as of October 2026.

The National Library

The Ilia Chavchavadze National Library of Georgia, called the National Parliamentary Library until March 2025, is on Gudiashvili Street near Liberty Square. Anyone 14 or older, Georgian or foreign, can get a free reader card: bring your passport to the registration office in Building II, entrance on Purtseladze Street, open 10:00–18:00. The card is valid for five years. The reading halls are open every day from 10:00 to 20:00, except on public holidays, and have free Wi-Fi. Building I is closed for reconstruction, so the halls are in the other buildings.

• Show your card on the way in and out.
• Silence: no phone calls, and no food or drink anywhere in the building.
• Coats and big bags go to the cloakroom, and you need a librarian's OK to bring your own books in.

The rules say nothing about laptops, so ask when you register.

The Mediatheka libraries

The city runs three big modern libraries called Mediatheka, in Vake Park, Varketili and Nadzaladevi, with Georgian and English books, computers and quiet tables; they're part of a network of 14 municipal libraries. One membership card works at all three: ₾20 a month, with cheaper cards for students and for longer periods. They usually open 11:00–20:00 and close on Mondays and public holidays. The Vake Park one can fill up with students.

University reading halls

University libraries are mainly for their own students. Tbilisi State University is the exception: guests can use its reading halls with an ID, and its rules allow laptops. Coats and bags go to the cloakroom, and you swap your ID for a numbered desk badge. The main hall is in Building I at 1 Chavchavadze Avenue, open on weekdays and Saturdays; its own pages give different hours, so check before you go. Ilia State University's reading hall on Cholokashvili Street and the Free University's library in Digomi stay open until 21:00 on weekdays, but neither publishes a policy for visitors, and the Georgian American University's library is only for its own students and partner universities.

Other quiet places

• Auditoria in Vera, a bookshop café with a work area upstairs.
• Prospero's Books on Rustaveli Avenue, a bookshop with a café: sockets at most tables, and the Wi-Fi code comes with your drink. Open 9:30–20:30.
• The Biblusi bookshops on Chavchavadze Avenue, Kostava Street and Rustaveli Avenue have reading corners, better for a book than a laptop.
• The Goethe-Institut's library on Zandukeli Street lends books with a card that costs ₾25 a year; bring your passport.

When you need to talk

Libraries are silent. For calls, group work or late nights, go to a café or a coworking space: the best cafés to work from, the cheapest coworking and 24/7 coworking. For a study group, book a room by the hour: meeting rooms in Tbilisi.

When it's busiest

University exams fill the reading halls from mid-January to early February and from mid-June to mid-July, and the national university entrance exams take up most of July. In those weeks, come early.

Questions people ask

Can foreigners use the National Library of Georgia?

Yes. Anyone 14 or older gets a free reader card with a passport, valid for five years.

Where can I study for free in Tbilisi?

In the National Library's reading halls, with the free reader card. Tbilisi State University's reading halls also take guests with an ID.

Is there a library open late in Tbilisi?

The libraries close at 20:00 or 21:00. Later than that, try a 24/7 coworking space: 24/7 coworking in Tbilisi.

Everything else about moving here to work: the digital nomad guide to Tbilisi.