# Instapaper

> Save and read web articles offline with a clean, customizable interface and text-to-speech. (iPhone/iPad app by Instant Paper, Inc..)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/instapaper/id288545208 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Instant Paper, Inc.](https://appshunter.io/developer/284942716)
- Category: News, Productivity
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Rating: 4.60/5 from 3,532 App Store ratings · 1,362 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 26.0 · 49 MB
- Languages: Russian, American English, Dutch, European Spanish, Italian, Korean, German (Germany), Polish, European Portuguese, Chinese (Traditional, Taiwan) and 4 more
- Released: 2019-02-12
- Data updated: 2026-09-04
- Monetization: free with in-app purchases
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/instapaper/id288545208/reviews.md

## What is Instapaper?

Instapaper is the simplest way to save and store articles for reading: offline, on-the-go, anytime, anywhere, perfectly formatted. 

Instapaper for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch provides a mobile-optimized text view that makes reading Internet content a clean and uncluttered experience. Instapaper also enhances the standard reading experience with features like text-to-speech.

Instapaper has been inducted into the iPhone and iPad Hall of Fame, received Macworld Editor's Choice Award, and has also been featured in publications including Wired, TIME, Daring Fireball, and The Verge, among others.

Core Features:
- Strip away all clutter and save the content of web pages into iOS-optimized formatting.
- Read anywhere! No internet, no problem: access your articles on airplanes, subways, elevators, or Wi-Fi-only devices away from Internet connections. 
- Save to Instapaper from other iOS applications with one tap.

Additional Features:
- Control every aspect of your reading experience with a variety of font, color themes, and spacing options. 
- Find that great quote you want to remember and share? Instapaper makes it easy to highlight  and add notes to text in any article.
- Have your Instapaper articles narrated to you with text-to-speech. Just turn up the volume on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and relax!
- Sort your list of articles by popularity, date, and article length.
- Folders for easy organization.

Instapaper also offers an optional Instapaper Premium subscription for $5.99/month or $59.99/year. With Instapaper Premium you receive:

- Full-text search for articles in your account
- Unlimited highlights and notes.
- Text-to-speech Playlist to seamlessly listen to multiple articles.
- Unlimited use of the speed reading feature to help you get through articles up to 3x faster.

On sign up for Instapaper Premium, payment will be charged to your Apple ID account at the confirmation of purchase. The subscription automatically renews unless it is canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. You can manage and cancel your subscriptions by going to your App Store account settings after purchase.

Terms of service: https://www.instapaper.com/terms 
Privacy policy: https://www.instapaper.com/privacy

## Key features

- Save web articles for offline reading
- Clutter-free reading experience
- Text-to-speech narration
- Customizable fonts and themes
- Highlighting and note-taking
- Article organization with folders

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**Subscriptions**

| Subscription | Price | Period |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Instapaper Premium | $5.99 | per month |
| Instapaper Premium | $59.99 | per year |


## Chart rankings

- #86 in Top Grossing · News (US App Store)

## What do users think of Instapaper?

Overall sentiment: neutral

**Pros**

- 🚀 Efficient reading experience
- 👍 Clean, minimalist design
- 💡 Useful features like highlighting and notes
- 🚀 Seamless integration with various platforms
- 👍 Reliable and stable app

**Cons**

- 🐛 Bugs and crashes
- 🔒 Concerns about data privacy and GDPR compliance
- 💰 Subscription price increase
- 🔍 Unreliable search functionality
- 🚫 Inability to delete account

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Speak feature freezes on most articles
- Pagination issues causing text to be cut off
- Folders and archives disappearing
- Inability to save articles from certain websites
- Subscription not unlocking premium features

**Most requested features**

- Add support for tables and charts
- Improve text-to-speech quality
- Implement a 'go back to beginning of article' feature
- Add support for EPUB files
- Introduce a 'random article' feature

## Recent user reviews (10 of 1,362)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/instapaper/id288545208/reviews.md

### 4/5 — 80% of the time, it works every time

*2026-08-12, version 9.4.1*

Instapaper mostly works great! I often use it to transfer articles to my Kobo. It often misses images, which isn’t usually a big deal. It usually fails to import academic articles, especially those that I have access via a redirect to my University’s library. It also tends to split lines in half after the first few pages of reading. It will show the top half of the letters in a line on one page, and then the bottom half of those letters on the next page. Other than these relatively small issues, it is working well for me!

### 4/5 — Used to love the app, not the newest update

*2026-08-01, version 10*

I updated the app on my ipad, but I'm so disappointed with it that I have decided not to update my iphone.  As other people have said, the new font is too small, and I haven't found a way to change the font.  Second, I can't find a way to share an article via email.  At least on the ipad, the share option is missing.  Please add this back!

### 5/5 — Excellent Pocket alternative

*2026-07-31, version 10*

Current review: The latest update made the type too small for the list of saved stories.  Please bring back the larger type size for the list of saved stories.                                                       Earlier review: Now that Pocket is closing shop,  I needed an alternative.  I like to find music on my iPad by listening to YouTube videos in the Brave browser.  When I would find an album that I might want to purchase, I would save it to Pocket, open Pocket on my Mac, click on the YouTube video, and then watch the video in the Brave browser on my Mac which is connected to my home stereo music system.  Now I can use Instapaper instead of Pocket, and it works perfectly just like Pocket.  Nice!  I am so happy about how well Instapaper works now.

### 1/5 — Removed random article selection

*2026-07-31, version 10*

The new version brings smaller fonts, and ruined the sculpt to select a random article through an iOS shortcut

### 5/5 — Great update

*2026-07-28, version 10*

The new 10.0 update makes everything I love about Instapaper even better. The new UI makes affordances clearer. The new fonts are thoughtfully chosen. And article counts in the menu tell me just how many articles I haven’t read yet! Great work as ever; I’m proud to be a subscriber.

### 2/5 — lacking export

*2026-07-25, version 9.4.1*

why is it so difficult to export articles? should be an option to switch storage to a user accessible folder in the iOS files app

### 4/5 — Bring Costs Down, Please!

*2026-07-19, version 9.4.1*

The cost per year to store some small text files, I just don't see how the cost is worth it. It's a shame, too, since many of us have tons of paid but unused cloud storage on plans like Google Drive, iCloud, etc, which would hardly feel the impact of storing the metadata associated with highlights and very small text comments.

I know that the ongoing cost is for this service effectively being a mirror of the readable internet (which is very admirable, and I think underappreciated service provided by sites like archive.org). But personally, I'm fine with only having my local copy of article data for a significantly reduced cost. Or perhaps they could create a middle tier that blends the benefits of medium-term storage, and upselling to the archive.org promise of trying to mirror websites forever.

I just love the reading experience this app provides and would really recommend it if I could buy the app for $10-20 and had the option to bring my own storage to avoid a subscription cost.

### 5/5 — Probably the most valuable iOS app I use

*2026-07-19, version 9.4.1*

It downloads articles from an IFTTT RSS feed I set up more than a decade ago for reading them when I'm in questionable cell reception. Period. That's all I want it to do and it never fails. I use Instapaper dozens of times a day and it's amazing how well it works. The one or two times I've had an issue the developers, who are maybe three people, are courteous, friendly, and extremely helpful. Download this, you will not regret it. You'll be happy that you did.

### 1/5 — Ужас

*2026-07-14*

Поделие уровня пятиклассника, очень устаревшее приложение с минимальнейшим набором функций и подпиской 500р/мес. Вы обезумели там что ли? Может сделаете нормальный, современный, красивый и качественный продукт сначала, а потом уже будете просить заслуженные 199р/мес?

### 1/5 — Not working with the Economist app

*2026-07-10, version 9.4.1*

Serious problems synching with the Economist app. Some articles do not appears. The ones that do, cannot be read because only the headline is present.

## Frequently asked questions about Instapaper

### What does Instapaper do?

Instapaper allows you to save articles from the internet to read later. It strips away website clutter, presenting content in a clean, mobile-optimized format. You can access your saved articles offline, making it ideal for reading on the go or in areas with no internet connection.

### What are the key features of Instapaper?

Key features include saving web pages for offline reading, a distraction-free reading view, text-to-speech narration to listen to articles, highlighting and note-taking capabilities, and folder organization for your saved content. You can also customize font styles, themes, and spacing.

### How much does Instapaper cost?

Instapaper offers a free version with core saving and reading features. An optional Instapaper Premium subscription is available for $5.99/month or $59.99/year, which unlocks features like full-text search, unlimited highlights, a text-to-speech playlist, and faster speed reading.

### What devices is Instapaper compatible with?

Instapaper is available for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. The app is designed to provide a seamless reading experience across these iOS devices.

### When would I use Instapaper?

You would use Instapaper to save interesting articles you find online but don't have time to read immediately. It's perfect for commutes on public transport, flights, or any situation where internet access is unreliable. It also helps declutter your browsing by letting you save content for focused reading later.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 10.0.1 — 2026-08-13

* Increase article list font size on iPad.
* Fix section list always showing on iPad landscape after navigating back from reader view.
* Fix iPad grid view layout issues when switching between apps.
* Fix open random article on iPhone.
* Move Print option into share sheet.
* Other minor fixes and improvements.

### 10 — 2026-07-28

Instapaper 10 is a major update. We've adopted Liquid Glass, redesigned large parts of the app, added new features, and made many performance improvements.

Sections Menu

* Section counts now appear everywhere, and can be turned off in Settings > Behavior > Section Counts.
* Folders and Tags can now be sorted by name, newest, oldest, or count.
* iPad improvements, including a side-by-side list and menu view in landscape, and full Liquid Glass support in Reader.

Article List

* Redesigned article list, including a new Condensed Mode and typography options (serif, sans-serif, and accessibility). Configure in Settings > Appearance.
* A new swipe action moves articles to the top of your list. Set it up in Settings > Behavior > Swipe Actions.
* Playlists are now created automatically from your full article list. You can still build one from selected articles via "..." > Select.

Reader

* Four new reading fonts: Literata, New York, Open Sans, and Atkinson Hyperlegible.
* You can now choose what opens when you tap an article — Reader View (the one you know and love), Web View, the in-app browser, or your default browser. Configure in Settings > Behavior > Article View.

New Features

* Introducing the Instapaper widget! Add it to your Home Screen to see your Currently Reading or Recently Saved articles.

Performance

* Faster article downloads and more reliable background sync, with a number of fixes across the board.

### 9.4.1 — 2025-12-15

* Fix issue with iPad going fullscreen when auto-fullscreen disabled.

### 9.4 — 2025-12-04

* Introducing AI Voices: high-quality, streaming text-to-speech voices. We are launching 17 voices across 8 languages including English, Chinese, French, Italian, Japanese, Hindi, Spanish, Portuguese. More voices and language support to follow!
* Redesigned text-to-speech as a floating player throughout the application. You can easily expand the player to navigate to Playlist, select different voices, or manage articles while listening.
* Improved play/pause from AirPods and handling audio interruptions.
* Fixed issues with YouTube embeds.
* Other minor fixes and improvements.

### 9.3.1 — 2025-08-08

* Fix saving from Chrome.

## Apps similar to Instapaper

| App | Rating | Price | Category |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [NetNewsWire: RSS Reader](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/netnewswire-rss-reader/id1480640210) | 4.8 (877) | Free | News |
| [Newsify: RSS Reader](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/newsify-rss-reader/id510153374) | 4.6 (4,442) | Free | News |
| [Overcast Podcast App](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/overcast-podcast-app/id888422857) | 4.5 (47,578) | Free | News |
| [Reeder.](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/reeder/id6475002485) | 4.3 (855) | Free | News |
| [Flipboard: The Social Magazine](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/flipboard-the-social-magazine/id358801284) | 4.7 (328,699) | Free | News |
| [feeeed: rss reader and more](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/feeeed-rss-reader-and-more/id1600187490) | 4.8 (1,473) | Free | News |

## Related topics

[read later](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/read-later) · [instapaper](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/instapaper) · [save articles](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/save-articles) · [chapters texting](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/chapters-texting) · [article reader](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/article-reader) · [offline reader](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/offline-reader) · [archive texts](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/archive-texts) · [attention play](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/attention-play) · [uidchecker](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/uidchecker) · [goodlinks](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/goodlinks) · [read articles](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/read-articles) · [wallabag](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/wallabag) · [Readwise](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/readwise) · [faster text](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/faster-text) · [save for later](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/save-for-later)

---

*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-04.*