--- title: "Instapaper vs Keep: feature and pricing comparison | Keep" description: "Side-by-side comparison of Instapaper and Keep: features, pricing, strengths, and what to pick for each use case." canonical: "https://keep.md/compare/instapaper-vs-keep" language: "en" --- # Instapaper vs Keep Compare Instapaper and Keep side by side on features, pricing, and the workflows each one is designed for. ### Instapaper A classic read-later app with clean text extraction and distraction-free reading. Free, paid from $5.99/mo - One of the cleanest text extractions in the category - Long track record and stable apps - Email-in works out of the box for forwarding articles and newsletters ### Keep Save anything as Markdown your AI agents can search, including articles, posts, videos, feeds, files, and notes. Free, paid from $5/mo - Everything you save becomes clean Markdown - MCP and CLI search across notes and saved sources - Auto-sync from RSS, YouTube, GitHub, email, and optional X bookmarks ## Feature comparison Here's how Instapaper and Keep compare across the features people actually look for. They share 13 core capabilities; the differences show up in what each tool focuses on. | Feature | Instapaper | Keep | | --- | --- | --- | | Capture and save | | | | Browser extension | ✓Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge | ✓Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave | | Mobile apps | ✓iOS, Android | × | | Save from email | ✓Unique save-by-email address | ✓Forward to in.keep.md | | Save tweets | × | ✓ | | Save YouTube videos | −URL only | ✓With transcripts | | Save GitHub stars | × | ✓ | | Save PDFs | ✓Premium | ✓Converted to markdown | | Save files (docs, spreadsheets) | × | ✓Word, Excel, CSV, HTML, OpenDocument | | Save audio files | × | ✓With Whisper transcription | | Save via API | ✓ | ✓ | | Auto-sync sources | | | | RSS auto-sync | × | ✓ | | YouTube channel sync | × | ✓ | | X bookmarks sync | × | ✓Automatic sync is a $5/month add-on. Manual CSV or JSON import on every plan. | | GitHub stars sync | × | ✓ | | Newsletter inbox sync | −Forward-to-save, not a dedicated inbox | ✓ | | Library and reading | | | | Reader view | ✓ | ✓ | | Offline reading | ✓ | −Partial | | Full-text search | −Premium | ✓ | | Semantic / AI search | × | ✓ | | Highlights | ✓ | ✓Highlight from the extension or from inside the reader, with optional notes; renders inline | | Notes | ✓ | ✓ | | Tags | ✓ | ✓ | | Collections | ✓Folders | ✓ | | Public sharing | × | −Partial | | Full-text RSS extraction | × | ✓ | | AI and agents | | | | Markdown export for AI agents | × | ✓Per-item .md URL | | Bulk markdown export | × | ✓ | | MCP server | × | ✓ | | CLI tool | × | ✓keep npm package | | Claude Code skill | × | ✓ | | AI summaries | × | ✓AI summary and AI tagging on every saved article | | Public API | ✓ | ✓ | | Import and export | | | | OPML import / export | × | ✓Import from and export to any OPML-compatible reader | | Pocket import | ✓ | ✓ZIP, CSV, and legacy HTML exports | | Instapaper import | × | ✓CSV export with folders, archive, and starred state | | CSV / JSON export | ✓HTML + CSV | ✓Export to CSV or JSON. Import plain CSV/TSV plus Omnivore, Raindrop.io, Pinboard, and Wallabag export files. | | Send to Kindle | ✓Premium | ✓EPUB delivered to your Kindle email | | Import Kindle highlights | × | ✓From My Clippings.txt, no Amazon login required | ## Pricing Instapaper is free, paid from $5.99/mo and Keep is free, paid from $5/mo. The tier that fits best usually comes down to how many items you save each month. ### Instapaper Free Unlimited saves, folders, tags, sync across web/iOS/Android, API access. Free Premium Full-text search, permanent archive, PDF reader, unlimited notes, Kindle send, AI voices, speed reading, ad-free. $5.99/mo ### Keep Starter Bookmark saves from the web app and browser extension, plus a limited note library. Free Personal Full-content Markdown, search, sources, automations, MCP, CLI, API, and export. Also available as a one-time lifetime purchase. $10/mo X bookmark sync Optional add-on. Automatic private X bookmark sync. Requires Personal. $5/mo ## Strengths and weaknesses Both tools do their category well, but the specifics differ. Here's what each one is good at and where it tends to fall short. ### What Instapaper does well - One of the cleanest text extractions in the category - Long track record and stable apps - Email-in works out of the box for forwarding articles and newsletters - Tags now work across web, mobile, and extensions - Kindle delivery for long-form reading ### Where it falls short - No RSS subscription workflow - Most of the useful features (search, PDFs, Kindle send) require Premium - No structured markdown export for AI or LLM tooling - No public API for semantic or AI features ### What Keep does well - Everything you save becomes clean Markdown - MCP and CLI search across notes and saved sources - Auto-sync from RSS, YouTube, GitHub, email, and optional X bookmarks - Full markdown export for the whole library - Imports Pocket, Instapaper, Omnivore, Raindrop, Pinboard, Wallabag, OPML, CSV, and JSON - Highlights from the browser extension or the reader - Send saved items to Kindle and import My Clippings.txt ### Where it falls short - No native mobile apps yet ## About Instapaper Instapaper is one of the original read-later apps, still going strong after Betaworks took it back from Pinterest in 2020. The product has always been sharp on one thing: save a web page, read it later in a clean typographic view. Free tier gets you unlimited saves, folders, tags, sync across iOS/Android/web, and a public API. Premium at $5.99/mo or $59.99/yr layers on full-text search, permanent archive, PDF reader, Kindle send, AI voices, and speed reading. Most of the product has shipped in a long tail of small updates rather than big reinventions. The recent wave added tags across every platform, highlights on the open web via the browser extensions, and send-to-Kindle right from the extension. ## About Keep Keep saves articles, posts, videos, feeds, files, and notes as clean Markdown. You can read the library yourself, search it, export it, or let Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, ChatGPT, and other clients use the same context over MCP or CLI. Starter is free for bookmark saves and a limited note library. Personal is $10/month and adds full-content Markdown, search, sources, automations, and agent access. X bookmark sync is a $5 add-on for automatic private bookmark import. ## Start Keep for free Save useful context as Markdown. Search it yourself, or let your agents use it over MCP and CLI. [Start for free](https://app.keep.md/signup?utm_source=keep.md&utm_medium=content&utm_campaign=compare-instapaper-vs-keep) [Browse alternatives](https://keep.md/alternatives) ## Keep exploring ### More Instapaper comparisons - [Instapaper vs Pocket](https://keep.md/compare/instapaper-vs-pocket) ### More Keep comparisons - [Keep vs Readwise Reader](https://keep.md/compare/keep-vs-readwise-reader) - [Keep vs Pocket](https://keep.md/compare/keep-vs-pocket) - [Keep vs Feedly](https://keep.md/compare/feedly-vs-keep) - [Keep vs Inoreader](https://keep.md/compare/inoreader-vs-keep) - [Keep vs Raindrop](https://keep.md/compare/keep-vs-raindrop) ### Browse alternatives - [Instapaper alternatives](https://keep.md/alternatives/instapaper-alternatives)