---
title: "Instapaper vs Pocket: feature and pricing comparison | Keep"
description: "Side-by-side comparison of Instapaper and Pocket: features, pricing, strengths, and what to pick for each use case."
canonical: "https://keep.md/compare/instapaper-vs-pocket"
language: "en"
---

# Instapaper vs Pocket

Instapaper and Pocket were the two defining read-later apps for over a decade. Pocket is now gone (Mozilla shut it down in July 2025); Instapaper is still running under Betaworks and releasing steady updates. If you're here because you used Pocket, this is your natural landing.

Pocket has shut down. If you're choosing today, Instapaper is the live option.

## Short answer

Instapaper is the closest surviving alternative to classic Pocket in feel: clean parsing, a distraction-free reader, mobile apps, and a quiet product that does the job without a lot of bells. If you want more features per month, Readwise Reader or Matter are upgrades. If you want agent-ready markdown, Keep is a different kind of tool.

You can also [try Keep for free](https://keep.md/#pricing) as an alternative to Instapaper and Pocket.

### 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

### Pocket

Shut down

Save articles, videos, and stories from any publication.

Free, paid from $4.99/mo

-   Simple, polished reading experience
-   Strong native apps across iOS, Android, and web
-   Defined the read-later category for over a decade

## Feature comparison

Instapaper and Pocket covered similar ground, but Instapaper went deeper on highlights, Kindle send, and AI voices. Here's how they line up feature by feature.

| Feature | Instapaper | Pocket | Keep |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Capture and save |  |  |  |
| Browser extension | ✓Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge | ✓ | ✓Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave |
| Mobile apps | ✓iOS, Android | ✓iOS, Android | × |
| Save from email | ✓Unique save-by-email address | −Send-to-Pocket address | ✓Forward to in.keep.md |
| Save tweets | × | × | ✓ |
| Save YouTube videos | −URL only | ✓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 | −Premium | ✓ |
| Semantic / AI search | × | × | ✓ |
| Highlights | ✓ | −Premium | ✓Highlight from the extension or from inside the reader, with optional notes; renders inline |
| Notes | ✓ | −Partial | ✓ |
| Tags | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Collections | ✓Folders | × | ✓ |
| Public sharing | × | −Partial | −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 Premium is $5.99/mo or $59.99/yr. Pocket Premium was $4.99/mo, but Pocket has been shut down.

### 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

### Pocket

Free

Save unlimited items, basic offline reading.

Free

Premium

Permanent library, full-text search, unlimited highlights, suggested tags, premium fonts, ad-free.

$4.99/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

Instapaper's strengths are consistency and a focused reading UI. Pocket's were simplicity and Firefox integration. Neither was a power-user AI tool.

### 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 Pocket did well

-   Simple, polished reading experience
-   Strong native apps across iOS, Android, and web
-   Defined the read-later category for over a decade
-   Clean text extraction for most articles

### Where it fell short

-   Pocket was shut down by Mozilla on July 8, 2025
-   Limited search and organization without Premium
-   No structured export for AI tools or LLM workflows
-   Proprietary lock-in; RSS and bulk sync workflows are limited

## Which one should you pick?

### Pick Instapaper if…

You want the Pocket experience to continue. Instapaper is the most direct replacement: simple, fast, good on iOS, Kindle send, full-text search on Premium, and a steady update pace.

### Pocket is no longer an option

Pocket has shut down and is no longer available. Any of the active alternatives is a safer bet.

## 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 Pocket

Pocket launched in 2007 as Read It Later, pioneered the modern read-later category, and was acquired by Mozilla in 2017. For nearly two decades it was the default way to save web articles and read them later on any device, with a clean reader view and optional offline access. Mozilla shut Pocket down on July 8, 2025. All user data was permanently deleted on November 12, 2025. The apps and extensions no longer work, and any integrations built against the Pocket API have stopped. If you still have an export file from before that date, most modern alternatives (Instapaper, Readwise Reader, Raindrop, Matter, Keep) can import it.

## Frequently asked questions

If you exported your Pocket data before November 12, 2025, Instapaper has a dedicated welcome page for Pocket migrants at instapaper.com/pocket and will import your HTML export directly. If you missed the export window, your data is gone.

If you use Kindle delivery, PDF reading, speed reading, or AI voices, yes. If you just want a clean read-later app, the free tier is usable and includes unlimited saves, folders, tags, and sync.

Yes if you mostly want an agent-ready library. Keep saves from the same sources and makes everything available as a markdown URL. It's weaker on reading polish than Instapaper but stronger on AI workflows.

No. Mozilla shut down Pocket on July 8, 2025. All user data was deleted on November 12, 2025. There is no revival planned. Any migration needs to happen to a live alternative.

Both had solid iOS and Android apps. Pocket's was simpler; Instapaper's is tighter on typography and reading UX. For polished iOS mobile reading, Instapaper is still one of the best apps in the category.

Yes, as a Premium feature. You can send individual articles or set up automatic delivery of your unread list. Pocket never had native Kindle integration.

Every account has a personal save-by-email address at instapaper.com/save/email. Forward any article link (or full HTML email) to that address and it lands in your Unread list.

Yes, at Premium. AI voices for text-to-speech and an increasingly capable suite of AI-adjacent features like speed reading. It doesn't have summaries like Readwise Reader or Matter.

Yes on Instapaper. Highlights work on web pages through the browser extension, and on articles in your library. Unlimited notes are Premium-only, but highlights themselves are free.

Wallabag is the main self-hosted read-later option. It takes some setup but covers most of what Instapaper and Pocket did. Omnivore's open-source codebase also exists but is no longer maintained.

## Try Keep instead of Instapaper or Pocket

Save articles, posts, videos, feeds, files, and notes as Markdown your AI agents can search and reuse.

[Start for free](https://app.keep.md/signup?utm_source=keep.md&utm_medium=content&utm_campaign=compare-instapaper-vs-pocket)

[Browse alternatives](https://keep.md/alternatives)

## Keep exploring

### More Instapaper comparisons

-   [Instapaper vs Keep](https://keep.md/compare/instapaper-vs-keep)

### More Pocket comparisons

-   [Pocket vs Keep](https://keep.md/compare/keep-vs-pocket)
-   [Pocket vs Readwise Reader](https://keep.md/compare/pocket-vs-readwise-reader)
-   [Pocket vs Raindrop](https://keep.md/compare/raindrop-vs-pocket)

### Browse alternatives

-   [Instapaper alternatives](https://keep.md/alternatives/instapaper-alternatives)
-   [Pocket alternatives](https://keep.md/alternatives/pocket-alternatives)