About Instapaper
Instapaper is the simplest Pocket replacement in this group: save, read, archive. It is one of the oldest read-later services, and the free plan is enough for most people. Judge it by the service rather than the extension, which has not been updated since late 2024.
You save a page, it strips the clutter and you read it in a clean view on the web, iPhone, iPad or Android. The free plan saves unlimited articles, videos and pages and lets you organise them into folders. Premium adds full-text search, a permanent archive that keeps a copy if a page disappears, a PDF reader, unlimited notes, Kindle integration and text-to-speech on mobile. Free accounts are capped at 5 notes a month.
Instapaper is run by Instant Paper, Inc. It was owned by Pinterest for two years and went independent in 2018, according to press coverage of the time, and we found no later change. The extensions work for many people, but they have not been updated since November 2024 and some 2026 Chrome reviews report failed saves. We found no Safari or Edge extension. If the extension matters to you, test it before moving a whole library across.
Pros and cons
- Free plan saves unlimited articles, videos and pages and syncs across web, iOS and Android
- Premium adds full-text search, a permanent archive and unlimited notes
- A long track record, now independent of Pinterest
- API access for third-party apps
- Extensions not updated since November 2024, and some 2026 reviews report failed saves
- Free accounts are limited to 5 notes a month
- Closed source, with no Safari or Edge extension we could confirm
Permissions
On Firefox it asks for storage, the active tab, context menus and access to all websites, plus specific access to Twitter, X, Hacker News and Lobsters pages. The Chrome listing says it handles website content.
