How to send Instapaper articles to your Kindle

Instapaper can send your unread articles to a Kindle automatically, as a digest, on a daily or weekly schedule. The setup is a swap of two email addresses between instapaper.com and Amazon, and almost every "it never arrived" problem comes down to one of those two addresses. This page walks through the setup as Instapaper documents it today, what needs the paid plan, and how to fix the usual failures.

What you need

• An Instapaper Premium subscription. Instapaper's feature table lists "Kindle integration" under Premium only, and its Kindle documentation marks both the scheduled digest and the send-it-now digest as Premium features. On the free plan you can save and read without limit, but nothing goes to the Kindle.
• A Kindle device or Kindle app signed in to your Amazon account. Each one has its own Send to Kindle email address, which you will find on Amazon's Manage Your Content and Devices page.
• A computer or a browser with both sites open. Instapaper's Kindle settings live on the web at instapaper.com/user, and Amazon's live under Preferences on Manage Your Content and Devices.

Step 1: copy your Instapaper sending address

1. Sign in at instapaper.com and open instapaper.com/user.
2. Scroll to the Kindle section.
3. Copy your Instapaper email address for Kindle. It looks like kindle.xxxxx@instapaper.com, with your own string in the middle. This is the address Instapaper will send from.

Step 2: approve that address on Amazon

Amazon only delivers documents that come from addresses you have approved, so this step is the one that cannot be skipped.

1. Go to Amazon's Manage Your Content and Devices page and open the Preferences tab.
2. Scroll to Personal Document Settings.
3. Under Approved Personal Document E-mail List, choose Add a new e-mail address.
4. Paste the kindle.xxxxx@instapaper.com address from step 1 and select Add Address.

While you are there, scroll up to Send-to-Kindle E-Mail Settings and copy the @kindle.com address of the Kindle you want the digests to reach. If you have several devices and apps, each has its own address; pick the one you actually read on.

Step 3: give Instapaper your Kindle address

1. Back on instapaper.com/user, in the Kindle section, paste the username part of your Kindle address (everything before the @) into the box.
2. Choose the matching domain from the dropdown. Instapaper lists kindle.com, kindle.cn and others, so make sure it matches the address Amazon showed you.
3. Save.

Step 4: choose a schedule

1. Tick Send my Unread articles to my Kindle automatically.
2. Choose your delivery frequency: daily or weekly.
3. Click Save Kindle Preferences.

From then on, Instapaper bundles the articles still in your Unread list and sends them on that schedule. Read or archive articles in Instapaper and they drop out of the next bundle.

Send a digest right now

You do not have to wait for the next scheduled run. Instapaper documents two ways to send a digest on demand (both Premium):

• On the web: on instapaper.com/user, select Kindle in the left menu, then under Send Articles to Kindle Immediately click Send Articles Now.
• In the iOS app: tap the ... menu in the upper right and choose Kindle Digest. A "Sent to Kindle" message confirms it.

Instapaper says the digest appears in your Kindle app under From your library. On a Kindle device, look in your library once it has synced.

Digest or single article?

Instapaper's main Kindle feature is the digest: one document holding several articles, built from your Unread list, whether on a schedule or sent by hand. That suits a Kindle well, because one bundle is easier to find than a dozen separate documents.

Sending one article on its own is documented for the Android app only. Instapaper's Android 5.0 release in April 2024 brought back Send to Kindle for individual articles, and it too is limited to Premium subscribers. On the web and iOS, the documented route is the digest.

Amazon's limits still apply

Instapaper hands the digest to Amazon's Send to Kindle service, so Amazon's rules decide whether it gets through:

• An email can carry at most 25 attachments and 50 MB in total.
• Your approved list can hold up to 15 sending addresses.
• The Kindle has to be online. Amazon keeps trying to deliver for up to 60 days, so a digest that arrives after you turn Wi-Fi back on is normal.
• Send to Kindle is for personal, non-commercial use, and Amazon emails a throttle warning when too many messages come from one address.

When nothing arrives

Work down this list; the first two account for most cases.

1. The sender is not approved. Amazon's error list calls this an unapproved sender, and it emails you once to say the document was refused. Open Amazon's Approved Personal Document E-mail List and check that the exact kindle.xxxxx@instapaper.com address is there, with no typo.
2. The Kindle address is wrong. On instapaper.com/user, compare the username and the domain dropdown with what Amazon shows under Send-to-Kindle E-Mail Settings. A digest sent to an app you never open, or to a device you no longer own, is "delivered" and still invisible to you.
3. Premium lapsed. Both the scheduled and the manual digest need an active Premium subscription.
4. There was nothing to send. The digest is built from your Unread list. If everything is read or archived, there is no digest.
5. The Kindle is offline. Turn on Wi-Fi, turn off airplane mode, and sync. Amazon retries for 60 days.
6. It arrived and you are looking in the wrong place. In the Kindle app, check From your library; on a device, sync and look through your library.

If the digest arrives but is missing an article, the article was probably saved after the last digest was built, or it is already marked read.

If you would rather not pay for Premium

Amazon's own Send to Kindle is free and takes individual articles: the Send to Kindle extension for Chrome sends a web page to your Kindle, and anything on your approved list can email a file to your Kindle address. It has no automatic digest, so you send each piece yourself. Pocket to Kindle is gone: how to get articles onto a Kindle now compares that route with Instapaper and Readwise Reader, and The best read-it-later apps covers the apps more broadly.

Common questions

Is Instapaper's Kindle feature free?

No. Instapaper's own feature table puts Kindle integration under Premium, and its Kindle documentation labels the scheduled digest, the manual digest and Android's single-article send as Premium features.

How often does Instapaper send to Kindle?

Daily or weekly, your choice, once the automatic option is on. You can also send a digest at any time from the web or the iOS app.

Which Kindle email should I use?

The Send to Kindle address of the device or app you read on, from Amazon's Send-to-Kindle E-Mail Settings. Instapaper asks for the username part and the domain separately, so check both.

Do I have to approve Instapaper every time?

No. Once kindle.xxxxx@instapaper.com is on your Approved Personal Document E-mail List, every digest from it is accepted. You only need to touch the list again if Amazon tells you a sender was refused.

Can I send Instapaper articles to a Kobo instead?

Yes. Instapaper documents a direct Kobo integration under its eReaders section, which does not go through email at all.

If the Kindle is not really the point

Some people set up Kindle delivery because the Kindle is where reading happens; others do it because they want long articles away from a bright screen and the Kindle is the nearest thing to hand. If you are in the second group, Offprint is a plainer version of the same idea: you text it a link whenever you find something worth reading, and your saves become a printed magazine mailed to your door, with nothing to convert or sync. For one article on paper today, How to print an article without ads has the steps.