Instapaper Premium Features Now Available for Free to All Users

We all knew that Pinterest's acquisition of Instapaper might result in something interesting for the reading service, but the latest development in this story will turn more than a few heads. Instapaper has announced that the company will now be offering its premium features for free to all of its users.

In its blog post, Instapaper on Tuesday said that as the company is "better resourced" now, it is now capable of offering the best version of its application to its users for free. This means that features like ad-free Instapaper website, full-text search for all articles, unlimited notes, text-to-speech playlists, and unlimited speed reading among others, which were earlier available only to premium subscribers, will now be available to all.

For the existing subscribers of its premium service, Instapaper has announced that it will be offering prorated refunds and will no longer be charging them for their subscription.

"Opening Instapaper Premium is something we've always wanted to do, and we're thrilled to give everyone the very best Instapaper experience," the company said.

Earlier, Instapaper used to charge $2.99 (roughly Rs. 200) per month or $29.99 (roughly Rs. 2,000) per year for premium subscription of its services.

It will be interesting to see how Instapaper now fares against its rival app Pocket as they both provide similar services. Given the better resources available now to Instapaper, it has more than a fighting chance against its counterpart.