Instapaper
Import your Instapaper list from a simple CSV.
Instapaper exports your reading list as CSV. Pile swallows it, summarizes every article and files it. You keep your long reads, highlights included, without staying locked into one app.
Extracted, ready to revisit
- The URL, title and folder of each article, as they appear in the Instapaper CSV columns.
- The save date from Instapaper, carried over as the reference date.
- Highlights exported in the CSV, attached to their passage in the fetched text.
- Personal notes attached to a highlight, indexed with the article.
- The full article content fetched from the URL for full-text summary.
Connect Instapaper
- 1
Export your CSV
In Instapaper settings, request the CSV export of your articles. The file lists your URLs, titles and folders.
- 2
Load it into Pile
Open Connect, pick Instapaper, drop the CSV. Pile reads the columns and shows a preview before import.
- 3
Pile summarizes and tags
Each article is fetched and summarized by your AI. Your Instapaper folders become starting tags.
- 4
Find by meaning
Once imported, your articles are searchable in natural language and exportable to Obsidian or Notion.
Concretely, what for
Leave the Instapaper ecosystem
You want to switch reading apps without abandoning years of saves. Import the CSV into Pile: your articles, folders and highlights are preserved and become searchable without depending on Instapaper.
Find a specific highlight
You remember a passage from a long article, but not the article itself. Pile indexes your highlights in its search engine: search the phrase, Pile surfaces the passage and its context.
Turn folders into themed vaults
Your Instapaper folders become tags in Pile. Convert them into dedicated vaults to organize your library by topic and prepare your weekly reviews.
Practical tips
- Make sure your CSV includes the URL column: that is what Pile uses to fetch content.
- Your Instapaper folders map to tags: turn them into vaults after import.
- Re-import an updated CSV anytime: only new URLs are processed.
If something breaks
Pile rejects my CSV file at import
Instapaper exports UTF-8 with commas as separators. If you opened and saved the CSV in Excel, the separator may have been replaced by a semicolon. Re-export directly from Instapaper without opening the file in Excel first.
My Instapaper folders do not match the tags in Pile
Pile reads the "Folder" column of the Instapaper CSV and maps it as a tag. Articles in the system folders "Unread" or "Archive" get a matching tag. Custom folders become custom tags.
Highlights do not appear on the imported article
Highlights live in a separate CSV file inside the Instapaper export. Drop that file alongside the main CSV: Pile automatically associates them with the matching articles by URL.
Frequently asked
Are my Instapaper highlights imported?
Pile imports articles and their metadata. Highlights present in the export are attached to the matching article.
Which CSV format is accepted?
The standard CSV exported by Instapaper. Pile auto-detects the URL, title and folder columns.
What if a URL is dead?
Pile keeps the title and link even if the page is no longer reachable, so nothing vanishes from your history.
Keep filling your Pile
Ready to connect Instapaper?
Connect your first source in 30 seconds. No card, no account to try.