Getting Started at Podcast Later: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Lifelike Audio Articles

So you're ready to get started at Podcast Later. Excellent! Of course, using our service is simple to use, but to get the most out of it, there are a couple of steps you should take.

First, you will need to create an account and choose a plan. Our plans start for as little as $5 a month. Some folks have asked why we don't have a free plan. I'll talk more about that below. But suffice it to say, for now, if you want to use the service, you have to have a plan.

As soon as you have a plan, you can start saving articles directly on the website and listening to them through your browser. But as if the name didn't say it all, Podcast Later is optimized for podcast delivery. Once you set up your account, you'll want to head over to follow your private podcast.

Next, it's time to start importing articles you've been planning on reading. Head over to Instapaper, Pocket, look in your bookmarks or however you're saving articles you're planning on getting back to. Copy the URL and enter it on the Your Saves page. Be sure to use the original URLs for the article, not the URL of your management site, such as Instapaper or wherever.

After you've saved a couple of articles, they should start to appear in your podcast player. Depending on which software you're using for your podcast player, they may appear right away, or it might take a while. Most podcast players have a way to refresh the feed, which will speed up the sync process. Often, you do this by opening the podcast and then pulling down to refresh on your phone.

The final step is to put Podcast Later at your fingertips. Head over to our install page, click on the icon for your browser, and install our privacy-focused web extension. Then, as you browse the web, when you find an article you want to hear on your podcast player, just click the icon in your web browser. Everything will happen seamlessly behind the scenes for you. If you don't see the Podcast Later icon, you might have to go to your extensions menu and say pinned toolbar or something along those lines.

Parting thoughts: Why don't we have a free plan?

We would like to offer a free plan. But one of the fundamental premises of this service is that it only works if you have truly high quality audio. I've used other services with a "read this article to me" type of feature. And the ones that are free are almost always awful. For example, Instapaper's reading features cannot be listened to for more than 30 seconds without wanting to poke your ears out. Using cutting-edge AI models is expensive. That's why the service is so great. It's also why we don't offer a free tier.

Now, if you're ready to get started, head over to our Getting Started Guide. It'll walk you through each of the steps.