Glasp vs Readwise

Glasp

• Students and researchers collecting quotes from articles and PDFs
• People who send their highlights to Notion, Obsidian or Readwise
• Viewers who want quick summaries of long YouTube videos

Readwise

• Kindle and ebook readers who want to see their highlights again
• People who send reading notes to Notion, Obsidian or a similar app
• Readers who want articles, RSS, newsletters and PDFs in one app

Glasp

• Highlights are public by default; private highlights require the Pro or Unlimited plan.
• AI features are metered on every plan, and Free allows 3 basic YouTube summaries a day and 20 AI chat credits a month.
• The 40% student discount covers only the yearly Pro plan and needs a .edu or .ac email address.
• The pricing page marks the Pro and Unlimited subscriptions as recurring and non-refundable.

Readwise

• There is no free plan: a paid subscription is needed once the 30-day trial ends.
• Readwise Lite leaves out tags and notes, exports to note-taking apps, and the Reader app.
• Reader is not sold on its own; it comes with the full Readwise plan at $9.99 per month billed annually.
• Desktop apps are listed for Mac and Windows only, with no Linux app mentioned.

Glasp

Web, PDF and YouTube highlighting

The browser extension highlights text on web pages, PDFs and YouTube transcripts in several colors, with notes and tags, and the highlights stay marked on the original page.

AI summaries

Summarizes YouTube videos, web articles and PDFs with models such as ChatGPT, Claude, Mistral AI and Gemini. Free accounts get 3 basic YouTube summaries a day.

Public profiles and following

Highlights are collected on a Glasp page that is public by default, and following other readers shows what they are saving. Private highlights need a paid plan.

Imports and exports

Imports highlights from Kindle, Readwise, Instapaper, Pocket, Medium and Hypothesis. Markdown, HTML, CSV and JSON exports and a daily sync to Notion are included on every plan.

Read later and mobile apps

The iOS and Android apps add a reader view and a read-later library for videos, articles and PDFs alongside highlighting and summaries.

Audio transcription and PDF chat

Uploaded audio files are transcribed and PDFs can be questioned in a chat, each within a monthly allowance: 30 minutes and 20 messages on the Free plan.

Readwise

Daily Review

A daily selection of past highlights, delivered by email and in the app and timed with spaced repetition so older passages come back around.

Highlight import

Syncs highlights from Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, Instapaper and other listed sources, and captures passages from paper books by photographing the page.

Export to note-taking apps

Sends highlights to Notion, Obsidian, Evernote, Roam, Logseq and other listed apps, or to Markdown and CSV. Exports are part of the full plan.

Reader

A read-later app for web articles, RSS feeds, email newsletters, PDFs, EPUBs, YouTube transcripts and X threads, with highlighting, full-text search and text to speech.

Ghostreader and chat with highlights

Ghostreader answers questions about a document, defines terms and simplifies passages. Chat answers show the highlights they were drawn from.

MCP server, CLI and API

An MCP server connects Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or another MCP-compatible assistant to the library, alongside a command-line tool and an API.

Glasp

• Free$0

  Unlimited public highlights, 3 basic YouTube summaries a day, 30 PDF uploads and 30 minutes of audio transcription a month.

• Pro$12.50

  per month, billed yearly at $150 ($15 billed monthly)

  Unlimited private highlights and basic YouTube summaries, 1,000 advanced summaries a month, 100 PDF uploads, 500 AI chat credits and all AI models.

• Unlimited$30

  per month, billed yearly at $360 ($36 billed monthly)

  5,000 advanced summaries every 30 days, 25 tracked YouTube channels, unlimited PDF uploads, 2,000 AI credits a month and priority support.

Readwise

• Readwise Lite$5.59

  per month, billed annually ($67.08), or $6.99 billed monthly

  Daily Review by email and app, a searchable highlight library, and syncing of new highlights from all sources.

• Readwise$9.99

  per month, billed annually ($119.88), or $12.99 billed monthly

  The full plan: everything in Lite, plus tags and notes, exports to Notion, Obsidian and other note apps, and the Reader app.

Glasp

• Annual discount

  Two months off with yearly billing

  Pro costs $150 a year against $15 a month, and Unlimited costs $360 a year against $36 a month, which the pricing page labels as 2 months off.

• Education

  40% off Pro for students

  Students who verify a .edu or .ac email address get 40% off the yearly Pro plan, for example $90 instead of $150 a year. Glasp describes it as a limited-time offer.

• Other savings

  A free year of Pro for YouTube creators

  Creators with at least 5,000 subscribers and a video in the last 90 days can get 12 months of Pro free by keeping a Glasp link in a regular video's description.

Readwise

• Annual discount

  Save 21% to 24% with yearly billing

  The pricing page shows a 21% saving on Readwise Lite ($5.59 instead of $6.99 a month) and 24% on the full plan ($9.99 instead of $12.99) when billed yearly.

• Education

  50% off for students and academics

  Students and other members of academia get 50% off by emailing Readwise before subscribing, then subscribing through the Readwise website.

• Nonprofit

  50% off for nonprofits

  The Reader page lists the same 50% discount for nonprofits, educators, military and first responders, requested by email.