Pages and passages
Save the whole thing or only the part that matters.
Everything worth reading. Kept together.
FlowReader brings articles, papers, books, feeds, and newsletters into one calm library, then helps you read with focus and remember what mattered.
The whole local reading system, no account.
The reader
One page. Four ways to read.
Four reading modes, exact position restore, highlights and notes, chapter navigation, in-document search, keyboard controls, and everything readable offline.
Normal
Clean, distraction-reduced scrolling, with optional bionic-style emphasis for faster visual scanning.
Pacing
Advances your focus through the text at a controlled speed, with word, sentence, line, or block granularity.
Book
True e-reader pagination with chapter navigation, table of contents, and wide-screen spreads.
RSVP
Rapid serial presentation at a fixed focus point, with chunking and punctuation-aware pacing.
One archive
Different sources, the same reader
Whatever the source, the result is the same: a clean, structured document that remembers where you stopped and belongs to your library.
Files and books
Documents keep their hierarchy, chapters and position.
Feeds and newsletters
Recurring reading arrives without becoming inbox work.
Communities and catalogues
Browse the source, then send what matters to the reader.
Organize · Recall
A library that keeps paying you back
Search across full text, notes, highlights, entities and topics. Reopen the exact passage, see how ideas connect, and ask questions grounded in material you have actually read.
- Collections, tags and Smart Rules that file things for you
- Full-text search across everything, including your own notes
- Entities and topics found in your reading, not typed in by you
Local-first
Your reading stays yours
Your library, reading positions, notes, search index and knowledge graph live on your device. Sync, newsletters and server-side Flow runs sit on top as options. None of them is a prerequisite.
AI runs on your own provider keys or fully local models through Ollama and LM Studio. Keys are stored locally and are never synced. You can export your data at any time.
In practice
Where FlowReader fits
Deep reading
Save the long piece you keep postponing, open it in Book or Pacing mode, and let position restore carry you across a week of short sittings instead of one session you never start.
Research and study
Pull papers from arXiv and articles from the web into one collection, highlight the passages that carry the argument, then search across the full text and your own notes when you write.
Ongoing research and monitoring
Follow feeds and save news-site indexes as headline streams, then ask a Flow to collect from specific publishers, track what changes, or prepare a cited briefing before you open the app.
Technical reading
Read Hacker News and Lobsters without the tab explosion. Archive the linked article in one keystroke and come back to it in the reader with the comments still one view away.
Books and serialized fiction
Import EPUBs and follow Royal Road serials as real books. Chapter-aware progress means you always know where you are, and new chapters arrive as chapters.
Private local reading
Use the whole reader with no account and no network. The library, positions, notes and search index stay on the device, and sync stays off unless you turn it on.
Free and Pro
Free to read. Pro when work moves beyond the device.
Free
€0always
The complete local reading system on this device. No account required.
Start readingFree:
- The reader with all four modes: Normal, Pacing, Book and RSVP
- Exact position restore, highlights, notes, bookmarks
- In-document search and chapter navigation
- The archive with nested collections, tags, filters and bulk actions
- Archive-wide search with passage-level anchors
- Web capture, selections, and imports: PDF, Word, EPUB, Kindle, FB2, text, HTML, RTF, comics
Pro
Pro€7.99per month
Adds Flow, synchronization, newsletters and archive-grounded AI on top of the free reader.
See pricingPro:
- Optional cross-device sync
- Smart Rules: condition-tree automations with optional AI conditions
- Flows: collect from watchlists, track signals and create cited briefings
- Newsletters: private alias addresses with server-side ingestion
- Knowledge graph: entities, topics, bridge items and the explorer
- AI assistant: document and collection chat with citations
Questions worth answering
What is FlowReader?
FlowReader is a local-first reading workspace for long-form content. It captures web pages, papers, books, PDFs, newsletters, feeds and serialized fiction into one library, gives you a reader built for pace and retention, and helps you find what mattered again later.
Which platforms are supported?
FlowReader runs as a browser extension for Chromium browsers and Firefox, and as a desktop application for macOS, Windows and Linux. Both share the same data model and features.
Do I need an account?
No. Every reading surface and content app works with no account at all. An account is only required for optional Pro services backed by servers, such as sync, newsletters and server-side Flow runs.
What works offline?
Everything already saved to your device. Your library, reading positions, notes, highlights and the search index all live locally, so saved items stay readable without a connection. Content that was never fetched cannot be read offline, and local search only covers what your device holds.
What is included for free?
All reading and content apps on the device: the reader with Normal, Pacing, Book and RSVP modes, the archive with collections, tags, filters and archive-wide search, annotations and progress, Hacker News, Lobsters, Royal Road, arXiv, RSS and news indexes, OPDS, imports, themes and local statistics.
What does Pro include?
Pro adds cloud sync, newsletters, Flows, Smart Rules, collection sharing, the knowledge graph and the AI assistant: the automation and intelligence layer, and everything that depends on a server.
Build a reading library you will actually return to
Get the desktop app or the browser extension.