Tool profile
NewsBlur: cost, fit and limits
NewsBlur is a web and mobile feed reader developed by Samuel Clay that lets readers train which stories they see by author, tag and title, with an Ask AI feature and daily briefing on its top paid tiers and a free self-hosted version.
What to know first
NewsBlur is open about how its tiers differ. Free follows 64 sites, Premium at $36 a year raises that to 1,024, Premium Archive at $99 a year adds Ask AI, a daily briefing, story clustering, a full archive, an MCP server and a CLI, and Premium Pro at $29 a month follows 10,000 sites. A free Docker self-host path also exists.
NewsBlur at a glance
| Maker | NewsBlur (founder Samuel Clay named on the about page), Not stated on the vendor pages |
|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes |
| Entry price | $36 per year (Premium) |
| API access | No |
| Category | Best AI RSS Readers in 2026, rank 4 of 13 |
| Website | newsblur.com |
Who NewsBlur is best for
Readers who like to tune their own feed
Training by author, tag, title and full text decides which stories come up, and Premium adds natural language text and image classifiers to that.
Archive-minded researchers
Premium Archive keeps every story searchable forever and clusters duplicate stories, which helps when a topic is covered by many outlets.
Technical readers who want to self-host
The vendor offers a free single-command Docker install, so a reader can run the same software without paying for hosted plans.
NewsBlur plans and pricing
| Plan | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | Follows up to 64 sites with real-time updates, training of stories by author, tag and title, and the iOS and Android apps. New accounts start with a 30-day premium trial. |
| Premium | $36 per year | Follows up to 1,024 sites and adds search, text view, river of news and natural language text and image classifiers for story training. |
| Premium Archive | $99 per year | Follows up to 4,096 sites and adds Ask AI questions, a daily briefing, story clustering, a full archive, an MCP server and a command-line tool. |
| Premium Pro | $29 per month | Follows up to 10,000 sites with all feeds fetched every 5 to 15 minutes, regex training and priority support, plus 10 hours a week of Listen. |
Checked November 2026.
What NewsBlur does
- Intelligence Training
- Mark stories you like or dislike by author, tag, title or full text, and NewsBlur sorts your river accordingly. Classifiers on Premium extend this to natural language text and images.
- Ask AI and daily briefing
- Premium Archive lets you ask AI questions about stories and receive a daily summary of top stories and keywords. The pages do not name the model behind it.
- Story clustering
- Groups duplicate stories across all your feeds, available on Premium Archive, so a news event covered by ten outlets shows as one cluster instead of ten separate items.
- Full archive
- Every story from your feeds is kept and searchable forever on Premium Archive, unlike lower tiers that follow fewer sites and do not list a permanent archive.
- Listen
- Reads stories aloud, with 1 hour a week on Premium Archive and 10 hours a week on Premium Pro. The pricing page lists no listening time on lower tiers.
How NewsBlur handles your data
The privacy page exists at newsblur.com/privacy and the about page names founder Samuel Clay, but hosting region, retention, whether article text goes to an outside model provider and whether customer content trains models were not stated on the pages we read. No certifications are listed. A self-hosted install keeps data on your own server, and the vendor's policy was not checked for AI provider handling of Ask AI requests.
Where NewsBlur falls short in practice
- AI sits on one tier. Ask AI and the daily briefing are listed only on Premium Archive at $99 a year, so a reader who pays $36 for Premium gets trainable classifiers but no chat.
- Site caps by plan. Free follows 64 sites and Premium 1,024, so a reader with a long subscription list is pushed to Archive or Pro. Check your OPML count before choosing.
- No stated data location. Hosting region and retention are not named, and the page flags no public API, so developers and compliance reviewers have to ask before depending on it.
Works with
Alternatives to NewsBlur
NewsBlur: common questions
Which NewsBlur plan includes Ask AI?
Ask AI and the daily briefing are listed on Premium Archive at $99 a year, along with story clustering, the full archive, an MCP server and a command-line tool. Premium at $36 a year has search, text view and classifiers but no Ask AI on the pricing page.
Is there a free NewsBlur plan?
Yes. The free plan follows up to 64 sites with real-time updates, story training by author, tag and title, and the iOS and Android apps. Every new account starts with a 30-day premium trial that needs no credit card, after which the account drops to Free unless you pay.
Can I self-host NewsBlur?
The vendor offers a free self-hosted option that installs with a single command on Docker. That runs the software on your own server, so the hosted plan limits do not apply. The pages do not say whether Ask AI works in a self-hosted setup, so check before relying on it.
What is Intelligence Training in NewsBlur?
It lets you train stories by author, tag, title and full text so NewsBlur surfaces what you like and hides what you do not. Premium adds natural language text and image classifiers. Premium Pro adds regex training, which gives more precise rules for people who know patterns.
How often does NewsBlur refresh feeds?
The pages say Premium Pro fetches all feeds every 5 to 15 minutes. Refresh intervals for Free and Premium are not stated in the text we read. Free also lists real-time updates, so check how fast your key sources arrive during the trial.