Every Kindle has its own email address. Anything sent to it from an address you've approved shows up in your Kindle library. So reading a newsletter on a Kindle comes down to one thing: getting each issue to that address.
There are two ways to do that. You can forward issues yourself, which is free, or have a service do it for you. I run one of those services, Serifize, so take my opinion on the second option with that in mind. The free method below works without it.
Step 1: Find your Kindle's email address
In your Amazon account, open Manage Your Content and Devices → Preferences → Personal Document Settings. Each Kindle and Kindle app is listed with its own address ending in @kindle.com.
In the same section is the Approved Personal Document E-mail List. Amazon ignores email from any address that isn't on it, and it doesn't tell you. If you ever set this up and documents stop arriving, check this list first.
If your Kindle is registered to a store outside the US, do this on that store (amazon.co.uk, amazon.de, amazon.es and so on). The settings only show devices registered to that store.
Step 2a: Forward issues by hand (free)
- Add the email address you'll forward from to the approved list.
- When a newsletter arrives, forward it to your
@kindle.comaddress. - Sync your Kindle after a few minutes.
This works with any newsletter. The downsides: you do it for every issue, and Amazon converts the raw email, so buttons, unsubscribe footers and tracking images often come along with the article. Image-heavy layouts can break.
Step 2b: Forward automatically with a Gmail filter
You can't point a Gmail filter straight at your @kindle.com address, because Gmail makes every forwarding address click a confirmation link first, and a Kindle can't do that. So automatic forwarding needs an address in the middle that can confirm, which is what services like Serifize, Readbetter, KTool and Newsletter to Kindle give you.
The filter itself is the same whichever one you use:
- In Gmail settings, open Forwarding and POP/IMAP and add the service's address as a forwarding address.
- Search Gmail for the newsletter, open the search options, and click Create filter.
- Tick Forward it to, pick the address, and save.
Some searches that work, taken from real issues:
| Newsletter | Gmail search |
|---|---|
| Any Substack | from:substack.com |
| A specific Substack (e.g. Noahpinion) | list:noahpinion.substack.com |
| Money Stuff (Bloomberg) | from:noreply@news.bloomberg.com subject:"Money Stuff" |
| The Morning (NYT) | from:nytdirect@nytimes.com subject:"The Morning" |
| Stratechery | from:email@stratechery.com |
The list: operator is handy for Substack: it matches the newsletter's mailing list, so it catches every section even when they come from slightly different addresses.
Don't turn on "Forward a copy of incoming mail" on the Forwarding page. That forwards all of your email to the service.
Step 2c: Skip forwarding for new subscriptions
If you're subscribing to something new, subscribe with the service's address instead of your own. Issues go straight to your Kindle with no filter at all. Keep paid subscriptions on your own email and use a filter for those, since the subscription is tied to the address you paid with.
What it costs
Forwarding by hand is free. Automatic services charge somewhere between $36 and $100 a year for unlimited newsletters; I keep a comparison with each one's current prices. Several have a free tier of 3 to 25 newsletters a month, which is enough to see whether you like reading newsletters on a Kindle before paying anything.
If nothing shows up
Check these, in this order:
- The sending address isn't on the approved list, or it's on the list for a different Amazon store than the one your Kindle is registered to.
- The
@kindle.comaddress belongs to a different device. A new or replaced Kindle gets a new address, and Amazon keeps accepting mail at the old one without delivering it anywhere you'll see. - The document failed to convert. Amazon emails the sender when this happens, so check the inbox of whatever address sent it.
The Docs tab in Manage Your Content and Devices lists everything Amazon received, even if it never reached your device, which helps tell the first two apart.
