Blinkist

About Blinkist

Blinkist is a Berlin app that turns nonfiction books and podcasts into summaries of about 15 minutes, in text and audio. The library has more than 9,000 titles in English, German, Spanish and Portuguese. The free Basic plan gives one title a day. Premium costs €79.99 a year on blinkist.com, or $79.99 to $119.99 a year and from $12.99 a month in the US App Store, with a 7-day free trial on some yearly plans. On Trustpilot Blinkist has 4.3 from 1,539 reviews: 59% give five stars and 29% give one star, mostly over renewals and charges.

Blinkist takes the key ideas of a nonfiction book and writes them up as a short summary called a Blink. Each Blink takes about 15 minutes to read or listen to. Writers and editors produce the Blinks. Human narrators record all new titles, some older ones use AI voices. Blinkist shares revenue with its publishing partners.

Holger Seim, Tobias Balling, Niklas Jansen and Sebastian Klein started the company in Berlin in August 2012. Blinks Labs GmbH was registered in September 2012, and the first app went live in 2013. Investors including Greycroft, e.ventures and Insight Venture Partners put in about $35 million by 2018.

In May 2023 the Australian learning company Go1 bought Blinkist. In April 2026 Seim and Balling bought it back, and each now holds 50%. They plan to grow Blinkist Business, the plan for companies with summaries, learning pathways and group coaching.

History

1. 2012 Four college friends found the company in Berlin in August. Blinks Labs GmbH is registered on 4 September.
2. 2013 The first app goes live with text summaries. A €1.8 million seed round follows in December.
3. 2016 Raises €4 million led by Greycroft and wins the World Summit Award in Learning and Education.
4. 2017 Raises a $9 million Series B from e.ventures and Greycroft. Apple names Blinkist one of its best apps of the year.
5. 2018 Raises $18.8 million led by Insight Venture Partners. The library has more than 2,500 books.
6. 2021 Revenue grows to €47.4 million. Co-founder Niklas Jansen leaves the management board.
7. 2023 Go1 buys Blinkist in May. Holger Seim becomes COO, Learners at Go1.
8. 2024 Revenue reaches about €53 million in the financial year to June 2024.
9. 2025 Adds summaries in Portuguese in June.
10. 2026 Holger Seim and Tobias Balling buy the company back from Go1 in April. New terms of service apply from 1 October.

Blinkist funding and investors

1. December 2013
   Seed €1.8 million

   IBB BeteiligungsgesellschaftMGO Digital VenturesDeutsche Telekom hub:raum

   Source: Unquote, Tech.eu
2. January 2016
   Series A €4 million

   Lead: Greycroft e.venturesIBB BeteiligungsgesellschaftMGO Digital Ventures

   Source: Tech.eu
3. January 2017
   Series B $9 million

   e.venturesGreycroft

   Source: Unquote
4. June 2018
   Series C $18.8 million

   Lead: Insight Venture Partners GreycroftIBB Bete.ventures

   Source: TechCrunch
5. May 2023
   Acquisition by Go1 Amount not disclosed

   Go1

   Source: Blinkist press release
6. April 2026
   Founders buy back the company Amount not disclosed

   Holger Seim, 50%Tobias Balling, 50%

   Source: deutsche-startups.de

Total to 2018 as reported by TechCrunch. Blinkist announced no rounds after the 2018 Series C. Go1 did not disclose the 2023 purchase price, and the price of the 2026 buyback was not published.

Leadership

• HS Holger Seim Co-founder, managing director and co-owner
• TB Tobias Balling Co-founder, managing director and co-owner

The legal notice names Tobias Balling and Holger Seim as directors. They bought the company back from Go1 in April 2026 and hold 50% each.

Content languages

Title counts from the Blinkist help center, which gives 8,000+ Blinks in total. The pricing page and the App Store give 9,000+ titles including podcast summaries. Blinkist adds about 25 titles a week.

Video, blogs and resources

• Blinkist MagazineBook lists and articles from the Blinkist team↗
• Help centerPlans, trials, cancellation and refunds↗
• Press roomPress releases and press contact↗
• Content partnersInformation for authors and publishers↗

Products

• Key idea 1 of 5

  Lost Connections

  ReadListenSend to Kindle
  Blinkist app Summaries of nonfiction books and podcasts to read or listen to in about 15 minutes, with offline mode, Send to Kindle and CarPlay. Open blinkist.com ↗

• Summarize this podcast episode

  Your Extract is ready

  Saved to My Library, My Extracts

  Blinkist AI Part of the Pro plan. Summarizes web pages, podcasts, videos and PDFs in the Blinkist style and saves them as Extracts. Works in the mobile app only. How Blinkist AI works ↗
• 1Effective feedback

  2Time management

  3Building resilience

  Guides Expert-led courses on one topic. Each Guide combines Blinks, original audio, tips and tools such as exercises and quizzes. About Guides ↗
• Live

  TTutor

  AMJL
  Blinkist Live Part of the Platinum plan. Three to four live sessions a month, in English: coaching workshops and talks with authors. Author sessions come with a recording. About Blinkist Live ↗
• Team progress

  Sales

  Support

  Product
  Blinkist Business Blinkist for teams: the full library, AI-built learning pathways, an insights dashboard and optional group coaching. The Team plan covers 5 to 50 people and is billed yearly per seat. blinkist.com/business ↗

How much is Blinkist?

• Basic €0/mo €0, one free title a day
• Premium monthly €12.99/mo €12.99 a month, App Store, Germany
• Lowest monthly price Premium yearly €6.67/mo €79.99 a year, billed every 12 months
• Pro yearly €11.67/mo €139.99 a year, billed every 12 months, with Blinkist AI

Is Blinkist free?

Basic is free: one title a day picked by the editors, the Blink of the Day. Some yearly plans start with a 7-day free trial.

Yearly prices on blinkist.com/pricing for a visitor in the Netherlands on 6 October 2026. The page offered a first-year discount: Premium €63.99, Pro €111.99, then the full price below. The monthly Premium price is from the App Store, Germany. In the US App Store Premium costs $12.99 to $15.99 a month or $79.99 to $119.99 a year, and Pro $139.99 a year. In the UK App Store Premium costs £9.99 to £11.99 a month or £59.99 to £69.99 a year, and Pro £79.99. Platinum adds live sessions and infographics. The public pricing page does not show its price.

• blinkist.com ↗
  1. Open Settings on the website or in the app, in the app tap Manage Subscription
  2. Scroll down to the Danger Zone
  3. Choose Turn off auto-renewal and confirm until the confirmation screen shows
• App Store ↗
  1. Open Settings on the iPhone or iPad and tap your name
  2. Tap Subscriptions
  3. Select Blinkist and tap Cancel Subscription
• Google Play ↗
  1. Open Google Play and tap the profile icon
  2. Choose Payments and subscriptions, then Subscriptions
  3. Select Blinkist and tap Cancel subscription

• Cancel at least 24 hours before the trial or the billing period ends.
• Access stays until the end of the paid period, then the account drops to Basic.
• A first-year discount applies only once. The plan renews at the full price.
• Blinkist cannot cancel App Store or Google Play subscriptions for you.
• A web form at blinkist.com/content/cancellation cancels web subscriptions without logging in.

Refund rules

Money-back guarantee

Full refund within 14 days of the first purchase on the website or Google Play. Write to support@blinkist.com. Renewals are not covered.

App Store

Apple decides on refunds. Blinkist shares usage data with Apple for refund requests.

Germany

After the first year a yearly plan can be cancelled at any time with one month’s notice. Web subscribers get a pro-rata refund for unused months.

EU

14-day legal right of withdrawal. It ends early once you agree that access starts right away.

Blinkist Business

Full refund within 14 days. No refunds after that, auto-renewal can be turned off in Settings.

From the Blinkist help center and the terms of service valid from 1 October 2026, checked on 6 October 2026.

Apps and ratings

• iPhone and iPad4.8 on the App Store, US
• Android4.6 on Google Play, 10M+ downloads
• WebLibrary and reading in the browser, Blinkist AI is app-only
• CarPlayListen to Blinks in the car
• KindleSend Blinks to a Kindle

• 4.8 App Store, United States156,427 ratings
• 4.6 Google Play177,240 ratings
• 4.7 App Store, United Kingdom34,285 ratings
• 4.7 App Store, Germany112,882 ratings

App details, App Store US

Current version

11.35.0, released 5 October 2026

Requires

iOS 18 or later

Size

319.5 MB

Age rating

13+

App Store categories

Education, Books

App languages

English, German, Portuguese, Spanish

Google Play downloads

10M+

Price

Free to download, subscription inside

Is Blinkist worth it?

What users write in reviews, not our rating. Premium costs €79.99 a year on blinkist.com, and the free Basic plan gives one title a day.

Blinkist reviews

• Excellent service, great product

  “It obviously lacks some of the key context and depth of the full titles, but you can’t have it all!”

  Mark · 19 September 2026 · App Store
• Does not stick to chosen interest categories

  “The blinks in the categories of interest to me are great”

  Selina Charles · 4 October 2026 · App Store
• Hi folks

  “So, I cancelled, but the charge went through anyway.”

  Carol Steele · 8 September 2026 · App Store

Latest news

• 2017Apple, Best Apps of 2017
• 2016World Summit Award, Learning and Education

1. 23 April 2026Blinkist founders buy their company back from Go1 ↗
2. 23 April 2026Interview with Holger Seim about the separation from Go1 ↗
3. 5 May 2023Blinkist joins forces with Go1 ↗
4. 15 March 2023Blinkist grows to €47.4 million revenue in 2021 ↗
5. 20 June 2018Blinkist raises $18.8M led by Insight Venture Partners ↗

Contacts and company data

• Support and refundssupport@blinkist.com
• Presspress@blinkist.com
• Help centersupport.blinkist.com
• Cancel a web subscriptionCancellation form
• Authors and publisherscontentpartners.blinkist.com

Legal entity

Blinks Labs GmbH, Revaler Straße 31, 10245 Berlin, Germany

Commercial register

Amtsgericht Charlottenburg, HRB 144222 B

Registered

4 September 2012

VAT ID

DE285882413

Managing directors

Tobias Balling, Holger Seim

Financial year

Ends 30 June

Programs and documentsAffiliate programGift cardsAccessibilityLegal notice

Alternatives to Blinkist

• Headway🇺🇦 Ukraine Book summary app with a daily learning plan. 4.6 from 117K ratings in the US App Store. →
• g getAbstractUnited States Book summaries since 1999 from Lucerne, with 850+ publishers. A third of the Fortune 500 use it, according to getAbstract. ↗
• S ShortformUnited States Book guides founded by Allen Cheng, who started with book analyses he published online. ↗

How we built this profile

1. Sources. Facts come from the company’s own website, press room, imprint and careers page, from Wikipedia, the App Store, Google Play and Trustpilot. Every source is listed on the page.
2. Checks. Kinescope checked every number on 6 October 2026. Prices, ratings and job counts change, and we refresh them with each update.
3. Our words. Descriptions are written by the Kinescope team. Quotes from reviews are marked with the author and source, and we do not rate the company ourselves.
4. Corrections. The company can send new facts or corrections, and we update the profile.

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Comparisons

• Blinkist vs Headway

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