Find out how people get past The New York Review of Books paywall, so they can read all its online content for free.
They don't even have to register for a free account with nybooks.com just to read one free article.
Currently The New York Review of Books uses a hard paywall.
But users can register for a single free article before requiring a paid subscription for full access.
Welcome to another post from The DiGiztal Bypass Paywalls Tips series.
This is an updated post, because my earlier tips do not cannot bypass The New York Review of Books paywall anymore.
By the way, the 12 Feet Ladder site is not high enough to get over its digital barrier.
When you click on any of its articles, it only shows a paragraph of two, then the text starts fading off...
Then it followed with its subscription details, and also requesting you to register for a free account to read just that particular article.
This post is for informational purposes.
All these tips are found online and i just curated them in this post.
You get to read every article of every issue; from the February 1, 1963 issue right up to the latest copy free of charge.
Imagine, sixty years of free The New York Review of Books back issues to today.
How to bypass The New York Reviews of Books paywall
These techniques work for both Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox browsers.
1. Bypass Paywalls Clean extension
Install the free browser extension and you can read all The New York Review Of Books articles for free.
It is s still the most popular and effective paywall remover around.
How does it work: It employs different techniques to circumvent paywalls, such as modifying headers, spoofing user agents, or accessing cached versions of pages.
It can also clear or manipulate the cookies that track your free article count limit.
This browser extension could also block the JavaScript and or CSS that display the overlays which hide away the content.
For Google Chrome browser, refer to this: Install Bypass Paywalls Clean extension for Chrome tutorial.
For Mozilla Firefox browser, refer to this: How to install Bypass Paywalls Clean extension for Firefox tutorial.
2. Archive.Today
You can also use the web archiving site Archive.Today to unblocked The New York Review of Books article.
Go to Archive.Today.
Paste the article URL in the space provided under "My url is alive and I want to archive its content".
Next click the "save" button.
If the article has been archived, it will state there on the site together with the snapshot of the article.
If not, it will start archiving, or you have to archive it.
Once it has finishing archiving, you can view the complete article.
This is an example of the archived article, "What do you expect?" by Gavin Francis from the June 26, 2025 issue.
In fact, you can check whether a particular article has been archived by pasting the article URL at this bottom space provided.
Then click the "search" button.
How does it work: Archive.Today can bypass some paywalls due to the way it captures and stores web pages.
Its crawler takes a snapshot of the static version of the web page, before the paywall is fully loaded.
Probably it can bypass the JavaScript which tracks the number of views and display restrictions.
Another way is Archive.Today ignores the cookies and session data that track the number of articles the reader has viewed.
Find out more how to use Archive.Today to bypass paywalled articles for free.
3. Textise
Another simple way to read The New York Review of Books without an account.
But this method, you can only view the full text article, and no picture at all.
This is what you do:
Go to Textise site.
Paste the paywalled article URL it in the box provided.
Click on the "Textise" button.
How does it work: By disable the JavaScript that controls the display overlays, pop-up windows, blur content, or track your reading limits.
When Textise is converting the page to a text format, it will likely remove the HTML/CSS overlays, as they are considered "non-essential" to the core text content.
Another reason is Textise processes the webpage on its own servers.
The New York Review of Books site does not has your browser's cookies and local storage, which it uses to track your visits and free article counts.
In other words, the website does not have your usage record, thus you can get off scot-free, so to speak.
For more detail, read up "How to bypass paywalls with Textise".
4. Txtify.it
This tool is very similar to Textise.
It converts webpages to plain clean page with just the article in plain text, sans the extraneous elements.
Txtify.it works just like Textise to get through to the locked content.
Refer to this post, "How to get over paywalls with Txtify.it".
These are the methods that can bypass The New York review of Books paywall.
NOTE: These methods may not involve direct hacking or unauthorized access, they can still violate anti-circumvention laws and terms of service. Consider using the legal and ethical ways to access paywalled web articles.
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DISCLAIMER: This post is for educational purposes only. It aims to help you better understand web technologies and digital security. It does not endorse breaking website rules or illegal activity. Use responsibly; the author is not liable for misuse or legal issues.