Everything you want to know how to read articles behind paywall is in this blog post.
In other words, how to bypass newspaper and magazine paywall websites without subscription.
In short how to read paywall articles for free.
Welcome to the series called DiGiztal Bypass Paywalls Tips.
Duly, you should try the public or university libraries, sign up a free trial, follow on social media, or get them from their RSS feeds and news aggregators.
However, there are many common ways how to get through media site paywalls without subscription:
VPN, proxy services, extensions & add-ons, or Developer Tools.
You can also view archived or cached versions of the webpage, clear browser cookies, reader mode, incognito mode, disable JavaScript or CSS, spoofed Googlebot, etc.
I remember back then, we used the now-discontinued Firebug extension to unlock articles for free.
Currently there are many general online articles how to access locked articles.
They just listed out the number of methods how to remove paywalls to read digital articles .
But they do not state exactly which tip could actually get through which website paywall.
The fact is not all the methods can get around every paywalled websites.
To ensure this is a helpful, reliable and people-first content, I include both the method tutorial together with the websites which can be accessed.
This is the only article, which specified precisely which method, online tool or extension that can bypass the paywall of which website.
All the free ways to unlock paywalled articles tips are based on my personal first-hand experience.
I tried them out to ensure the methods or techniques really work, before I published them here.
As you can see from the list below, an example of the blocked article is included for each tip, whenever it is possible.
They work perfectly at the time of publication.
Many of the earlier suggestions in many Reddit, Quora and Hacker News are out of date and they do not work anymore.
But unfortunately, they are still ranking in the Google search results in 2024.
For instance, the outlive.com, 1ft.io, removing “?gwh=numbers” from the URL, delete everything after .html of URL or anything that starts "&gwh=", or shortened URLs.
I do not include Ladder or 13 Feet Ladder because the installation could be too technical (python, binary, docker) for average users.
Similarly, the method by converting HTML to PDF works, but it's a hassle, and it does not remove that many paywalls.
After all, the nub of the matter, is to bypass paywalls.
By the way, do not fully rely on Perplexity for correct answers to circumventing paywalls.
This is the ultimate guide to bypassing paywalls of publication sites, so you can read the unlimited full articles for free.
In fact, I have the bypass paywall solutions for all the top ten most popular paid subscription news websites in this post.
How to read articles behind paywall
Before I share ways how to read blocked articles for free, let's find out more about the paywall.
What is a paywall and how does it work?
A paywall is a method of restricting or limiting the access to the digital content.
Only users who have a paid subscription or a registered membership are able to view the content behind the paywall.
The main aim of a paywall is to monetize a website.
Types of paywalls
There are four (4) basic different types of paywalls.
Hard paywall
A hard paywall site completely blocks users from accessing any content, unless you are a paid subscriber.
You cannot view a single free article from it.
Two notable examples of website with a hard paywall are: Wall Street Journal and Financial Times.
Soft or metered paywall
A soft/metered paywall site allows users to view a limited amount of content for free within a specific time frame (usually per month).
Then you would hit the paywall.
From there it requires a subscription or membership to view the rest of the content.
Two examples of website with the soft/metered paywall are: Forbes and Harvard Business review.
Freemium paywall
A freemium paywall site offers both free and paid content.
You can read most of its articles without an account.
Then it has exclusive or subscriber-only content that required to pay for a subscription.
Two examples of websites with the freemium paywall are: USA Today and Business Insider.
Dynamic paywall
It is also known as an intelligent paywall and it uses machine learning.
A dynamic paywall site adapts article limits based on user behavior and display customized subscription prompts to readers who are likely to subscribe.
One example of website with the dynamic paywall: The New York Times and New York Magazine.
Now let's find out the various free ways how to read articles behind paywalls.
1. Article title in Google search results page
This is not a very reliable method to read articles blocked by a paywall, but it can still work randomly.
You can still read newspapers online for free from Google search results pages (SERPs).
You just paste the article title in Google search.
Occasionally you can get around The New York Times paywall to read some of their current articles.
Go to NYTimes homepage, highlight the article title.
What you have to do:
Highlight and copy the article title.
Right click the highlighted title, the context menu pops up, click "Google search for (article title).
At the Google search results page, click the article.
For example, recently (August 2024) I tried out the NYTimes article, "Oasis: Timeline of a Sibling Rivalry for the Ages".
This is the paywalled article from its homepage:
This is the full article I found in the Google search results page:
NOTE: It does not work with every articles.
The sites that I mentioned below are those which I have tried and they work occasionally.
Most of you have problem bypass Barron's paywall.
Do you know, you could find free article from Barron's from Google search results?
Here are two examples:
This is a blocked article from Barron's, "This Energy Drink Is Everywhere. Its Stock Can Still Provide a Jolt".
This free unblocked article is taken from Google search, and it is from Yahoo! Finance section.
This is paywalled article from Market Watch, "The Bond Market Has Just Flashed a Reliable Recession Warning. Don’t Panic".
The full unblocked article is found in Google SERPs.
- Websites that work with this method: The New York Times, The Washington Times, The Japan Times, Bloomberg, Barron's, Market Watch, South China Morning Post, etc.
2. Add a dot after the top-level domain
I have tried out this adding-a-dot trick, and it can get around paywalls successfully.
With this method, I can read The Japan Times free online.
Some articles work, while others could not.
You can give it a try and see it for yourself.
All you need to do is, is by adding a dot at the article URL.
To be precise, it should be after the top-level domain (com, net, jp, uk, etc).
Example the article URL is:
https://fortune.com/crypto/2024/08/09/crypto-scammers-pull-in-155-million-on-latest-trump-coin-rumors/
Add a dot after com, so now the URL looks like this:
https://fortune.com./crypto/2024/08/09/crypto-scammers-pull-in-155-million-on-latest-trump-coin-rumors/
NOTE: For a clearer illustration, the dot is highlighted in yellow color.
Then reload the page, and you can view the full unblocked article, "Crypto scammers pull in $155 million on latest Trump coin rumors".
- Websites that work with this method: Fortune, New York Magazine, Daily Mail Plus, Quora, Reuters, The Japan Times, American Purpose, American Affairs, BBC History Extra, etc.
3. Press and hold down "Esc" key
Another easy tip to get past paywalled articles, is by holding down the "Esc" key.
After you have clicked on the article, quickly press and hold down the "Esc" key of your keyboard for about 6 to 8 seconds.
I manage to read New York Magazine online articles for free by merely holding down the "Esc" key.
This method can also bypass ad-blocker detection.
- Websites that work with this method: The Telegraph, The Hindu (Premium), New York Magazine, Reuters, etc.
4. Clear cookies and site data, then reload, press & hold "Esc" key
This method works for both Firefox and Chrome browsers.
When at the blocked article, click at the "View site information" icon (Chrome) or encryption icon (Firefox) at address bar.
For Chrome, another box appears, click "Manage on-device site data".
Delete all the dump bins, and then click "Done" button.
Before you click "Reload" button, get ready to press on the "Esc" key.
Once you click the "Reload" button, immediately press and hold down the "Esc" key for about 8 seconds.
You should see the unblocked article.
For Firefox, after clicking "cookies and site data", click the "Remove" button.
Once you reload the page, instantly press down and hold down the "Esc" key for approximately 6-8 seconds.
Now you can read the complete article, without a paywall.
- Websites that work with this method: New York Magazine, AdWeek (not premier content), The Washington Times Premium, The Boston Globe, Vanity Fair, etc.
5. Open link in incognito window (Chrome)/Open Link in New Private Window (Firefox)
Private browsing means you do not save history and cookies.
Right click the article title, a context menu pops up.
Click "Open link in incognito window (Chrome), or "Open Link in New Private Window" (Firefox).
It opens a new page with the full unblocked article.
With this method, you can remove Medium paywall.
You can also read The Boston Globe for free.
To read the next article, go back to the website homepage, to right click the new article title.
NOTE: Certain sites, you need to close the earlier page, before you open the next article.
- Websites that work with this online tool: Wired, Washington Times, Miami Herald, L. A. Times, Harvard Business Review, Boston Globe, Medium, Scientific American, Bloomberg, Adweek (not premier content), Vanity Fair, etc.
6. Clear browsing data, cache and cookies
To read articles blocked by paywalls, you clear the recent browsing history.
Then reload the blocked article, and this time it should appear in full without the paywall.
Using this easy way, you can read The New Yorker for free.
For Chrome, click: History>>Delete browsing data>>Delete data.
For Firefox, click: History>>Recent History>>Clear.
Similarly, you can do this:
When at the blocked article, click the "View site information" icon (Chrome) or encryption icon (Firefox) at address bar.
A context box pops up, click "cookies and site data".
For Chrome, another box appears, click "Manage on-device site data".
Delete all the trash bins, then click "Done" button.
Now click the "Reload" button to reload the blocked webpage.
- Websites that work with this method: Wired, The New Yorker, Scientific American, Harvard Business Review, Quora, Leob Classical Library, Forbes, Nikkei Asia, eNotes, Pinterest (download images), etc.
7. Cookie Remover extension
Same as the tip #6 above, you can use the Chrome extension called Cookie Remover.
Install it to your Chrome browser, and pin it to your toolbar.
At the paywalled webpage, click the cookie icon at the toolbar.
A blue box pops up displaying how many cookies were removed.
To unblock the webpage, reload or refresh the page.
- Websites that work with this method: Wired, The New Yorker, Scientific American, Harvard Business Review, Quora, Leob Classical Library, Forbes, Nikkei Asia, eNotes, Pinterest (download images), etc.
8. Google cached pages
Another simple way to circumvent website paywalls is by using Google cached pages.
This is one ways how to read The Economist for free.
You retrieve stored versions of web pages from Google archive.
This is what you do:
Add cache: in front of the locked article URL.
For example, the article URL is:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/article-sound-baths-therapy-wellness-trend/
Add cache: in front of this URL, and it should look like this:
cache:https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/article-sound-baths-therapy-wellness-trend/
Hit the "Enter" key and it would take you to the Google cached page.
You can paste the article URL on this Read Cache site, then click the "Read" button to remove the paywall.
Then you can get access to articles without having to pay or login.
By the way, Google cached pages method can also get around USA Today For Subscribers paywall.
- Websites that work with this method: The Globe And Mail, Daily Telegraph, Business Insider Premium, Daily Mail Plus, Medium, Washington Times, Charlie Hebdo, Nikkei Asia, Washington Post, Forbes, The Economist, eNotes, Scientific American, The Atlantic, The Orange County Register, The Spectator, Apollo Magazine, The New York Review Of Books, USA Today For Subscribers, Adweek, American Purpose, American Affairs, Discover Magazine, etc.
9. Disable/block browser cookies & site data
You block or disable your browser from saving cookies and site data of websites.
Set it up once in your browser, and you can read The Harvard Business Review for free.
This technique can also bypass Miami Herald paywall too.
You would see this "Don't allow sites to save data on your device" icon inside the address bar.
It can also used for bypassing adblocker detection.
This is one ways how to access Quora for free, without an account.
To block Firefox from saving cookies and site date, refer to this tutorial: How to block cookies and site date for specific website in Firefox.
To block Chrome from saving cookies and site date, refer to this tutorial: How to block cookies for Chrome browser.
- Websites that work with this method: Loeb Classical Library, Quora, Scientific American, Miami Herald, Washington Times, Harvard Business Review, Apollo Magazine, American Affairs, BBC History Extra, Discover Magazine, etc.
10. Disable CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
This is one easy way how to read read Business Insider Premium articles for free.
CSS is is a coding language that provide style and format to a website, by enabling them to modify the fonts, colors, and formats.
That's why with this method to remove paywall, the page ends up in disarray or disorganized, together with oversized images/videos.
When at the blocked article, just disable your browser style sheets.
To disable CSS in Firefox, click "View", then go to Page Style, and click "No Style".
To disable CSS in Chrome browser, the easiest way is to use this bypass paywall Chrome extension called Web Developer.
Add this extension to your Chrome toolbar, click its purple color gear wheel icon.
A context menu pops up, select CSS, then click "Disable All Styles".
Instantly, the page changes, and you have to scroll down to read the full article.
You can also install this handy extension to your Firefox browser too.
Besides, you can also disable CSS with the DevTools to bypass paywall.
- Websites that work with this method: The Athletic, eNotes, Wired, L. A. Times, Business Insider Premium, Charlie Hebdo, etc.
11. Disable JavaScript
You can get past a paywall by disabling JavaScript.
By turning off JavaScript, you can read The washington Post for free.
There are three ways to disable JavaScript to read articles blocked by a paywall:
- Disable browser JavaScript settings
- Disable JavaScript for specific websites
- Disable JavaScript for a specific web page
To find out more, refer to this: How to disable JavaScript to bypass paywalls
- Websites that work with this method: Scientific American, The Athletic, The Boston Globe, Washington Post, The New Yorker, Miami Herald, Daily Telegraph, American Banker, Philadelphia Business Journal, American Affairs, American Purpose, BBC History Extra, etc.
12. Textise
Textise is an internet tool that removes images, forms, scripts, adverts from a web page, except for its text.
Another easy method how to read New York Review of Books articles without subscribing or making an account.
You can also read NZ Herald Premium free with this tool.
Not forgetting, Textise can also bypass Herald Sun paywall.
If you just want to read the digital content of paywalled websites, then this is what you do:
Go to Textise site.
Copy the blocked article URL and paste it in the box provided.
Click the "Textise" button.
Instantly the full article appears, but without any picture.
You need to scroll down to view the complete article.
- Websites that work with this online tool: Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, Wired, The Spectator, The Boston Globe, Daily Mail Plus, NZ Herald Premium, The Atlantic, The Daily Telegraph, American Affairs, Forbes, Scientific American, Foreign Affairs, The New Yorker, Washington Times, The New York Review Of Books, The Athletic, The Orange County Register, Mexico News Daily, Foreign Policy, American Banker, Apollo Magazine, BBC History Extra, Discover Magazine, etc.
13. Reader View/ Reader/Reading Mode
This is simple one way how to bypass The Washington Times paywall.
This method to remove paywall is using the existing tool found in the browser.
This is one methods how to get eNotes for free.
Firefox is known as Reader view, while Chrome used to be called Reader mode, and now Reading mode.
When at the locked-out article, just click the icon at the address bar (Firefox) or toolbar (Chrome).
For Firefox, when the Reader view icon is clicked, it changes from gray to blue color.
Right way the clutter-free article appears, without ads, background images and videos.
For Firefox, the Reader Mode is right there when you access a website.
But for Chrome, probably you need to enable it.
Type: chrome://flags into the address bar, and press the Enter key.
It opens a page with a list of experimental features that you can enable or disable.
Type: Reader Mode or Reading Mode into the search box above.
Then you can see either Reader Mode or Reading Mode in the list.
Next to it is a menu, click "Enabled".
Then click the "Relaunch" button.
- Websites that work with this online tool: Washington Times, Miami Herald, The Athletic, Forbes, Scientific American, eNotes, L. A. Times, etc.
14. Saved to Pocket
You can can get past many website paywalls with the social bookmarking called Pocket.
With Pocket, you can read Wired articles online free.
It can even bypass Bloomberg paywall.
It is a free online service which you can use it to discover great online content of your interests.
And save this content in the Pocket, so you can view them later on any device, at any time.
You need to sign up for a free account to use it.
All you do is save the paywalled article to your Pocket account.
From there you can read the article in full without being blocked by the paywall.
It works for both Firefox and Chrome.
Find out how to use Pocket to get behind paywalls to read free articles without paying from this tutorial, "Bypass paywalls with Pocket to read locked-out articles free".
- Websites that work with this online tool: The Boston Globe, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Foreign Affairs, Wired, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail Plus, The New York Times, NZ Herald Premium, Scientific American, Medium, Vanity Fair, Reuters, The Orange County Register, Apollo Magazine, etc.
15. Archive.Today
Use this web archiving service that save snapshot, to get around The spectator paywall.
It can also bypass South China Morning Post paywall, and other many media sites.
If the article which you want to read which has already archived, it would prompt you that it is available.
You can read right away.
If not, then you need to archive it first.
Archive.Today can through many paywalled websites.
You can even remove WSJ paywall with this web archiving service.
There are three ways to use the Archive.Today to read articles for free online.
i. Use the save or search function
This is what you do:
Go to Archive.Today.
Paste the article URL in the space provided under "My url is alive and I want to archive its content".
Then click the "save" button.
If the article has already archived, you can read it straight away.
If not, it says "No results", together with the list of 5 options to do.
Click the first option, "archive this url".
It would begin loading and archiving the article.
Scroll down a little, there is a black color box with the text: "I want to search the archive for saved snapshots".
After it has finished archiving it, you can see the complete article right there.
Alternatively, you can use the second "search" option.
Scroll down a little, there is a black color box with the text: "I want to search the archive for saved snapshots".
Paste the article URL inside the box provided, then click the "search" button.
ii. Use Archive.Today extension
Get the Archive.Today extension for Chrome browser here.
Mozilla Firefox has removed this extension, but you can use this similar One-Click Archive.Today extension.
iii. Add https://archive.ph/ in front of article url
For the example the article URL is:
https://archive.ph/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/08/26/trumps-got-troubles
After adding https://archive.ph/ to the URL, it looks like this:
https://archive.ph/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/08/26/trumps-got-troubles
Press the "Enter" key, and you can see this article in the Archive.Today site.
NOTE: There is more than one link to Archive.Today.
- Websites that work with this online tool: USA Today For Subscribers, Barron's, The Times UK, NZ Herald Premium, The New York Review Of Books, The Economist, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Athletic, The Japan Times, Foreign Affairs, Medium, New York Magazine, The Spectator, Wired, Forbes, The New Yorker, Bloomberg, Business Insider Premium, Albuquerque Journal, The Boston Globe, Daily Telegraph, Harvard Business Review, L. A. Times, TLS, The Orange County Register, iPolitics, American Banker, American Affairs, Philadelphia Business Journal, Apollo Magazine, The Hamilton Spectator, South China Morning Post, etc.
16. Internet Archive Wayback Machine
One of the ways how to read The Washington Times articles for free is using the Wayback Machine.
The Wayback Machine is similar to the Archive.Today.
This method works only for sites that allow web crawlers.
It saved and stored archived versions of web pages.
Firstly check whether the blocked article has been archived.
Go to Internet Archive Wayback Machine site.
Paste the blocked article URL into the box provided, and then press the "Enter" key.
If the article has been archived it, you click the snapshot link and the full article appears.
If it has not been archived, it would prompt you.
Then save it to do it in the Save Page Now page,
For more detail, refer to this tutorial, "How to use Wayback MAchine to bypass paywall'.
- Websites that work with this online tool: The New Yorker, Wired, New York Magazine, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Forbes, Scientific American, The Washington Times, Wired, The Orange County Register, American Purpose, The Hamilton Spectator, etc.
17. 12ft Ladder
Surprisingly 12feet Ladder seems to be widely mentioned, but it does not remove that many paywalls.
Anyway you can read U. K. Times free with this online tool.
There are three ways to use the 12feet Ladder to get over paywalled articles.
i. Go to the 12feet website, or here and paste the article URL, and then click the "Clean Webpage" button.
ii. Use the 12feet proxy Chrome extension.
This is the 12feet bypass paywall Chrome extension.
When at a paywalled article, click the icon at the toolbar.
NOTE: The other 12feet extension, has shut down.
iii. Add https://12feet.io/ in front of the article URL.
For example the article URL is:
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/08/trump-harris-ai-crowd-size/679493/
Add https://12feet.io/ in front of this URL.
Now it looks like this:
https://12ft.io/https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/08/trump-harris-ai-crowd-size/679493/
Then press the "Enter" key to reload the page.
- Websites that work with this online tool: The Atlantic, Scientific American, Daily Mail Plus, The Athletic, Wired, TLS, The Times UK, Bloomberg, Vanity Fair, The Orange County Register, American Banker, American Affairs, American Purpose, BBC History Extra, Discover Magazine, Chicago Tribune, etc.
18. Bypass Paywalls Clean extension
The Bypass Paywalls Clean extension by Magnolia is the most popular among all the other bypass paywall browser extensions.
With this extension, you can read The New York Times for free and get around The Wall Street Journal paywall too.
Not forgetting, you can also read Quora Plus answers for free.
Here are the guides how to download, install and pin it to your browser toolbar.
For Google Chrome, refer to this: "Install Bypass Paywalls Clean extension for Chrome tutorial".
For Mozilla Firefox, refer to this: "How to install Bypass Paywalls Clean for Firefox".
NOTE: There is another earlier called Bypass Paywalls, but it seems to be not as effective as Bypass Paywalls Clean.
Anyway here are the tutorials:
For Chrome browser: "Install Bypass Paywalls extension for Chrome tutorial".
For Firefox browser: "How to install Bypass Paywalls extension for Firefox".
- Websites that work with this extension: Bloomberg, Forbes, The Atlantic, Barron's, The New York Times, New Scientist, The Verge, L. A. Times, Philadelphia Business Journal, WSJ, Mexico News Daily, The Economist, Quora Plus, Chicago Tribune, The Advertiser, and many more websites.
19. Remove Paywall
Remove Paywall site works by finding archived versions of a website from: Archive.is, Internet Archive, Google Cache, Bing Cache and Link.
To read newspapers online for free, paste the article URL into the space provided, then click the search magnifying glass icon.
Then select from any of the five options.
You can also add this https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url= in front of the article URL.
Example: https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/21/opinion/trump-second-term-2025.html
- Websites that can work with this online tool: The Atlantic, Wired, Scientific American, Daily Mail Plus, The Athletic, The Times UK, The New Yorker, Wired, iPolitics, etc.
20. PaywallHub
Strangely this convenient bypass paywall extension PaywallHub is not widely mentioned or recommended in Reddit and other forums.
PaywallHub has all the four favorite paywall removers in one extension.
12feet i.o, Wayback Machine, Archive.Today, and Google cache pages.
You can read Nikkei Asia for free or bypass Times Literary Supplement paywall by opening in Google cache.
Another option, use
After installing the PaywallHub, pin its icon onto your browser toolbar.
At the blocked article, click the icon, and a menu drops down.
Select any of the four options to get rid of the paywall.
For Chrome browser, here is the PaywallHub Chrome extension.
For Firefox browser, here is the PaywallHub Firefox extension.
- Websites that work with this extension: The Atlantic, Scientific American, Daily Mail Plus, The Athletic, Wired, TLS, The Times UK, Bloomberg, The New Yorker, The Globe And Mail, Daily Telegraph, Business Insider Premium, Medium, Chicago Tribune, Washington Times, Nikkei Asia, etc.
21. Paywall Reader
This is another all-in-one paywall remover site, which is very similar to the above PaywallHub.
It comes with five ways to get around paywall: Google cache, Wayback Machine, Archive.Today, 12fr.io and Remove Paywall.
To use this site, go to the Paywall Reader site.
Paste the article URL in the space provided, and click any of the five choices.
- Websites that work with this online tool: The Atlantic, Wired, Scientific American, Daily Mail Plus, The Athletic, The Times UK, The New Yorker, Wired, etc.
22. PaywallBuster
This is similar to the Paywall Reader above.
Again PaywallBuster works with: Archive.is, 12ft.io, Archive.org, Google Cache and Remove Paywall.
- Websites that work with this online tool: The Atlantic, Wired, Scientific American, Daily Mail Plus, The Athletic, The Times UK, The New Yorker, Wired, etc.
23. SMRY.ai
This SMRY.ai: not only can generate summaries, remove pop-ups, ads, but it can also get through paywall as well.
This online tool uses archive.org, Googlebot, so you can view an article behind a paywall.
There are two ways to do it.
i. Paste the blocked article URL in the space provide in the SMRY.ai.
Then click the turn arrow head icon.
ii. If not, you can also prepend https://smry.ai/ to the article URL.
For example, the blocked article URL is:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/08/trump-has-turned-over-old-leaf/679494/
Add https://smry.ai/ in front of the URL.
Now it looks like this:
https://smry.ai/https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/08/trump-has-turned-over-old-leaf/679494/
Then press the "Enter" key.
- Websites that can work with this online tool: The Atlantic, Wired, Scientific American, Daily Mail Plus, The Athletic, The Times UK, The New Yorker, Wired, etc.
24. Shackle-free
Again this is another where you paste the blocked article URL, click and you unlock its paywall.
It is called Shackle-free, and it claims it works for over 150 websites.
I tried The Atlantic article, "Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls", and it got through.
In addition, you can also read The Telegraph for free with this simple online tool.
- Websites that can work with this online tool: The Atlantic, Wired, U. K. Times, The Economist, Financial Times, The New Yorker, The Hindu, The Daily Telegraph, The Athletic, Forbes, New York Magazine, Daily Mail Plus, Discover Magazine, The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, etc.
25. Postlight Reader extension
Besides decluttering the article of ads, images and other distractions, this Chrome extension Postlight can also remove paywalls.
Download and install Postlight, then pin it to the Chrome browser toolbar.
At the blocked article, click the Postlight icon (gray color rocket changes to orange color).
Instantly it changes to orange color, and the full unblocked article appears.
- Websites that work with this extension: Wired, The Washington Times, Forbes, etc.
26. Spaywall extension
Spaywall News & Research Chrome extension avoid paywalls by searching online archives and redirecting to a paywall-free version.
With this extension, you can get past The New York Times paywall.
Download and install Spaywall extension from here.
Then pin it to the the Chrome toolbar.
At the blocked article, click the icon (orange letter S), and a box pops up.
Click "Search News Article".
It opens Spaywall page and wait for it to load the archived content.
Then you can read the full article.
- Websites that can work with this extension: The New Yorker, The New York Times, Wired, New York Magazine, etc.
27. Hover extension
Hover extension come with two functions: Ad blocking and Paywall bypass.
You can access Loeb Classical Library for free with Hover extension.
It works by blocking websites from saving data and cookies in your browser.
When the Hover bypass paywall function is enabled, this do not allow sites to save data on your device icon pops up in Chrome.
To install this Chrome browser, go this site.
Scroll down until "Installation".
Click "ZIP file from GitHub.
Unzip the file, and you should see a folder named hover-paywalls-browser-extension-master.
In Chrome, go to the extensions page.
Make sure you enable Developer mode at the top right hand corner.
Drag the "dist" folder in hover-paywalls-browser-extension-master onto anywhere on the Chrome page, to import it.
NOTE: Do not delete the folder afterwards.
Pin the Hover icon (letter H) at the toolbar.
When at the blocked page, click the Hover icon, and a box pops up.
Toggle Bypass Paywall (On Site): to "On".
Instantly the full article appears.
- Website that can work with this extension: Quora, New York Magazine, Scientific American, Loeb Classical Library, Miami Herald, Washington Times, Harvard Business Review, etc.
28. WebTools
You can use the WebTools (Developer Tools) of Chrome or Firefox to remove paywall.
One way is use the Inspector tool to pick the blocking elements, and delete them away.
Then to bring back the 'missing' browser vertical scrollbar, by unchecking "overflow: visible".
You can also use the DevTools to get rid of paywall by disabling the browser JavaScript and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
To disable JavaScript with DevTools, refer to: "How to disable JavaScript with DevTools to bypass paywall".
To disable CSS with DevTools, refer to: "How to disable CSS with WebTools to bypass paywall".
- Websites than can work with this online tool: Scientific American, The Athletic, The Boston Globe, Washington Post, The New Yorker, Miami Herald, Daily Telegraph, The Athletic, eNotes, Wired, L. A. Times, Business Insider Premium, etc.
29. uBlock Origin extension
This content-blocker for Chrome and Firefox can function as a paywall remover too.
This is one of the many free ways to read articles behind paywall without subscription.
Use it to disable JavaScript or add filter to bypass paywalled articles.
To turn off JavaScript, refer to this: "Disable JavaScript with uBlock Origin to bypass paywall".
To use its filter, refer to this: "Bypass The New York Times paywall with uBlock Origin".
- Websites that can work with this extension: Scientific American, The Athletic, The Boston Globe, Washington Post, The New Yorker, Miami Herald, Daily Telegraph, The New York Times, etc.
30. Google Translate
This dated method of passing paywall can still work with a number of websites.
Using Google Translate, you can get past L. A. Times paywall, and many other publications.
This is what you do:
Go to Google Translate site, and click "Websites".
Paste the paywalled article URL inside the box, and click the arrow icon (Translate).
From the translation, you get the full unblocked article.
Here is an example with a translated article from Wired site:
You can refer to this tutorial, "How to use Google Translate to bypass paywall".
- Websites that can work with this method: Quora, Loeb Classical Library, Wired, The Atlantic, New York Magazine, Forbes, The Hindu, L. A. Times, AdWeek, The Orange County Register, Mexico News Daily, The New Yorker, American Affairs, Apollo Magazine, Discover Magazine, Daily Telegraph, Chicago Tribune, etc.
31. PrintFriendly
This way to access news articles for free online is similar to Google Translate.
Use this free online tool PrintFriendly to get past American Banker paywall.
I reckon using PrintFriendly site works best for those websites with softpaywall.
This is what you do:
Copy out the blocked article URL, paste it in the box provided in the PrintFriendly homepage.
Then click the yellow "Preview" button.
After it has generated the page, you can see the preview full article right there.
See the example below:
- Websites that can work with this online tool: Wired, New York Magazine, Forbes, L. A. Times, The Hindu, AdWeek, The Orange County Register, Wired, Foreign Affairs, American Banker, Mexico News Daily, American Affairs, Apollo Magazine, American Purpose, Discover Magazine, Chicago Tribune, The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, The Daily Telegraph, etc.
32. Clearthis.Page
Use the free bookmarklet Clearthis.Page to read Scientific American online free, and many other publication sites.
Pin it to your bookmark bar, and you are ready to read blocked articles.
Add the bookmarlet to your toolbar, then just click it to remove the paywall.
How to set up Clearthis.Page:
Go this site, drag the link to your bookmark bar.
When at the blocked article, click the Clearthis.Page icon at the bookmark bar.
Immediately the full article appers, but without any image.
It is similar to Firefox Reader View or Reading Mode of Chrome.
Here is an example with The New Yorker blocked article, "How To Give Away A Fortune".
After I have clicked the ClearThis.Page bookmarklet, this is the unblocked article URL: https://clearthis.page/?u=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/09/09/how-to-give-away-a-fortune
- Websites that can work with this online tool: Gothamist, The New Yorker, Forbes, Scientific American, The Boston Globe, Daily Telegraph, Chicago Tribune, American Affairs, American Purpose, BBC History Extra, The Atlantic, etc.
33. Googlebot user agent
This method works is because there are paywalled websites that allow access to Google’s search bot (Googlebot) to maintain SEO ranking.
In other words, you impersonate or spoof as Googlebot to get past their paywalls.
You replace the browser’s user-agent to Googlebot with the developer tools.
Each time when you come to a blocked article, press F12 key to bring out the Chrome developer tool aka DevTools.
At the User agent (Network conditions panel), change the browser default settings to Googlebot.
You can use this easy way to remove NYT paywall.
Refer to this step-by-step tutorial, "How to spoof user agent as Googlebot to bypass paywall".
- Websites that can work with this method: The Orange County Register, Wired, BBC History Extra, The New York Times, Philadelphia Business Journal, etc.
34. Brave browser
Do you know you can use Brave browser to read Forbes articles for free?
You just configure the "Block scripts" setting, add the built-in filter or add a custom filter.
For more details, refer to this: "How to use Brave browser to bypass paywalls to access articles for free".
- Websites that can work with this method: Wired, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, The New Yorker, and many more.
35. Tor browser
So is the TOR browser, which can get around paywalls.
It is not the best or reliable way to circumvent paywalls, but it can still work with sites with soft paywall.
It can even work with The Hindu Premium articles.
This is what you do:
When you encounter a blocked article, copy its URL.
Click the broom icon (New Identity), a box pops up.
Click the red color "Restart Tor Browser" button.
It opens Tor homepage again.
Paste the copied URL in the address bar on top of the page.
Press Enter key or click the arrow icon to load the page.
- Websites that can work with this method: Wired, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The Hindu, The Washington Times, etc
36. Save with Ctrl and S shortcut key
I think this simple method can remove only a few paywalls.
All you do is at the blocked article, press the "Ctrl" and "S" keys of your keyboard to save it.
Then open the saved article, and it full unblocked article appears.
With this shortcut key method, you can read The Atlantic for free.
For more details, refer to this: "How to get past paywalls with ctrl + s shortcut key".
- Websites that can work with this method: Wired, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, etc.
37. Read free articles with Twitter (now known as "X")
You can find blocked articles freely available in their tweets.
But this method does not work with many websites and webpages.
Surprisingly you can read Caixin Global articles for free with X or Twitter.
Examples:
This is the blocked Caixin Global article, "Dozens Banned From Chinese Soccer in Wake of Gambling, Graft Crackdown".
But can read the full unblocked through its Twitter account, over here.
This is another paywalled article, "Chart of the Day: China’s Car Sales Slide for Third Straight Month".
Read the full article from Twitter or X.
- Websites that can work with this method: Wired, Scientific American, Caixin Global, etc.
38. Use web proxy
You can use a free web proxy to get around paywalls.
Free web proxies like CroxyProxy, ProxiSite, PlainProxies or Proxyium.
I tried it out with CroxyProxy site to bypass The Atlantic paywall with success.
You can also read Scientific American online free with a web proxy.
So is Vanity Fair site article.
For example, I tried with this Vanity Fair article, "Princess Diana Confided In Her Dance Teacher, Who Is Publishing a Memoir".
Go to CroxyProxy site, paste the blocked article URL in the space provided.
- Websites that can work with this online tool: Vanity Fair, Wired, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Harvard Business Review, The Daily Telegraph, etc.
39. Prepend Facebook URL & hold down "Esc" key
To get through certain website paywalls, you add Facebook URL in front of to the blocked article URL.
Then you have to press and hold down the "Esc" key.
This is what you do:
For example you want to remove this blocked The Telegraph article URL is:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/people/madonna-celebrates-66th-birthday-laced-in-lingerie/
Add this Facebook URL: https://facebook.com/l.php?u=, in front of the blocked article URL.
Now it looks like this:
https://facebook.com/l.php?u=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/people/madonna-celebrates-66th-birthday-laced-in-lingerie/
Press the "Enter" key, and this box pops up, prompting to leave Facebook and be taken to the article.
Before you click the blue color "Follow link" button, prepare to press and hold down the "Esc" key.
After you've clicked on the "Follow" link" button, as the article starts to reload, quickly press down the "Esc" key and hold it for about 8 seconds.
The full unblocked article appears.
- Websites that can work with this method: New York Magazine, Daily Telegraph, The Athletic, etc.
40. JavaScript Bookmarklet
Use this JavaScript bookmarklet to get through website paywalls to enjoy unlimited articles without any subscription.
This tip can bypass Financial Times paywall easily.
It can also get past Chicago Tribune paywall too.
javascript:window.location='https://google.com/search?q='+window.location.href;
When you come to paywalled article, click this bookmarklet.
It redirects to Google search result showing that particular article.
Click it and you can see the full unblocked article.
NOTE: If it does not work, clear the cookies and reload the page.
- Websites that can work with this method: Financial Times, New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Times, The Washington Post, The Athletic, Chicago Tribune, etc.
These are various workable ways how to read articles behind paywall without paying, or sign up an account.
I only mentioned websites which I have tried out for myself.
Bypass Paywalls Frequent Asked Questions
How to read paywall articles for free?
As you have seen above, there are lots of ways to get past paywalls to view articles for free. But not all methods can remove paywalls of every websites.
Is removing paywalls illegal?
The methods to bypass paywalls are widely known and openly shared, but their legality issue is a complex and complicated one
According to this report, bypass paywalls is illegal. Based on Justia Ask A Lawer, it says generally it's not legal to disable or bypass a paywall for a news article. It is to restrict access to their content to those who have paid for it or subscribed to their services.
In other words, you access the content without paying for it or meeting the conditions set by the news organization for access. This can be seen as a violation of the terms of use or terms of service of the website, and potentially a violation of copyright law.
Read up the Anti-Circumvention laws.
DISCLAIMER: The content of this post is intended for educational and informational purposes only. I am not responsible or liable, should you contravene the anti-circumvention law.