This is what I found online, how people read The Atlantic online articles for free without subscription.
This post is for informational purposes only, as mentioned in the disclaimer below.
In fact you can find all these tips in Reddit, Quora, Hacker News and many other sites.
I just curated them and explained the technical mechanism how they could get past the digital restriction.
The reason why folks can easily get their hands on its web articles is because The Atlantic uses a soft paywall, or rather a metered one.
A metered paywall allows you to read a few free articles, and once the access limit is reached, the site would prompt you to subscribe.
Metered paywalls are easier to get around than hard paywalls.
This is because metered paywalls use the client-side tracking to count your free articles.
Meaning, its tracking cookies are sent to your browser, when you access their articles.
So you can manipulate with this cookies (JavaScript) that is already in your browser.
This is another post from The DiGiztal Bypass Paywalls Tips series.
Imagine you can access the complete Atlantic Archive with more than 160 years of content free of charge.
All the stories, ideas, fictions and poems from both the Atlantic magazine and its website articles.
This is a fully updated tips that can definitely access The Atlantic blocked articles, so you never missed a story from The Atlantic.
Here is a list of tips how folks could get to all its web content without an account
How to read The Atlantic for free
Table of Contents:
All these methods can work for both browsers: Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.
1. Clear browsing data, cache and cookies
Basically it is clearing your browsing history.
After you have rad your last complimentary article, clear your browsing history.
There are two ways of doing it.
The simple one is :
Click History>>Delete browsing data>>Delete data (Chrome)
Click History>>Clear Recent History...>>Clear (Firefox)
L:ikewise you can use this method to clear cookies and site data, then reload.
2. Private browsing
Use the existing tool of your browser to get past its digital barrier.
I am talking about using "Open link in incognito window of Google Chrome and "Open Link in New Private Window" of Mozilla Firefox.
Just right click on the article title, a menu box pops up.
Click "Open link in incognito window", (Chrome browser) or "Open Link in New Private Window" (Firefox).
You can view the full article right before you.
To view the next article, again do the same step.
Remember to close all those newly open windows.
3. Disable JavaScript
This is the common trick people use to overcome the soft paywall.
You just disable the JavaScript in the cookies that controls the paywall.
For Chrome browser, you can set up once and you can just go in reading unlimited The Atlantic webpages for free.
For more details how to do it, refer to this tutorial, "How to disable JavaScript to bypass paywalls".
4. Archive Today
People have used the free archive site called Archive.today to access The Atlantic content.
If the article which you want to read, has already archived, you can read it right away.
If not, then you have to wait for awhile for it to load and archive the article.
This is what you do:
Go to Archive.Today site.
Scroll down a little, there is a black color box with the text: "I want to search the archive for saved snapshots".
For example, you want to read The Atlantic article, "Donald Trump Questions Whether Kamala Harris Is Really Black".
Copy the article URL, by right clicking on the article title.
The context menu pops up, click the "Copy Link" (Firefox) or "Copy link address" (Chrome).
Now paste the article URL inside the space provided at the black box.
Then click the "search" button.
If the article is already archived, it will appear on the page.
Refer to this full tutorial how to use Archive.Today to bypass paywalled articles for free.
5. 12 Feet Ladder
You can access The Atlantic paywalled article with this free online tool.
This is one way of doing it.
Prepend 12ft.io/ in front of the blocked article URL.
For example the article URL:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/04/higher-education-happiness/682540/
Add 12ft.io/in front of the URL.
Now it looks like this:
12ft.io/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/04/higher-education-happiness/682540/
Press the "Enter" key to reload the page.
To find out more, read "How to use 12ft Ladder to remove paywalls".
6. 13 feet Ladder
This online tool is similar to the 12 Feet Ladder.
To use it , you can paste the article URL in its this site and click the "SUBMIT" button.
How does this tool manage to get to the locked articles?
It works like the 12 Feet Ladder, using a few ways to manipulate how web pages are accessed and displayed.
It mimic as search engine crawlers (like Googlebot) to trick its way into the full content.
Possibly it utilizes cached versions of web pages; where search engines often maintain caches of the pages they crawl.
13 feet Ladder could also remove JavaScript code or HTML elements that implement the paywall overlay or content blocking.
Find out more info from this post: How to use 13 Feet Ladder to bypass paywalls.
7. Bypass Paywalls Clean extension
This is the most popular way most folks used to circumvent paywalled websites.
The free browser extension can work with umpteen websites around the world.
Download and install this browser extension and you can read all The Atlantic articles.
For Firefox users, they refer to this tutorial: How to install Bypass Paywalls Clean extension for Firefox
For Chrome users, they learn from this tutorial: How to install Bypass Paywalls Clean extension for Chrome
8. Textise
Textise main function is converting web pages into plain text versions.
Its strip away all non-textual elements like images, forms, scripts, elaborate fonts, ads, and complex formatting, leaving only the webpage text.
You can view the full article in plain text, but no picture or image.
Here is an example how it looks like from this article, "Artificial Intelligence Is Not Intelligent".
To know more, read this, "How to bypass paywalls with Textise".
9. Txtify.it
This tool is very similar to the Textise, it also changes the webpage into a plain page with just the main content in plain text.
If you do not mind without any pictures or images, this is a simple way to read The Atlantic web articles.
If you want to use this method, read this: How to get over paywalls with txtify.it.
10. Ctrl + s shortcut key
This easy way to remove The Atlantic paywall is by pressing both "Ctrl" and "S" keys.
A box pops up, save the article, and you can read the full unblocked article.
You would see a folder and a Chrome icon.
Just click the Chrome icon, and the full unblocked article pops up.
Using this shortcut key, you can read unlimited The Atlantic website articles.
For more details, refer to this: How to get past paywalls with ctrl + s shortcut key
11. Printfriendly
Copy the article URL paste it in the box provided in PrintFriendly homepage.
Click the "Preview" button, and you can view the complete right there.
For example you want to access this The Atlantic article, "For Trump, This Is a Dress Rehearsal".
You can paste its article URL to PrintFriendly, and instantly you get to read it for free.
This is the full free article by PrintFriendly "For Trump, This is a Dress Rehearsal".
For more info how to use this free tool, refer to, "How to use PrintFriendly to bypass paywalls tips".
12. Google Translate
This is another online tool similar to PrintFriendly.
Again you paste the article URL which you want to read in the Google Translate site.
Then click the arrow icon.
For more info, check out this tutorial: "How to use Google Translate to bypass paywalls to read articles for free".
13. Clear This Page
This online tool is also similar to PrintFriendly and Google Translate, which I have just mentioned above.
It removes the ads, navigation, and other clutter of the webpage, and extracts only the main article.
Get the bookmarklet, go to its homepage and drag it to your toolbar.
To unlock the paywalled The Atlantic webpage, click the Clear This Page icon.
If you are not sure how it is done, read this Clear This Page tip.
14. JavaScript bookmarklet
The technique is you saved a set of JavaScript in your toolbar or bookmark.
For the Google Chrome browser, do this:
Open its bookmark page, by pressing Ctrl + Shift + O keys.
Next click the three dots on top of the right hand corner.
A menu pops up, click “Add new bookmark”.
The "Add bookmark" box appears.
The Name space, you can call it any name or title of choice.
The URL space, you paste this set of code inside it.
javascript:(function() {
if (window.location.host.match(/theatlantic.com$/)) {
/* Flush all cookies. */
var cookies, subdomain, pathname;
cookies = document.cookie.split(';');
for (var i = 0; i < cookies.length; i++) {
subdomain = '.' + window.location.host;
while (subdomain) {
pathname = window.location.pathname;
while (pathname) {
document.cookie=(
cookies[i] +
'; domain=' + subdomain +
'; path=' + pathname +
'; expires=Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:01 GMT;');
pathname = pathname.replace(/.$/, '')
}
subdomain = subdomain.replace(/^(?:\.|[^\.]+)/, '');
}
}
/* Flush local storage. */
try {
localStorage.clear();
} catch (e) { }
/* Flush backup of the metering cookie. */
window.name = null;
/* Reload current page stripping the query string. */
window.location = window.location.href.split('?')[0];
} else {
alert('This bookmarklet is for removing the atlantic paywall.');
}
})();
Click the "Save" button.
When you want to unlocked the article, just click on it.
There you have it, more than ten ways to read The Atlantic webpages without subscribing.
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.