- Comprehend the essential role a VPN plays in safeguarding your digital life
- Gain a deep understanding of how VPNs function under the hood
- Develop the ability to distinguish fact from fiction in VPN promotions
How To Get Past Paywalls: 18 Ways To Bypass & Read 2024
Paywalls are a little more old-school: If you want to read, you have to pay. There are a few different approaches. A soft paywall lets you read a limited number of pages before you’re blocked, a hard paywall blocks all non-paying users from certain pages, and a dynamic paywall decides when to put up the paywall based on each user’s behavior.
Paywalls are most popular among outlets with higher reputations since they can rely on name recognition to turn users into subscribers. It’s always best to subscribe and remove the paywall if you have the time and money — that supports your favorite outlets and ensures they don’t have to turn to obnoxious advertising. If you just need to get into a single article fast, read on.
18 Ways to Bypass Paywalls Online
There are so many different kinds of paywalls that we can’t guarantee which of these solutions will work. We’ve arranged them in rough order of increasing complexity. In each entry, we’ll outline what sort of paywall the solution works best on and explain how to tell if it might work in your current situation.
1. Search the Page Title
In this screenshot, the paywalled article from nymag.com is summarized — though not repeated verbatim — in the link below it.
Sometimes, getting over paywalls is as simple as copying the headline of the page you want to read and pasting it into a search engine. If you put quotes around the headline, you’ll frequently find the same content on a forum, aggregator or someone’s blog — and if it’s not the exact content, it’ll cover the same information.
Note that although it used to be possible to read paywalled articles for free if you clicked through Google to reach them, this is no longer true. The First Click Free policy was unlimited only from 2007 to 2009, and by 2017, the policy had ended altogether. However, Google’s search crawlers are still allowed behind paywalls, a fact we can use to our advantage (see tips 12 and 15)
2. Use Reader Mode on Chrome, Firefox or Another Browser
Reader Mode can make a lot of paywalls disappear if you’re quick enough.
Reader Mode is a feature on most web browsers that cuts out distracting visual elements on a page to make it easier to read. You can read about one example in our Firefox review. Reader Mode is nice on its own, but you can also use it to bypass a paywall that loads a few seconds later than the rest of the page.
The process is simple. First, load or refresh the page. Then, click the “Reader Mode” button before the paywall element appears. Reader Mode stops page elements from rendering, so the paywall never appears, letting you read in peace. It’s not guaranteed to work, but it costs nothing to try.
3. Clear Your Cookies
Clearing cookies on your browser can cause paywalled
websites to forget you’ve visited before.
Cookies are small data files that your browser uses to remember things. Thanks to cookies, you don’t have to log in to an account-based site every time you open it, even if you’ve closed your browser since then. Though convenient, cookies also tell a client-side paywall that you’ve visited its site before.
If you’re getting blocked by a soft paywall — the kind that says something like, “You’ve read 3 of 3 free articles this month” — clear your browser’s cookies and try again. The site may think you’re an entirely new visitor and start your counter over from zero. See our article on how to clear cookies if you aren’t familiar with the steps.
4. Use Private Browsing
Using Incognito mode and private browsing does not mean you won’t be tracked online, but they do prevent your browser itself from saving data.
Of course, it’s even easier if the website never saved the cookies in the first place. Before visiting a paywalled website, switch your browser to private or Incognito mode. You can usually open a private browser window in the dot/hamburger preferences menu at the top right.
In private browsing, your browser doesn’t save any cookies, so the paywall shouldn’t know that you’ve visited before. As with the other tricks on this list, don’t expect it to work every time.
Also, as we hammer on in our anonymous browsing guide, private browsing is not the same as secure or anonymous browsing. It works only on your device and doesn’t screen anything from your ISP, advertisers or criminals.
5. Archive the Page
Paywalls block residential IP addresses but not the sort
of crawlers used by the Internet Archive.
Paywalls are designed to block access from personal IP addresses, like the one you’re probably browsing with right now. They’re not intended to block the web crawler bots that automatically visit pages to index them. Google and other search engines use crawlers to make sites searchable, so few websites can afford to keep them out.
The easiest way to take advantage of this is to go through an online archive, which is a nonprofit project that crawls web pages to preserve them for posterity. You can any archive site, such as archive.today, archive.is or archive.org, to crawl and archive a page on demand — even a live URL behind a paywall.
Just copy the URL of the blocked page, go to either website, paste the URL into the empty field and click “save.” You’ll be able to read the full unpaywalled article.
6. Use a VPN
A VPN like NordVPN (pictured above) can fool paywalls that count how
many times each unique IP address visits the site.
A VPN, which stands for “virtual private network,” is a security tool that hides your real IP address so you stay anonymous online. Our “What Is a VPN” article explains in more depth, but basically, you use a VPN server as your assumed identity online. Even if you’ve visited a paywalled site many times this month, the VPN makes you look like a whole new visitor.
Of course, the VPN server will eventually hit the paywall too, but you can get another IP address by disconnecting and reconnecting again. A VPN subscription nets you tons of other useful features, too. NordVPN is our favorite option, as our NordVPN review explains, but our Surfshark review describes an alternative we quite like.
7. Use an Ad Blocker
uBlock Origin and other ad blocker extensions can stop paywalls from loading.
An ad blocker like uBlock Origin or Adblock Plus does a great job of keeping your web time free of distraction, but it might also get you around paywalls. Ad blockers work by preventing certain elements of a web page from loading, so the best ones can shut down pop-up paywalls the same as they would any other pop-up ad.
Using this method couldn’t be simpler. Just activate your ad blocker and visit the page. If it’s the right kind of paywall, you won’t even see it load. For extra convenience, you can even get a VPN with ad blocker built in.
8. Use a Proxy Server
Proxy servers don’t encrypt your requests, but that’s less
important when dealing with paywalls.
A proxy server works similarly to a VPN in that it’s a borrowed IP address you use instead of your own. Proxies are often free and generally easy to use. For most, like the hide.me free proxy, you can just paste the paywalled URL on a web page and click “go.” See our best free proxy list for more examples.
The reason we’ve listed proxies as requiring more work than VPNs is that VPNs are a lot more versatile. Proxies don’t have encryption, so it’s easy to find out your actual identity if anyone’s really looking. Plus, they don’t come with the features that make VPNs good at getting around blocks, like obfuscation and built-in ad blockers.
9. Check Your Local Library
Libraries often have digital subscriptions to popular
paywalled sites like The New York Times.
Local libraries commonly have paper subscriptions to in-demand newspapers like The Wall Street Journal, but many also have digital subscriptions to news websites. Check your library’s website to see what periodicals it offers, or ask a librarian in person. As a bonus, using a library’s subscriptions means it may get money to obtain more, including ones you request.
10. Use Tor Browser
Tor Browser is extremely private and may get past paywalls, but it can be dangerous.
As you can read in our Tor review, onion routing is one of the most impenetrable ways to shield your online activity, and Tor is the only way to access sites on the dark web. Like a VPN, Tor changes your IP address, so paywalls that count visits won’t recognize you. However, since anybody can run a node, Tor users risk getting spied on via corrupted relays.
If you choose to use Tor, we recommend combining it with a VPN. Onion Over VPN gives you the best of both worlds — the VPN protects you from malicious node operators, while using Tor means you don’t have to trust the VPN’s privacy policy. If you hit a paywall on Tor, you can use the “new identity” feature to start with a fresh IP address.
11. Become a Web Crawler
Smry.ai is one example of a web app that accesses pages
using a crawler, sneaking past paywalls.
We’ve already mentioned that an online archive is a great way to see past paywalls, but it’s not the only web crawler you can hitch a ride on. Any app that captures web pages — such as translators or summary assistants like Smry.ai (pictured above) — may use services that get a view past the paywall. You can tell an app might work if you use it by entering a URL on the start page.
12. Find an Anti-Paywall Browser Extension
The original Github page for Bypass Paywalls Clean was taken down due to legal action, but it appears to have been reposted at the time of writing.
Browser extensions designed to get around paywalls exist in a legal gray area. Although there aren’t any laws against them, they’re vulnerable to copyright notices. Some of the most popular options, like 12ft Ladder and Bypass Paywalls, are frequently removed from web stores and hosting platforms for violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
However, you may still be able to install some of them if you know your way around Github. Bypass Paywalls Clean, which was taken down by DMCA action at least once, currently exists on a Github page you can find here. Use any anti-paywall extension at your own risk, as their dubious legality means they’re often not vetted for malware.
13. Use Spaywall or Unpaywall to Search Archives
Unpaywall maintains a database of freely accessible articles, and its extension is free to add.
Spaywall and Unpaywall are two web apps that streamline the process of looking for free copies of paywalled content. Spaywall claims that about half of all research papers are openly and legally searchable online; its extension, which has a subscription fee but offers a free plan, lets you search a database of those papers. Unpaywall is extremely similar, and both are available as browser extensions.
14. Use the Facebook Shortcut
You may get past some paywalls by pasting a code at the start of the address bar that makes it appear as though you’ve come from Facebook.
Similar to the agreement-based paywalled sites that Google once had, other social media sites that share news have deals to let their users see a few articles for free. Facebook is the easiest example to use. Just open the paywalled page and paste the following code before the URL: “http://facebook.com/l.php?u=”
Although this trick is relatively simple, we’ve placed it below many others because it’s not at all consistent. Agreements between news sites and social media platforms can change by the day, so what works now may not work tomorrow.
15. Change Your User Agent to Googlebot
Use your browser’s developer tools to manually make your
browser look like one of Google’s indexing bots.
If the archive sites don’t work, you can manually disguise yourself as a crawler bot by changing your browser’s user agent — a sort of name tag that tells servers what kind of application is viewing the page. If the server detects a web crawler, it may let you through the paywall. Most of the anti-paywall extensions from tip 13 are automating this process.
The steps are different depending on your browser. On Chrome or Edge, right-click anywhere on the page and select “inspect” to open the developer console. Click the three dots and select “more tools,” then click the “network conditions” tab. Change the user agent to Googlebot using the dropdown menu.
On Firefox, type “about:config” into your menu bar. Accept the warning and continue. In the search box that appears, type “general.useragent.override,” select “string” and click the “+” sign. Finally, add a user agent from this list of crawlers — Googlebot 2.1 works fine.
16. Disable JavaScript
Disabling JavaScript isn’t too hard on any browser, but it risks
breaking the page you’re trying to read.
Websites use JavaScript to create interactive elements, including paywalls. By shutting off JavaScript, you may also stop the paywall from loading, like a harder version of Reader Mode. On Chrome and Safari, you can disable JavaScript on specific sites (or the entire internet) from the user settings.
On Firefox, go to about.config and enter “javascript.enabled” in the search bar. Double-click it to make it false.
JavaScript blocks should be a last resort for paywalls that nothing else has cracked. Even if you restrict the block to one site, there’s a chance it will shut off key functions and make the site unreadable.
17. Delete the Paywall Element Using Inspect
You may be able to delete a client-side paywall by tinkering with the page’s code.
Your browser’s “inspect” feature can dig through the code of a page you’re viewing. If you know what you’re looking for, you can use it to delete the paywall and keep reading. Right-click the paywall message itself, select “inspect” and delete the portion of code that places it on the screen.
If you’re lucky, the paywall element will be labeled as something like “paywall” or “subscribe.” If not, mousing over the relevant code may highlight the paywall onscreen, as in the screenshot above. Be careful — as with tip 17, this might result in a fully broken page.
18. Get the Article Gifted to You
Subscription-based sites like The New York Times often allow
subscribers to gift free articles to non-subscribers.
This can be a simple solution if you happen to know somebody who has a subscription to the site you want to read. Many subscriptions include the right to give a certain number of free articles to non-subscribers, partly as a perk and partly for the free advertising. Contact your friend with a subscription and ask if they’ve got any gift articles left.
If the article you’re trying to access is on a paywalled academic journal, a different kind of gifting may work. Contact the author of the article and see if they’d be willing to send it to you. Journal authors don’t make money from publisher paywalls — since they don’t lose money either way, they’re often happy to send out articles for free.
Final Thoughts
We’d like to close by reiterating that the tricks above are most useful when you’re pressed for time and just need to see a news article now. There’s no reason you should have to keep tabs on 10 different subscriptions you’ll use only now and then. If you repeatedly get value from a site, though, we urge you to consider subscribing — it’s the best way to support the creators.
Which tricks worked for you to get past paywalls? Do you have any tips that aren’t on the list? What advice have you found to work most consistently, and what common tips have you found that didn’t do the job? We’d love to hear from you in the comments. Thanks for reading!
FAQ: Get Around Paywalls on Websites
Many online paywalls work by counting the number of times your IP address has visited the site, then shutting off access at a certain number. By connecting to a VPN before opening the site, you may be able to reset the counter and get in for free.
The easiest methods are to use a VPN or proxy server, try a private browsing window, quickly turn on Reader Mode before the paywall loads, or visit the site through one of the Internet Archive’s page-saving tools.
You can often read a paywalled academic paper by contacting the author and asking them for a copy. Failing that, try using a VPN, archiving the page through archive.today, or seeing if your local library has a subscription to the paper’s publisher.
If you can’t use the Bypass Paywalls extension anymore, two other types of apps for bypassing paywalls are VPNs (which give you a new IP address so the site thinks you’ve never visited before) and archivers (which access the site through a crawler).
A paywall doesn’t have to be the end of the line. If you’re hoping to read that cool article but don’t have the budget — or patience — to manage yet another subscription right now, you’ve got plenty of other options. We’ve gathered 18 tips for those wanting to know how to get past paywalls, from using the best VPNs to trying more niche solutions.
To get past a paywall, it helps to know how the site tracks user activity and figures out when to put the paywall up. Some sites check how many times a certain IP address accesses their servers, while others use tracking cookies. Some block access on each user’s computer, whereas others block content on the web server.
Knowing the nature of a paywall can help you determine how hard you’ll have to work to overcome it. Getting past paywalls can be as simple as Googling the page title, but some tougher blocks require solutions that’ll make you feel like a real hacker.
What Is a Paywall?
A paywall is a tool for making money from a website. Many websites rely on selling ad space to monetize their content, but this isn’t an ideal solution. Ads irritate visitors, take up visual space and make pages load slower. They’re also easy to block outright — see our list of the best ad blockers to learn just how easy.
- Comprehend the essential role a VPN plays in safeguarding your digital life
- Gain a deep understanding of how VPNs function under the hood
- Develop the ability to distinguish fact from fiction in VPN promotions
Paywalls are a little more old-school: If you want to read, you have to pay. There are a few different approaches. A soft paywall lets you read a limited number of pages before you’re blocked, a hard paywall blocks all non-paying users from certain pages, and a dynamic paywall decides when to put up the paywall based on each user’s behavior.
Paywalls are most popular among outlets with higher reputations since they can rely on name recognition to turn users into subscribers. It’s always best to subscribe and remove the paywall if you have the time and money — that supports your favorite outlets and ensures they don’t have to turn to obnoxious advertising. If you just need to get into a single article fast, read on.
18 Ways to Bypass Paywalls Online
There are so many different kinds of paywalls that we can’t guarantee which of these solutions will work. We’ve arranged them in rough order of increasing complexity. In each entry, we’ll outline what sort of paywall the solution works best on and explain how to tell if it might work in your current situation.
1. Search the Page Title
In this screenshot, the paywalled article from nymag.com is summarized — though not repeated verbatim — in the link below it.
Sometimes, getting over paywalls is as simple as copying the headline of the page you want to read and pasting it into a search engine. If you put quotes around the headline, you’ll frequently find the same content on a forum, aggregator or someone’s blog — and if it’s not the exact content, it’ll cover the same information.
Note that although it used to be possible to read paywalled articles for free if you clicked through Google to reach them, this is no longer true. The First Click Free policy was unlimited only from 2007 to 2009, and by 2017, the policy had ended altogether. However, Google’s search crawlers are still allowed behind paywalls, a fact we can use to our advantage (see tips 12 and 15)
2. Use Reader Mode on Chrome, Firefox or Another Browser
Reader Mode can make a lot of paywalls disappear if you’re quick enough.
Reader Mode is a feature on most web browsers that cuts out distracting visual elements on a page to make it easier to read. You can read about one example in our Firefox review. Reader Mode is nice on its own, but you can also use it to bypass a paywall that loads a few seconds later than the rest of the page.
The process is simple. First, load or refresh the page. Then, click the “Reader Mode” button before the paywall element appears. Reader Mode stops page elements from rendering, so the paywall never appears, letting you read in peace. It’s not guaranteed to work, but it costs nothing to try.
3. Clear Your Cookies
Clearing cookies on your browser can cause paywalled
websites to forget you’ve visited before.
Cookies are small data files that your browser uses to remember things. Thanks to cookies, you don’t have to log in to an account-based site every time you open it, even if you’ve closed your browser since then. Though convenient, cookies also tell a client-side paywall that you’ve visited its site before.
If you’re getting blocked by a soft paywall — the kind that says something like, “You’ve read 3 of 3 free articles this month” — clear your browser’s cookies and try again. The site may think you’re an entirely new visitor and start your counter over from zero. See our article on how to clear cookies if you aren’t familiar with the steps.
4. Use Private Browsing
Using Incognito mode and private browsing does not mean you won’t be tracked online, but they do prevent your browser itself from saving data.
Of course, it’s even easier if the website never saved the cookies in the first place. Before visiting a paywalled website, switch your browser to private or Incognito mode. You can usually open a private browser window in the dot/hamburger preferences menu at the top right.
In private browsing, your browser doesn’t save any cookies, so the paywall shouldn’t know that you’ve visited before. As with the other tricks on this list, don’t expect it to work every time.
Also, as we hammer on in our anonymous browsing guide, private browsing is not the same as secure or anonymous browsing. It works only on your device and doesn’t screen anything from your ISP, advertisers or criminals.
5. Archive the Page
Paywalls block residential IP addresses but not the sort
of crawlers used by the Internet Archive.
Paywalls are designed to block access from personal IP addresses, like the one you’re probably browsing with right now. They’re not intended to block the web crawler bots that automatically visit pages to index them. Google and other search engines use crawlers to make sites searchable, so few websites can afford to keep them out.
The easiest way to take advantage of this is to go through an online archive, which is a nonprofit project that crawls web pages to preserve them for posterity. You can any archive site, such as archive.today, archive.is or archive.org, to crawl and archive a page on demand — even a live URL behind a paywall.
Just copy the URL of the blocked page, go to either website, paste the URL into the empty field and click “save.” You’ll be able to read the full unpaywalled article.
6. Use a VPN
A VPN like NordVPN (pictured above) can fool paywalls that count how
many times each unique IP address visits the site.
A VPN, which stands for “virtual private network,” is a security tool that hides your real IP address so you stay anonymous online. Our “What Is a VPN” article explains in more depth, but basically, you use a VPN server as your assumed identity online. Even if you’ve visited a paywalled site many times this month, the VPN makes you look like a whole new visitor.
Of course, the VPN server will eventually hit the paywall too, but you can get another IP address by disconnecting and reconnecting again. A VPN subscription nets you tons of other useful features, too. NordVPN is our favorite option, as our NordVPN review explains, but our Surfshark review describes an alternative we quite like.
7. Use an Ad Blocker
uBlock Origin and other ad blocker extensions can stop paywalls from loading.
An ad blocker like uBlock Origin or Adblock Plus does a great job of keeping your web time free of distraction, but it might also get you around paywalls. Ad blockers work by preventing certain elements of a web page from loading, so the best ones can shut down pop-up paywalls the same as they would any other pop-up ad.
Using this method couldn’t be simpler. Just activate your ad blocker and visit the page. If it’s the right kind of paywall, you won’t even see it load. For extra convenience, you can even get a VPN with ad blocker built in.
8. Use a Proxy Server
Proxy servers don’t encrypt your requests, but that’s less
important when dealing with paywalls.
A proxy server works similarly to a VPN in that it’s a borrowed IP address you use instead of your own. Proxies are often free and generally easy to use. For most, like the hide.me free proxy, you can just paste the paywalled URL on a web page and click “go.” See our best free proxy list for more examples.
The reason we’ve listed proxies as requiring more work than VPNs is that VPNs are a lot more versatile. Proxies don’t have encryption, so it’s easy to find out your actual identity if anyone’s really looking. Plus, they don’t come with the features that make VPNs good at getting around blocks, like obfuscation and built-in ad blockers.
9. Check Your Local Library
Libraries often have digital subscriptions to popular
paywalled sites like The New York Times.
Local libraries commonly have paper subscriptions to in-demand newspapers like The Wall Street Journal, but many also have digital subscriptions to news websites. Check your library’s website to see what periodicals it offers, or ask a librarian in person. As a bonus, using a library’s subscriptions means it may get money to obtain more, including ones you request.
10. Use Tor Browser
Tor Browser is extremely private and may get past paywalls, but it can be dangerous.
As you can read in our Tor review, onion routing is one of the most impenetrable ways to shield your online activity, and Tor is the only way to access sites on the dark web. Like a VPN, Tor changes your IP address, so paywalls that count visits won’t recognize you. However, since anybody can run a node, Tor users risk getting spied on via corrupted relays.
If you choose to use Tor, we recommend combining it with a VPN. Onion Over VPN gives you the best of both worlds — the VPN protects you from malicious node operators, while using Tor means you don’t have to trust the VPN’s privacy policy. If you hit a paywall on Tor, you can use the “new identity” feature to start with a fresh IP address.
11. Become a Web Crawler
Smry.ai is one example of a web app that accesses pages
using a crawler, sneaking past paywalls.
We’ve already mentioned that an online archive is a great way to see past paywalls, but it’s not the only web crawler you can hitch a ride on. Any app that captures web pages — such as translators or summary assistants like Smry.ai (pictured above) — may use services that get a view past the paywall. You can tell an app might work if you use it by entering a URL on the start page.
12. Find an Anti-Paywall Browser Extension
The original Github page for Bypass Paywalls Clean was taken down due to legal action, but it appears to have been reposted at the time of writing.
Browser extensions designed to get around paywalls exist in a legal gray area. Although there aren’t any laws against them, they’re vulnerable to copyright notices. Some of the most popular options, like 12ft Ladder and Bypass Paywalls, are frequently removed from web stores and hosting platforms for violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
However, you may still be able to install some of them if you know your way around Github. Bypass Paywalls Clean, which was taken down by DMCA action at least once, currently exists on a Github page you can find here. Use any anti-paywall extension at your own risk, as their dubious legality means they’re often not vetted for malware.
13. Use Spaywall or Unpaywall to Search Archives
Unpaywall maintains a database of freely accessible articles, and its extension is free to add.
Spaywall and Unpaywall are two web apps that streamline the process of looking for free copies of paywalled content. Spaywall claims that about half of all research papers are openly and legally searchable online; its extension, which has a subscription fee but offers a free plan, lets you search a database of those papers. Unpaywall is extremely similar, and both are available as browser extensions.
14. Use the Facebook Shortcut
You may get past some paywalls by pasting a code at the start of the address bar that makes it appear as though you’ve come from Facebook.
Similar to the agreement-based paywalled sites that Google once had, other social media sites that share news have deals to let their users see a few articles for free. Facebook is the easiest example to use. Just open the paywalled page and paste the following code before the URL: “http://facebook.com/l.php?u=”
Although this trick is relatively simple, we’ve placed it below many others because it’s not at all consistent. Agreements between news sites and social media platforms can change by the day, so what works now may not work tomorrow.
15. Change Your User Agent to Googlebot
Use your browser’s developer tools to manually make your
browser look like one of Google’s indexing bots.
If the archive sites don’t work, you can manually disguise yourself as a crawler bot by changing your browser’s user agent — a sort of name tag that tells servers what kind of application is viewing the page. If the server detects a web crawler, it may let you through the paywall. Most of the anti-paywall extensions from tip 13 are automating this process.
The steps are different depending on your browser. On Chrome or Edge, right-click anywhere on the page and select “inspect” to open the developer console. Click the three dots and select “more tools,” then click the “network conditions” tab. Change the user agent to Googlebot using the dropdown menu.
On Firefox, type “about:config” into your menu bar. Accept the warning and continue. In the search box that appears, type “general.useragent.override,” select “string” and click the “+” sign. Finally, add a user agent from this list of crawlers — Googlebot 2.1 works fine.
16. Disable JavaScript
Disabling JavaScript isn’t too hard on any browser, but it risks
breaking the page you’re trying to read.
Websites use JavaScript to create interactive elements, including paywalls. By shutting off JavaScript, you may also stop the paywall from loading, like a harder version of Reader Mode. On Chrome and Safari, you can disable JavaScript on specific sites (or the entire internet) from the user settings.
On Firefox, go to about.config and enter “javascript.enabled” in the search bar. Double-click it to make it false.
JavaScript blocks should be a last resort for paywalls that nothing else has cracked. Even if you restrict the block to one site, there’s a chance it will shut off key functions and make the site unreadable.
17. Delete the Paywall Element Using Inspect
You may be able to delete a client-side paywall by tinkering with the page’s code.
Your browser’s “inspect” feature can dig through the code of a page you’re viewing. If you know what you’re looking for, you can use it to delete the paywall and keep reading. Right-click the paywall message itself, select “inspect” and delete the portion of code that places it on the screen.
If you’re lucky, the paywall element will be labeled as something like “paywall” or “subscribe.” If not, mousing over the relevant code may highlight the paywall onscreen, as in the screenshot above. Be careful — as with tip 17, this might result in a fully broken page.
18. Get the Article Gifted to You
Subscription-based sites like The New York Times often allow
subscribers to gift free articles to non-subscribers.
This can be a simple solution if you happen to know somebody who has a subscription to the site you want to read. Many subscriptions include the right to give a certain number of free articles to non-subscribers, partly as a perk and partly for the free advertising. Contact your friend with a subscription and ask if they’ve got any gift articles left.
If the article you’re trying to access is on a paywalled academic journal, a different kind of gifting may work. Contact the author of the article and see if they’d be willing to send it to you. Journal authors don’t make money from publisher paywalls — since they don’t lose money either way, they’re often happy to send out articles for free.
Final Thoughts
We’d like to close by reiterating that the tricks above are most useful when you’re pressed for time and just need to see a news article now. There’s no reason you should have to keep tabs on 10 different subscriptions you’ll use only now and then. If you repeatedly get value from a site, though, we urge you to consider subscribing — it’s the best way to support the creators.
Which tricks worked for you to get past paywalls? Do you have any tips that aren’t on the list? What advice have you found to work most consistently, and what common tips have you found that didn’t do the job? We’d love to hear from you in the comments. Thanks for reading!
FAQ: Get Around Paywalls on Websites
Many online paywalls work by counting the number of times your IP address has visited the site, then shutting off access at a certain number. By connecting to a VPN before opening the site, you may be able to reset the counter and get in for free.
The easiest methods are to use a VPN or proxy server, try a private browsing window, quickly turn on Reader Mode before the paywall loads, or visit the site through one of the Internet Archive’s page-saving tools.
You can often read a paywalled academic paper by contacting the author and asking them for a copy. Failing that, try using a VPN, archiving the page through archive.today, or seeing if your local library has a subscription to the paper’s publisher.
If you can’t use the Bypass Paywalls extension anymore, two other types of apps for bypassing paywalls are VPNs (which give you a new IP address so the site thinks you’ve never visited before) and archivers (which access the site through a crawler).
