How to bypass paywall and read articles online without subscription or payment? Read the article to know several ways to bypass paywall for free.
Paywall is a kind of threshold set for online reading. Some content can only be read after users pay or subscribe. There are many models of paywall and they are set by well-known newspapers such as Wall Street Journal, Times, Economics, etc. Professional content can only be viewed after subscription. Of course, some users prefer to bypass the paywall to read content for free. For this reason, this article provides some feasible methods to bypass paywalls for reference only.
Tips: This article only provides methods. It does not represent the author's views, we don’t recommend users to bypass the paywall.
Paywall is a method that restricts certain content to be accessible unless users purchase or subscribe. It is usually used on some journals and websites that provide professional, academic, first-hand, or inside information.
3 Types of Paywall
✦Hard paywalls: you can access certain content after paid subscription
✦Soft paywalls: you can access part of certain content before paid subscription
✦Metered paywalls: you are only allowed to read a limited number of articles
Example Websites that Apply Paywalls
✦The New York Times: free account for limited free articles
✦The Wall Street Journal: paid subscription for all content
✦The Washington Post: paid subscription for subscriber-exclusive events
✦The Economist: read limited free articles after login
✦The Financial Times: read limited free articles after register
Wayback Machine, a digital archive of the World Wide Web, is a non-profit internet archive that records and stores any revision of all pages in a website. Just enter a URL and you can view its past versions included in the Archive. There are 866 billion webpages stored on Wayback Machine as of January 2024, according to Wikipedia.
To bypass paywalls with Wayback Machine, the steps are easy. Go to the Wayback Machine official site. Paste the URL of the webpage you want to view and click Enter. Choose a snapshot you want to check and click to read its content.
For those free articles that can be accessible after login, you may read the first paragraphs on the Wayback Machine.
Some websites load all content first and then appear a overlay element for those users who have not registered or paid. That is, the content is delivered but hidden out of view, making it easier to circumvent. There are two ways to bypass paywalls in such condition.
Way 1: Open in Reading Mode
Open an article you want to read, right-click the mouse and click Open in reading mode. Then you can read the article without any disruption.
Way 2: Disable JS
Open the article you want to read, right-click the mouse, choose Inspect. Then click the Settings icon and scroll to the Debugger item, check the two box below: Disable JavaScript, Disable async stack traces. Then refresh the page to view the rest content.
Paywall removers are websites specially designed to help users to remove paywalls with the link of an article. Try the following paywall remover websites to remove paywall with ease.
Notice: Paywall remover websites are not working all the time. To see if it works, enter the URL to check if the paywall is removed.
RemovePaywall allows users to circumvent paywall through internet archives, without subscribing or logging in. Enter the link of an article, you can find its archived version from Archive.is, Internet Archive, Google Cache, or Bing Cache on the site. That’s very easy.
Paywall Reader, a user-friendly paywall remover website, breaks through the barriers of digital paywalls. The site also states that this is just a tool to help users obtain information sources from some public channels. Its source is from Google Cache, Internet Archive, Archive.Today, 12ft.io, Remove Paywall.
Smry is an AI website that help you access content behind paywalls and provide concise summaries of long articles in seconds. To read an article with login or subscription pop-up window, you just need to copy and paste the link. It takes advantages of archive, wayback, jina.ai to help you read articles online free.
For example, you can use Smry to bypass paywalls on Washington Post.
Some users may find it more convenient to use a browser extension that has a paywall removal feature. Because with an extension, you don’t even have to copy and paste the article link. Just open the link you want to see, then turn on the extension and choose to open with 12ft.io, archive.org, archive.is, Google Cache, or removepaywall.com. That’s how you do to remove paywalls using PaywallHub Chrome extension.
In addition to the restrictions imposed by login and subscription, some content is also subject to regional restrictions, that is, certain content is not available in some countries or regions. At this time, what you need is a VPN, not a paywall remover.
We will also recommend a free VPN to help you break regional restrictions and browse your favorite content. This free VPN is iTop VPN, which can be used after free download without registration or subscription. There are more than 10 free servers for connection, distributed in the United States, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and other countries.
Some important Features of iTop VPN to help you unblock content, keep privacy and security:
Large numbers of VPN servers for streaming, gaming, P2P, and social media
Double VPN to encrypt traffic twice without being traced or tracked
Ad blocker to block ads for uninterrupted steaming or reading
Dark web monitor to monitor data leakage on dark web sites
Split tunneling to enable certain apps to go through local network
Dynamic and static IP options for different situations
Dedicated IP in US, Canada, UK, Germany to get an unique IP
Download and try iTop VPN with powerful features by clicking the button below.
Conclusion
For unlimited free reading of popular magazines and journals, the article has offered several ways, including payment remover websites and chrome extension. But when we use these methods, we found that some top famous magazines or daily newspapers, such as the Wall Street Journal, the Economist and so on, it's hard to paywall remover be able to remove its subscription window. But it's okay, try in case of success. If you encounter blocks due to geography, don’t hesitate to download iTop VPN to unblock your favorite content.
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