Both the internet and social networks have completely transformed journalism. Many traditional media outlets have adopted the classic paywall mechanism to generate revenue from their articles. However, there are times when you only need a quick, casual read, which does not always justify a subscription. If you have ever wondered how to read paid articles for free, believe me, you are not alone... and one of these tricks will likely get you out of a bind.
Before we start, let's get one thing straight: if you enjoy the content of a site that uses paywalls or premium access systems, you should definitely consider subscribing. News portals are usually the most likely to adopt paywalls or limit the number of free articles per day, week, or month, but we have also seen plenty of tech sites using similar strategies.
That said, sometimes the paywall just does not make sense. Suppose you want to read a relatively old article to confirm a fact or settle a doubt, but its content ended up trapped behind a login when the paywall was activated. If you want to know how to read paid articles for free when something like that happens, check out this list. Some of these tricks may be patched later, but it costs nothing to try...
Use Facebook to Bypass Paywalls
Many paywalled portals offer free access to their content if you arrive via Facebook. But the best part is that you do not need an account on the social network: just prepend the redirect code https://facebook.com/l.php?u= to the article's URL. If all goes well, the paywall will disappear.
Try Google Search
There is no science here: copy the exact title of the article and paste it into the search engine. Just like with Facebook, many pages have a special agreement with the Mountain View giant and allow limited free access to articles when you come from a search engine. You could also try to find a mirror or an authorized translation, and we also recommend trying Bing... you never know.
Use Incognito or Private Browsing
For paywalls that block access after you have read a fixed number of articles, you can always try incognito or private mode in your browser. Obviously, this does not work on every site, but if the user detection is relatively basic, you will likely be able to read a couple more articles.
Inspect and Edit Page Elements
https://www.reddit.com/r/educationalgifs/comments/lk1not/you_can_bypass_most_soft_paywalls_with_a_little/
A bit more complicated, but no less effective: most pages load the full article and block scrolling or place a banner in the text to indicate the presence of the paywall. However, nothing stops you from using the browser's inspection tool and making small temporary edits to the code. This video posted on Reddit shows how to free an article from The New York Times with two minimal CSS tweaks.
Use Reading and Annotation Services
Some online services can generate lite copies of certain articles, focusing only on text and images. This is similar to distiller in Google Chrome or Immersive Reader in Edge Chromium, but the main difference is that online versions can bypass many paywalls. Outline is one of the most popular services, although some portals block it easily. To get around that obstacle, use a URL shortener on the original article link and paste the shortened address into Outline.
Install Browser Extensions
Naturally, some extensions for Firefox and Chrome (including all their flavors) help you read paid articles for free without too much trouble. Bypass Paywalls requires manual installation. Bypass Paywalls Clean is exclusive to Firefox and receives frequent updates. Looking for a paper from a scientific study? Unpaywall usually works well.
Disable JavaScript
The nuclear option for last. Disabling JavaScript offers multiple privacy benefits, but it can break entire sites or drastically reduce functionality. Now, if all you need is the text in a paid article, it's an acceptable trade-off. The exact process depends on the browser:
- In Chrome, go to chrome://settings/content/javascript and disable the option
- In Edge Chromium, the exact address is edge://settings/content/javascript
- In Firefox, go to about:config, search for javascript.enabled, and double-click to disable it.
In Summary
Once again, the idea here is not to harm anyone, but to let you read paid articles for free with a casual profile, or in an emergency if you can't find a better link. I am sure one of these methods will work for you, but if we forgot another trick you know, do not hesitate to leave a comment. Good luck!
