How To Bypass Paywalls: 16 Free Ways to Get Around Paywalls

We’ve all been there: we’re scrolling and come across a news article that grabs our attention. Curiously, we click the link only to be blocked by a paywall.

Suddenly you’re faced with the decision: subscribe, perform a Google search for a free version, or abandon reading it altogether. But there’s another option: bypassing those paywalls to read the content for free.

Whether you’re tech-savvy or a total novice, there are ways to bypass paywalls for all skill levels. We’ll show you how simple actions like using one of the best VPNs to avoid IP-based paywalls, installing Chrome extensions, and using archival sites that allow you to read the content you want without paying for a million subscriptions.

16 ways to bypass paywalls for free

Not all paywalls are built the same. While some may track your IP address, others may use cookies to see how many times you’ve accessed content.

Whatever the situation, one of the methods below should be able to help you access the content you want without having to pull out your credit card.

1. Use a virtual private network (VPN)

Best for: Sites that limit the number of articles you can read

A VPN isn’t just for unblocking Netflix. Some paywalls, like The Washington Post and The Weather Channel, track your IP address to limit how many articles you can read each month for free. Using a VPN allows you to change up your IP address and read unlimited articles.

To do this, you’ll need to switch your VPN server when you’ve hit the limit on the current server’s IP address. It’s that simple.

This method should work for a lot of different paywalls, but if you run into one that isn’t tracking your IP, there are other methods you can try to access the content. If you want to give this a try but don’t have a VPN, consider using one of these options that come at a low cost and offer a 30-day money-back guarantee so you can try them for free:

2. Open an Incognito window

Best for: Sites that track your usage with cookies

Incognito mode is not an anonymous way to browse the internet, but that’s a problem for another day.

It will allow you to bypass paywalls that track your usage with cookies. Opening your web browser in Incognito mode gives you a fresh start on the Internet. You can then navigate to the site you want to access without previous browsing cookies interfering with your content.

Once you’re done, you’ll need to close the browser window to reset, but this is a relatively simple and painless way to bypass the paywall.

3. Turn on Reader Mode in your browser

It’s been rumored that you can get around certain soft paywalls by switching into reader mode in your browser. We tried this on The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal without success.

Reader Mode has been known to work with less high-profile sites, so before you take more extreme measures, try switching to the reader and see if you can get the entire piece. If it doesn’t work, then no harm is done.

To switch to Reader Mode in Mac Safari:

1. Look at the address bar.
2. Click the rectangle with lines in the address bar.
3. Reader Mode should now be on.
4. Repeat these steps to disable Reader Mode.

To switch to Reader Mode in iOS Safari:

1. Look at the address bar.
2. Locate Aa on the left side of the address.
3. Tap Aa.
4. Scroll until you find Show Reader and tap.
5. Reader Mode should now be on.
6. Repeat these steps to disable Reader Mode when you’re done.

To switch to Reader Mode in Microsoft Edge:

1. Select Enter  Immersive Reader in the address bar.
2. To exit, select Exit Immersive Reader.
3. You may also use the keyboard shortcut F9 to access Immersive Reader.

To switch to Reader Mode in Chrome:

1. In Chrome's address bar, type chrome://flags and press Enter.
2. Navigate to the Experiments page.
3. Search for Reader Mode.
4. Set to Enabled.
5. Relaunch to activate Reader Mode.
6. Open the page you want to read and click Reader Mode on the right side of the address bar.

4. Delete your browser cookies

Soft paywalls use cookies to track how many articles you’ve read in the allotted period. You can manually delete your cookies (or block them altogether) to help you thwart soft paywalls.

This will not work for subscription-based sites like The New York Times Cooking, but it should help you read more articles than your monthly allotted time from other sites that monitor cookies.

5. Use the Wayback Machine

This might be the most effective way to bypass paywalls. It’s a few extra steps, but the Wayback Machine allows you to read archived versions of websites from across the internet, whether they were behind a paywall or not. It’s worth noting this only works on sites that allow web crawlers, but seeing as web crawlers are how Google ranks pages, most sites you want to access should work.

We tested it on a recipe from The New York Times, and it worked perfectly. (We love supporting good content with subscription fees, but in the year we’ve been reading The New York Times recipe eNewsletter, we’ve only had the desire to look up one recipe.) If you’re the same, this will allow you to grab that single page without having to pay the subscription fee or bug a paying friend for a screenshot. (This may or may not be a real-life example.)

If you want to access the content regularly, consider supporting that site’s work with a subscription. Otherwise, enjoy the convenience of the Wayback Machine.

6. Get access through your library

This is why we love our library. Often your local library has archives of all the materials you want to read. It may even have a subscription or subscription-level access to the content you want.

You’ll need to check with your individual library, but the librarians can help you figure out what access you do or don’t have. You may also discover other cool things your library offers. For instance, Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) lets you borrow books on library-sharing apps like Hoopla, book museum admissions, rent hiking gear, and play the ukulele all for free.^[1]

7. Use 12ft Ladder

Similar to how the Wayback Machine works, 12ft Ladder grabs cached, web-crawled versions of websites so you can view them without a paywall.

While this isn’t a foolproof way to view a site, it’s likely going to work. Sites allow web crawlers through the paywall so the site can be indexed properly and have a better chance of appearing in your search results. Because of this, using a site like 12ft Ladder lets you see the unrestricted content.

8. Try the Bypass Paywalls Clean browser extension

If doing mildly sketchy things makes you nervous, you may want to pass on this option. Bypass Paywalls Clean is a browser extension for Firefox that allows you to slip right by those paywalls.

Apparently, Mozilla received a copyright infringement notification requiring it to remove Bypass Paywalls Clean from its browser. Since the extension is open-source software, it’s still available online.

You can check out the instructions for Bypass Paywalls Clean and try it yourself. Just remember to be safe when downloading items from the Internet. Make sure your cybersecurity software is up-to-date, and don’t disable anything to allow a download.

Below are some of our favorite antivirus providers in case you want to try downloads but don't have a strong AV already installed.

9. Use uBlock Origin ad blocker

Using uBlock Origin requires some finagling. However, following the instructions on this site is easy, and you’ll feel like a technology rock star when you’re done.

Originally, we’d recommended using the Bypass Paywalls Clean extension, but it was recently removed from Firefox after Mozilla received a copyright notice. The guide walks you through the steps to create a custom uBlock Origin filter that will allow you to use the Bypass Paywalls Clean extension.

We should also mention that uBlock Origin is a great paywall blocker in general. It can block those annoying paywall pop-ups.

10. Bypass Paywalls extension

If you feel like getting fancy and installing a Chrome extension in developer mode, you may be able to bypass all paywalls without other tricks. This GitHub download provides you with instructions on how to install the extension.

While nothing downloaded from the internet is 100% safe, you can gauge the safety of a GitHub download by looking at how many people are working on the code, how many stars the download has, and if people are actively improving the code. This particular download checks those boxes with 55 people working on it, over 45,000 stars, and 33 product releases.

Again, we stress using good, up-to-date, reliable antivirus whenever you download anything from the internet. 

11. Create iOS Shortcuts

Some subscription sites have a deal with social media sites to let users read links for free. You can turn this into an iOS shortcut on your iPhone or iPad (not your Mac) so you look like you’re coming from Facebook into the piece you want to view. You’ll need to set it up using these steps:

1. First, go to the Bypass Paywall iCloud hub and click Get Shortcut. Refresh the page if it doesn’t work.
2. Launch Safari on your iPhone or iPad and go to the paywall piece you want to read.
3. When the payment pop-up shows, tap Share > Bypass Paywall.
4. Choose Allow.
5. Once Facebook opens, follow the blue button that says “You’re about to leave Facebook” and enjoy the article you want to read.

12. Use the Tor Browser

You’ll need the Tor Browser to make this work. Then, you’ll just need to visit the site with the soft paywall you want to circumvent.

Once you’ve read the article, hit the New Identity button to start a fresh browser session. If you ever run into a soft paywall again while on Tor, you just have to click New Identity, and you’ll get a fresh start to keep reading.

Using Tor is a great way to browse anonymously online, which only helps when wanting to read payment-restricted content.

13. Check out Bardeen

Bardeen is designed to help automate workflows, but through that capability also has the ability to bypass paywalls with one of its pre-built automations called playbooks.

There are a few methods for doing this, but our favorite is the web archive playbook that allows you to access a site by looking like a Google web crawler rather than a person who needs to pay. Best of all, you can sign up for a free account through Bardeen.

14. The Facebook URL

If the Facebook iOS shortcut doesn’t work for you, you can use the manual link to access the content. All you have to do is copy and paste https://facebook.com/l.php?u= before the link of any article. You’ll then be prompted to leave Facebook and be taken to the article. It’s simple and works on soft paywalls pretty well.

15. Use a proxy

A proxy server works similarly to a VPN with unblocking paywalls. Mostly you’ll get around a soft paywall with this option by using the proxy to create a new IP address.

The difference between a proxy server vs a VPN extends beyond paywalls, but for the purpose of today’s discussion, just know that a proxy and a VPN are both great ways to get a new IP address and circumvent paywalls.

16. Try an iOS Shortcut

If you're browsing the web on your iPhone and stumble upon a paywall, one of Apple's built-in features might get you past the digital bouncer and into the content party. You can use the iOS Shortcuts app plus Unpaywall. 

We tried this with a few different sites like The Wall Street Journal, Medium, and The New York Times. It only worked with NYT.com, but that's not to say it won't work for your paywall problems, as it unblocked the NYT article like a charm.

1. Add Unpaywall by opening the Shortcuts app on your iPhone and searching for "Unpaywall."

2. Open the paywalled article you want to read.

3. Tap the Options button at the bottom of Safari and scroll down to choose Unpaywall.

4. You may need to tap "Allow" for the Unpaywall shortcut to work.

5. Once you've allowed the shortcut to work its magic, you should see a free, unblocked article.

How to bypass paywalls FAQs

Bottom line

No matter your reason for wanting to remove paywalls, you now have plenty of options to do it for free. Our favorites are archival and web crawler sites like the Wayback Machine, 12ft Ladder, and VPNs.

A VPN has many uses aside from paywall thwarting, like accessing geo-restricted content on streaming sites. You can choose the VPN that’s right for streaming from our best VPNs for Netflix review.

No matter what, once you’ve sampled the content on the site with these methods, consider subscribing to content you find valuable. It’s always worth supporting your favorite creators. Your support can only lead to more content, and who doesn’t love that?