Is RemovePaywall safe?
Updated September 2026
Short answer: yes. RemovePaywall is a free web tool with no login, no ads, and no cross-site tracking. Here is exactly what it does and doesn't do, so you can judge for yourself.
No account, no downloads
The web tool needs no signup and installs nothing — you paste a link and read. The optional browser extension is a thin launcher (it just opens the reader) distributed through the Chrome and Firefox stores.
No ads, no cross-site tracking
There are no ads in the reader and no third-party ad or tracking cookies. Analytics are first-party and aggregate — counts, not profiles — and we dropped Google Analytics entirely. See the privacy page.
What it does with your link
When you paste a URL, the server fetches that public page, extracts the article text, and if needed checks public archives (archive.today, the Wayback Machine). It never touches your accounts, passwords, or other tabs.
Honest about limits
It cannot defeat hard subscription walls where the text is never sent to logged-out readers; those only come through when a public archive already exists. We publish real per-site success rates rather than claiming to beat everything.
Live success rates
Unlike other tools, RemovePaywall shows how often it actually works, from real usage — recent examples: The New Yorker ~99% · WIRED ~98% · The Atlantic ~97% · Business Insider ~92% · The New York Times ~65%. See the full live list.
FAQ
Is RemovePaywall a virus or malware?
No — it is a free web page with nothing to download to use it. The optional extension is store-reviewed and open about what it does.
Does RemovePaywall steal my data?
No. No login, no ads, no cross-site tracking; analytics are first-party and aggregate. It only reads the article URL you paste.
Is it legal to use?
It surfaces publicly-available text and public archives rather than cracking hard subscriptions — see our explainer on whether bypassing paywalls is legal. If you read a publication often, please subscribe.