A free paywall reader for news articles
A paywall reader opens an article that sits behind a subscription prompt and shows you the text in a clean view. RemovePaywall is a free one: paste the link and it does the rest — and when a site only sends a preview, it tells you so instead of pretending.
What a paywall reader does
It fetches the article page itself, pulls out the headline and body text, and shows them in a plain reading view — no overlay, no ad networks, no pop-ups. It is the same idea as your browser's reader mode, but it does not depend on what your browser happened to load, and it can look elsewhere when the page is locked.
How RemovePaywall reads an article
First it reads the live page and extracts the article. If the text is not there — the publisher only sent the opening — it looks for a saved copy at archive.today and the Wayback Machine and reads that instead. If no copy exists, it says so and gives you the archive link to try later. Every step happens on our side; you just paste the link.
Paywall reader vs. browser reader mode
Browser reader mode only rearranges what is already on the page in front of you, so it helps on soft paywalls and nowhere else. A paywall reader fetches the page on its own and falls back to archives, which is why it opens articles reader mode cannot.
When a site sends only a preview
Some publishers send non-subscribers only the first paragraphs (the WSJ and The Times, for example). For those the full text comes from an archived copy — RemovePaywall checks archive.today and the Wayback Machine automatically. If none exists yet, a gift link from a subscriber or your library's free digital access opens it.
Free paywall tools compared (2026)
| Tool | How it works | No install | No login | Languages | Shows success rates |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RemovePaywall | Reader-first extraction, then archive.today + Wayback, then a full-page view | Yes (web; optional extension) | Yes | 10 | Yes — live, per site |
| archive.today | Public archive lookup only | Yes | Yes | — | No |
| Bypass Paywall Reader | Aggregator — redirects you to archives (Wayback, archive.today, others) | Yes | Yes | 5 | No |
| Smry.ai | AI reader + article summaries | Yes (also an extension) | Free tier; Pro is paid | — | No |
| Bypass Paywalls Clean | Browser extension with per-site rules | No — sideload from GitHub | Yes | — | No |
Live success rates
Unlike other tools, RemovePaywall publishes how often it works for each outlet, measured from real use. See the live list.
Got an article in mind? Try it now: