Smry.ai alternative (2026)
Updated September 2026
Smry.ai reads paywalled articles and adds AI summaries, with a free tier and a paid plan. If you just want the full clean article for free, here is how RemovePaywall compares.
What Smry.ai does
Smry.ai opens paywalled articles and generates an AI summary. The reader is free; heavier use and some features sit behind a paid plan.
How RemovePaywall differs
RemovePaywall focuses on the full clean article, not a summary — reader-first extraction with archive.today and Wayback fallback, entirely free with no plan or per-article limits, and no login.
When to use which
Want a quick AI gist? Smry.ai. Want to read the full article free in a clean view, across hundreds of outlets in several languages? RemovePaywall.
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 sandboxed proxy | Yes (web; optional extension) | Yes | 7 | 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 |
RemovePaywall is the only option that's reader-first and archive-backed, works in 7 languages, and publishes live per-site success rates.
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
What is a free alternative to Smry.ai?
RemovePaywall — a free reader-first tool with archive fallback and no paid tier for reading.
Does RemovePaywall summarize articles?
No — it gives you the full clean article rather than an AI summary. Use it when you want to read the piece itself.
Is it free with no limits?
Yes — free, no account, no per-article limit on the reader.