The best free paywall removers in 2026
Paste an article link — read it free:
After 12ft.io shut down, several free tools compete to read past paywalls. Here is an honest comparison — what each actually does, and where each works best.
What to look for
The most reliable free tools are reader-first (they extract the article) and archive-backed (they fall back to archive.today and the Wayback Machine). Single-trick tools like the old 12ft crawler spoof mostly stopped working once publishers added bot protection.
The honest limit
No free tool beats a hard subscription wall (WSJ, FT, Bloomberg) unless a public archive of that specific article exists. Any tool claiming to crack every paywall is overpromising.
Our pick
RemovePaywall combines reader extraction with archive.today, the Wayback Machine and a sandboxed proxy, works in 7 languages, and — unlike the others — publishes live per-site success rates so you can see what actually works before you rely on 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 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 |
Live success rates
Unlike other tools, RemovePaywall shows how often it actually works, from real usage — recent examples: The New Yorker ~100% · WIRED ~100% · The Atlantic ~98% · Business Insider ~97% · The New York Times ~97%. See the full live list.
Got an article in mind? Try it now: