CartaCapital Paywall: How to Read CartaCapital Articles for Free
CartaCapital, the São Paulo political weekly founded by Mino Carta, keeps its reporting for assinantes. How the paywall works and how to read a full article.
Paywall behaviour last tested
CartaCapital is the political weekly published in São Paulo since 1994. It was founded by Mino Carta, the Italian-born journalist who had earlier launched Veja and IstoÉ, and from the start it set itself against the rest of the Brazilian newsweekly market by taking an openly left-leaning line on politics, labour and the economy. Its reporting on Brasília, its columnists and its long reported pieces on health, housing and the courts are the ones most often shared during an election campaign, and most of them are reserved for subscribers. A reader arriving from social media sees the opening lines and a prompt to become an assinante. This guide explains how the paywall works and how to read a full article.
How the CartaCapital paywall works
CartaCapital runs a subscriber paywall. Short news items and some agency copy are open to everyone. The weekly's main reporting, the columns and the pieces from the print edition are marked for assinantes, and the page declares to search engines that it is not accessible for free. Non-subscribers see the first paragraphs and a subscription box.
The gate is enforced in the browser. The article text is delivered in the page so that search engines can index it, and a script then checks whether you are logged in as a subscriber and hides the body behind the box. A reader that fetches the page without running that script receives the complete article. Our explainer on metered versus hard paywalls sets out why that distinction matters, and CartaCapital sits on the softer side of it.
Our tests on 23 October 2026 through Skip the Paywall:
- A 1,066-word CartaCapital profile of a young woman from Taubaté presenting herself on Instagram as the third generation of the Brizola political family loaded in full, all 12 paragraphs.
- A 1,415-word CartaCapital report, Morte lenta, on the chaotic emergency room at the São Paulo cancer institute, told through a patient's messages to a friend, loaded in full, all 16 paragraphs.
- A 352-word CartaCapital election news item on André Janones leaving hospital after a cardiac arrhythmia and promising to resume his campaign mobilisation loaded in full, all 10 paragraphs. This one was a short piece and was complete at that length.
Read a CartaCapital article in full
- Copy the article link. CartaCapital links look like cartacapital.com.br/politica/ or cartacapital.com.br/carta-capital/ followed by the article slug.
- Paste it into the box on the home page and press Read Article.
- The story appears in a clean reader view with the headline, byline and full text.
The reader shows the article in Portuguese, exactly as CartaCapital published it. If you want it in English, your browser's built-in translation works on the reader page in the normal way.
Other approaches
- Newsletters. CartaCapital sends free email newsletters that summarise the day's politics and link to the main pieces.
- Library access. Brazilian public and university libraries commonly carry the print edition, and some offer digital magazine access to cardholders.
- Related free sources. Câmara and Senado records, Planalto statements, TSE election data and court rulings are all published free, and the factual basis of a CartaCapital report can usually be checked against them.
- Social accounts. The magazine posts summaries and video of its main stories on its own channels, which are free to follow.
How it compares with other Brazilian titles
The other Brazilian titles we have tested behave in a similar way, with the text in the page and a script closing the gate. The daily Folha de S.Paulo in São Paulo and O Globo in Rio both work with the reader, and so does the monthly long-form magazine piauí. The full list of sites that work is kept current.
Subscribe if you read it regularly
CartaCapital is a small independent publisher in a market dominated by much larger groups, and its subscribers are what keep its reporters in Brasília and São Paulo. If you read its coverage every week, a digital assinatura is the right way to keep it going.
Try it with an article
Paste the URL of an article from CartaCapital and read it in a clean reader view. Free, instant, no signup.
Frequently asked questions
Who owns CartaCapital?
CartaCapital was founded in 1994 by Mino Carta, the Italian-born journalist who also launched Veja and IstoÉ, and it is published by his independent company in São Paulo. It takes a left-leaning editorial line.
Does the reader work on subscriber-only articles?
Yes. All three pieces in our 23 October 2026 tests loaded in full, including a 1,415-word report from the print edition. The third was a 352-word news item, which was complete at that length. The text is in Portuguese and browser translation works on the reader page.
Does it work on Folha and O Globo too?
Yes. Folha de S.Paulo, O Globo and piauí all work with the reader and each has its own guide. All three keep their article text in the page and close the gate with a script, which the reader does not run.