How to Read New Scientist Without a Subscription
New Scientist locks most of its website behind a metered paywall. Here is how it works, why the full text is still reachable, and how to read any New Scientist article for free.
Paywall behaviour last tested
New Scientist is the weekly that most people reach for when a science story breaks and they want more than a headline. It also has one of the stricter paywalls among science magazines: the free allowance is small, and the subscription prompt appears fast. This guide covers how the New Scientist paywall works and how to read a full article without subscribing.
How the New Scientist paywall works
New Scientist uses a metered paywall. Readers without a subscription get a few free articles a month, counted by a cookie, before the article body is replaced with an offer. Some short news items are left free, but features, columns and most news analysis count against the meter.
The magazine delivers the full article in the page for search engines and hides it with a script in the browser. That is the same pattern used by Scientific American and most magazines, and it is what allows a crawler-style reader to retrieve the complete text. In our latest test, an 1,100-word New Scientist analysis of Chinese reusable rockets loaded in full through Skip the Paywall, including its closing quote.
Read a New Scientist article in full
- Copy the article link. New Scientist links look like newscientist.com/article/1234567-headline-slug/.
- Paste it into the box on the home page and press Read Article.
- The article appears in a clean reader view with the headline, byline and body.
What works and what does not
- News, features and columns load completely.
- Video articles return the accompanying text but not the player.
- The weekly magazine edition on the site, laid out issue by issue, is subscriber-only and not available through any reader.
- Newsletters are email-only and cannot be fetched.
Why New Scientist blocks some readers
New Scientist has occasionally added bot protection to its site, and in our own testing the magazine's RSS feed refused requests from an ordinary home connection. The article pages themselves loaded normally from our servers. If the reader ever returns a "site may be blocking automated access" error on a New Scientist link, wait a minute and try again; the block is usually temporary.
Other approaches
- Library access. Many UK public libraries offer New Scientist free through PressReader or Libby with a library card. University libraries almost always carry it.
- Private windows. The meter is cookie-based and a private window still resets it on newscientist.com.
Support the magazine if you read it weekly
New Scientist's digital subscription includes the app, the archive and the weekly issue. Introductory offers are frequent and cheap. If it is your regular science read, subscribe and use the reader only for the odd link a friend sends.
Try it with an article
Paste the URL of an article from New Scientist and read it in a clean reader view. Free, instant, no signup.
Frequently asked questions
How many free articles does New Scientist allow?
New Scientist does not publish the figure and adjusts it periodically. The allowance is small, and most readers see the subscription prompt after a handful of articles in a month.
Can I read the New Scientist print issue through the reader?
No. The issue-by-issue digital edition is a subscriber-only product. Individual articles on newscientist.com work normally.
Is New Scientist free through libraries?
Often. Many public libraries in the UK, Australia and North America offer it through PressReader or Libby, and university libraries usually subscribe. Ask your library.