How to Read The Observer (UK) Without a Subscription
The Observer now lives at observer.co.uk with its own paywall and subscriber-only pieces. How the new site gates its journalism and how to read any article in full.
Paywall behaviour last tested
The Observer is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper, and for most of the internet era its journalism appeared for free on the Guardian's website. That changed in 2025, when the title was sold to Tortoise Media and given its own home at observer.co.uk. The new site has something the old arrangement never did: a paywall. If you have followed a link to an Observer interview or investigation and been asked to register or subscribe, this guide explains what is going on and how to read the piece in full.
How The Observer paywall works
The Observer's site uses a mix of registration and metering, with some pieces marked subscriber-only. A visitor who is not signed in can read a limited number of articles before being asked to create a free account, and a further limit applies before a paid subscription is required. The exact allowances have shifted as the site has settled in, so treat them as small. The count is stored in a cookie.
What matters for a reader tool is how the gate is applied. The Observer, like most modern news sites, sends the full article text in the page so that search engines can index it, and then runs a script in the browser that hides the text and shows the subscription panel. A crawler-style fetch that never runs the script gets the complete article.
In our test on 28 September 2026, a 1,143-word Observer interview with a senior Labour politician loaded in full through Skip the Paywall, all 19 paragraphs.
Read an Observer article in full
- Copy the article link. Observer links look like observer.co.uk/news/section/article/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 full text.
News, interviews, comment, the New Review's culture coverage and the Observer Food Monthly features all load the same way. The print e-edition is subscriber-only and not available through any reader.
Other approaches
- Free registration. The Observer's registered tier is genuinely free and lifts the allowance. If you read the paper once a week, it may be all you need.
- Library access. The Observer is available through PressReader at many UK public libraries, and the print edition is held by most reference libraries.
- Private windows. The meter is cookie-based, so a private window resets it. The allowance is low enough that this runs out quickly.
- Newsletters. The Observer's email newsletters carry substantial extracts and are free to receive.
How it compares with the other Sunday papers
The Observer's move to its own paywalled site puts it in the same category as the rest of the British quality press. The Times and Sunday Times load in full through the reader. So do The Independent and The i Paper. The Sunday Telegraph does not: The Telegraph blocks automated requests entirely. The Guardian, which still carries a great deal of Sunday-flavoured writing, remains free to read on its own site. Our explainer on metered versus hard paywalls covers why the reader works on some and not others.
Support the paper if you read it every Sunday
The Observer's new owners have made a bet that a Sunday paper can stand alone, and subscriptions are the whole of that bet. Digital subscriptions start at a few pounds a month on introductory terms. If the Observer is your Sunday morning, that is the right way to keep it going.
Try it with an article
Paste the URL of an article from The Observer and read it in a clean reader view. Free, instant, no signup.
Frequently asked questions
Is The Observer still on the Guardian website?
No. Since the sale to Tortoise Media in 2025, new Observer journalism is published at observer.co.uk with its own registration and subscription system. Older Observer articles remain in the Guardian archive.
How many free Observer articles can I read?
The site does not publish a fixed number and has adjusted it as the new site has bedded in. Expect to be asked to register after a few articles and to subscribe after a few more.
Does Skip the Paywall work on the Sunday Telegraph?
No. The Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph block automated requests, so the reader cannot fetch their articles. The Observer, The Sunday Times and The Independent all load in full.