One-Click Paywall Bookmarklet for Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge

Pasting a link into a reader works, but if you hit paywalls several times a week the copying and pasting gets old. A bookmarklet fixes that: it is a bookmark that runs a tiny piece of code instead of opening a page, and with one click it sends whatever article you are looking at to the reader. It takes a minute to set up, works in every desktop browser and needs no extension.

The bookmarklet code

Skip the Paywall has a direct link format, skipthepaywall.com/read?url= followed by the article address. The bookmarklet just builds that link from the current page and opens it:

javascript:location.href='https://www.skipthepaywall.com/read?url='+encodeURIComponent(location.href)

Copy that whole line, starting with "javascript:". Then follow the steps for your browser.

Chrome and Edge

• Show the bookmarks bar if it is hidden: press Ctrl+Shift+B on Windows or Cmd+Shift+B on a Mac.
• Right-click the bookmarks bar and choose Add page (Chrome) or Add this page (Edge).
• Set the name to "Skip Paywall" and paste the code into the URL field. Save.
• On any locked article, click the new bookmark. The article opens in the reader.

Chrome may strip the "javascript:" prefix when you paste; if the bookmark does nothing, edit it and check the prefix is still there.

Firefox

• Press Ctrl+Shift+O (Cmd+Shift+O on a Mac) to open the Library.
• Right-click Bookmarks Toolbar and choose Add Bookmark.
• Name it "Skip Paywall", paste the code into the URL field and save.
• Click it from the toolbar on any locked article.

Safari

• Bookmark any page with Cmd+D and name it "Skip Paywall".
• Open Bookmarks (Cmd+Option+B), right-click the new bookmark and choose Edit Address.
• Replace the address with the code and press Return.
• Click it from the Favorites bar on any locked article. Safari on iPhone and iPad supports the same trick; see our mobile guide.

Keyboard shortcut

In Chrome, Edge and Firefox you can type the bookmark's name in the address bar and press Enter to trigger it, which avoids the toolbar entirely. In Firefox you can also give the bookmark a keyword, such as "skip", by editing it and filling in the Keyword field; typing "skip" in the address bar then runs it.

How it works and what it does not do

The bookmarklet is one line of code that opens a link. It does not read your cookies, does not run on pages you have not clicked it on, and does not install anything. Everything that happens after the click is done by the reader site, which fetches the article the way a search engine crawler would and shows you the text.

Because of that, it works on exactly the sites the reader works on: metered and freemium paywalls such as The New Yorker, Wired, The Times and Medium. It does not work on hard paywalls such as the Financial Times or Wall Street Journal; see sites that cannot be bypassed for those.

Troubleshooting

• Nothing happens when I click it. The "javascript:" prefix was probably stripped when you saved. Edit the bookmark and re-paste the full code.
• It opens the reader with an error. The site is blocking automated access or timed out. Wait a minute and try again, or check our troubleshooting guide.
• I clicked it on a homepage. The reader needs an article link, not a section front. Open the story first, then click.