Independent Premium: How to Read Locked Independent Articles for Free
Most of The Independent is free, but its best comment and analysis sits behind Independent Premium. Here is how the lock works and how to read a Premium article in full.
Paywall behaviour last tested
The Independent went online-only in 2016 and built one of the biggest audiences in British news by staying free. In 2019 it introduced Independent Premium, a subscription that locks a portion of its journalism: most of the Voices comment section, long reads, some analysis and the ad-free experience. If you have clicked a Voices column and hit a "Subscribe to read this article" box, this guide explains what is going on and how to read it.
How Independent Premium works
The Independent is a freemium site. The majority of news stories are free and always will be, because the paper depends on advertising revenue from its enormous reach. A subset of articles, marked with a small Premium label on the homepage, is reserved for subscribers.
Technically, Premium articles behave like a metered paywall on other sites. The full article is delivered in the page so that Google can index it, and a script hides the body from readers without a subscription cookie. That is why a crawler-style reader can retrieve the complete text. In our latest test, a 1,000-word Premium column from the Voices section loaded in full through Skip the Paywall, including its closing lines.
Read an Independent Premium article
- Copy the article link from independent.co.uk. Premium and free articles have the same URL format.
- Paste it into the box on the home page and press Read Article.
- The article appears in a clean, ad-free reader view.
Free Independent articles work too, and the reader is a pleasant way to read them without the site's heavy advertising and autoplay video.
The Independent's international editions
The Independent operates US and Asia editions on the same domain and platform. Premium articles there work the same way. The paper's Spanish-language edition, Independent en Español, is also on the same platform.
How it compares with other UK papers
Britain's national papers take very different approaches, and it is worth knowing which behave like The Independent:
- The Independent and The i Paper: freemium and metered respectively; both load in full through the reader.
- The Times: looks like a hard paywall, but serves full text to crawlers. Our guide to The Times explains it.
- The Telegraph: blocks automated requests entirely, so the reader cannot fetch it.
- The Financial Times: a true hard paywall; the text is never sent to non-subscribers.
- The Guardian: no paywall at all, so nothing to skip.
Support the journalism
Independent Premium is one of the cheapest subscriptions in British news and removes advertising across the whole site, which alone makes it worth considering if you read The Independent daily. Use the reader for the occasional column, and subscribe if you find yourself there every morning.
Try it with an article
Paste the URL of an article from The Independent and read it in a clean reader view. Free, instant, no signup.
Frequently asked questions
Which Independent articles are Premium?
Mostly Voices comment pieces, long reads and selected analysis. They carry a Premium label on the homepage and section pages. Breaking news and most reporting remain free.
Does Independent Premium remove ads?
Yes. Alongside unlocking Premium articles, the subscription removes advertising across the site and app, which is the main reason many regular readers subscribe.
Does the reader work on the Independent US edition?
Yes. The US and Asia editions run on the same platform and domain, so their Premium articles work in exactly the same way.