Spaywall News & Research - spay your paywall

Legally read news and research papers for free, on any device.

Spaywall: Free News & Research Without Paywalls

Spaywall News & Research - spay your paywall is a Chrome extension providing legal access to news articles and research papers free of paywalls. It searches online archives for free versions and connects you instantly, perfect for students, researchers, and news enthusiasts seeking knowledge without barriers.
Install from Chrome Web Store

Extension stats

Users: 40,000+
Rating: 3.43
(96)
Version: 1.0.1 (Last updated: 2024-01-23)
Creation date: 2020-06-10
Risk impact: Very low risk impact
Risk likelihood:
Manifest version: 3
Permissions:
  • activeTab
Size: 65.22K

Other platforms

Not available on Android
Spaywall - spay your paywall (v1.0.1)
3.43 (23) 3,768+
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Extension summary

Spaywall News & Research is the original browser extension that helps you LEGALLY avoid paywalls by searching online archives and redirecting you to a paywall-free version. By pointing your browser to a different website, we are not bypassing or interfering with the paywall on the original article source in any way.

Researchers can also use Spaywall to download free versions of Open Access research papers and articles. Click to search our database of millions of legal, free, full-text scholarly articles and we'll redirect you to the PDF instantly. These Open Access articles are research papers that have been posted with the full permission of the authors and publishers involved. Save time avoiding paywalls and logins, great for students and academics!

Please Note: ✓ Spaywall can be used for 100% FREE, though the Free plan has limitations. ✓ Upgrading gives News junkies additional archive sources for even better news coverage. ✓ Upgrading also gives 24/7 All-Hours Access instead of limited to off-peak hours. ✓ Our algorithm strives to find an archived article that is paywall-free. It's pretty good, but it can never work on all articles. ✓ Because we are searching online archives for a paywall-free copy, an archived copy must already exist. That means articles may need to be a few days old for them to have been crawled by the archivers (though we have seen same-day news work many times!) ✓ If you frequent a particular news outlet, please consider directly supporting the journalism you love.

User reviews

These summaries are automatically generated weekly using AI based on recent user reviews. Chrome Web Store does not verify user reviews, so some user reviews may be inaccurate, spammy, or outdated.
Pros
  • Works on most articles
  • Allows access to more content than without the extension
  • User-friendly access to informative articles
  • Syncs across multiple devices
Cons
  • Doesn't work on many sites
  • Often replaces one paywall with another
  • Inconsistent performance during peak hours
  • Links to archives that are often also paywalled
Most mentioned
  • Doesn't work on desired sites
  • Increased access to articles
  • Issues with paywalls
  • Past versions worked better
User reviews
Was great for a week, then I suddenly can't view anything during peak hours without paying. Absolutely useless and I'm not prepared to waste my money just to read things during peak time for free. I recommend downloading Paywall-Free Reader instead. They aren't forcing you to pay anything and the articles seem to have more chance of being archived than on spaywall. Sorry but I'm out. Adios Spaywall
by lozza barts, 2024-12-11

Absolutely fantastic extension, works on most articles i'd like to read, lifesaver!
by Leo, 2024-12-02

doesn't work on any site I want to read
by Meghan Udell, 2024-11-03
View all user reviews

Extension safety

Risk impact

Spaywall News & Research - spay your paywall does not require any sensitive permissions.

Risk likelihood

Spaywall News & Research - spay your paywall has earned a good reputation and can be trusted.

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