Unpaywall

Legally get full text of scholarly articles as you browse.

Unpaywall Chrome Extension

Unpaywall empowers researchers and students by providing easy access to the full-text versions of scholarly articles while you browse the web. With a vast index of 20 million free, legal full-text PDFs, Unpaywall automatically searches for available copies whenever you view a research article. If a legal version is found, a convenient green tab allows you to read it immediately.

The extension exclusively links to legal author-posted manuscripts hosted on university and government web servers, maintaining compliance with publisher permissions. This means you can confidently access 'Green Open Access' papers that authors have self-archived legally. Explore scholarly articles hassle-free with Unpaywall!

Manifest V3
Users:
800,000+
Rating:
4.02
(258)
Version:
3.99 (Last updated: 2025-01-08)
Creation date:
2020-02-28
Permissions:
  • storage
Host permissions:
  • *://*.oadoi.org/*
Size:
686.08K
Full description:
See detailed description
Updated:
16 hours ago

Other platforms

Unpaywall (v3.98)
72,081+ 4.35 (242)

User reviews

Pros
  • Makes scientific research more accessible
  • Works quickly and legally to find free alternatives
  • Saves time searching for legal open-access versions of manuscripts
  • Has been a lifesaver for many in academia
  • Generally easy to use and practical
Cons
  • Does not work on certain popular sites like Medium and WSJ
  • Inconsistent success rate in finding papers
  • Some users report it stopped working suddenly
  • Limited functionality on non-English or specific country sites
  • Many users feel it does not help with paywalls effectively
Most mentioned
  • Accessibility of scientific research
  • Does not work on many popular sites
  • Inconsistency in finding available articles
  • Functionality being impacted by Chrome's updates
  • Users expressing frustration with limited capabilities
These summaries are automatically generated weekly using AI based on recent user reviews. User reviews may be inaccurate, spammy, or outdated.
User reviews
Nou, die werkt niet hoor !

No sirve de nada. Pongo una estrella porque no deja poner ninguna, si no, ni eso.

Great app for downloading paper.
View all user reviews

Extension safety

Risk impact

Unpaywall requires very minimum permissions.

Risk impact analysis details
  • High Injects scripts into web pages, which may alter or extract site contents, resulting in a substantial risk.
  • Low ******* ****** ** *** ********* ******** *********
Risk likelihood

Unpaywall has earned a good reputation and can be trusted.

Risk likelihood analysis details
  • Low This extension was updated more than 6 months ago. Older versions are more likely to be stable and safe.
  • Low **** ********* *** ***** **** **** * ****** **** ***** ********** *** **** ****** ** ** ****** *** *****
  • Low **** ********* *** **** **** ****** ******* ********** **** ****** ** ** ****** *** *****
  • Good **** ********* ** * ******** ********* ** ****** *** *****
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Upgrade to see full risk analysis details

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