For years, 12ft Ladder was the go-to tool for bypassing paywalls. You'd prepend 12ft.io/ to any article URL and get the full text instantly. It was simple, fast, and free. Then in July 2025, the News Media Alliance forced it offline.
The good news: there are several free alternatives that work just as well — and in some cases better. Here's an honest breakdown of everything that still works in 2025.
Uses 6 different archive methods — Wayback Machine (loads inline so you never leave the page), Archive.is newest/oldest snapshots, RemovePaywall, Smry.ai, and 1ft.io. If one method doesn't work, try the next. No login, no install, completely free.
One of the most reliable archiving services. Use archive.is/newest/[URL] to jump straight to the latest snapshot of any article. Works on most major publications including hard paywalls that other tools miss.
The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine stores billions of page snapshots. Use web.archive.org/web/*/[URL] to find archived versions. Best for older articles.
Takes a different approach — uses AI to summarize and bypass paywalls simultaneously. Prepend smry.ai/ to any URL. Works well on sites with strong restrictions where archive services fail.
A community-built direct replacement for 12ft.io. Same approach — prepend 1ft.io/ to the URL. Works on many sites but not as reliably as archive-based methods.
Searches multiple archive sources and tries several bypass techniques. Works on over 100 tested news sites. Good fallback option.
The News Media Alliance — a US trade group representing major publishers — put legal pressure on 12ft.io's operator, citing that the service used Google's cached versions of articles to bypass subscription requirements. In July 2025, the site went offline permanently.
The alternative tools above use different methods (archiving services, AI summarization) which operate under different legal frameworks and have not faced the same pressure.
It depends on the site. Here's a general guide:
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Try Bypass Paywall Reader →Using publicly available archived versions of articles is generally considered legal in most jurisdictions. These services archive content independently, and you are simply accessing a copy they have stored. We recommend checking the terms of service of any site you visit.
Most sites with soft paywalls (where the article is on the page but blocked) can be bypassed. Sites with hard paywalls (content not loaded until you pay) generally cannot be bypassed by any free tool.
Yes — the Bypass Paywalls Clean extension on GitHub offers similar browser-level functionality, though it requires manual installation. Our web tool requires no installation at all.