Quick answer: Paste the Medium article URL into Pullsy’s free Medium Reader — a browser-based paywall bypass tool at pullsy.online. The full article loads in about 10 seconds, no signup, no install, no popup. This is the fastest of four real methods that work in July 2026.
Medium’s paywall has three faces: a “Sign up to read for free” prompt for non-members, a “Already a member? Sign in” prompt for logged-out returning readers, and a metered “3-5 free reads per month” limit that resets when you cross it. All three can be bypassed without paying Medium.
This guide covers four methods that work right now (July 2026), ranked by reliability. Each one names the specific tool, what it costs, what it does well, and where it fails — so you can pick the right one for the article in front of you.
Why Medium has a paywall
Medium’s business model is built on member subscriptions, not advertising or writer pay. According to Medium’s own 2024 partner program update, the platform reported “millions of paying members” who fund the site through monthly fees. Because members are the revenue source, most articles are written to be locked until a non-member signs up or pays.
The exact share of member-only articles fluctuates because Medium tests paywalls by author, topic, and traffic source. As of 2026, third-party samples (for example, this Hacker News thread on paywall bypass tools, and the Wikipedia article on Medium) consistently report that a majority of Medium articles are gated in some way, with the metered and member-only tiers together covering most of the catalog.
Three categories of articles on Medium:
- Free — no lock, anyone can read. Roughly 1 in 4 articles in 2026, per the same third-party samples.
- Member-only — full lock, “Become a member” prompt. The author has set the post to subscribers-only.
- Metered — first 3-5 free per month, then locked. The default for most non-member reads.
For the second and third categories, here’s what to do.
Method 1: Use Pullsy’s free Medium Reader (fastest, most reliable)
A Medium paywall bypass tool is a small service that fetches the article for you from a mirror or archive that does not enforce Medium’s paywall, then displays the full text. Pullsy’s Medium Reader is one such tool — free, no signup, browser-based, hosted at pullsy.online/tools/medium-reader.
This is the fastest method in 2026 because it requires zero configuration. Freedium.cfd and a handful of similar services have been doing this for years, and Pullsy’s tool uses the same approach with multiple fallback services for when one mirror is down.
→ Try Pullsy’s free Medium Reader
What you do:
- Find the Medium article URL in your browser address bar (it looks like
medium.com/@author/title-abc123ortowardsdatascience.com/...— Medium-owned publication URLs work the same way). - Paste it into Pullsy’s Medium Reader.
- The full article loads in about 10 seconds — no paywall, no signup, no popup.
The tool works by routing your request through a mirror or archive service that does not enforce Medium’s paywall. You see the full article content — same text, same images, same links — just no paywall.
It works on:
- Articles behind the “Sign up to read” prompt
- Articles behind the “Already a member?” login prompt
- Articles that are technically member-only
It does NOT work on:
- Articles removed for Terms of Service violations
- Articles in private publications you do not have access to
- Drafts (unpublished articles)
Method 2: The Freedium shortcut (no tool needed, single point of failure)
Freedium.cfd is a small public site that mirrors Medium content for free reading. It exposes a direct URL transformation that works for most public Medium articles. No signup, no install, no account — just a URL change.
How to use:
- Copy the Medium article URL from your browser address bar.
- Replace
medium.comwithfreedium.cfdin the URL. - Open the new URL — the article loads clean, no paywall.
Example: https://medium.com/@author/some-article-abc123 becomes https://freedium.cfd/https://medium.com/@author/some-article-abc123
This works for most public Medium articles. If Freedium is down — and it does go down from time to time, since it is a single volunteer-run site — fall back to Pullsy’s Medium Reader (Method 1), which uses multiple mirror services so a single outage does not break the workflow.
Method 3: Google cache or web archives (sometimes works)
If the article has been around for a while, Google or the Wayback Machine may have a cached copy that pre-dates the paywall being set, or that was captured while the article was briefly unlocked.
Google Cache (steps as of July 2026, since Google has been reducing cache visibility):
- Search for the exact article title in Google.
- Click the small arrow next to the result.
- Choose “Cached” if it appears.
- Read the article from the cache.
Cached versions are usually full content. Downside: only works for indexed articles, and Google has been reducing the visibility of the “Cached” link over time — it is not always shown.
Wayback Machine:
- Copy the Medium URL.
- Paste it into web.archive.org.
- Look for a snapshot date — usually the most recent works best.
- Read the archived version.
Downside: only works for articles that have been crawled and archived. Newer or less popular articles may not have snapshots at all.
Method 4: Browser reader mode (last resort, does not bypass the paywall)
Modern browsers (Safari, Firefox, Chrome with the Reading Mode extension) have a “reader mode” that strips clutter — ads, navigation, sidebars — and reformats the article text for easier reading.
Reader mode does NOT bypass the paywall. It only cleans up the page around the lock. If Medium is showing a “Sign up to read” prompt, reader mode will show you that prompt more cleanly, but the article body behind it stays locked.
Some people report that enabling reader mode before the paywall loads sometimes reveals a longer preview than the default truncated version. That is browser- and article-specific; it is not a reliable bypass. Use it as a last resort or as a way to read the preview before deciding whether the full article is worth the effort.
What about Medium’s “free reads per month” meter?
Medium gives non-members 3 to 5 free articles per month (the exact number varies by reading history, device, and whether you are logged in). After you cross the threshold, every article returns the “Sign up to read” prompt until the counter resets.
Three options when you hit the limit:
- Wait until next month. The reset is automatic. The exact reset date is per-account, not the first of the month.
- Use a paywall bypass tool (Method 1: Pullsy’s Medium Reader) for the rest of your reads. The meter applies to your logged-in reads, not to articles you fetch through a third-party tool.
- Use incognito mode. Medium tracks “free reads” via cookies in your browser. Opening a private or incognito window resets the counter because it starts with no cookies. This works once; if the incognito window is logged in, the limit still applies.
Should you pay for Medium membership?
For occasional readers — one-off articles someone linked you, an interesting headline you found, a piece you want to share — a paywall bypass tool is faster and cheaper than a monthly subscription. The $5/month membership only pays for itself if you read more than 2-3 Medium articles a week.
Medium membership includes:
- Unlimited reading of member-only articles
- Offline access on mobile via the Medium app
- Support for writers directly through the Medium Partner Program, which pays writers based on member reading time
- No ads
The $5/month price is Medium’s standard monthly plan as of July 2026 (Medium also offers an annual plan, currently around $50/year). Prices have changed historically — Medium raised from $5 to $9.99 in 2022, then re-introduced a $5 tier in 2024 — so verify the current price at medium.com/membership before subscribing.
The paywall tools are great for occasional reading. They are not a long-term replacement for membership if you read Medium heavily or want to support the writers whose work you read.
Saving the article for later reading
If you want to read the article offline (plane, commute, no wifi), Pullsy’s Medium Reader has a save feature. Paste the URL, get a clean Markdown or PDF file to download. The “free reads per month” meter does not apply to saved files you read locally — you only spend a “free read” when you load the article through Medium’s own website.
What about authors?
A note on supporting writers: Medium pays writers based on member reading time through the Medium Partner Program. The official model is that members pay $5/month, and Medium distributes a share of that revenue to writers based on how long members spend reading their work. When you bypass the paywall with a third-party tool, that reading time does not register as member reading time, so writers do not get paid for your read.
This is the trade-off you should make consciously. The bypass tools are useful, but if an article was valuable:
- Share the link with others. This helps the writer’s reach and can drive new members to the platform.
- Clap for the article (up to 50 claps per article, if you have an account).
- Subscribe to the writer’s email if they have one — many writers run their own newsletters.
- Pay for membership if you read regularly and want your reading time to support the writers.
Try it now
Got a Medium article you want to read but it is locked?
- Copy the article URL from your browser address bar.
- Paste it into Pullsy’s free Medium Reader.
- Read the full article — no paywall, no signup, no popup.
Total time: 10-15 seconds.
Pullsy is a free, no-signup, no-tracking browser tool. The Medium Reader is one of 26+ free tools at pullsy.online/tools. Your URL is fetched, returned to you, and not stored on Pullsy’s servers.
Related tools: Medium Reader · Read Medium Without Paywall · Medium to PDF