Paywalls and access
Soft paywall
Also called Client-side paywall, Overlay paywall
A soft paywall is a paywall enforced in the browser after the article has already been delivered. The full text is present in the page source, then hidden by an overlay, a height-limited container, or a script that strips paragraphs once a free-article counter is exceeded.
How a soft paywall works
The server responds with the complete article, because the same HTML is also what search engines and social previews need. JavaScript then applies the restriction: an overlay is drawn, scrolling is locked, or the paragraphs after the third one are removed from the DOM. Disable the script and the text is still sitting in the page.
Publishers accept this trade-off deliberately. Sending the full text keeps the page indexable and preserves the search traffic that drives subscriptions, and most readers never look past the overlay.
Why reader tools can render it
A reader tool parses the delivered HTML rather than the rendered overlay, so it works from the same text the publisher already published. Nothing is unlocked and no authentication is involved — the content was public, and the interference was cosmetic.
In smry
Soft paywalls are the case smry handles well. Extraction runs against the delivered document, so the article renders as clean text with the overlay, sticky headers, and subscribe prompts gone.
Common questions
How can I tell a soft paywall from a hard one?
View the page source or open the article in a reader tool. If the full text is present in the HTML behind the overlay, it is a soft paywall. If the source stops after a few paragraphs, the restriction is enforced on the server.
Does reading a soft paywall bypass a subscription?
It renders content the publisher chose to send to every visitor, including search crawlers. It does not authenticate, use someone else's subscription, or retrieve anything the server withheld.
Why do publishers use soft paywalls at all?
Because search visibility depends on serving the article text. A soft paywall keeps the page indexable while still converting the majority of readers who stop at the overlay.