Medium Paywall Bypass
Overview
Fetch paywalled Medium articles using free mirror services. Try services in order until one works.
Service Priority
| Service |
URL Pattern |
WebFetch |
curl |
Notes |
| Freedium |
https://freedium.cfd/{encoded_url} |
Yes |
Yes |
Best option, returns content directly |
| Archive.today |
https://archive.today/latest/{raw_url} |
No |
Maybe |
Often requires captcha |
| RemovePaywalls |
https://removepaywalls.com/{raw_url} |
No |
No |
Redirect page only, needs browser |
| ReadMedium |
https://readmedium.com/en/{encoded_url} |
No |
No |
Returns 403 programmatically |
{encoded_url} = URL-encoded (slashes become %2F, @ becomes %40, etc.){raw_url} = Original URL as-is
For Claude Code: Use Freedium via WebFetch. Other services require browser interaction.
Workflow
1. User provides Medium URL
2. Try Freedium first via WebFetch
3. If blocked/empty, try next service
4. Extract and present article content
Example Usage
Given: https://medium.com/@user/some-article-abc123
WebFetch (recommended):
URL: https://freedium.cfd/https%3A%2F%2Fmedium.com%2F%40user%2Fsome-article-abc123
Prompt: Extract the full article content
curl fallback:
curl -sL "https://freedium.cfd/https%3A%2F%2Fmedium.com%2F%40user%2Fsome-article-abc123"
Medium-Hosted Domains
These domains use Medium's paywall system:
medium.com, *.medium.comtowardsdatascience.combetterprogramming.publevelup.gitconnected.comjavascript.plainenglish.iouxdesign.cchackernoon.comcodeburst.ioitnext.ioproandroiddev.cominfosecwriteups.com
Common Issues
| Problem |
Solution |
| Freedium down |
Try alternative mirror: freedium-mirror.cfd |
| Article not found |
Article may be too new to be cached |
| Garbled HTML |
Use WebFetch with prompt: "Extract the article text and format as markdown" |
| 403/blocked |
Try curl with dangerouslyDisableSandbox: true |
Quick Reference
# URL encoding in Python
from urllib.parse import quote
encoded = quote(url, safe='')
# For WebFetch tool
freedium_url = f"https://freedium.cfd/{quote(medium_url, safe='')}"
