https://github.com/garnetred/free-medium
This browser extension allows users to access unlimited member-only Medium articles for free.
https://github.com/garnetred/free-medium
chrome-extension medium medium-articles paywall-bypasser
Last synced: 12 months ago
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This browser extension allows users to access unlimited member-only Medium articles for free.
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/garnetred/free-medium
- Owner: garnetred
- Created: 2023-05-28T19:44:13.000Z (about 3 years ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2023-10-11T16:08:35.000Z (over 2 years ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-04-21T10:53:51.445Z (about 1 year ago)
- Topics: chrome-extension, medium, medium-articles, paywall-bypasser
- Language: JavaScript
- Homepage:
- Size: 41 KB
- Stars: 23
- Watchers: 2
- Forks: 3
- Open Issues: 0
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Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
Awesome Lists containing this project
README
# Free Medium
[](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/decemberthedeveloper)
## Deprecation
As of July 26, 2023, this browser extension has been deprecated. Medium now requires users to log in to view member-only stories, which prevents this browser extension from working. Instead, you can try [Archive.is](http://archive.is) - also known as Archive.today.
## Abstract
This browser extension allows users to access member-only Medium articles for free. Unfortunately this browser extension does not work for custom domains - see "next steps" for more details.
## Important Note
This browser extension currently does not work while the DuckDuckGo browser extension is being used on Medium. If you have both extensions installed, you'll need to disable DuckDuckGo temporarily and refresh the page in order to read member-only Medium articles using Free Medium.
## Tech Stack
This project uses vanilla JS, CSS, and HTML.
## Setup/Installation
You can clone the repo locally using `git clone`.
[This article](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/mv3/getstarted/development-basics/#load-unpacked) offers detailed instructions on loading an unpacked chrome extension. You can navigate to the chrome extensions page via the puzzle piece icon in the toolbar. After enabling developer mode, you can click "load unpacked extension" and choose the folder via the popup. You should then see the book icon appear in the toolbar. When you click on it, you can see "Free Medium." If you navigate to `www.medium.com` and view more than 3 articles without being logged in, you should still be able to access each article without hitting a paywall.
## Preview
https://github.com/garnetred/free-medium/assets/59572865/e7c82a3a-c4c3-497c-af63-10611811bbfb
## Next Steps
- I'd like to hide the gray bar that indicates how many member-only articles you have left.
- I'd also like to convert this into a Firefox add-on.
- Ideally, I'd like to update the browser extension to work with custom domains. However, my goal with all of the browser extensions that I've built is to request the lowest amount of permissions possible in order for the extension to function. Currently this extension only requests host permissions for medium.com. In order to support custom domains, I would likely need to expand this permission to all urls, which I'm not comfortable with for privacy reasons. If I'm able to find another way to implement this, I'll likely update the browser extension but if not, I will leave as-is.