How To Bypass Vanity Fair Paywall Without Browser Extension

Find out how to bypass Vanity Fair paywall without the help of any web browser extension.

I know the easy way out is just install any one of those bypass paywalls extensions to your Firefox or Chrome browser.

But for this tutorial, I am not recommending the use of any bypass paywalls extension to get around vanityfair.com digital paywall.

Caution: I am sure you have read about the risks of installing those free browser extensions to your Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome, particularly the safety and security matters.

Here is what Firefox site has to say about the risks of installing self-hosted extensions.

For instance, this is what you allow the popular Bypass Paywalls extension to access your data for these sites, when you installed it to your browser:

bypass paywalls extension access data
Note: For those who do not mind installing the free social bookmarking service called Pocket, you can also use it to get past Vanity Fair paywall.

To find out more how to use the Pocket to unblock Vanity Fair articles, read this tutorial.


Note: This tutorial is not about downloading free Vanity Fair magazines online.

These days, you can easily download to read the latest and past issues of not just Vanity Fair magazine online from various websites, that include Magazine Lib, Mobilism, and the Russian online social media and social networking service VK.com.


This tutorial is about how to access unlimited free articles and stories from the Vanity Fair website, without being a paid subscriber.

bypass Vanity Fair paywall

In other words, you bypass the Vanity Fair paywall, so you can continue reading after its first complimentary article.

Now if you go to its homepage, when you click to read the first story, you would be greeted with this friendly reminder at the bottom of the screen:

This one’s on us.
Read this story for free.

Or this: You are reading your first free articles.

vanity fair free articles

There is a red color “Join Now” button.

Then when you click on the second article, you would see this remark:

Read this story for free.

Enter your email address to sign in or create a Vanity Fair account.

access unlimited vanity fair website

So if you want to keep reading unlimited Vanity Fair website content for free, then feel free to keep reading….

As I have mentioned, you do not have to install any extension to your web browser to get around its paywall.

You just fiddle around with your Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome.

It’s fairly easy.

How To Bypass Vanity Fair Paywall

By just tinkering around with my laptop, right off the bat, I found these four (4) simple ways to get past Vanity Fair digital paywall without extension.


For Firefox Browser:

METHOD ONE: Clear Browser Cookies

This is the easiest way to unblock its paywall.

You just clear the recent cookies of your browser.

When you come to the blocked story or article, together with the “Read this story for free. Enter your email address…” message, this is what you do:

1. Click on “History” at the menu bar which is at the top of your computer screen.

2. Then click on “Clear Recent History…

Note: Make sure the “Cookies” under “History” is checked (a tick inside the box, by clicking on it).

3. Now click on “Clear Now” button.

4. Then go to the blocked article and reload the page. by clicking on the “Reload current page” (circular arrow-shaped icon).

5. The full complete Vanity Fair article should appear together with the “This one’s on us” remark .

6. When you come to the following blocked article, again you click on “Clear Recent History…” and reload the page.

7. That it.


METHOD TWO: Adding A Dot After Com

After the first free article, to continue reading the rest of the content, you do this:

1. When you come to the blocked article, you add a dot AFTER the domain vanityfair.com.

2. For example if the article URL is:

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/12/hedy-lamarr-biography-old-hollywood

3. You add a dot after the top-level domain.

4. It means after the word “com“.

5. So now the URL should looks like this:

https://www.vanityfair.com./hollywood/2021/12/hedy-lamarr-biography-old-hollywood

Note: The dot is highlighted in yellow color.

6. Now, press on the “Enter” key or click on the arrow icon at the end of the URL at the address bar, to reload the page.

7. The full article should appear without a hitch.


METHOD THREE: Read From Cached Page

To access unlimited Vanity fair site content, you can get it from the cached pages on Google search results.

Most, if not all the Vanity Fair articles should have being cached by Google search engine.

1. Go to Vanity Fair homepage.

2. At the blocked article, you right click on the title and a context menu box pops up.

3. Click “Search Google for “article title…“.
search google for firefox

4. It opens a new page and you most probably see that article listed in the Google search results.

5. Click on the three vertical dots next to the article title, a box pops up.

6. Then click on the word “Cached” at the bottom of the box.

cached page google search results

7. Now you can read the complete article without being blocked.


METHOD FOUR: Open Link In New Private Window

1. First you open the Vanity Fair homepage on your Firefox browser first.

2. To read the article, you right click on the article title.

3. A context menu drops down, then click on “Open Link in Private Window“.

firefox private window

4. It will open the article/story in a new window.

5. This Firefox Private window has a purple background and also a purple color mask at the top right corner of the title-bar.
bypass vanity fair site paywall private window

Note: Two conditions you must remember.

1. To read the next article or story, DO NOT click it from this newly “Open Link in Private Window” tab or page.

You need to go back to the Vanity Fair homepage to get your new article.

2. Secondly, before you open the new article, you must close the earlier one.

In other words, you can only open ONE article in the Private Window at a time.

If not, it cannot bypass its paywall.


 For Google Chrome Browser:

METHOD ONE: Clear Browsing Data

The tip on how to bypass Vanity Fair site paywall for Google Chrome browser is very similar as what you do with Firefox.

1. Click on the tiny three dots (Customize and control Google Chrome) at the top right hand corner, and the context menu pops up.

2. Place your mouse pointer over “More tools“, then move it over to “Clear browsing data…“.

3. Next click on “Clear browsing data“.

4. A box pops up.

Note: Make sure the “Cookies and other site data” is checked (a tick inside the box by clicking on it).

5. Click on the “Clear data” button.

6. Now go back to the blocked article and reload the page.

7. When you come to the following blocked article, just repeat the process of clearing the browsing data.

8. That’s all.


METHOD TWO: Adding A Dot After Com

This method for Google Chrome is the same as what I have explained above for Mozilla Firefox browser.

Refer to the above guide, click here.


METHOD THREE: Read From Cached Page

This method to bypass Vanity Fair paywall is the same as the tip as I have shown above for Firefox.

But for Chrome, when you right click on the article title to get the cached page on Google search results page, the context menu does not have the option: Search Google for “article title….

To fix this problem, this is what you do:

1. You highlight the article title first with your mouse pointer, then only you right click it.

2. But it can be quite troublesome, as you may click on it instead.

3. To avoid clicking on the title link, first press down the “Ctrl” and “C” key.

4. Now the article title is NOT clickable.

5. Then only you highlight the article title, by dragging the mouse pointer across it.

6. Finally you right click on it, the context menu pops up, and you can see the option: Search Google for “article title…

search google for chrome

7. To go to the cached page in Google search results page, click “Search Google for “article title…“.

8. From there you can read the complete article from the cached page; same as what I have just explained in Firefox method above.


METHOD FOUR: Open Link In InCognito Window

It is similar to the METHOD FOUR for Firefox above.

1. Open Vanity Fair homepage with your Chrome.

2. You right click on the article title.

3. A context menu drops down, then click on “Open Link in Incognito Window“.
incognito window bypass paywall

4. It will open the article/story in a new window.

5. To read the next article, you need to go back to the Vanity Fair homepage.

6. Again, right click on the article title, then click on “Open Link in Incognito Window“.

7. Remember you DO NOT open the article directly from the Incognito window, as it does not work.

8. Unlike Firefox, you can open more than one window at a time, and it can still work.

9. Anyway, you should close each Incognito Window after reading it, instead of taking up space in your browser.

These are the four ways how to bypass Vanity Fair paywall with just clicking around.


By the way, on the website you can explore the complete archive of The Vanity Fair magazine.

But you can only view selected content from each issue, unless you are a subscriber.

Free Old Vanity Fair Magazines

But anyway, you can still view the full complete collection of free old issues of Vanity Fair magazines from 1913 to 1925.

All these past Vanity Fair magazines are public domain.

The first four issues (September to December 1913) are called “Dress &Vanity Fair“.

It is only from the January 1914 issue onward, it shortened to just “Vanity Fair“.

Personally I find this earlier issues are more interesting and useful.

It is a treasure trove of inspirations and ideas to for any of your creative or entrepreneurial pursuit.

Take your time to go through all the 136 full issues.

Vanity Fair & Dress September-December 1913
Click on any of these: Link 1, Link 2, Link 3

Vanity Fair January-December 1914
Click on this: Link

Vanity Fair January-December 1915
Click on this: Link

Vanity Fair January-June 1916
Click on any of these: Link 1, Link 2

Vanity Fair July-December 1916
Click on any of these: Link 1, Link 2

Vanity Fair January-June 1917
Click on any of these: Link 1, Link 2

Vanity Fair July-December 1917
Click on any of these: Link 1, Link 2

Vanity Fair January-December 1918
Click on this: Link

Vanity Fair January-December 1919
Click on any of these: Link 1, Link 2, Link 3

Vanity Fair January-June 1920
Click on any of these: Link 1, Link 2, Link 3

Vanity Fair July-December 1920
Click on any of these: Link 1, Link 2

Vanity Fair January-December 1921
Click on any of these: Link 1, Link 2

Vanity Fair January-December 1922
Click on any of these: Link 1, Link 2

Vanity Fair January-June 1923
Click on any of these: Link 1, Link 2, Link 3

Vanity Fair July-December 1923
Click on any of these: Link 1, Link 2, Link 3

Vanity Fair January-December 1924
Click on this: Link

Vanity Fair January-June 1925
Click on this: Link

Vanity Fair July-December 1925
Click on this: Link


Related: Here are six big archives of old magazines:

LIFE Magazine

Esquire Magazine

Strand Magazine

Popular Science

Modern Mechanix And Inventions

Mad Magazine