Use Monetization → Pay hub → Content → Article paywall to choose how readers access your blog posts, set an article price, and write the message shown before locked content.
Keep published articles free for now. Paid article checkout does not reliably give readers access to the full post. Do not advertise or collect payment for article access. This guide explains the available settings and the reader checks to complete with your administrator before offering paid reading.
Choose your reading offer
The Default access for new posts menu offers three choices:
- Free to read: readers can open the article without buying access.
- Pay to unlock: prepare a price for an individual article. You can also specify a subscription intended to include paid posts.
- Subscribers only: prepare access through a specified subscription product.
Decide what your offer includes before writing the locked message. Make clear whether the price is for one article or a recurring subscription, and avoid promising access that has not passed a reader test. See Creating subscription plans.
Check the scope before changing settings
Although the field says “for new posts,” these settings currently affect published blog posts across the site, including existing posts. Do not rely on separate per-post access overrides to keep selected articles free.
Changes save automatically and have no separate Publish step. Turning the paywall on, changing access, or turning it off can change what visitors see immediately. Turning it off removes this article gate; it does not cancel existing subscriptions or issue refunds.
Prepare paid settings on a private test site first. If you need a mixture of free and paid articles, ask your administrator to confirm that your site's installed version supports that arrangement before changing the public blog.
Prepare the article settings
On your private test site:
- Open Monetization → Pay hub, select Content, and find Article paywall.
- Turn the card On to show its fields, then choose the intended access option.
- Set Free preview length to the number of opening paragraphs you want to show. Set it to 0 for no article-body preview. The title and other public article details can still be visible.
- Start with Free locked reads per month set to 0 while testing paid access. A free-read allowance can otherwise make a locked article appear unlocked without a purchase.
- Complete the price or subscription fields below, add a short Locked post message, and wait for the card's save indicator to finish. Reload the settings and confirm the values remain.
For Pay to unlock, enter Price per article as a normal currency amount, such as 5.00 for five units of the displayed currency. Check that currency before entering the amount. This field does not offer a currency selector.
If a subscription should also include those articles, enter its Pay product ID in Subscription for unlimited reads (optional). For Subscribers only, use Subscription that unlocks posts. Use the product ID from your catalog, not a plan name, checkout link, or price ID. Ask your administrator if you cannot identify the correct product.
A blank article price does not mean the post is free. Choose Free to read when that is your intention. A saved price or product ID also does not prove that checkout is available.
Review the preview and free-read allowance
Keep introductory paragraphs suitable for public viewing. Check the actual article: headings, lists, images, and custom layouts may not produce the preview you expect. Use Writing and publishing a blog post for the article's draft and publication steps.
If you later offer free locked reads, test when the limit is reached, what happens on a repeat visit, and when access is requested. The allowance follows the visitor's browser identity and calendar month; it is not a reliable way to grant one allowance per person across devices. Test with the allowance at zero when verifying purchases or subscriber access.
Test the complete reader journey before launch
Once your administrator confirms that article payments and access are available, use an approved test setup to check all of the following:
- Reader without access: a signed-out visitor and a signed-in reader without a purchase see only the intended preview or lock message.
- Individual purchase: the reader signs in, sees the correct amount and currency, completes the test purchase, and can read the full article after returning and reloading.
- Subscriber access: a reader with the intended active subscription can read the article; a reader without that subscription cannot.
- Cancelled or unsuccessful checkout: the article remains locked and the reader can recover without an unintended duplicate payment.
- Return visit: the same reader can sign in again and reopen the article. Confirm access is from the purchase or subscription, rather than a remaining free read.
Check both mobile and desktop. A working payment screen, a success message, or an editor preview is not enough: the full article must open for the eligible reader and stay protected for everyone else. See Getting started with payments.
Resolve setup and access problems
If settings do not save, read the error, correct the affected field, and reload to check what was retained. Article and gated-media settings save together, so a media configuration error can also prevent an article change from saving.
If checkout is unavailable, ask your administrator to check article-payment support, customer sign-in, and the payment setup. Do not collect payments for article access until the complete reader test passes.
If someone has paid but still cannot read, confirm that they are signed in to the same customer account and check the payment or subscription record before asking them to pay again. Give your administrator the article address, payment reference, and visible error. See Getting help and reporting a problem.