: a system that prevents Internet users from accessing certain web content without a paid subscription
Examples of paywall in a Sentence
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But others have pointed out that generative-AI companies are the ones killing openness, by motivating publishers to expand and strengthen their paywalls to defend their work (and their business models) from exploitative scrapers.
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Alex Reisner, The Atlantic, 4 Nov. 2025
The launch comes about a year after the company introduced a digital paywall, with extra content available to subscribers paying $4 a month.
—Dade Hayes, Deadline, 28 Oct. 2025
Like Chrome got a brain and a paywall.
—The Ai Insider, Interesting Engineering, 27 Oct. 2025
This stands out to me as a particularly strange policy, opting to gate user privacy behind a paywall, which is not common with AI services.
—PC Magazine, 25 Oct. 2025
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Alex Reisner, The Atlantic, 4 Nov. 2025
The launch comes about a year after the company introduced a digital paywall, with extra content available to subscribers paying $4 a month.
—Dade Hayes, Deadline, 28 Oct. 2025
Like Chrome got a brain and a paywall.
—The Ai Insider, Interesting Engineering, 27 Oct. 2025
This stands out to me as a particularly strange policy, opting to gate user privacy behind a paywall, which is not common with AI services.
—PC Magazine, 25 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for paywall
Cite this Entry
“Paywall.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/paywall. Accessed 16 Nov. 2025.
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paywall
noun
pay·wall
ˈpā-ˌwȯl 
: a system that prevents Internet users from accessing certain Web content without a paid subscription
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