FAQ

Choosing an integration

Which integration should I use?

For Ghost sites, use Ghost. It is the only integration that can restore the full post. For the default wall with no code, use Standalone. To match your own design, or to present Paperwall alongside your own subscription offer, use BYO Wall.

Can Paperwall run alongside an existing subscription paywall?

Yes. This is the usual reason to choose BYO Wall. Paperwall reports whether the reader has paid for the current article; what you display alongside that result, including your own subscription offer, is up to you.

Do readers have to use tickets?

Yes. Readers pay in tickets and articles are priced in tickets. The monetary value of a ticket depends on your site's currency.

When is a reader actually charged?

Not at the moment they unlock. Unlocks accrue against the reader's account, and Paperwall charges their card once per billing cycle for everything they unlocked in that period. A reader needs a valid card on file before they can unlock a paid article.

This matters for your wall copy: do not tell readers they are being charged immediately, because they are not.

What is the $0.30 small-charge fee?

When a reader's billing cycle totals less than $15, or the equivalent in their currency, Paperwall adds a $0.30 fee to that cycle. It offsets the fixed per-transaction cost the payment processor charges on every payment, which would otherwise consume most of a small bill. Cycles of $15 or more are not charged the fee.

The fee is charged to the reader and is not deducted from your payouts. It is disclosed to readers in the Terms of Service and in the reader guide.

Installation

How do I confirm the script is live?

Open the page in your browser's inspector and check that the Paperwall script tag is present and has executed. If the tag is present but nothing runs, check the console for a content security policy or integrity error.

Is my content security policy blocking the script?

This is likely if nothing loads at all. Add https://paperwall.io and https://assets.paperwall.io to your script-src directive.

Can I change the src or integrity values in the snippet?

No. The two values are a pair, pinned to a loader build that has been fetched and hashed. Changing either one causes the browser to refuse to execute the script, resulting in no wall and no reporting. Use the snippet from the portal without modification.

Is my site token a secret?

No. The site token is public and appears in your page source; it only identifies your site. Your Ghost admin key is a secret, is stored encrypted, and is never sent to the browser.

The wall

Why is the wall not appearing on my article?

Check articleFinder first. Either the URL matches none of your postUrls regular expressions, or selector matches no element on the page. Both checks run in the browser before any network call, so an empty network tab points to this.

Then check whether the site is in PREVIEW, in which case the wall appears only to your team, and whether the article is below its threshold, in which case it is free and behaving as configured.

Why is the wall appearing on pages that are not articles?

The postUrls pattern is too broad. Narrow it, or add an excludeUrls list for the pages it incorrectly matches. Sites that serve posts at the root, such as Ghost, need particular care here.

Why is my article free?

Either its threshold has not been reached, or its cost is set to 0. Both are in the article's Wall Settings.

What is preview mode?

A verified site that has not yet been published. The wall runs for members of your Paperwall team only; all other readers see your articles unchanged. Use it to check the wall before readers see it.

Payment

When can I take payment?

Once your site is LIVE. That requires verification and, if you use an integration, valid saved credentials. Redemption is refused in any other state.

How do I get paid?

Connect a Stripe account under Payouts in your site settings. See Site configuration.

Is a reader charged again later?

No. Access is linked to the reader's account and does not expire or renew. No further charge is made unless they unlock another article.

Can readers unlock articles without an account?

No. Every unlock requires an account, including free articles. Unlocking an article that costs tickets also requires a saved card.

Can a reader cancel an unlock?

Readers in the UK and the EU have 14 days to cancel and get their money back, and Paperwall does not ask them to waive that right. Readers elsewhere have no general right to cancel once an article is unlocked.

In practice most cancellations cost nothing. A billing cycle runs about 30 days, so a cancellation usually arrives while the charge is still pending: the unlock drops off the reader's bill and off your balance before any money moves. If the cycle has already been charged, the reader is refunded in cash and the amount is deducted from your balance like any other refund.

Readers cancel by emailing legal@paperwall.io. You do not need to handle these yourself, though you can cancel any pending unlock from your admin at any time. See the Terms of Service, section 4.4.

Ghost

Why does Ghost need an admin key when other platforms do not?

Ghost truncates members-only posts on the server, so the rest of the article never reaches the browser and no paywall can reveal it. Paperwall must read the full post from your installation and add it to the page after payment.

I regenerated my Ghost key and unlocks stopped working.

Regenerating the key in Ghost invalidates the copy stored in Paperwall. Enter the new key in your Paperwall integration settings.

A reader unlocked an article and received an empty page.

Check the admin key, then the saved Ghost URL, then whether the post is published. See Ghost.