We’ve been running trials with some readers on the Guardian website and app asking them to register their email address and name in order to continue reading. This helps us learn more about how readers use the Guardian and how data might help us to generate more revenue to support quality, independent Guardian journalism and builds on previous trials.
From April 2025 some Guardian website users might see a message requiring them to sign in. This is part of an ongoing trial to better assess reader response to sign in, and to offer readers a more personalised, more engaging experience of our journalism over time.
It’s free to register an account with the Guardian and those readers who subsequently sign in on our website or app get to enjoy more out of our journalism. Benefits include the ability to comment on stories or subscribe to any of our newsletters, which cover subjects and themes in more depth. Readers can opt out of marketing offers, but if you choose to remain opted in, you can receive discounts and special offers on Guardian products.
This allows us to learn about the usage of our digital products from signed in readers. This data helps us generate more revenue, which is used to support the Guardian’s independent journalism. It is for these reasons that we encourage readers to sign in and have experimented with mandating sign in on our website.
Previous trials
In March 2021, we ran a two-week mandatory sign-in trial on the website to a very small percentage of our UK audience, and in June 2021 we carried this out with our Australian and US readers.
In October 2022, we ran a six-week mandatory sign in trial to a small percentage of readers on the website to help understand any impact over a longer time period and across different devices (desktop and mobile). The trial included a small number of our UK, Australian and US audience, and some readers in the EU, Canada and New Zealand.
In January 2024, we started asking Guardian app users to sign in as part of a new trial. This was to enable us to offer readers a more personalised and engaging experience of our journalism in the app over time, and to better assess reader response to sign in.
We also gave signed-in users on our app access to My Guardian, an area in which to see stories on topics they choose to follow and stories from their favourite writers and experimented with personalising aspects of this experience.
Extra benefits for supporters
If you support the Guardian, either through a subscription or regular payment or have made a recent contribution, signing in also means you will no longer see frequent messages asking you to support our journalism. For subscribers, signing in to the Guardian’s apps and website will give you access to your paid-for features, such as ad-free browsing.
Your privacy
When readers sign in, we use any personal data collected from you in compliance with our privacy policy. You can also change and modify some of the personal data you have provided to us using the profile and settings area of your Guardian account (Manage My Account), and you can continue to control how we – and our vendors – use your personal data collected through cookies and other technologies including whether you receive personalised advertising by going to “Privacy settings” in the footer of every web page, or in the app menu at any time. For advice on managing your account, please visit the help centre.
We always aim to work with our readers as much as possible, and we will continue to keep readers updated. Thank you and please continue to enjoy the Guardian.
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A first version of this article was first published in December 2019. It was updated in April 2020, August 2020, March 2021, June 2021, October 2022, January 2024 and April 2025 as our sign in trials continued.