How to Convert Medium Articles to PDF

Medium hosts some of the best technical writing on the internet — but the paywall, pop-ups, and reading limits make it hard to access reliably. Here's how to save Medium articles as clean PDFs.

The Medium Paywall Problem

Medium limits free readers to a handful of articles per month. After that, you hit a paywall. Articles you could read yesterday might be locked today. And if an author moves their content or deletes their account, the article is gone forever.

For researchers and content creators, this is a real problem. You can't reliably build a knowledge base on content that might disappear behind a paywall.

Method 1: Browser Print to PDF

While the article is still accessible, use Ctrl+P / Cmd+P to print as PDF.

Verdict: Works for free articles, but captures Medium's UI chrome — header, sidebar recommendations, clap buttons, sign-up prompts. Code blocks often lose formatting. Images may not render.

Method 2: Reader Mode + Print

Use your browser's Reader Mode (Safari, Firefox) to strip the UI, then print to PDF.

Verdict: Cleaner than raw browser print, but often strips images, code blocks, and embedded content. Reader Mode doesn't always activate on Medium pages.

Method 3: PostToSource (Recommended)

PostToSource extracts Medium article content — text, images, code blocks, and author info — into a clean PDF.

  1. Copy the Medium article URL
  2. Paste it into PostToSource
  3. Get a formatted PDF with full article content
  4. Import into NotebookLM, Claude Projects, or save locally

Verdict: Cleanest output. Preserves code blocks, images, and formatting. Works with free and member-only articles. No manual steps.

What You Can Do With Medium PDFs

  • Build a research library — save articles on a topic and import them into NotebookLM
  • Archive before paywall — save articles while they're still free
  • Offline reading — read on flights or in areas without internet
  • Content analysis — use Claude or ChatGPT to analyze writing style, extract key insights
  • Team sharing — share technical articles with teammates who don't have Medium subscriptions

Tips for Medium Content

  • Save articles immediately when you find them — they may go behind the paywall at any time
  • For series (Part 1, Part 2, etc.), save all parts and import them together into NotebookLM
  • Medium articles often have great code examples — the PDF preserves these better than copy-paste
  • Use batch conversion to save an author's entire publication in one go

Related Guides

Save Medium articles before the paywall hits

Convert any Medium article to a clean PDF. Free to start.

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