Three steps to a working install, and a short tour of what the results mean. Budget about two minutes.
Your order email carries a download link. Unzip the folder somewhere permanent, because the browser loads Elsewhere from that folder every time it starts. Deleting it uninstalls the extension.
Open chrome://extensions, turn on Developer mode in the top right, click Load unpacked, and select the unzipped folder. Pin the icon so it sits in your toolbar.
chrome://extensions → Developer mode: ON → Load unpacked → select the "elsewhere" folder → pin the X icon to your toolbar
Free needs no key. For Pro, click the Elsewhere icon, open Settings, and paste the key from your order email. It looks like ELSE-LIFE-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXX.
The extension checks the key with readelsewhere.com and claims one of your three seats. That browser now has all five routes and no daily cap. Repeat on up to two more browsers.
Switching machines? Free the old seat yourself on the manage page. No email needed, and it takes effect at once.
The Unpaywall route needs a contact email on every API request. That is Unpaywall's requirement for their free public API, and requests without one are refused.
In Settings → Unpaywall, enter the address you are happy to be contacted on. It is sent to Unpaywall as part of the query and stored nowhere else. Leave it blank and Elsewhere simply skips that route.
Unpaywall contact email: you@university.example
Hit a wall, click the X icon. Elsewhere reads the URL, headline and DOI from the page and queries every route you have available in parallel. On Pro you can switch on auto-search, so it starts the moment a paywall is detected.
two to four seconds, typicallyFound means the copy was fetched and readable text came back. Unverified means a copy probably exists but the check could not complete, with the reason shown. Nothing means that route came back empty.
only "found" counts in the badgeConfirmed copies open in a new tab. Unverified links open too, so you can judge them yourself; archive.today results usually land here because Cloudflare blocks our check, not because the snapshot is bad.
links are never rewritten or proxiedSometimes no open copy exists, and Elsewhere says so. Worth trying next: your library's inter-library loan, the author's own page, or a polite email to the corresponding author, who is usually allowed to send you a copy.
no result is still an answerThe free tier runs five searches a day, counted per browser and reset at midnight local time. The popup shows what you have left. Nothing expires and nothing nags.
Free tierOne key, three browsers. See which browsers are using yours and release one on the manage page. Releasing takes effect immediately, and the released browser drops back to the free tier rather than breaking.
Pro