Arxiv is by its nature open access; Arxiv does not charge for access.<p>On the other hand, the articles that this site hosts require payment to access. The journals typically charge $30 &#x2F; article, or roughly $2,000 &#x2F; year subscription.<p>Note that for both the open access or paid journals, researchers do NOT receive any compensation when users download articles. That is, despite the research being mostly paid by taxpayers, a PRIVATE company receives compensation for the work done by the researchers. Not only that, but the researchers have to PAY a publication fee, and that fee is higher if they want to allow open-access.