pixivFANBOX for NSFW artists and supporters

What pixivFANBOX is

pixivFANBOX is pixiv Inc.'s monthly fan-plan service, launched on December 1, 2016, and it runs on the same account as pixiv, the illustration site where many Japanese hentai and doujin artists post first. Creators set support plans from 100 to 10,000 yen a month (about $0.64 to $64), and pixiv says the average pledge is "about 500 JPY". Posts can be blogs, illustrations, manga, photos, audio, video or attached files.

There is no free plan tier. A creator can set single posts to "All users", and following is free, but everything else sits behind a plan. Supporter-only goods can be sold through a BOOTH Secret Shop, which costs the creator 550 yen a month after a free first week. No one-off tip feature turned up in the help center.

The site is browser only. No official FANBOX app appears in the App Store, and the third-party viewers that exist are not pixiv's.

Who it suits

FANBOX suits illustrators and doujin manga artists whose readers are already on pixiv, especially in Japan, and who are used to Japanese mosaic rules. The interface is in English, Japanese, Korean and both Chinese scripts, and creators post in their own language.

It suits Western artists less. Censoring is mandatory, payouts outside Japan go only through PayPal, and the R-18 fee is higher than the all-ages one. For a supporter it is the place to back a Japanese artist monthly, at a few hundred yen a plan, with a discreet card statement.

What NSFW work FANBOX allows and what it bans

The Guidelines, in force since December 15, 2022, say creators must turn on "Posting R-18 contents" for Sexual content, content depicting sexual acts, genital content or penetration. Turning it on is what makes R-18 legal on the page. FANBOX can also switch the setting on by itself if it finds posts "not suitable for those under 18".

Mosaics

FANBOX is a Japanese service and applies Japanese law, so uncensored genitals are banned: Genitalia, genital contact, and areas reminiscent of such ... must be censored appropriately. The size rule is mechanical: The minimum mosaic size is four pixels square. If the long side of the image is more than 400 pixels, calculate a mosaic size that is the square of 1/100th pixels of the long side of the entire image. On a 3,000-pixel page that means mosaic blocks of at least 30 pixels.

Hosting the uncensored version elsewhere and linking to it counts as a violation too: Uploading a large file to a site other than FANBOX and sharing the link without properly censoring the adult content is in violation of the Terms of Use. Background on why Japanese platforms censor is on our mosaic censorship glossary entry.

Two tiers of banned themes

The Guidelines split banned themes by how the work was made. "Prohibited Items" are live-action or photo-realistic works showing any of these; they are deleted and the account may be suspended. "Items Requiring Revision" are drawn works where the same themes show in the content or in the titles, tags and captions; they are hidden until the creator revises them. The list is the same for both:

• Sexual exploitation or sexual abuse of a minor
• Incest
• Bestiality
• Rape (or any other non-consensual sexual behavior)
• Non-consensual mutilation of a person or body part

Separately, the Guidelines prohibit Content depicting sexual acts involving minors, defining minors under Japan's child pornography law, along with "Excessively distorted sexual content" and grotesque or gratuitous violence. No page says every character must be an adult; the rule is phrased as a ban. AI-generated content has been banned since July 25, 2023.

The metadata now counts as much as the drawing: a comic can be hidden because of a hypnosis tag even when the pages themselves would pass.

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ID and age checks

Creating a creator page is free with any pixiv account, and the FANBOX help pages describe no ID check for R-18 creators. Since August 25, 2025, switching a page from R-18 back to all-ages takes a request to support, after the R-18 posts have been made private.

For supporters, R-18 visibility is an account setting: Account settings, Browsing settings, See R-18 content. On pixiv the equivalent toggle requires a date of birth; whether the FANBOX toggle checks it is not stated. The terms set no minimum age and say a minor needs a guardian's consent to use the service.

FANBOX fees for R-18 creators

From the help center: 12.9% of pledges for creators posting R-18 content, 10% for all-ages. Fractions are rounded down, and the rate follows the setting at the moment of each pledge, so a page that switches mid-month pays two rates that month. FANBOX's own home page line is "Up to 90% of each pledge goes directly to the creator".

The R-18 rate went up from 10% to 12.9% on September 1, 2025. The notice of June 9, 2025 gave the reason in writing: クレジットカード会社や決済代行事業者からの要請により、特にR-18コンテンツにつきましてはコンテンツの審査に必要なコストが年々増加 (requests from card companies and payment processors have raised the cost of reviewing content, R-18 above all, every year). It is the clearest official statement on record that card networks shape adult rules on these platforms.

Since July 6, 2026, supporters in the EU pay VAT on top of the plan price, and it does not come out of the creator's share.

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Payouts

FANBOX pays out to a Japanese bank account or to PayPal, nothing else. Payoneer, WorldFirst, Kyash, Onebank and crypto exchanges are refused, Wise is marked "Currently unavailable", and the help center tells creators without a Japanese account to use PayPal.

• Bank transfer fee: 200 yen under 30,000 yen, 300 yen from 30,000 yen. PayPal: no transfer fee.
• Auto-Payout: deposited within five business days of the 20th of each month, and postponed to the next month if the amount is under 5,000 yen.
• Early Payout: on request at any time, about 5 business days by bank or 3 by PayPal, capped at 1,000,000 yen per request and unavailable when the fee exceeds the amount.
• Earnings not paid out within six months expire.

How this compares with Fantia and Skeb, which pay almost only into Japan, is on the creator payout methods page.

How supporters pay, what the statement says and how to cancel

Supporters pay by card (Visa, Mastercard, JCB, American Express), PayPal, pixivcoban or convenience store payment; the last two are for residents of Japan, and the store option adds 120 yen per pledge. One restriction is easy to miss: anyone who had not paid with PayPal on FANBOX before March 21, 2024 cannot use PayPal to support R-18 creators.

The first pledge charges the full month on the day you join, even if that is the 28th. After that the charge runs between the 1st and 5th of each month. Convenience store payments are prepaid for 1, 3, 6 or 12 months and do not renew.

On the statement: You will not see the name of the creator on FANBOX. The charge shows as PIXIV FANBOX or a Japanese-script version of it.

To stop, open Supported Creators in the menu, choose Change Plan for that creator, then Stop being a FAN. Supporter-only posts stay visible until the end of the month. Nothing is refunded for the rest of that month, and a paid pledge cannot be returned. If FANBOX switches a page to R-18 and a supporter can no longer see it, the terms say that money is not refunded either. The general steps for comic subscriptions are in our guide to canceling.

Apps

• ✗iPhoneNoNo official pixivFANBOX app appeared in App Store searches (US and JP storefronts); FANBOX is used in the browser. Third-party viewers…
• ✓BrowserYesBrowser site.

FANBOX has no official app on iPhone, and no Android app was found. Supporters and creators use fanbox.cc in a browser.

Recent policy changes

• November 15, 2022: pixiv announces that from December 15, 2022 paid transactions on BOOTH, FANBOX and Requests are barred for incest, bestiality, non-consent and the other themes card network rules cover.
• December 15, 2022: the Guidelines with Prohibited Items and Items Requiring Revision take effect.
• July 25, 2023: AI-generated content banned.
• March 21, 2024: PayPal closed to new payers for R-18 creators.
• September 1, 2025: R-18 fee rises from 10% to 12.9%, announced June 9.
• August 25, 2025: leaving R-18 needs a support request.
• July 6, 2026: VAT collected from EU supporters.
• August 27, 2026: an official notice asks every creator to recheck posts, warning that such content being public FANBOXにおける主要な決済手段が利用停止となる可能性を含んでおります (could lead to FANBOX's main payment methods being stopped).
• Around September 25, 2026: creators report post suspensions with notices citing the payment processor. Tags such as hypnosis, brainwashing and kidnapping were cited, and posts three to four years old were hit (AUTOMATON WEST). Some creators said editing the title or tags and resubmitting got posts approved.

The suspension wave is covered on our news page on the FANBOX suspensions. No public FANBOX post about that wave was found; the notice wording is known from the press.

Pros and cons

Alternatives

Fantia, run by Toranoana, is the closest Japanese rival: 12.5% on drawn work, plans up to 100,000 yen, downloads and goods sales, but cards limited to JCB and American Express and overseas payouts only for permanent residents abroad. Ci-en, the fan-support site of DLsite's operator, charges 13% on R-18 plans and pays overseas creators through PayPal in yen. Skeb is for one-off commissions.

For an English-speaking audience without mosaics, Patreon and SubscribeStar allow explicit drawn work, both with theme bans close to FANBOX's. The Japanese platforms are ranked on the best platforms for hentai artists, and the full set is on the creators hub.

Final verdict