In short
- Newgrounds is free to view. Artists post their own art there, comics included, and rate adult work A.
- The A rating covers nudity, sex, fetishes, extreme gore and "extreme adult themes".
- AI-generated art is banned from the Art Portal, Daz3D renders generally are too, and art that looks like a child is treated as such whatever age the artist claims.
- The terms admit users from 16, and members under 18 may not post adult art.
What Newgrounds is
Newgrounds is a community site run by Newgrounds, Inc., with a copyright line that starts in 1995. Members post their own games, animation and art, and the Art Portal holds the art side. Nothing on Newgrounds is licensed from a publisher. The art guidelines start from ownership: You must be the artist and creator of the work you are submitting.
The live site answered our research server with a bot check ("NG Guard") that logged-in members skip, so the rules quoted here come from archived copies of Newgrounds' own wiki pages. A few details, named where they come up, could not be checked.
For adult comics, that means Newgrounds is a place to find artists, many of them Western and independent, posting pin-ups and comics in their own galleries for free. It has no store and no catalog in the sense that FAKKU or itch.io have one.
How comics are posted
Comics go up as art posts with several images. The art guidelines use a comic as their example of a multi-image project: You have uploaded a comic with ten panels
. There is no separate comics section with chapters, series pages or a reader. A comic lives in the artist's gallery next to their single illustrations, and finding the next page means going back to that gallery.
Artists can be "scouted", which lists their art in the Art Portal's main hub. The submission page says Once scouted, your art will be listed in the Art Hub
. Unscouted art still sits in the member's own gallery.
The E, T, M and A ratings
Every post carries one of four ratings, E, T, M or A, and the rating is the main filter on the site. Newgrounds has no genre menu for art. The art guidelines define the two that matter most for comics:
| Rating | What it covers, from the art guidelines |
|---|---|
| T | "Fully-clothed, lightly sexy pin-up, mild cartoon violence" |
| A | "Nudity, sex, skintight or see-through outfits that leave nothing to the imagination, extreme gore, fetishes, extreme adult themes" |
T on Newgrounds is an audience rating for mild content. It says nothing about the characters. A is where porn comics sit. The guidelines leave no wiggle room for censored work either: If you have made porn but blurred out the naughty bits, please still rate it A
.
Newgrounds enforces the rating. The submission page warns that Artists who regularly post adult art without an A rating may find themselves de-scouted
, and artists are asked to tag fetishes and gore so readers can filter them.
What adult art Newgrounds bans
The Age Guidelines are blunter than most art sites. Two lines carry the rule:
Your art may not depict a sexually suggestive image of a child. If your art looks like a child but you claim they are 18+ in the comments, it will still be treated as art that looks like a child.
The guidelines go further and call art of characters known as children, including "aged up" versions that stay ambiguous to viewers, "creepy territory". The test is how the art looks, not what the caption says.
Three other bans shape what you will and will not find:
- AI art.
AI-generated art is not allowed in the Art Portal.
- 3D renders built from other people's assets.
In general Daz3D entries aren't allowed
, and scene-creator renders made from others' assets are out too, so most 3D porn comics are not on Newgrounds. - Photography, since the portal is for drawn and made art.
Members under 18 are asked not to post adult art at all: Please don't create and share adult art here if you are under 18
.
Finding adult comics on Newgrounds
Discovery runs through the Art Portal, the scouted Art Hub, ratings and tags. Since comics sit in personal galleries, the practical route is to find an artist whose work you like and follow their gallery. Adult work only shows once A-rated content is switched on, and how that is done is covered under age limits below.
Expect pin-ups and short comics more than long series. Several long-running erotic webcomics are published on their creators' own sites instead; a list of them is on the best NSFW comics sites, and the term itself is covered on our NSFW comics page.
A few habits help on a gallery-based site, as general advice: read the tags an artist adds, since fetish and gore tags are required on Newgrounds; check the rating letter before opening a post; and look in an artist's profile for links to where they sell finished comics, because Newgrounds itself has no paid comics.
Age limits and access
The terms of use say you affirm that you are over the age of 16, as the Newgrounds Website is not intended for children under 16
. How guests and members turn on A-rated content, and whether Newgrounds asks for any age verification in particular countries, could not be checked because of the bot check. Content filters by rating exist; the steps behind them are not confirmed.
What Newgrounds costs
Viewing art and comics is free. Newgrounds sells a Supporter upgrade, but its price and perks could not be read; the supporter page returned the same bot check. There are no coins, chapter prices or paid comics on the site itself.
More free legal options are on free adult comics sites.
Apps
- iPhoneNo
- AndroidNo
- BrowserYesnewgrounds.com
There is no Newgrounds app on iPhone or Android. The site works in a phone browser.
Newgrounds for artists
Any member can post art, and good work gets scouted into the Art Hub. The duties for adult artists are clear: be 18 or older, rate adult work A even when it is censored, and tag fetishes and gore. How, or whether, Newgrounds pays artists for art posts was not found, so treat it as an audience-building site and sell elsewhere. Platforms that pay adult comic artists are compared on where to publish adult comics.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Free, with artists posting their own work
- A clear four-step rating system that is enforced
- A firm rule against art that looks like a child, whatever the stated age
- No AI art in the Art Portal
Cons
- Comics are scattered across personal galleries, with no series reader
- Little 3D comic work because asset renders are banned
- No app
- Several facts unverified because the live site blocked our checks
Alternatives to Newgrounds
DeviantArt is the other big general art community. It asks members to tag mature content, has a site-wide mature content toggle, and lets artists sell premium galleries and subscriptions. pixiv is the Japanese equivalent, free and full of R-18 illustration and manga from hentai and doujin artists, censored with mosaics under Japanese law.
To pay artists directly for finished adult comics, itch.io sells them as DRM-free downloads, many free or pay-what-you-want. For a members site of original erotic comics, Slipshine has run since 2001. The full list is on the platforms hub.
FAQ
Does Newgrounds allow porn?
Yes, rated A. The A rating covers nudity, sex, fetishes and extreme adult themes, and censored porn must still be rated A. AI art, Daz3D renders and art that looks like a child are not allowed.
What does rated A mean on Newgrounds?
Adult. The art guidelines list "Nudity, sex, skintight or see-through outfits that leave nothing to the imagination, extreme gore, fetishes, extreme adult themes".
Is Newgrounds free?
Viewing is free. A paid Supporter upgrade exists, but we could not read its price.
Does Newgrounds allow AI art?
No. The art guidelines say AI-generated art is not allowed in the Art Portal.
Can you post 3D porn comics on Newgrounds?
Mostly not. The art guidelines say Daz3D entries generally are not allowed, and renders built from other people's scene assets are out, so 3D adult comics usually sit on other sites such as Affect3D's store.
How old do you have to be to use Newgrounds?
The terms say users must be over 16. Members under 18 may not post adult art.
Final verdict
Verdict
Newgrounds is a good free place to find independent artists who draw adult pin-ups and short comics, with ratings that mean something and rules on age and AI that are stricter than most. It is a community with no store, no series reader and no app, and its comics are scattered across galleries. Use it to discover artists, then follow them to where they sell their longer work.