Tapas Is Closing: What to Save and Where to Move Your Series

If you have a series on Tapas, you have probably been refreshing the forums since the closure leaked through the Korean business press around 22 September. Tapas confirmed it on 1 October: the site closes at 23:59 Pacific time on 31 March 2027.

Little of this needs doing tonight, but two jobs should not wait. This week, save any episode that exists only on Tapas, because titles can come down before the end date. This month, post a short episode telling subscribers where you are going. Tapas has not promised uploads will stay open until March. Most of the rest is easier in October than in March. Only want to know where to go next? Skip to the comparison.

Where things stand as of 1 October 2026

The confirmed facts, from Tapas’s End of Service Notice and End of Service FAQ:

The end date is 31 March 2027 at 23:59 PT, which is 5:59 pm AEDT on Thursday 1 April in Sydney and Melbourne, 4:59 pm in Brisbane and 2:59 pm in Perth. It is the last day to use Ink or read anything.
No new Ink from 1 October, bought or free.
Creators can keep publishing. There are “no immediate plans to restrict the ability to publish new content”, and Tapas says it will update the FAQ if that changes. Readers can still Support creators with leftover Ink.

What has not been announced

An export tool for episodes, novel text, comments, stats or subscriber lists.
Final payouts. No last cash-out date, and nothing on balances under the US$25 minimum, pending earnings or ad revenue.
Where titles go. Nothing says any series will appear on KakaoPage, Piccoma or anywhere else.
Whether Tapas will remove titles early. The FAQ says titles stay up to the end “unless it is removed earlier” but not whether that means only creator takedowns. The Terms already let Tapas remove content “without prior notice”.

What to save while the site is still up

Backing up your art covers the general system. This is the Tapas part.

Your masters, not Tapas’s copies

Tapas does not hold your originals. Comic uploads are capped at 940 pixels wide, and since April 2021 the site has sliced them into several images. Anything saved back from Tapas is a web-resolution copy in pieces.

So start with your own drive. If an episode exists only on Tapas, that is this week’s job. Tapas has no download button, so the route suggested on its forums is saving the images one at a time from the dashboard episode editor. Name each file by episode and part as you go (ep012-01.jpg, ep012-02.jpg) or you will be putting it back together blind.

Moving to WordPress? Run the Tapas importer described under “Your own site” while tapas.io is still up.

Premium creators: if Tapas handled your lettering, covers or translations, request those files through the Creator Inquiry Form and name your editor in its “primary Tapas contact” field.

Novel text and Author’s Comments

Open each episode from the dashboard’s Episodes tab and copy out the text plus its description field, which readers see as the Author’s Comments. Drafts sit in the same tab. One document per series, in order, under the episode titles, and you have a manuscript.

Episode order, comments and stats

Episode order is the thing people forget. A spreadsheet of number, title, date and file names takes an hour and saves a lot of squinting later.

Comments open in a pop-up, so screenshot the threads you want to keep. Then screenshot the dashboard overview, where subscriber and word counts sit under each series, and the Revenue tab. Those numbers are your proof of audience for the next pitch. Keep your PayPal receipts with them for tax.

Ask for your data, and ignore offline downloads

Email feedback@tapas.io for a copy of your account and personal data. Ask early: Tapas’s California privacy addendum allows 45 days to respond, plus a possible 45 more. Tapas has not said whether the copy includes episodes.

Do not count on the app’s offline downloads. They only open inside the app and are deleted after 30 days.

Tell your readers before Tapas stops notifying them

Subscribers do not come with you. Your series’ subscribers page gives no email address or other way to reach them, and the Terms forbid harvesting “user account names”.

What works is publishing. Tapas notifies subscribers “whenever new episodes are added”, so post a short “we are moving” episode this month, even before the new home is ready.

Claim your name on the new host first and put that address in the episode. Add a newsletter, a Bluesky account or a Ko-fi page too, so readers who prefer to follow you rather than the series have somewhere to go. If uploads close early, that episode is the only signpost readers get. Post again with the series link once a few episodes are up for readers to land on. Put the link in your profile and recent Author’s Comments too, and pin a comment with it. A reminder episode in February catches readers who return to spend leftover Ink.

Getting paid before the end

Payouts still go by PayPal only, Request Transfer works once your Available balance reaches US$25, and a transfer takes 3 to 5 business days (forum users report longer). New earnings sit as Pending for 30 days first.

Check your PayPal details on the Revenue tab now.
Request a transfer every time you pass US$25.
Ask about anything under US$25 or still pending. Use the inquiry form’s “Revenue, earnings, or outstanding payments” option, one form per series, as the form asks. If nothing comes back, email help@tapasent.com, the creator address in Tapas’s FAQ, and copy finance@tapasent.com, the payments contact in the Terms.

Our inference, not a Tapas statement: with the 30-day hold, Support from roughly the last month could still be pending on 31 March. And with no Ink on sale, Tapas income will taper as readers’ balances run down. Give readers somewhere else to pay you; our Ko-fi, Patreon and Buy Me a Coffee comparison has the fees.

Forum threads are also arranging “Ink exchanges”, where readers send Ink to a creator who cashes out and repays them. Stay out of them. The Terms bar selling virtual currency, and the Support Program rules name “manipulation of Ink transactions” as misuse. The penalty is losing Support access or your account, and a suspended account cannot request payment.

Taking your series down, last

The help centre warns that once you delete a series, “all its data, including comments, likes, views, and even subscribers, will be unretrievable.” The help centre still describes a Delete Series button, but the End of Service FAQ sends takedowns through the Creator Inquiry Form. Save and cash out first, and keep the series up until your link episode has gone out and your last transfer has landed.

Can you repost your comic somewhere else?

Community series: yes, today. The Terms say “Your Content belongs to you”, and the licence you gave Tapas is “non-exclusive”. It is also “ongoing”, and nothing says it ends when you remove your work, but that does not stop you posting elsewhere. For a dated record that you have withdrawn, the Termination section lets you “opt out of the Services” by emailing feedback@tapas.io with the subject line “Opt Out Notice”. Opting out means leaving Tapas, so make it the last thing you do.

Contract series: ask first. Premium series are exclusive unless your agreement says otherwise. Early Access episodes are exclusive only while behind the paywall. Originals have a separate agreement, and the Creator Bonus Program requires no exclusivity. Tapas’s FAQ says exclusivity “will need to be reviewed based on the applicable agreement”, through the Creator Inquiry Form. Get the answer in writing.

With the contract in front of you, look for:

termination or reversion wording, and whether “no longer available on Tapas” triggers it
a right to terminate for non-payment after notice
an assignment clause, which decides whether the contract can pass to a Kakao affiliate or a buyer
who owns what Tapas paid for, such as lettering, translations and covers

None of this is legal advice. Australians who meet the means test can get up to 20 minutes of free phone advice from the Arts Law Centre of Australia.

Where to move, by what you need

You need	Best fit	Worth knowing
The most readers for a vertical comic	WEBTOON Canvas	No nudity or explicit sex
Paid reading without a contract	GlobalComix, NamiComi	Neither takes explicitly sexual work
Free hosting that allows adult work	ComicFury, The Duck	ComicFury bans generative AI art
Full control	Your own site	You bring your own readers
Readers for a web novel	Royal Road, Wattpad	Neither pays most writers directly
Novel chapters, character art and feedback on one profile	artbase	Not a vertical-scroll comic reader

WEBTOON Canvas: the biggest audience

WEBTOON Entertainment’s shareholder letter reports 156.9 million monthly active users in the second quarter of 2026. That is company-wide rather than Canvas alone, but no other host here comes close for a vertical-scroll comic. Publishing is free, but images can be at most 800 pixels wide, so export fresh from your masters rather than uploading Tapas’s 940-pixel copies.

Canvas earnings come from ad revenue sharing (50% once a series passes 40,000 monthly page views and 1,000 subscribers), Super Like (from 500 likes, 18 and over) and Patreon integration. The licence is non-exclusive. The content rules allow sexual themes but not nudity or graphic sex, and we found no published rule on AI work. The catch is competition. A new series starts at the bottom of a very long list, so launch with a few episodes banked.

GlobalComix and NamiComi: paid reading without a contract

GlobalComix takes page and vertical comics, and pays from its Gold subscription by share of pages read. On the free creator plan you keep 65% of content revenue and 92% of donations, with payouts from US$30 by PayPal. No exclusivity. AI work must be disclosed and cannot earn.

NamiComi takes vertical or page comics and light novels too. Posting there is non-exclusive, and coin-unlocked chapters pay 85% of net. The exception is its Creator Rewards scheme (from 1,000 followers and 40,000 monthly page views), which requires you to monetise exclusively on NamiComi.

ComicFury and The Duck: free and independent

ComicFury is free, ad-free and funded by donations. After the Tapas news its admin raised the limit on images per comic page from 12 to 25 “to make migrating a bit easier”, and users say vertical comics work. Adult comics are fine if flagged. The Duck has hosted webcomics free since 2002, shows ads, and keeps its adult rating to logged-in readers.

Your own site: the most control

You own the address and the archive. The cost is discovery: readers only arrive if you send them, so it works best alongside a host above. On WordPress, the free Toocheke Companion plugin gained an “Import: Tapas” option on 23 September. It handles comics, not novels, and can only fetch the copies Tapas hosts, so swap in your masters later. For something lighter, the free Rarebit template on Neocities can show a vertical page split across several images.

Web novels: Royal Road and Wattpad

Royal Road is where progression fantasy and LitRPG readers are. It does not pay authors, but you can put PayPal and Patreon links at the end of chapters, and it bans erotica. Wattpad suits YA and romance and allows rated mature work. Writers earn nothing from ads there, and paid routes such as Wattpad Originals are picked by its editors.

We compared fiction sites in the best places to share your writing, and the serialised fiction guide covers posting schedules.

Where artbase fits

artbase is ours, so read this part with that in mind. It is not a vertical-scroll webtoon reader, so the comic itself belongs on a host above. artbase works well next to it:

Web novel chapters. Post a serial chapter by chapter, with tags, on the same profile as your artwork. Optional Pro adds scheduled posts, handy for a serial.
Everything around the comic. Character art, covers, a finished page as a single image, process posts. A collection keeps a series’ pages and art together.
Other creators. Groups gather people around shared genres and interests, and new work is found through tags and the newest, trending and home feeds.

It is free. No plan shows ads. It runs in any modern browser and works well on a phone or a laptop, with nothing to install. Work made with AI, generated or assisted, must be labelled when it is uploaded, and nothing members post is used to train AI models. artbase went public in July 2026 and is growing quickly. The community is friendly, and beginners get the same welcome as everyone else.

A checklist for the next six months

This month

This week: save any episode that exists only on Tapas.
Post a short “we are moving” episode with your new address.
Confirm PayPal, and request a transfer whenever you pass US$25.
Email feedback@tapas.io for your data (allow up to 90 days).
Save novel text, Author’s Comments, drafts, stats, comments and an episode list.
Gather master files, or request them through the form.
Contract creators: send the inquiry form before reposting.

Before the new year

Post your first episodes on the new host.
Publish the episode with the series link and update your profile.

By March

Post a reminder episode and save anything new.
Chase any balance under US$25 or still pending.
Only then request a takedown, if you want one.
Send an Opt Out Notice, if you want a dated record.

Check Tapas’s End of Service FAQ every week or two. Tapas says any change to uploads will be posted there, and payout answers should be too.

Final thoughts

A lot of people built something real on Tapas, and hearing about it from a news article made it harder. Six months is enough to move a series properly, as long as the first two jobs on the checklist happen this month.

If you want a home for character art, covers and novel chapters alongside wherever your series lands next, artbase is free to join.

Frequently asked questions

Is Tapas shutting down, and when?

Yes. Tapas posted an End of Service Notice on 1 October 2026. The end of service is 31 March 2027 at 23:59 PT, which is 5:59 pm AEDT on Thursday 1 April 2027 in Sydney and Melbourne. That is also the last day to use Ink, unlock episodes and read anything on the site. Until then the site stays up and creators can still publish new episodes. Individual titles may not last that long, though: Tapas's FAQ says a title stays up "unless it is removed earlier", and its Terms allow removal without prior notice, so save anything that exists only on Tapas now. Tapas says it has no immediate plans to stop uploads, but it has not promised they will stay open until the end date.

What happens to my Ink when Tapas closes?

You cannot buy or earn new Ink, including free Ink, from 1 October 2026. Ink you already hold can unlock episodes and Support creators until 31 March 2027 at 23:59 PT. Tapas says all Ink transactions are final and non-refundable, and unlocked content cannot be transferred to KakaoPage, KakaoWebtoon or any other platform. After the end date you cannot read anything on Tapas, including episodes you paid for.

How do I download my comic or novel from Tapas?

Tapas has no export or bulk-download tool and has not announced one. If you are moving to WordPress, the Toocheke Companion plugin can import a comic series from Tapas. The best backup is your own master files, because Tapas only holds comic images no wider than 940 pixels, sliced into several images. Novel text and Author's Comments can be copied out of each episode in the dashboard editor. You can also email feedback@tapas.io for a copy of your account and personal data, though Tapas has not said whether that includes your episodes. Offline downloads in the app are deleted after 30 days and only open inside the app, so they are not a backup.

Will Tapas pay out my creator earnings before it closes?

Payouts still work as before: PayPal only, from an available balance of at least US$25, through the Request Transfer button on the Revenue tab. Earnings sit as pending for 30 days first. As of 1 October 2026 Tapas has not said what happens to balances under US$25 or earnings still pending at the end date. Request a transfer each time you pass US$25. Ask about anything under US$25 or still pending through the Creator Inquiry Form's revenue option, one form per series, and if nothing comes back, email help@tapasent.com, the creator address in Tapas's FAQ, copying finance@tapasent.com.

Can I repost my Tapas series on another site now?

If it is a community series, yes. The Tapas Terms of Service say your content belongs to you and the licence you gave Tapas is non-exclusive. If your series is under a Premium, Early Access or Originals agreement, Tapas says exclusivity is reviewed agreement by agreement, so send the Creator Inquiry Form and get an answer in writing before you repost.

Where should I post my webcomic after Tapas?

For a vertical-scroll comic, WEBTOON Canvas has far more readers than any other option. GlobalComix and NamiComi suit paid reading without a contract. ComicFury and The Duck offer free hosting and allow flagged adult work. Your own site, for example WordPress with the Toocheke plugin, gives the most control.

Where should I post my web novel after Tapas?

Royal Road suits progression fantasy and LitRPG serials, and Wattpad suits YA and romance. NamiComi takes light novels as well as comics. artbase suits writers who want chapters, character art and covers on one profile, with comments under each chapter. It went public in July 2026 and is growing quickly, and its community is friendly and gives constructive feedback. Joining is free, no plan shows ads, and it works well in a phone or desktop browser with nothing to install.