Tapas Shutting Down: What Writers Should Do Before 31 March 2027

Tapas, the webcomic and web novel platform owned by Kakao Entertainment, will close at 23:59 Pacific on 31 March 2027. If you post a web novel or comic there, you have until then to get your own copy of every chapter and choose a new home, because no report we read says Tapas will give creators a bulk export. As of 12 November 2026 that is the gap to plan around. The rest of this page is the dated timeline, what is and isn't confirmed for writers, and a plan that fits the 139 days left.

Tapas shutting down: the timeline

Checked 12 November 2026. Dates come from the reports linked in each row; Tapas's own End of Service FAQ was not readable to us, so everything below is as those outlets relayed it.

Counting from today to 31 March 2027 is 139 days, about 20 weeks. The first report (22 September) had no date and said nothing official; the October FAQ replaced it, so quote the FAQ's date, not the early rumour.

What the reports say about creators, and what they don't

Three outlets covered the shutdown. We read each for the same four questions a writer needs answered:

Read that table as a to-do list. Nobody we read confirms a creator export, a payout schedule, or a path for web novels to KakaoPage. What The Beat does report: Kakao's Korean notice lists items moving to Kakao Page for Korean users (cash, purchased works, reading history, comments), which the article reads as meaning US material isn't being imported; creators are told to use the Tapas Creator Inquiry Form or email help@tapasent.com; and some creators are already moving, one saying her comic's first version will be archived on Webtoon. Kotaku reports the platform hosts over 100,000 titles from 75,000 creators, and that creators are swapping hosting options in Tapas's Discord.

If you earn from Tapas, ask support in writing for the payout date and a copy of your own uploads, and keep the reply. We couldn't verify either answer, so we don't state one.

What to do first: save your own copy

Do this before choosing a new site. A platform shutdown is the one moment your chapters might be locked behind a login that stops working.

1. Paste every chapter into a file you own. One .docx or .md per novel, chapter titles kept, with the author's notes you wrote under each episode.
2. Save the cover, the blurb, the tags and the glossary or cast list. A new site will ask for them again.
3. Screenshot your analytics and subscriber count if you plan to pitch an editor or a new platform with them.
4. Export your account data from Tapas anyway: it won't include your files, per Anime Hunch, but it records what you posted and when.
5. Note which chapters were paid or Ink-locked. Readers lose their Ink and unlocked episodes on the closing date, so a re-release elsewhere is a fresh sale.

Where a web novel can go

We didn't test these sites' uploads. The rules below come from our own earlier checks, linked; read the rules page on the day you post.

Tapas has disallowed AI-generated text since 23 January 2023, so if any of your draft came out of an AI tool it was never a place to post it. Which story sites allow AI fiction lists every other site's rule.

Where the other options fall short

• Staying until the last week. Ink is gone and readers can't buy new episodes, so a serial earns less each month, and a clean copy is harder to make in a rush.
• Hoping Kakao moves your series. The Korean transfer list covers Korean users; the article reads it as not covering US material. Don't plan on it.
• Another site as the only home. Wattpad rewrote its rules in August and AO3 went dark in October. Every host is one policy or outage away from the same problem, so a platform is somewhere you publish, not where the book lives.

Keep the book where it can't be switched off

KudoNovel is the better place to keep the master copy of a serial. A book there is chapters of paragraphs that save to your account automatically, and it exports as plain text, Markdown, HTML, EPUB or PDF whenever you want. You can import your chapters from .docx, .odt, .epub, .html, .md, .txt and .rtf; chapter and scene breaks are detected for free, and the story bible fills with your cast, places and canon so the next arc is written with the first in view. Want to keep updating readers meanwhile? Publish the chapters on Community Books and keep posting on whichever site you pick next. New accounts get one free credit to try the writing tools, then credits are one-off packs with no subscription.

Questions people ask

When exactly does Tapas shut down? 31 March 2027 at 23:59 Pacific, per the End of Service FAQ as reported on 1 October 2026.

Can I still post new episodes? The reports we read don't say posting is blocked, only that Ink sales ended on 1 October. Check the FAQ in your creator dashboard.

Will I get paid for what I earned? Not addressed in the reports. Ask Tapas in writing (the Creator Inquiry Form or help@tapasent.com, per The Beat).

Do readers get refunds for Ink? No: Anime Hunch reports virtual currency is non-refundable under Tapas's terms, and The Beat reports no refunds.

Will my novel move to KakaoPage? Nothing we read says so for US web novels.

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