Nexus Mods sets January 2 deadline for existing mods' new AI disclosures

Nexus Mods authors uploading a new file must complete the platform's updated AI disclosure and permission fields immediately. Existing mods have until January 2, 2027, to meet the new requirements, including detailed explanations of AI-assisted work. Basic disclosure obligations remain in force throughout the transition.

That timing is spelled out in the detailed policy, updated November 5, 2026. It clarifies the 60-day transition announced on November 3, ahead of The Verge's November 4 originating report. Authors should therefore avoid reading the grace period as permission to leave a new upload's fields blank.

Describe the work behind the tag

The policy separates work principally generated by AI from human-led work with limited AI assistance. It also identifies AI Media for generated promotional images, page descriptions and other material outside the mod's in-game content. A mod with manually written game code can still need a declaration about its promotional page.

For the AI Assisted classification, the main description must name the tools used and identify the AI output present in the final mod. The policy also asks for evidence of human-led development, such as project or version-control history. Authors must update their statements when an update introduces or materially changes AI-assisted components.

A useful explanation connects a tool to a specific contribution: texture upscaling, for example, tells a player more than a broad claim that AI helped development. That is an editorial reading of the disclosure requirement, not an assessment of any particular mod.

Reuse permission is a separate decision

The November 3 announcement says Nexus will continue hosting AI-generated mods that meet its rules. It also describes new AI-training/tool-use and fork permission settings, with asking the author as the default.

The detailed policy qualifies those defaults where an underlying copyleft licence already permits derivative work. It also requires attribution and links to original mods. A visible AI label therefore does not, by itself, grant permission to reuse the files, train a model on them or upload a parallel version.

For an author, checking the disclosure, the applicable licence and the platform's permission fields are three parts of preparing an upload. The announcement says permission and discovery changes will arrive in stages; it does not establish that every planned interface improvement is already available.

What players can learn from the declaration

The labels give players information about how a mod was made and help them apply their own preferences. They do not establish that its code has been independently tested or that every asset has been correctly classified. Nexus says detection remains imperfect and relies in part on reports and manual moderation.

For existing authors, January 2 is the point by which all hosted mods must comply with the new rules. The help page describes notification and an opportunity to fix missing information before continued noncompliance leads to moderation action. Dismissing a dashboard reminder does not remove the obligation.

Sources

• Nexus Mods' November 3 announcement

• Detailed AI policy, updated November 5

• The Verge's originating report, November 4