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Nexus Mods AI Policy: What Mandatory AI Disclosure and New AI Training Permissions Mean for Blender Artists Who Make Game Mods (2026) | Blended BORIS | Digital Art IP

Nexus Mods, one of the largest homes for game mods, changed its AI rules on 3 November 2026. Every new upload must now say whether generative AI was used, using one of three tags. New permission settings for AI training and for forks of a mod default to "Ask Me", which means nobody may use a mod's meshes, textures, scripts or audio to train AI without the author's written permission. Nexus Mods did not ban AI-made mods. Existing mods have a 60-day grace period that ends on 2 January 2027.
For Blender artists this is not a niche story. Many of the meshes, textures, rigs and animations in game mods are made in Blender, and a lot of 3D artists start their careers by modding. A mod page is often the first public portfolio a Blender artist has. The new rules change what you must say about your tools, how your work may be reused and what evidence you may be asked for.
The policy is also a sign of where creative platforms are heading. Instead of banning AI, Nexus Mods chose labels, permissions and records. This article explains what the new rules say, how they apply to the work Blender artists actually do, and what to set up before the January deadline.
TL;DR: the Nexus Mods AI policy for Blender artists

From 3 November 2026, every new mod on Nexus Mods must disclose AI use as AI-Generated Content, AI Media or AI Assisted. AI Assisted mods must name the tools, say which AI output is still in the mod and support this with evidence such as development history. New AI training and fork permissions default to "Ask Me" for new and older mods, and Nexus Mods says it will not use hosted mods to train AI or sell them for that purpose. The detailed statements and permission tags must be in place by 2 January 2027. Keep dated .blend versions and texture sources, so you can show which parts of a mod you made yourself.

What did Nexus Mods announce?

The announcement went up on the Nexus Mods news page on 3 November 2026, together with a help page called AI Policy Changes 2026. It opens with a clear position: "We are pro-human creativity. That's the basic premise behind all decisions below," as quoted by Inven Global. The site still decided against a ban. In its words, "An outright ban will not eliminate AI from the modding process but will prevent people from mentioning its use."
The main changes are:
  • Mandatory disclosure. Anyone who uses generative AI to create, edit or process uploaded files, assets or page documentation must disclose it with one of three tags.
  • More visible tags. AI tags appear on mod pages right after the adult-content tags, and players get controls to choose how much AI content they see on game pages and the homepage, with search to follow.
  • New permissions. Settings for AI training and tool usage, and for forks and parallel versions, default to "Ask Me", including for older mods.
  • A training pledge. Nexus Mods says it will not use hosted mods to train AI and will not sell or license them to anyone for that purpose.
  • Credit rules. Derivative works, forks, patches and modified assets must credit the original creators and link to the original mod.
The 80 Level report on the change notes that reactions in the comments were divided, with some users saying that allowing AI-made mods clashes with the pro-human stance. Nexus Mods also shared a few numbers, reported by Inven Global: mods tagged as AI-Generated Content received 2.13% of all Donation Points so far this year, and reward rules stay unchanged for now. About 20,000 uploads were quarantined for extra checks over the last year, 12 times the year before, and 3,164 uploads from November 2025 to October 2026 were reviewed by hand and cleared.

What do the three AI tags mean for Blender work?

The help page defines three tags. Here is how they map to typical Blender modding work:
  • AI-Generated Content. AI produced most of the code, interface, voices, dialogue, translations, music or other assets. A mesh made with an image-to-3D generator and only lightly cleaned up in Blender, or a texture set generated from a prompt, falls here.
  • AI Media. AI-made promotional art, thumbnails, videos or page text that is not part of the in-game mod. If you model and texture everything by hand but use an AI image for the mod page banner, this is your tag.
  • AI Assisted. Human-led work where AI played a supporting role, such as upscaling textures or audio, cleanup or initial concept art. A hand-modelled armour set with AI-upscaled textures, or a retopologised mesh based on AI concept sketches, sits here.
The AI Assisted tag asks the most of you. Authors must list the tools used, state which AI output is still in the final mod and give supporting evidence, such as development history and an explanation of how the code works. They must also update the statement when they add AI-assisted parts or change them significantly. For a 3D artist, development history means your .blend versions, sculpt stages, bake files and texture sources. If you already follow good habits for baking normal maps for game assets or building modular assets for level design, most of that record already exists. The question is whether you keep it.

What does "Ask Me" protect?

The second big change is about how other people may use your mod. Two new permission settings, one for AI training and tool usage and one for forks and parallel versions, default to "Ask Me". According to the help page, this setting prohibits anyone from using your assets for AI training or project forks without your direct written permission. It covers every part of a mod, including meshes, textures, scripts, audio, text and source code.
The covered uses are broad. They include training AI models, compiling datasets for generative AI and feeding your files into automated AI editing or generative workflows. Inven Global reports that existing permissions are not reset, and the new defaults also apply to legacy mods. For Blender artists who have shared models and textures on Nexus Mods for years, that is a real gain: your older work gets the same default protection as new uploads.
There are limits. A platform setting is a rule for people using Nexus Mods. It does not change copyright law, and it cannot stop a scraper that ignores the rules. Whether a setting like this counts as a legal opt-out from AI training in the EU has not been tested. Our report on the Advocate General's opinion in the Google Gemini case explains why machine-readable opt-outs matter there, and our guide to opting out of AI training datasets covers the technical side. The help page also says platform permissions do not override valid copyleft licences, such as GPL3. If you released a mod under a licence that allows derivatives, that licence still applies.

What changes for forks, credits and reused assets?

Hosting a fork or a parallel version now needs explicit permission from the original author, or an open permission that allows it. All derivatives, patches and modified assets must credit every original creator in the chain, in the main mod description, and link to the original mod. Assets from outside Nexus Mods need a working link to their source page. Content that uses another author's work without permission will not be hosted.
For Blender artists this works in both directions. If someone ports your armour mesh to another game, they need your permission and must credit you. If you build on a texture pack, a base body mesh or a kitbash set from elsewhere, you need to check its licence and credit it properly. Our guide to Creative Commons versus copyright for Blender assets explains the most common licence terms, and our list of free texture resources for Blender shows where CC0 material comes from.
Your mesh, your date, your proof.

BlendedBoris records a blockchain timestamp of your Blender work from inside Blender, so you hold dated proof of each stage of a model before it ends up in a mod, a fork or a dataset.

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What happens on 2 January 2027?

The 60-day grace period started on 3 November 2026. It covers only the new requirements: the detailed AI Assisted statements and the mandatory AI and fork permission tags. Core site rules, copyright policies and basic AI disclosure apply now. The help page is direct about the deadline: once the 60 days are up on 2 January 2027, all hosted mods must comply with the new rules.
After that, mods that do not comply are referred to the Trust and Safety team. Authors are notified and asked to fix the problem. Continued failure can lead to moderation action, account restrictions, warnings or removal from the site. Closing the notification prompts in your author dashboard does not exempt your mods. Nexus Mods may also ask for source code when safety or disclosure concerns remain. Authors do not have to provide it, but hosting may stop if the concern cannot be settled.
Nexus Mods admits that spotting AI content is far from exact, so early enforcement depends on manual moderation and reports from users. That has a downside for honest artists: a hand-made mod can be reported as AI. Our article on the Frankfurt court decision on the 'it was AI' defence shows how much weight early versions and raw files carry when authorship is questioned.
Nexus Mods ruleWhat it means for Blender artistsWhat to keep
Disclose AI use on every new uploadTag AI meshes, textures, voices or page artA list of AI tools per mod
AI Assisted statement with evidenceShow where AI helped, such as upscalingDated .blend versions and bake files
"Ask Me" for AI trainingNo training on your meshes without written consentYour permission settings and any grants
"Ask Me" for forksPorts and parallel versions need your permissionEmails or messages that grant permission
Full credit chainCredit every base mesh, texture and sourceLicences and source links for assets
Copyleft licences still applyGPL-style mods may be forked under the licenceA copy of the licence you chose
Grace period to 2 January 2027Older mods need statements and tagsA checklist of your older mods

How does this compare with other platforms?

Nexus Mods is the latest of several platforms that chose disclosure over bans. Steam asks developers to disclose AI content in their games, a rule that came under attack from Epic's Tim Sweeney last month, as our report on the Steam AI disclosure debate explains. Sketchfab's terms promise not to use or license uploads for generative AI datasets, as covered in what Sketchfab's new terms of use say. The 80 Level report notes that itch.io added a "No AI" search filter.
What makes the Nexus Mods policy stand out for 3D artists is the evidence requirement. Labels alone rely on trust. A platform that can ask for development history moves the burden to the creator, and the artists who keep clean records will find that easy. The same records help in disputes over clones, as our report on AI game clones after Steam Next Fest showed, and in the wider fight over NoAI tags covered in our report on the Roblox NoAI tag ruling.

What should Blender artists who make mods do now?

  1. List your AI tools. For each mod, write down every AI tool used for meshes, textures, upscaling, voices, translations or page images.
  2. Pick the right tag. Decide whether each mod is AI-Generated Content, AI Media or AI Assisted, and tag new uploads straight away.
  3. Write the AI Assisted statement. Say which AI output remains in the final files, in plain words, and update it when you change those parts.
  4. Keep dated versions. Save .blend files at key stages, from blockout to final bake, plus texture sources. This is the development history Nexus Mods may ask for.
  5. Check your permission settings. Leave "Ask Me" on for AI training unless you really want to allow it, and decide your fork policy for each mod.
  6. Keep written grants. When you allow a port, a fork or other reuse, keep the message or email that says so.
  7. Credit your sources. Name every base mesh, texture pack and kitbash set you used, with a working link and the licence.
  8. Timestamp important versions. Dated proof helps when a mod is reported as AI, copied to another site or reuploaded without credit.
If you sell assets outside modding, the same records work on Unity export pipelines and marketplaces. For takedowns, see our DMCA takedown guide for Blender artists. For the copyright basics behind all of this, read whether 3D models automatically have copyright and the shared AI training opt-out in robots.txt.
The sister blog covers how to protect your art from AI training, copyright versus Creative Commons and how to create immutable proof of your art.

Where does this fit in the bigger picture?

Rules about who may use a file, and on what terms, were the theme across our sister sites this week:
In each case, the party that can show what it shared, on what terms and when stands on firmer ground. A mod author with "Ask Me" settings, written grants and dated versions is in the same position. Our guide to the Blender Artists forum applies the same idea to work you post for feedback.

Conclusion

The Nexus Mods AI policy does not ban AI. It asks mod authors to be honest about it, gives them default control over AI training and forks, and asks for evidence when AI helped. For Blender artists who make mods, the practical work is simple: tag each mod correctly, keep "Ask Me" on unless you want to allow reuse, credit your sources and keep dated versions of your files. The deadline for older mods is 2 January 2027. Artists who already keep good records will meet it easily, and those records will help long after the deadline, whenever someone asks who made a model and how.
Your mods, your date, your proof.

BlendedBoris adds a blockchain timestamp to your Blender work from inside Blender, giving you dated proof of authorship to stand next to your development history, permissions and credits.

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FAQ: Nexus Mods AI policy and Blender artists

Does Nexus Mods ban AI-generated mods?

No. Nexus Mods decided against a ban on 3 November 2026. AI-made mods are allowed, but every new upload must disclose AI use.

What are the three AI tags on Nexus Mods?

AI-Generated Content, where AI produced most of the assets or code; AI Media, for AI-made page art, thumbnails, videos or text; and AI Assisted, for human-led work where AI played a supporting role, such as texture upscaling.

Do I need to tag a mod if I only upscaled textures with AI?

Yes. Texture upscaling is one of the help page's examples of AI Assisted work. You must name the tools, say which AI output is in the final mod and keep evidence such as development history.

What does the "Ask Me" permission mean?

It means nobody may use your mod's meshes, textures, scripts, audio, text or source code for AI training, AI datasets, automated AI workflows or forks without your direct written permission.

Does "Ask Me" apply to my older mods?

Yes. The new AI training and fork settings default to "Ask Me" for legacy mods too. Existing permissions are not reset.

Will Nexus Mods train AI on my mods?

Nexus Mods says it will not use hosted mods to train AI and will not sell or license them to anyone for that purpose.

What is the deadline for existing mods?

The 60-day grace period runs from 3 November 2026 to 2 January 2027. It covers detailed AI Assisted statements and the new permission tags. Basic AI disclosure and copyright rules apply now.

How can BlendedBoris help?

BlendedBoris records a blockchain timestamp of your Blender work from inside Blender, giving you dated proof of when you made each version of a model or texture.
2026-11-06 16:16 News