Download speed cap increase for Supporters and non-Adblockers

  • Comment
Since 2007, Nexus Mods has had a download speed cap of 1MB a second on all downloads unless the user is a Premium Member. Starting this week, this download speed cap has been increased to 2MB a second if certain criteria are met.


Why does Nexus Mods place a speed cap on downloads?
The download speed cap on Nexus Mods ensures we can budget for and keep our substantial bandwidth bills within an acceptable price range and makes sure we aren't shocked (or utterly destroyed!) by spiralling bandwidth costs.

We use a global CDN to serve our files and our bandwidth is charged by the 95th percentile method. Essentially, that means we're charged based on the speeds we deliver, not the total amount of files that are downloaded. Thus, the faster users download from us, the more our bandwidth bills will cost. By limiting the speeds, we ensure that our expenses remain linked to the number of users who use our site and not the connection speeds of our user base. As a result, it's far easier to budget our bandwidth bills based on our active user base because more users typically means more ad revenue which means the increased bandwidth costs will be offset by the increased advertising income. If we didn't cap our downloads we could not budget in the same way.


What are the caps?
Premium Members who have financially supported Nexus Mods are able to download without a speed cap as they are directly supporting the upkeep of the sites. If you're interested in finding out about all the perks of Premium Membership, or want to become a Premium Member, please head to our information page.

Thus, up until now, there have been two tiers of users on Nexus Mods when it comes to download speeds:

  • Normal users. Members who have not bought Premium Membership. These users are capped at 1MB/second.
  • Premium Members. Members who have an active Premium Membership. These users are not capped.

We've now created a third tier of users on Nexus Mods that directly impacts the download speed cap. This third tier includes "Supporters", and users who do not use Adblockers. Supporters are users who previously bought a Premium Membership that has since expired (or who have specifically bought the "Supporter" membership from the site for a price of £1.29).

Supporters, along with users not using Adblockers, will have their download cap increased to 2MB a second, which is double what Adblock users will receive. This is how the speed cap tiers now look:


  • Adblock users. Members who have not bought Premium Membership and use Adblockers on the site. These users are capped at 1MB/second.
  • Supporters and non-Adblock users. Members who are in the Supporter member group or who consistently do not use Adblockers on Nexus Mods. These users are capped at 2MB/second.
  • Premium Members. Members who have an active Premium Membership. These users are not capped.


This speed cap increase is live now for manual downloads and will be rolled out to Vortex within the next two weeks.


Why increase the speed for non-Adblock users and Supporters?
Simply put, if you're reading this, you've cost us money. To keep this site running we need to pay a very hefty price. From direct expenses, like the servers and bandwidth that are used to serve the page content to you, to more indirect but equally important expenses like our office space, the staff that maintain and improve the site, the hardware we work on, software license fees, HR, payroll, legal fees, insurance and so on and so forth. All of these expenses need to be accounted for in order to keep these sites up and running well. If you'd like a full breakdown of what Nexus Mods needs money for, we've dedicated an entire page of the site to an infographic that puts it all in to easy to read data points. You can see that page here.

In this age of Adblockers, we believe that the users who financially support the site should be rewarded for their help. Whether by directly donating towards the site by buying Premium or Supporter Memberships or simply by choosing to not use an Adblocker while browsing the site, these users are the ones who help to keep the site up and fully operational. Without them, Nexus Mods would simply cease to exist. We believe the help they provide, consciously or unconsciously, should be incentivised and rewarded.

On the flip side, we do not want to punish users who want to use Adblockers but do not financially contribute to the running of the site. There are myriad different reasons why users choose to use Adblockers, and a lot of them are perfectly valid. For these users, their experience is not changing at all. They'll still be able to browse the site and receive the same experience as they always have done in the past.

In conclusion, we are now rewarding users who contribute financially to the running of the site and we are not placing any further caps or punishing users who use Adblockers.

394 comments

Comments locked

A moderator has closed this comment topic for the time being
  1. Pickysaurus
    Pickysaurus
    • Community Manager
    • 649 kudos
    This thread is no longer monitored by the Nexus Mods Staff. If you require assistance, please check our help centre
  2. Zaldiir
    Zaldiir
    • Moderator
    • 477 kudos


    I have a question. What does uncapped as premium user mean? I consistenly get 2,5/3MB/s. That sounds more like supporter or non ad-block user. Because that isn't really much of an upgrade imo. Or am i missing something?



    What's your bandwidth max download speed?
  3. gluemchen
    gluemchen
    • supporter
    • 0 kudos
    I have a question. What does uncapped as premium user mean? I consistenly get 2,5/3MB/s. That sounds more like supporter or non ad-block user. Because that isn't really much of an upgrade imo. Or am i missing something?
  4. bigleague
    bigleague
    • member
    • 0 kudos
    To all of THOSE PEOPLE, which think they are being ripped off somehow due to speeds being variable, it's called a business model. Those that are complaining are the types of people that hold their hands out and think everyone should put something in it for them doing nothing to earn anything. Do you like being able to find the mods that you are looking for? Do you use mods? If you are reading this the answer is YES! Stop waiting for handouts in life and do something to earn what you get. Nexusmods is earning their keep so get off their case or find somewhere else to get your mods! It's really that simple people.
    1. NekoMeow29
      NekoMeow29
      • member
      • 0 kudos
      But 1mbps is just sad. The time it took me to download a mere 1GB file with that 1mbps, I've already downloaded 20+ games 40-50GB with my 1GBps LAN
    2. XxElite2015xX
      XxElite2015xX
      • supporter
      • 0 kudos
      If they want to make money, then they should not have made it a free service. However, since they intended this website to be a free service, forcing premium ads down your throat is just obnoxious and pathetic. By making it a free service, they are *not entitled* to our money, it's like that twitch streamer who went on a rant about her viewers not donating or subscribing. We are not entitled either to have this for free, but they are giving the service for free, so we have the right to use it. So by making it a free service, they are not entitled to our money and should not try force us to give them our money.
    3. pancake4me2
      pancake4me2
      • supporter
      • 0 kudos
      if u can afford 1gbps lan u can afford the 2.99 premium download speed for a month.
    4. Ethreon
      Ethreon
      • premium
      • 618 kudos
      Wonder how that made sense in this person's mind... "I have a strong internet connection therefore you must offer me free unlimited download speed".
  5. kragghc
    kragghc
    • premium
    • 0 kudos
    I was so close to buying the $50 Lifetime plan, but then they snuck in a $12.50 tax right before I had to type in my credit card details...
    Lying about being charged for the network speed is one thing, but saying something is $50, and then trying to sneak in another $12.50 is absurd.

    I'll just stick to my 2mb/s download cap, download some mods, then most likely never use this "service" again.
    1. Dark0ne
      Dark0ne
      • Site Owner
      • 2,885 kudos
      Lying about being charged for the network speed is one thing

      Lying about what, exactly?

      but saying something is $50, and then trying to sneak in another $12.50 is absurd.

      First of all, all prices on the site are in GBP, denoted by the pound (£) symbol.

      Second of all, whether you went through the upgrade process on the Nexus Mods site or through the forums, both systems inform you of our need to charge tax depending on your location. The text on both systems says:

      Please be aware we are obligated by law to charge VAT to EU citizens based on your local tax rate. If you are an EU resident the total price at the end of the checkout process will be shown inclusive of tax. We cannot show you how much the package will be inclusive of tax (for obvious reasons) until you let us know what country you're from during step 2 of the purchasing process. We apologise that this isn't particularly clear.

      We have not lied, you simply haven't bothered to read.
  6. rezmor
    rezmor
    • member
    • 0 kudos
    how can i be rewarded for not using ad block ? i dont see my cap going up , i dont use adblock on this site only , even now im watching the ad , so when my cap go up ?
  7. piotrmil
    piotrmil
    • member
    • 69 kudos
    I'm still not satisfied with how you talk about people who use adblockers - these programs are, by definition, blocking something we don't want to see. Something no one wants to see, either because of annoyance or in rare cases danger of letting some alien script run in one's browser. So, we shouldn't be punished at all for using a tool that makes browsing internet better.

    That being said, you could have done much worse, so at least there's that.
    1. lyoko1
      lyoko1
      • premium
      • 13 kudos
      But you are viewing this wrongly, this is not punishing the use of adblock, but rewarding the not using of it, as 1MB was the non premium download speed all, now they provide an extra 1MB to make 2MB to people that supports this page either by watching ads, having a premium subscription in the past or purchasing the supporter rank.
      people that use adblock still gets the speed that they where always capable off.

      Even if you dont want to see a ad, servers are not cheap, and servers the size of nexus are very expensive, they need to pay for it, and it is payed whit the ads, the supporters and the premium, so this is not punishing adblock, this is rewarding the people that helps maintain nexus, is a very very different point of view, if you always have used adblock nothing is going to change for you.
    2. piotrmil
      piotrmil
      • member
      • 69 kudos
      >this is not punishing the use of adblock, but rewarding the not using of it,

      One's floor is another person's roof. We could get uncapped transfer as well, but just because we use some piece of software we suddenly can't.
    3. lyoko1
      lyoko1
      • premium
      • 13 kudos
      Is not about you using a piece of software, that is egocentrically point of view, is about rewarding ppl that go a step further to help maintain nexus, if this was reducing bandwith for adblockers to 500KB and keep supporters and ad viewers to 1MB then you would have a point, but it is not, this is leaving the ppl that use adblock the same speed always was avaliable and rewarding the people that HELP maintain the nexus whit a extra 1MB of transfer speed making 2MB.
    4. piotrmil
      piotrmil
      • member
      • 69 kudos
      That's why I said in another post that at least they're not pulling that stuff on us, so they could have gone way worse route. And given how many of us are there, it's not really egocentric at all.

      But I do understand your point of view, try understanding ours.
    5. lyoko1
      lyoko1
      • premium
      • 13 kudos
      Yeah but what i mean, is that this is not punishiment whatsoever, i get why use adblock, but this is for people that are okay whitout using it, there are people that really don't care that much about ads, and that are inteligent enought to not fall on ad scams, for those people and for supporters, this is a reward, a thank you, sience those people help to pay the page, and as such they obtain more resources out of it, because those resources cost money.
      And for the people who can't or dont want to help, they still obtain what was always avaliable.
      So this is not a bad thing, this is a good thing, this is not a punishiment for adblockers but a reward for ad watchers and supporters
    6. piotrmil
      piotrmil
      • member
      • 69 kudos
      >that are inteligent enought to not fall on ad scams,

      It's not being about being intelligent or falling for any ad scams. I still vividly remember when I first encountered my properly horrible ad on-line. I just had my PC fixed, I turned on one of the news sites, and then the screen went black. Completely, without any means to recover, no cursor, just black. I had heart in my throat, and then, when I was about to scream, an image of some new brand of car appeared in the middle of my not-so-dead screen via a full-screen flash ad. That day I switched from IE6 to Firefox, and never went back.

      So it's about preventing the browser doing something you definitely don't want to, and if you do search a bit, you'll learn they can do much worse than that. If nexus has some ways of preventing such malicious (or just annoying) activities, then it's all and good, but their promise (or their ad providers' promise) is not enough for me, I have to make sure it's on my end as well.
    7. JoseSnake
      JoseSnake
      • member
      • 7 kudos
      This is 2018, and ads are constantly hijacked and used as malware. So using an ad-blocker is a no brainer, as much as I would like to support website X or Y, my personal security is not worth the risk.

      I won't even mention the privacy concerns involved, as ads tend to tag you with an ID cookie and track you around the web.
    8. BeneathThePlass
      BeneathThePlass
      • premium
      • 64 kudos
      You might just consider grabbing the supporter rank, then. I totally get where you're coming from, given how dangerous ads can be these days. I also get where Nexus is coming from. We are, no matter what we do, costing them money as long as we're using the site. If the 1mb speedcap is really a bother, throw a couple bucks at them, and you'll never have ads again, so long as you're logged in.

      Otherwise. Eh. Personally, I never even noticed the speed cap. And as nice as having it at 2mb for myself is now, I probably still won't notice it unless I'm downloading something super huge. So. It is what it is?

      Edit: Also, I know it's not always as easy at throwing a couple bucks at a site. I'm disabled and have no income, so trust me, I get it. But if you get the chance, it might not be a bad idea.
    9. silencer711
      silencer711
      • premium
      • 94 kudos
      @piotrmill: Haha I remember ads being pretty bad in the early 2000’s and as far back as the 90’s when they were the most used of all time (IMO). There existed such sloppy code to make those things and you never had an easy [ X ] or fancy maneuver to close out of them at the time.

      Back to your main concern — privacy/security risk with using an Adblocker. I would always go with what ensures the security of self and others, so don’t compromise on that.

      The target audience for this announcement is Supporters & Premium subscribers. Everyone else —Nothing has changed, business as usual. This was an update for supporters but viewable by the masses. There is no loss or gain for non-subscribers. There is no change for that tier. Treat this as nothing happened to you because just that—nothing happened to you. Business as usual. Your stance on this is on the defensive, but since there was no “deficit of bandwidth” issue before this announcement, there was no “offense” side to unbalance the scales out of your favor. Your argument is contextually-irrelevant.

      @lyoko1: I get what you’re saying, however, I’m laughing inside at how you said it: “...this is not punishing the use of Adblock, but rewarding the not using of it...” lmao at how I’m going to take this concept and use it for personal gains (comedically of course) when debating with friends & family
    10. ghaladh
      ghaladh
      • supporter
      • 0 kudos
      I am an adblock user, but after realizing that by using such software I am preventing Nexus to get a little income from my navigation, I decided to whitelist this site. I wouldn't disable adblock on anyone's site, but since I am using Nexus regularly I though it would be nice of me to do so.
      Alas, I don't have a credit card so I can't buy Premium membership, otherwise i would.

      To be fair, I think that too many people on internet are too self-entitled, demanding the best free services at their conditions, without even taking into consideration the possibility to give some financial support for the expenses that a internet site has to afford. The common mentality is often "why should I pay?" or, even worse, "why should I get less of those who pay?". I am not saying that's your case, OP, yet you are rising a sterile polemic.
    11. piotrmil
      piotrmil
      • member
      • 69 kudos
      @JoseSnake: exactly my point.

      @BeneathThePlass: probably not any time soon.

      @silencer711: one one hand, you seem to understand where I come from, one the other you think my argument about ads in discussion about ads is irrelevant. Okay.

    12. Chirthorpe
      Chirthorpe
      • member
      • 0 kudos
      Absolutely.
      I used to get virus infections on the regular before I discovered Adblockers. Since then, I have had none. Adblockers plus a good Antivirus makes for the safest experience overall. If you don't earn enough money because of Adblocking, you need to think of a better model.
  8. XTamiiX
    XTamiiX
    • member
    • 0 kudos
    I used to use AdBlocker indeed, but now i no longer use it. but i'm capped at 1mb\s not 2mb\s.
  9. TheGreatFalro
    TheGreatFalro
    • premium
    • 46 kudos


    would not be using nesuxmods anymore even if that means having no mods in my games, pretty stupid to pay for download speeds to be uncap mean while im already paying for fast internet



    It's been this way practically since the site was founded.  The only change is an increase in the cap.  The cap has always been there.
  10. KRILIX007
    KRILIX007
    • supporter
    • 0 kudos
    would not be using nesuxmods anymore even if that means having no mods in my games, pretty stupid to pay for download speeds to be uncap mean while im already paying for fast internet