Manga Plus Gives You Free Official Manga—There's Just One Catch

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What is Manga Plus?
What you get for free
Is this app for beginners?
How WhistleOut reviews apps
FAQ

Most free manga apps operate in a legal grey area. Manga Plus does not. It's published directly by Shueisha, the company behind some of the biggest manga series ever printed, and the content is completely free and completely official.

It's one of my top picks in the full guide to the best book apps, and for anyone who wants to read manga without paying a subscription or using an unlicensed site, it's the right starting point.

There are access rules you should know about before you download, and we'll cover all of them.

Download Manga Plus now:

Free on iOS and Android
Available on desktop and mobile

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What is Manga Plus?

Manga Plus by Shueisha is an official, free manga reading app that carries the publisher's full catalog of series, including simultaneous English releases of chapters the same day they publish in Japan.

Shueisha publishes Weekly Shonen Jump, which means Manga Plus is the home of One Piece, My Hero Academia, Jujutsu Kaisen, Dragon Ball Super, and dozens of other major ongoing and completed series. There is no subscription required to read, and the app is available in multiple languages.

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What can I access for free?

Manga Plus gives you the first three chapters and the most recent three chapters of any series, for free, at any time. For ongoing series, this means you can follow new releases as they drop each week without paying anything.

New chapters appear on Manga Plus the same day they release in Japan, which is a meaningful benefit for anyone who follows current series and doesn't want spoilers ruining the experience before they can read.

Manga Plus app showing popular manga series including One Piece and Jujutsu Kaisen on the home screen

Manga Plus carries Shueisha's full catalog, including simultaneous English releases of new chapters the same day they publish in Japan.
Image: Jessica Santero | WhistleOut

I used Manga Plus for over a year to work through One Piece chapters. For a newly started reader following an ongoing series from the current releases backward, it works well. For anyone trying to read a thousand-chapter archive from the beginning, the middle chapters are locked behind a subscription, and that gap is significant.

The one-read rule to free chapters

Each chapter on Manga Plus can only be opened once for free. Open a chapter, read it, and that's your one shot. If you go back to a chapter you've already opened, you'll hit a paywall for re-reading it. Manga Plus warns you before you tap into a chapter, so you do have a chance to make sure you're ready before you start. It's an unusual rule, but it's the trade-off for free access to official content.

Manga Plus app warning screen showing the one-read limit for free chapters before opening

Manga Plus shows a warning before you open any chapter. Once you tap in, your free read is used, so make sure you're actually ready to sit down with it.
Image: Jessica Santero | WhistleOut

Is Manga Plus right for you?

Manga Plus is the right app for two types of readers. First, anyone who wants to follow current, ongoing series as they release each week, without paying a subscription. Second, anyone new to manga who wants to sample major series from the first few chapters before committing to a paid platform.

It is not the right app for someone who wants to read 500 back chapters of a long-running series in one sitting. That use case requires a subscription, either through Manga Plus itself or through an alternative service like Viz Media's Shonen Jump app.

For what it offers at no cost, Manga Plus is the best legal manga app available.

How I tested Manga Plus

Hands-on testing
Used Manga Plus across multiple ongoing series for over a year of weekly use, following new chapter releases the same day they were published in Japan.
Access model evaluation
Tested the one-read chapter limit, the back-catalog gap on long-running series, and the chapter warning screen to verify how the free access rules work in practice.
Catalog coverage
Evaluated series availability across multiple genres to confirm which types of readers get the most value from the free tier versus a subscription.

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Manga Plus FAQ

Is Manga Plus free?

Yes, Manga Plus is free to download and use. The free tier gives you the first and most recent three chapters of any series, with a one-read limit per chapter. A paid subscription unlocks the full back catalog for the series you want to read from start to finish.

Is Manga Plus legal?

Yes. Manga Plus is published directly by Shueisha, the original Japanese publisher behind Weekly Shonen Jump, which makes it one of the only completely legal free manga platforms available in English.

What manga is on Manga Plus?

Manga Plus carries Shueisha's full catalog, including One Piece, My Hero Academia, Jujutsu Kaisen, Dragon Ball Super, Chainsaw Man, and Blue Lock, among many others. New chapters from Weekly Shonen Jump publish on the app the same day they release in Japan.

Can you re-read chapters on Manga Plus?

Not for free. Each chapter on the free tier can only be opened once without a subscription. Manga Plus warns you before you open a chapter, so you do get one chance to confirm you're ready before your free read is used.

Jessica Santero

Staff Writer

Jessica is a Staff Writer for WhistleOut and the site’s resident app expert. Her coverage frequently includes hands-on comparisons of popular app categories, such as translation, navigation, and dating apps, to evaluate how they perform in real-world mobile use.

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