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Restocking Captchas Introduced

Posted by Quail on June 25, 2026, 1:12 am NST

Shortly before midnight NST, a new purchase flow has appeared when restocking items from Neopian Shops. Clicking on an item will bring up a confirmation popup that contains a captcha. After it processes and the green check appears, you can click Yes to proceed to the haggle screen:


You no longer need to click on a pet, simply enter your offer and click the button or hit enter to haggle.


We have yet to see a statement from TNT about this change. At the time of writing, there are no updates to the purchasing process on the Neopets Companion App.

Have you had better success restocking yet? Let us know in the comments!
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There are 79 comments below. Add yours!

While this seems like a good feature against bots, captchas are SO unreliable
by solari on June 25, 2026 1:22 AM NST
Huh.. I'd hate to miss out on an item because I had to go through a captcha..
by apophis324 on June 25, 2026 1:38 AM NST
I dislike it.
by delia357panda on June 25, 2026 1:40 AM NST
I can't say I love how laggy it feels, but I restocked Slorganic Chemistry so I would say that the bots have not yet adapted.
by litszy on June 25, 2026 1:49 AM NST
DOWN WITH THE BOTS
by horses_46569 on June 25, 2026 1:56 AM NST
Honestly, I'll miss the classic Neopets one but I understand why it might be time for a change. I just hope they work better than the one for the Altador Cup.
by superhero_moniker on June 25, 2026 1:58 AM NST
love love love!
by joetaras on June 25, 2026 2:54 AM NST
It is a bit laggy but I think it is an overall improvement. Sometimes I couldn't find the pet in the other captcha image because it'd blend so well, then by the time I find it, the item is sold out.
by mushyneo on June 25, 2026 3:04 AM NST
Seems to work well, only asked twice if I was human on 50 purchases. If it keeps out the bots great.
by erigwen1 on June 25, 2026 3:44 AM NST
I thought bots were really good at captchas these days? To the point where they could read the ones with the squiggly letters and everything?

But if it does work, that's great! Always happy to see more anti-botting measures being implemented!
Would love to see one for the Wishing Well finally.

I was just thinking yesterday how I wish they'd change the wishing well to a regular daily where you have set odds of winning something, rather than it depending on how many other people make wishes. With thousands (ten thousands? hundreds of thousands??) bots making wishes every day and it only granting like.. 20, the odds of a legit player winning something are so tiny.
by biediep on June 25, 2026 4:11 AM NST
YES. FINALLY! I don't understand why it took so long since we've all known the botters have been problems for years (decades?) and the old captcha did nothing at all except mess with legit players. But I'm glad that the current TNT finally did something. I'm so happy they're trying to get rid of the bots. I hope the Wishing Well is next
by kirbycoffee on June 25, 2026 4:12 AM NST
So incredibly overdue. Hopefully with this change TNT notes the accounts that suddenly stopped buying as the change rolled out after days of prior heavy RS activity.
by public_domain on June 25, 2026 4:46 AM NST
Have people not realized captcha has been rendered useless for the past 20 years, they can all bypassed, this new one is already broken
by charknight on June 25, 2026 4:59 AM NST
While I understand the positive direction towards fighting off bots, I find myself missing having to quickly hunt down the little Neopet and click it.
by shaymusall on June 25, 2026 5:44 AM NST
Uh, while I'm all for stopping bots, this feels like it's going to be more hindering for actual normal users. Remember all the captcha errors for legitimate players of the Altador Cup?

Also, Captcha is outdated, unfortunately, bots have gotten really damn good at it...
by duskshadowbrony on June 25, 2026 5:50 AM NST
UGH. Seriously? I recently spent the best part of a week troubleshooting why I couldn't get past the Cloudflare box on the ASDA.com Sign In page when I needed to buy my groceries. Constant red crosses. I eventually realised my problem was two-fold. 1. The latest update to Edge had caused it to start incorrectly flagging Cloudflare as a Tracker and had blocked it. (That solved the majority of the failures.) 2. It would sorta give up because my Internet is so slow. (Why that suddenly became a problem, I don't know. It used to work fine.) I play Neopets on Firefox so the former won't be a problem but the latter definitely will. Might as well avoid all official shops now. Sigh.
by logicalwhimsy on June 25, 2026 6:05 AM NST
This seems short-sighted (as most decisions Neopets makes now a days it seems). There are third-party apps that can bypass Cloudflare captcha with near perfect success rate. All this does is give the illusion of anti-botting while only harming regular users.
They need to start punishing the people buying from the botters so they stop buying and in turn, botters stop botting if no one is buying from them.
by jawsch on June 25, 2026 6:25 AM NST
@jawsch That seems like a horrible plan. I have no idea whether I've ever purchased from a botter and I wouldn't really know what to even look for. I'm guessing I'm not alone.
by jersharocks on June 25, 2026 6:32 AM NST
Being cautiously optimistic for this change. I really hope this does reduce the bots. We shall see. I do think this is a good attempt at addressing the issue. I am pleased they continue to try to address this issue.
by ungjit on June 25, 2026 6:41 AM NST
@jawsch & @jersharocks I also have no idea whether I'd be purchasing from a bot, either. Punishing players for engaging with bots would be terrible, because I'm sure there are many who aren't even aware there's an issue (you'd be surprised as the size of the rocks people live under), let alone how to tell a bot from a player.
by iluvlupes250 on June 25, 2026 6:45 AM NST
Hmm it also seems sometimes the shopkeeper immediately asks for a higher price than what it was showing, not sure if this is a new thing or I just haven't spotted it before... I hope overall this will make things faster, though the captcha IS annoying.
by titus42 on June 25, 2026 7:03 AM NST
ew

i liked clicking the pets it was unique and also hate captchas i dnt wanna be training "AI" for free
by anniesnothere on June 25, 2026 7:06 AM NST
Was able to finally rs something I needed! So I'm glad with this change
by theearth on June 25, 2026 7:14 AM NST
captcha, my worst nightmare, I might not be human after all....
by cherryvixxen on June 25, 2026 7:25 AM NST
I'm blue-green colorblind, and those "click the pet" tasks were almost impossible. Thanks for making it more accessible.
by lucienbowers on June 25, 2026 7:28 AM NST
This won't solve the problem. At least, not for long

I bet botters have already found a way around It
by maninshi on June 25, 2026 7:29 AM NST
Entering the convo started by Jawsh: Punishing players for buying from individual botters--who have every reason to try and look like a normal user to avoid scrutiny--seems like it'd get more innocently unaware users caught in the crossfire than is worth it.

I can see the benefit of trying to more effectively stop people buying from real money trading sites, though. I don't have evidence since I don't participate in those spaces, but people with a real profit incentive probably do use bots extensively, and most importantly it's something people KNOW is against the rules when they engage in it.
by xxstarl1ghtxx on June 25, 2026 7:52 AM NST
I approve!!! It is sometimes VERY HARD to even see some of those Neo Pets against those screens, making it hard to buy items because you are "looking to find" those hard to see Pets to buy things. It is long over due as far as I am concerned!!! Great Idea!
by robsgirl5 on June 25, 2026 8:09 AM NST
The captchas seem to take as much time as the old system where we had to wait a few seconds after purchasing one item to try for another. The thing I don't like is if you make an offer and don't like the result, if you return to the shop to try again for the same item, the cost goes up a lot. Other than that, so far so good for me!
by luvtolaf on June 25, 2026 8:37 AM NST
I'm unable to purchase anything from the shops now? I keep getting the following message after getting a green check on the captcha:
We were unable to verify your request. Please return to the shop and try again.
by holy_toast on June 25, 2026 8:49 AM NST
Some of y'all sound like you use bots and are upset with this new addition because of that!
by bacon on June 25, 2026 8:59 AM NST
I'm going to miss the old method of hunting to find a pet and it looks like (from the comments) that using captcha is not the best solution for bots anyway. Haven't tried this new system myself yet so we'll see how I like this change!
by purplewarf on June 25, 2026 9:09 AM NST
love this change! hopefully we all get a chance at getting the items we need now!
by secret_tsukasa on June 25, 2026 9:35 AM NST
It looks like they're using Cloudflare's Turnstile product, which is branded as "not a CAPTCHA", at least not in a traditional sense. One of the big selling points:

> Cloudflare will never issue another visual puzzle to anyone, for any reason.

https://blog.cloudflare.com/turnstile-ga/

And even though there may be claims of people out in the world being able to infiltrate this Cloudflare product... I kinda doubt the cheating community is doing that yet, so enjoy a month of bot-free restocking while we wait for them to catch up. 🙃
by dave on June 25, 2026 9:38 AM NST JN Staff
I have been having much worse luck than normal, possibly as more people are now trying to restock than bots
by flabbypotter on June 25, 2026 9:52 AM NST
I thought this change was cool. I know CAPTCHAs are annoying, but it's the most common way to prevent bots on websites. There are probably a lot of unscrupulous people using bots to quickly buy items and resell them at absurd prices.
by gabistar on June 25, 2026 10:18 AM NST
Many of you misunderstood what jawsch said. jawsch meant TNT should ban players who buy from botters off-site. If botters don't earn real money, there is no reason for them to bot.
by stormmonarch on June 25, 2026 10:21 AM NST
It seems like the shopkeepers start the interaction angry with me now as if I've offered them a low amount even though I haven't offered them anything yet...Hope they get it fixed
by morules_99 on June 25, 2026 10:34 AM NST
I never thought I'd have to hope JN archived the captcha art but here I am 🥲
by katie2510 on June 25, 2026 10:45 AM NST
at least today, day one-ish, i've been able to get a couple stamps and even to the haggle page of expensive ones, so it seems to be doing something for now
by scaviferro on June 25, 2026 10:45 AM NST
For the first 13 hours so far, this has been everything I could've ever wanted in a restocking experience.

Anyone complaining that it's "Not working" or "too complicated", give it time bro.
Get adjusted and start buying things.
by araelynn on June 25, 2026 11:04 AM NST
I hate it a lot a lot. I don't use bots, LOL there's a reason I play like 5 games on the site because I'm old enough to not be tech savvy now okay? The stupid click here if you're a human refreshes THRICE before letting me actually click it and what I wanted to buy is GONE.. and tbh the ONLY reason I buy and put anything in my shop at all is because I'm already there stalking for my own pet's wearables, so might as well. ( and SSW check for setting prices) Anyways, I hate it.
by slinky332 on June 25, 2026 11:21 AM NST
Honestly, I'm happy with this, maybe I'll be able to finally restock anything at all!! DOWN WITH THE BOTS!! <3 <3
by mikoaucarod on June 25, 2026 11:51 AM NST
looooove this change!!!! FINALLY 💖 thank you tnt ily 🥰
by reckless4romance on June 25, 2026 12:42 PM NST
Earlier today, restocking seemed a bit easier. Now, I'm finding more and more item are sold out after the check mark loads. And on mobile, the typing box and haggle button are too close together now. I keep accidentally tapping on the Haggle button instead of typing in the price.
by infernal_kitty on June 25, 2026 12:55 PM NST
Wish they'd just get rid of haggling altogether, but if anything I'm glad not to have to click on any more faded out Neopets because my eyesight ain't what it used to be.
by kiriska on June 25, 2026 4:16 PM NST
Oh jeez... I just hope this won't hinder regular users more than the botters D:
by amethyst43217 on June 25, 2026 4:39 PM NST
Cloudflare takes forever to "verify" that I'm "human" so I guess I'll never restock again.
by twiddl3d33 on June 25, 2026 5:21 PM NST
I absolutely HATE that bot thing. It slows down a purchase, I lost out on too many
by yingtien888 on June 25, 2026 5:33 PM NST
I'm glad TNT is at least trying to do SOMETHING about this! I am so sick of cheaters with their autobuyers that buy every item in every shop at the same time. It's so infuriating. I'm over here tryna do my Daily Quests, and some jerk comes along and clears the shop.
by cornflakes on June 25, 2026 6:00 PM NST
I sincerely hope this puts an end - or at least minimizes - all the complaining about TNT 'not caring about' bots. They've been doing a lot to try to curb it. I'm sure there's more they could do (and more they likely have planned), but this is a start. If people are finally able to grab good items, it's a win - even if it's temporary.
by neolodgeism on June 25, 2026 6:01 PM NST
Dear TNT, your new Cloudflare thing didn't work at all. I was literally just in the Fresh Foods shop and an autobuyer came along and bought every one of the 35 items in multiple quantities in a matter of milliseconds. Time to try something else! Sorry!
by cornflakes on June 25, 2026 6:19 PM NST
Well, so far this has been a flop for me, every time I've gotten in it's gone kaput and won't process. I guess we don't have to worry about autobuyers if *nobody* can buy anything, yeah?
by ithrilux on June 25, 2026 7:51 PM NST
@cornflakes: That's just the shop being automatically cleared after items don't sell for awhile. That's normal, expected behavior. (It's called a "clear" in restocking jargon.)
by dave on June 25, 2026 7:55 PM NST JN Staff
I just tried it out, as I was curious (and I'm always buying stuff from the main shops - I love buying fun foods) and the captcha didn't take long at all to load for me, though it does give me a little anxiety about potentially missing a really good item or two if it's laggy. XD

That being said, I'm so glad they removed the "click on the acara" and whenever I click on said acara? I get an error and have to refresh to try again. The old way was SO beyond buggy more often than not. This new way seems promising. Maybe more people will be able to buy things instead of them being sold out mere seconds after the shops refill their stock.
by dracyoola on June 25, 2026 8:21 PM NST
Dislike it intensely. I've had to go through the Capca thing with every attempted purchase and it's not letting me haggle like I used to do. I really don't care if bots are buying things. I want to be able to buy merch like I did yesterday and for the past 17 plus years.
by mariquita225 on June 25, 2026 8:47 PM NST
Well I got a silver buzzer coin and a red spotted scarab from the coin shop today. I had given up on that shop years ago because it was impossible to get anything with all the bots. I think the bots will catch up with the tech but it's nice to be able to get some stuff for now!
by cryistalene on June 25, 2026 8:51 PM NST
The "click-a-pet" method is still active on the companion app btw
by pawlie_gray on June 25, 2026 9:37 PM NST
Ah yes. Captchas. The most reliable mode of deterring bots. /sarcasm
by solarboyaaron on June 25, 2026 10:10 PM NST
Getting a lot of this message now: We were unable to verify your request. Please return to the shop and try again.

Does that mean it's sold out? When I go back to the shop the item is still there. If it's going to be glitchy and not let people buy things.... TNT might really need to try something else. A big part of the game for many people is perusing the shops for items to buy for various reasons. I know it's a big part of my time playing on the site and not being able to would kill it for me.
by dracyoola on June 25, 2026 10:52 PM NST
I was startled by the change, but glad, because the find the neopet thing is hard cos i lack full depth perception and have some sort of color vision issue happening. Unfortunately, this type of capatcha seems to have become the current trend. Okay. I prefer this over the visual puzzles, for sure, because of the above issues that I have.

However, how do they verify that i'm a human? How do they verify that one is not an human? And what makes it be unable to verify either way?

That's what puzzles me. Making me feel like they're using some kind of database that has unreliable information, lol.

For now, seeing others state that they were able to get rare items for a change - that is great news and makes me feel happy because that means I have a chance, if I want to try to get something rare.
by simkim on June 25, 2026 11:06 PM NST
Oh.. Lovely… I find it difficult enough as it is, now they made something that not only takes a long time for me, now it fails half the time. Would rather click a neopet pic each time.
by reiryokuryuu on June 26, 2026 12:22 AM NST
now i always miss out and cant even haggle anymore as they ask for prices more than its worth
by barbm on June 26, 2026 1:29 AM NST
Dislike the captchas! If one reads up on them it says the captchas (not that they are) but they "can" gather your personal information! The captchas look like it's downloading and or gathering information every time, making us wait!

As it is those of us with the ads see where TNT is asking if we want to opt out of them- giving our information to third parties!
by somethingood2u on June 26, 2026 1:38 AM NST
Not thrilled with the price getting raised if you go back to the shop and try to restart haggling again.
by timbergray on June 26, 2026 6:51 AM NST
I find I get booted from the shop after 3 or 4 purchases, now.
by ogidin on June 26, 2026 11:33 AM NST
It's a bit clunky, but I'm glad that some kind of update was made to deter the bots for now. The more difficult shops like the ones that stock collectibles are definitely better; I'm actually seeing the rare items and getting to the haggle screen now before the autobuyers can snatch them up. I'm sure they'll be scrambling to adapt to the captchas, but I do get the sense that TNT does largely care about their player base being able to play the game.
by miranai on June 26, 2026 11:45 AM NST
Ummmm, captchas don't stop bots anymore, idk.
by mercy_graves on June 26, 2026 12:29 PM NST
They should just get rid of haggling. Whoever clicks first, gets it, otherwise it is based on internet speed.
by mushyneo on June 26, 2026 2:30 PM NST
I hate the new restocking feature a lot!!!
by tazzie21763 on June 26, 2026 5:24 PM NST
Ughhhh man the confirmation to even get to haggling takes so long! I could've bought the item in that time before. And while I welcome not needing to scan the image for the Neopet, I kind of miss it being there. It looks so featureless with just the "Haggle!" button.
by amethyst43217 on June 26, 2026 8:45 PM NST
lol at everyone not even being aware that purchasing from a botter means with cash xD
by xoxofate on June 27, 2026 12:21 PM NST
I am working on the book rewards and it is very frustrating that I keep missing books because of the screen. Like when it was haggle, I knew I could just avoid trying to save money to get the item quicker...but with these I have to wait on the captcha on _every_ purchase.
by druidicwyrm on June 28, 2026 8:10 AM NST
Bought probably 100 items this morning with zero problems, Can thy also add this to the wishing well ?
by premium17 on June 28, 2026 3:00 PM NST
nvm my nostalgia brained comment last time
its not really captcha in the ways im used to and hate
its working nicely
by anniesnothere on July 2, 2026 7:28 AM NST

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