Creepypasta: Scary Stories & Horror Stories

The internet’s home of scary stories since 2008. Thousands of creepypasta stories, from legends like Jeff the Killer, Slenderman and Candle Cove to new horror stories every week, ranked by readers.

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Story of the Day · Madness, Paranoia, and Mental Illness

Ted the Caver

9.03/10 · 1.59K votes

3/23/01 Due to the overwhelming number of requests I have received to tell about my discoveries and bizarre experiences in a cave not far from my home, I have created this web page. I will outline the events that happened to me during the past few…

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What Is a Creepypasta?

A creepypasta is a short piece of horror fiction shared online. The name is a play on “copypasta”, the 4chan slang for blocks of text copied and pasted from site to site. The earliest creepypastas were short, eerie tales passed around anonymously, written as if they might be true.

Today creepypasta covers every kind of scary story: urban legends, lost episodes and haunted video games, paranormal encounters, cosmic horror and true-crime style accounts. Creepypasta.com has published them daily since 2008, and the Library of Congress American Folklife Center has collected the site as part of its record of internet folklore.

Creepypasta FAQ

Where can I read creepypasta stories?

Right here. Creepypasta.com has thousands of free creepypasta stories to read online. Browse the latest stories, the top ranked list, or sort by category or length.

What is the most famous creepypasta?

Are creepypasta stories true?

No. Creepypastas are works of fiction, though many are written as first-person accounts, diaries or forum posts to make them feel real. Some, like Robert the Doll, are inspired by real legends.

Can I submit my own creepypasta?

Yes. Read the submission guidelines and submit your story. Published stories are rated and ranked by our readers.

What does “creepypasta” mean?

Creepypasta combines “creepy” with “copypasta”, internet slang for blocks of text copied and pasted from forum to forum. The word first appeared on 4chan around 2007, when users passed short horror stories around by reposting them. Today it means any horror story written for, and shared on, the internet.

What was the first creepypasta?

There is no single answer, but Ted the Caver (2001), a caving diary posted online as if it were real, is often called the first. Hoax chain emails spread similar tales in the 1990s, and The Rake (2005) was born on 4chan before the word creepypasta existed.

Who created Slenderman?

Eric Knudsen, posting as “Victor Surge”, created Slender Man for a photo-editing contest on the Something Awful forums on 10 June 2009. The faceless figure in a suit quickly spread into stories, videos and games. Read the Slenderman story here.

What is the scariest creepypasta?

Readers decide. Our Top Ranked list is built from more than two million reader votes, with stories like The Seer of Possibilities, Ticci-Toby and Ben Drowned near the top. For a classic scare, start with The Russian Sleep Experiment.

How are stories ranked on Creepypasta.com?

Readers rate every story from 1 to 10. Rankings use a weighted score, so a story needs plenty of votes before it can reach the top: one perfect 10 cannot outrank thousands of strong ratings. Each story shows its overall rank, its rank in its category and a full vote breakdown.

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