TikTok has been testing a paid standalone microdrama app in the United States called LimeShorts since March, expanding its push into a category dominated by dedicated platforms such as ReelShort and DramaBox.
LimeShorts offers one- to five-minute vertical dramas across genres including romance, comedy and mystery. Users can watch several episodes free before reaching a paywall, then either buy a subscription or use virtual coins to unlock individual episodes. The app has listed a weekly pass at USD 19.99 and an annual pass at USD 199.99, while coin packages start at USD 4.99 for 500 coins.
The prices are part of an active test and may change. They should not be presented as TikTok’s final pricing strategy, nor should coin pricing be described as unlocking an entire drama for 60 coins; the coin system is used to unlock episodes individually.
The current catalog is supplied by third-party partners. Although LimeShorts promotes exclusive content, there is no public basis to describe the library as primarily TikTok-produced, or to say that it consists of Chinese dramas translated into English. The app replaced Mytopia, an earlier ByteDance fiction-reading app, in U.S. app stores.
LimeShorts is one of several short-drama experiments TikTok is running. The company also operates PineDrama, a separate free microdrama app that launched earlier in 2026 in the United States and Brazil, and has tested dedicated short-drama feeds within its main platform.
The paid test puts TikTok in a more complicated position in the microdrama business. ReelShort, DramaBox and other specialist apps have long relied on social-video advertising, including TikTok ads, to acquire users. If LimeShorts moves beyond testing, TikTok would compete more directly for subscription and in-app-purchase revenue rather than serving only as a discovery channel for rival services.
For now, however, LimeShorts is a product experiment, not evidence of a completed shift to a closed payment ecosystem. Its importance lies in what TikTok is testing: whether its recommendation and audience-acquisition strengths can support the high-spending, episodic-payment model that has made microdrama one of the fastest-growing mobile entertainment formats.