If you've signed up for NZBporn, you were asked for a prdb.net API key — not an NZBporn account, not a registration form, but a key from a completely different site. That's not an accident or an oversight. It reflects something real about how these two services are structured. They're not the same product. They do different things, and they do them well enough that combining them is worth understanding properly.
What prdb.net is
prdb.net is a database for adult video content. Think of it as the metadata layer: titles, preview images, studio and actor information, all organized and searchable. The community contributes to it — members can add preview images, improve entries, and keep the catalog accurate over time.
Beyond browsing, prdb.net is where you build your personal map of what you like. You can mark content as wanted, follow specific sites, and save favorite performers. It's your home base for taste — a persistent record of what you're interested in, independent of how you actually get it.
What prdb.net doesn't have is download capability. There are no NZB files, no Usenet indexing. It's a catalog, not a delivery service. That's where NZBporn comes in.
What NZBporn is
NZBporn is a Usenet indexer focused entirely on adult content. It has its own indexing infrastructure — crawling Usenet, identifying releases, organizing them — and it exposes that index through a standard Newznab-compatible API. When you search NZBporn and click a release, you're getting an NZB file that points directly at Usenet articles. Your downloader takes it from there.
NZBporn pulls rich metadata and preview images from prdb.net to present releases in a way that actually makes sense: you can see what something is before you download it, not just a raw release name. That integration is what makes NZBporn feel like a proper catalog rather than a raw binary index.
Why you need a prdb.net API key
This is the part that confuses most new users. You register on prdb.net, not on NZBporn. Your API key comes from prdb.net. But when you use NZBporn, you're not making API calls to prdb.net on your own behalf — NZBporn isn't forwarding your requests or billing against your quota.
The API key is a trust mechanism. NZBporn and prdb.net have an agreement: NZBporn makes heavy use of prdb.net's content, and in return, access to NZBporn is restricted to prdb.net premium members. Your API key proves you're one of them. It's a gate, not a data pipe.
The practical implication: you need a prdb.net premium account to use NZBporn at all. Once you have one, your API key gets you in, and that's the extent of the connection during normal use.
The workflow in practice
Once you're set up, the two services slot into a straightforward routine.
On prdb.net, you build out your preferences over time — following studios, marking performers as favorites, adding titles to your wanted list. It's the place where you track what you're looking for. The wanted list is particularly useful: as your indexer finds releases, anything on that list can be matched and queued automatically.
On NZBporn, you search and download. Plug your API key in once — into SABnzbd, Radarr, or whatever tooling you use — and NZBporn behaves like any other Newznab indexer from that point on. The difference is the catalog quality: because NZBporn draws on prdb.net's structured data, results include accurate titles, preview thumbnails, and properly tagged metadata rather than the cryptic release names you'd get from a general-purpose indexer.
Getting started
The sequence is: prdb.net first, NZBporn second.
- Sign up at prdb.net and upgrade to a premium account.
- Copy your API key from account settings on prdb.net.
- Head to app.nzbporn.org and use your prdb.net API key to log in.
- Add NZBporn to your downloader as a Newznab indexer — your personal API URL and key are shown in the NZBporn app after you log in.
From there, prdb.net is where you manage your preferences and NZBporn is where you search and download. Two tools, one workflow.