A Beginner's Guide To Sizing Anal Toys: 

Keeping Things Fun & Comfortable

Written by: Don Watson | Updated: April 6th, 2023

Some toys allow you a lot of leeway with no loss of pleasure. For instance, if you can't use all of the room in a male masturbator, you're still getting all of your junk pleasured. And if a dildo is a pinch too long, what's the harm in that?

Anal toys are a whole other ball game. Too small, and they won't do much besides making you feel like you shoved a few popsicle sticks up your bottom. Too big, and you'll feel like you're going to rip in two once it's inserted, if you can even get that far, of course. Of all sex toys, anal toys are definitely the most Goldilocks of the bunch. Not too small, not too big, but just right.

Luckily anal toy manufacturers are well aware of this and it's not a matter of having to choose between using a pencil or a bowling ball, there's a lot of toys in the in between range. The problem now is choosing from that wide range. There's some things to consider when choosing the right toy for your bottom, so let's hop to it and get ourselves anally educated.

What Are You Using Your Anal Toy For?

How you are going to be using your anal toy plays a huge part in deciding which size you're going for. The uninitiated might think that a butt plug is just about the only anal toy out there, but they're dead wrong.

If you're going for a prostate milking experience, you should know that the prostate sits approximately 2-3 inches inside of the anal cavity and is about the size of a walnut. This means that the average man will be more than satisfied with any prostate massager that can touch something about an inch and a half across and no more than three inches deep. Smaller than a womp rat, for sure. 

Butt plugs are another story. they are primarily made for an extra feeling of fullness inside the anal cavity. How pliable and receptive your anal cavity is to foreign objects is something that tends to be reliant on personal biology and experience. Typically, at their widest a butt plug will be no smaller than 1 inch in diameter but no larger than 2 inches. Any smaller and you're just wasting time and any larger you might as well get the Guinness Book on the phone line.

Another thing worth considering is how long you'd like to have the toy inside of you. Contrary to what you might think, the part of the body that gets uncomfortable the fastest when using an anal toy is not the anal cavity itself, but the entrance. The butthole, if you will. So, if long term fun is what you're out to seek, carefully look at the stem of the toy that will rest at your anal entrance, as how big it is will determine how quickly you hit breaking point. I don't recommend wearing any anal toy for longer than two hours at a time, however. Medical risks begin at that point.

Common Anal Toy Sizes

Despite there being a range of about 1-2 inches in diameter, most toys on the market tend to settle into three main categories: small, medium, and large.

Small

Any anal toy that is on the small side will be somewhere in the realm of 1-1.2 inches at it's widest point. These toys are designed to be perfect for beginners, those a bit afraid of taking the plunge into anal play, or people who are rather small in stature.

Take the Ditto for example:

Look at this cute little fella. At just 3.5 inches long and 1.2 inches wide at the widest point, it is one of the smallest butt plugs on the market. But look carefully at the design. It protrudes in a way that still provides a feeling of relative fullness and anchors the toy in place.

Toys like this one are geared towards both men and women who want to see if they can even give anal play a shot, while still being objectively pleasurable a fun at the same time. It also happens to be the exact perfect minimum size for a prostate massager, which I doubt was coincidence.

Girls who want a bit of pressure applied to the shared wall between the anus and the vagina can do so without having too much discomfort and men can see if anal play is worth it for them.

Medium

Once you hit the 1.25-1.5 inch diameter mark, you're at the medium range. Truly, 90% of sex toys in this range will be at the 1.4-1.5'' diameter range because once you've gotten to this size it is assumed that you are no longer playing around, kid gloves off, so to speak. They provide a much more complete feeling of fullness while still being easy enough to insert with the right amount of lubrication.

Case in point, the Hush:

Teardrop shaped and ready to mingle, the Hush is the perfect example of the middle of the road butt plug. This one actually comes in two sizes, 1.5'' and 1.75''.  The refer to the 1.5'' size as the "small" size, which I suppose is true in the context of this product itself, but not in the realm of butt plugs as a whole.

These are for people who are used to anal stimulation or who want to get right what being spread apart by a toy feels like. Truly, I'd recommend most people start at this size unless you are either really small or really scared of butt plugs. They're just anal toys, no need for fright. These work great for people who want to see what double penetration is like without having to bring an extra person into their relationship. Both men and women are serviced well by this size of plug.

Large

Alright, so now we're getting pretty big. At the 1.6-2.0 inch range, we're at the large end of the spectrum. Most large anal toys will cap out at 1.75'', as anything after that is firmly in the fetish/kink side of things as opposed to people trying something new. Not that there is anything wrong with that, just know that only experienced anal adventurers dare tread this far.

Surprisingly, we haven't ventured this far yet. One such example though is the Prisms Molten Wide Butt Plug:

At two inches wide, this thing is more of a banister topper than a sex toy, but that's just because we're not as far along in our search for the One Plug To Rule Them All as others may be.

These are for those people who want a superhuman level of fullness, almost as if they could be ripped apart at the seams at any moment by the sheer width of these kinds of plugs.

The sheer size and kinkiness of this size of plug adds to the mystique, it becomes less about the size and more about just how accommodating the receiver's rear end is at this point.

Only go this far once you've really exhausted all of your smaller options and have grown bored. Some people train for years to use plugs this large.

Length

The last section focused primarily on width, length is another beast.

As I said with prostates, they are about 2-3 inches deep inside the anal cavity. So any toy with a protrusion at those marks will work for hitting the prostate. 

Few anal toys will go longer than 4.5 inches. At five inches and above, you're really risking your safety and I recommend staying below five. The best toys are just above three and typically somewhere below 4.4 in insertable room. 

Parting Words

So there you go, there's a pretty comprehensive guide on how to pick the right sized anal toy for you or your partner. It should be noted that there are still several steps to follow when it comes to using anal toys safely, but hopefully this guide will help you decide just want kind of toy you'd like.

About Don Watson

My name is Don Watson and I love to support my wife Angela's passion for human sexuality. It pays dividends for me personally and I enjoy writing about the topic as I'm a sexual person by nature. I concern myself with everything on the website that has to do with the male reproductive system to compliment my wife's female-oriented content. Have any questions? You can contact me via email.

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