How to Choose the Best Toys for Anal Stretching

You’ve decided that you want to enjoy some anal play beyond your current level. There’s only one big problem: you have no idea how to choose the best toys for anal stretching. With thousands of anal toys out there, what ones should you be looking at if your end goal is stretching out the anal entrance?

But that’s what I’m here for! There is no “one size fits all” to this process, but there are features and designs we want to look for when picking up anal toys specifically for the best toys for anal stretching. It doesn’t matter if you work in the field of carpentry or Orlando escorts, we all have a butt with sphincter muscles, and we all need to stretch them if we want to play past their current capacity.

I want to be clear: “anal stretching” isn’t just something you do when you want to fit the largest fantasy dildo you’ve ever seen. Anal stretching can be used for any type of play where you’re trying to gently relax the anal muscles to comfortably accept something larger than it currently does.

This means that prepping for anal sex with a biological penis also counts as anal stretching, and it follows many of the same principles as-if you were stretching for that fantasy dildo!

Why Is Anal Stretching Important?

Okay, this is going to be a bit of dry medical knowledge, but just stay with me for a few minutes. We’ll get to the good stuff, but understanding why we don’t just shove an eggplant up there and call it a day is important to know.

When you put something up the butt, you have to go through two separate sphincters. If you’re unaware, a “sphincter” (your body has a couple!) is essentially just a tight ring of muscle.

(Credit to TeachMeAnatomy for that solid diagram)

As you could guess by the phrase “tight ring of muscle”, this ring tends to be relatively tight and relatively closed up. They’re like gatekeepers. If these sphincters weren’t closed up, everything they were controlling would flow freely through those gates. (You have sphincters all over your body, but we’re talking about butt stuff today.)

As the diagram foreshadows, we have two spinchters also at your anal entrance.

It’s important to understand that these rings of muscle are just that: rings of muscle. They operate similarly to other muscle on your body.

If you were under a mind control spell, and I told you to drop into the splits right this second, you’d likely tear multiple leg muscles. Those muscles are too tight and unstretched to safely achieve the splits.

If you’d been doing daily splits stretching practice, however, you might safely achieve those splits (and then flip me off for doubting you).

That’s the exact premise behind your sphincters too. They’re just literally muscles – like any other in your body. If you, gradually and often, stretch them out, they become accustomed to stretching out to this large, stretched-out size, and you don’t tear muscles or skin when you push them to that level.

This doesn’t give you a “loose” asshole any more than doing splits training lengthens your legs or makes your legs turn into spaghetti noodles. It’s a muscle; when done safely, it simply allows your anal entrance to stretch to wider sizes without breaking. (If you break or rip your anal entrance, though, that CAN give you a loose asshole.)

The final point in this anatomy lesson:

The sphincters are located at the entrance. Once you’re past those sphincters, you’re chilling in the pretty-stretchy rectum area. This area has nerves for pressure, but there’s nothing, necessarily, in the rectum that we really need to “train” for wider anal stretching. (There’s some argument to be made for depth-training or S-curve training, but if you’re on this article, you’re not-even-sorta worried about trying to take a 12″ dildo.)

So all of this fanfare is happening entirely to help train the anal entrance to gently accept wider dildos.

Now you know what we’re up against though. When we’re trying to pick the best toys for anal stretching, we’re specifically trying to train the body’s anal entrance to gradually open up.

First, Some Toy Design Terms

If we’re going to talk about how to find a great anal stretching toy, we first need to talk about what to look for in the best toys for anal stretching. To do that, being on the same page about what we’re calling the parts of the toy will be really helpful.

Let’s talk sex toy terms.

Insertable Length: This is the part of the sex toy that makes up the bulk of the part that goes inside of your body.

Retention Area: This is the part of the toy design that rests right at the anal entrance. In dildos, this might be virtually indistinguishable from the rest of the toy. That’s because dildos aren’t really designed to just “sit” in the butt. In butt plugs, this area, smaller in diameter, is what helps the plug stay in the butt.

Base: To make something anal safe, a portion of the item needs to remain outside of the body. Because the butt doesn’t have an easily accessible “end” like the vaginal canal does, we need to make sure there’s an easy way to grip a sex toy and remove it after inserting it into the butt. We call this part of the sex toy the “base”.

*Image shown above is the Hush 2 with more info here.

How to Find a Great Anal Stretching Toy: Get a Tapered Tip

If you’re going to be inserting something that’s near the edge of your body’s limits, you need a way to gently, and gradually, insert that toy.

This is where tapered tips come in. It’s easiest to explain a tapered tip sex toy with another image:

(Left: Laphwing Tentacle. Right: Split Peaches Unicorn.)

See how the sex toy on the left starts really, really small and gently gets larger the further you insert it? The other sex toy just starts huge and stays at that size.

Getting a tapered tip can be really helpful for anal stretching sex toys and your wallet. A tapered tip gives you multiple sizes to insert in a single toy.

For example, if your dildo caps out at 1.75″ in diameter – BUT your tapered tip starts at 1″, gently grows to 1.25″ and then 1.5″. This means that you, essentially, can partially insert your dildo to stretch anywhere from 1″ to 1.75″ with a single toy.

So if you’re only at a point where 1.4″ of width is comfortable, you can slowly insert through 1″ up to 1.25″ – then pause as you approach the 1.5″ diameter point. Even better, for future anal stretching sessions when your body has relaxed enough to take larger sizes, you can still use this same sex toy to stretch out to 1.75″ in diameter.

In addition to offering multiple sizes in a single anal toy, tapered tip toys are just easier and safer to insert. Because the toy gradually grows in thickness, you can slowly acclimate your body to larger sizes, reducing the likelihood that you pop it in too quickly and tear something.

It’s a win-win!

If You’re Using a Butt Plug: Get a Thick Retention Area

Butt plugs are pretty cool. You simply slide them into the butt, they “pop” in there, and then they hang out while your hands are free to do other things.

This is partially why butt plugs are such a popular anal warm-up option: you can slide an anal plug into the butt and enjoy other foreplay or masturbation activities while your anal muscles slowly relax to the large intrusion.

However, this may not be as effective as using an anal dildo or other type of anal toy. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use butt plugs, but it does mean that you should have a bit of knowledge when choosing what to use for anal warm-ups.

Essentially, the process of anal stretching is focused on stretching and gently relaxing the sphincters of the butt. These sphincters are located at the entrance. (Remember our anatomy lesson?)

When you slide in a butt plug, the thickest area stretches these entrance muscles, but once the butt plug is fully inside the body, the sphincters generally are at rest against the retention area of the plug.

Just look at this image below: the toy on the left has a really thick retention area. The toy on the right has a really thin retention area. If you were using the toy on the right as one of your best toys for anal stretching, once the toy was fully in the body, you’d only be “stretching” the muscles that tiny little stem portion.

That means that your 30 minute long anal stretching session had 3-ish minutes of active stretching for those muscles. The other 27 minutes, those sphincter muscles were relaxed and chillaxing on one of the thinnest parts of your butt plug.

This is why butt plugs may not warm up the anal area as well as you’d like. Though something was in the butt that whole (teehee) time, it wasn’t actively stretching out the muscles to your desired thickness. The thickest part of the plug was well-past those muscles while those muscles gently rested on one of the thinnest part of the plug.

That brings me to my point: if you’re using a butt plug for anal stretching, you have to pay attention to the size of the retention area. If the retention area is ultra-slim, that’s what you’re going to be “actively stretching” while you wear it.

That isn’t necessarily a dealbreaker. But if you’re primarily using butt plugs as a hands-free option to “warm up” the muscles, keep this in mind. The majority of your time using a butt plug may not be doing much stretching. The inside of the body (the rectum) already does pretty well with width. We’re trying to stretch out that entrance.

*Toys shown in image above: Left: Square Peg Toys Egg Plug. Right: b-Vibe Snug Plug in 5.

(Sidenote: That’s not to say using a butt plug with a small retention area isn’t helpful. Things in the bum help bring blood flow to the area. More blood flow = better safety and resiliency for stretching. But a butt plug with a small retention area really isn’t actively stretching those entrance muscles.)

Best Toys for Anal Stretching: Consider a Dildo for Activities Near Your Limit

So, we just went over why most butt plugs may not be a great fit as the best toys for anal stretching.

If you know that you’re going to be playing near the limit of what your butt can take, I really recommend warming up with a dildo. That butt plug can be the warm-up to your warm-up, but the thicker size of most dildos will provide a safer, more comprehensive warm-up.

Yes, it will require using your hands to hold it in. Sorry. Enjoy some thrusting and delicious sensations while you’re there.

But when you’re playing near the limit of what your body can handle, there are higher risks than when you’re only inserting something that’s just in the range of “I could take this mid-Brunch without a second thought”.

Risks of Anal Stretching and Anal Play

Just to make sure we’re all clear here, the risk of suddenly inserting something that’s too large for you includes:

• Pain. Anal play isn’t painful by default. It can have a bit of pressure, but any pain (for most! Pre-existing health conditions can change how the body interprets sensations!) is a sign that you’re doing damage. If you’re getting lots of pain, the toy is too large, or you don’t have enough lube.
• Anal Fissures. This is a nice, doctor-friendly way to say “you tore your butthole”. Yeah, when you say it like that, that’s not so nice-sounding.
• Anal Bleeding: As part of your skin, your butt hole also has blood inside of it. Only, well, if you tear it, now it’s coming outside of you.
• Anal Infections: Your butt handles poop on a (at least) weekly basis. Turns out poop smears near open wounds actually has a high chance of infection. …yay?
• Anal Fistulas: About 30% of people (in this study) who got an anal infection got something called an anal fistula. This is when the tear in the entrance is so deep that it allows infection to spread to the surrounding, non-entrance skin. It likely requires surgery to fix.
• A Long Healing Time: So, uh, the anal entrance stretches out to allow you to poop. Turns out stretching open skin tears causes them to retear. Anal fissures have longer-than-average heal times because bowel movements can tear them right back open.

I want to be clear: while these are all risky things that should be taken seriously, in most cases, they are things that can be helped by a doctor’s visit. Your doctor can’t magically fix your breaks and tears, though, so if you go too hard, you’ll be dealing with the pain, discomfort, and potential infection risks for awhile. At least weeks.

People around the world poop on a daily basis, and they make it through okay. Not as many (but a ton) of people also enjoy anal play on a daily basis, and we don’t have a revolving door of ER visits for them.

But the way to ensure you don’t have to deal with any of this is to make sure you’re safely stretching in the first place!

My Best Toys for Anal Stretching Recommendations

Too long, didn’t read?

Okay, I get it. Sometimes, I really do not care about the finer points of something (like how a washing machine works), and I just really want something that the expert recommends. I got you.

That being said, please take these best toys for anal stretching recommendations with a grain of salt. They are my recommendations that have worked well for my anal stretching partners over the years. As we’ve noted, anal stretching is a very personal experience, and what’s great for me may not be perfect for you.

So, if you have the time, I really do recommend at least skimming the above guide on how to choose the best toys for anal stretching.

My Absolute Favorite: Square Peg Toys Egg Plugs

I don’t even have an affiliate relationship with Square Peg Toys, but my god, their Egg Plugs are always my first recommendation for the best toys for anal stretching. I’ve already turned a couple of my friends onto them.

They’re great for a few reasons:

• They’re uniform in design. You can, quite literally, move or down sizes and have the exact same, controlled experience but in a different size.
• They’re the perfect mix of soft and firm silicone. Each one of these Egg Plugs feels like a hulk of squishy silicone. Because it’s such a dense silicone, it doesn’t collapse at your entrance when pressure is applied, but it also remains squishy enough that it doesn’t feel like sliding plastic into yourself.
• They have wide retention areas. We’ve never taken the Square Peg Egg Plugs in public because they’re just monsters (we only have the XL and up), but this is enough of a retention area to keep the plug inside of the body, hands-free, while lying down. Plus, the retention area is still extremely thick, continuing the stretching as the plug stays inside.
• They have a slightly tapered tip. The tapered tip could be more noticeable, but it’s slightly there, giving you a gentler first push-in compared to some other plugs. The extra-soft silicone helps too.

On a Budget: Mr. Hankey’s Cone

If you’re trying to stretch to a particular diameter, you generally will pick up multiple toys, in incremental sizes, that’ll help you make it to that diameter. Buying multiple sex toys, as you can imagine, can get pricey.

If you’re trying to keep things as cheap as possible, though, you can pick up a single toy that will function as the diameter of multiple toys. That single toy is a cone. This cone-shaped toy will allow you to incrementally stretch to wider diameters. If you get the right cone for your needs, it will start at the diameter where you’re currently at and ever-so-slowly get wide enough to stretch to your “desired” diameter.

I’m featuring the Mr. Hankey’s Toys Traffic Cone sex toy above – purely because it’s made from body-safe silicone and is available in different sizes to get the size you need. They also, thank god, make it in non traffic cone colors if you want something normal looking.

If you’re looking for something at a lower price point and find that their sizes happen to be what you need, Tantus also makes the Cone Small and Cone Large. Since theirs are mass-produced (versus the made-to-order design of Mr. Hankey’s Toys), they’re lower in price.

Both are solid companies, though, and I own multiple toys from both.

One big caveat: Because of the ever-increasing size of a Cone sex toy, it’s easier to accidentally push past your comfortable, safe limits. Make sure you’re always clear-headed and risk-aware when using a cone sex toy. Especially if squatting over it, eagerness and gravity can make it easy to “push past” where you should reasonably be stretching.

Hands-Free Stretching: Tantus Severin

Remember when we talked about how the retention area of your plug is the most-important spot to consider? That’s true, but if you don’t want to spend the entire time you play with your toy holding it into your body, you still need a retention area that’s smaller than the plug’s insertable length.

The Tantus Severin helps bridge some of that gap. It has an extra-wide retention area that’s going to help stretch out your sphincters, but the insertable length is still wider than the retention area. This helps keep the plug inside of the body on its own.

The Severin’s multiple waved/ridged increases in diameter help make it easier to insert with natural “rest points” for your muscles as you slide it in.

Tantus makes the Severin in both a Medium and Large.

The Severin won’t be a particularly functional plug for walking around, jumping, or heading out on the town, but it will likely be solid enough to stay inside of the body, hands-free, while simply sitting or laying around.

Tantus also makes the design in a Soft silicone density. These will be easier to insert, but will not provide as much rigidity/resistance against the sphincter muscles. Their softness can make them much more pleasurable-feeling when they’re inside though.

Prostate-Focused Stretching: Nexus REVO Extreme

The Nexus REVO Extreme isn’t actively a “stretching” toy, but due to its large diameter, it works to stretch out the sphincters while simultaneously pleasuring the fuck out of the prostate. It’s a win-win! With a diameter of 2.13″, it’s a big toy, though, with virtually no taper, so make sure you’re comfortable with a toy of that diameter before picking it up.

(If you aren’t stretching into the large diameters, that’s fine too. ANY of the Nexus REVO line will provide similar movements, and there are quite a few in smaller diameters.)

This massager is going to work best if you don’t plan on moving. As long as you’re in a comfortable position while seated or lying, it manages to stay within the body hands-free.

It does have a physical remote to control the vibrations and rotating head. We’ve used it for public play a few times, but the remote’s capabilities (and the sheer size of the toy) are definitely designed for bedroom use.

You can pop into my Nexus REVO Extreme review if you’d like. (This one made it onto the list of sex toys we wouldn’t live without, though.)

Updated: March 2026, December 2025.