How to get karma on Reddit

What karma is

Reddit calls karma a reflection of the upvotes and downvotes on your posts and comments. It isn't a count: Reddit says upvotes and karma don't have a 1:1 relationship, so 50 upvotes won't always show as 50 karma.

To see yours, open your profile in the Reddit app and tap About. Post karma and comment karma are listed apart. We count the total. Source: Reddit Help, What is karma?.

Reddit's own six tips for new redditors, a minute and a half. It covers how votes and karma work, and what to do when a community won't let you post yet.

What we ask for

• 200 karma. Posts and comments together.
• 150 days old, about 5 months. Nothing speeds this one up.
• Not suspended.

You can join before that. Your account page shows how far you are, and paid comments open the day you pass both.

Where to comment

Comments are the fastest honest way. A post needs a good idea; a comment only needs a thread that's already moving.

• Big, general subreddits. r/AskReddit, r/mildlyinteresting, r/todayilearned, and the big ones for whatever you know: food, games, cars, your city. More readers means more people who can upvote you.
• Threads on their way up. Sort a subreddit by Rising, or by New and pick posts under an hour old that already have comments. Comment number 12 gets read. Comment number 900 doesn't.
• Replies to the top comments. In a thread that's already big, a good reply under the first or second comment is read by far more people than a new comment at the bottom.

Some subreddits won't take you yet. Reddit says a community can hold back people for account age, karma, or an unverified email, and the thresholds aren't published. Moderators can also set comments from new accounts to be collapsed or held for review. If a comment never appears, don't fight it. Go where you're let in and come back with more karma. Sources: Post Check: Poster Eligibility Guide and Crowd Control.

What a good comment looks like

Short, about the post, and in the tone of the thread. Lowercase is fine. Three we made up to show it:

• r/AskReddit · What's a cheap thing that made your life noticeably better?

  a second phone charger that lives in my bag. haven't had a dead phone since

  One thing, from your own life, in one line. Nobody had to scroll to read it.

• r/Cooking · Why is my rice always mushy?

  too much water. 1 cup rice to 1.25 water, lid on, low heat 15 min, then leave it alone for 10 with the heat off

  It answers the question that was asked, with numbers the person can use tonight.

• r/mildlyinfuriating · A photo of a pizza cut into eleven uneven slices

  whoever did this owes you an apology and a ruler

  The room is joking, so the comment jokes. A paragraph on pizza geometry would sink.

What sinks: “This!”, “so true”, an essay under a joke, and correcting people who didn't ask. If you have nothing to add to a thread, skip it and open the next one.

A routine that fits in 15 minutes

1. Open two or three big subreddits and sort by Rising.
2. Leave three to five comments, each in a different thread.
3. Later in the day, answer anyone who replied to you. Those replies earn karma too.
4. Do it again tomorrow.

How long to 200? Reddit publishes no number and we won't invent one. One comment can earn 2 karma and the next 2,000. With a few comments a day, plan on weeks, not days. On a new account the 150 days usually take longer than the karma, so there's no reason to rush.

What gets an account hidden or removed

• Many comments in a few minutes. Reddit has a filter for it. A new account with little karma gets “You're doing that too much” and has to wait. Spread comments through the day. Source: Why am I being told “You’re doing that too much”?.
• Links from a new account. Moderators can filter what accounts with no history post, and on our own accounts a link is what most often gets a comment removed. Leave links out until you have karma and a few weeks of ordinary comments. That part is our habit, not a Reddit rule. Source for the filter: Reputation filter.
• The same comment pasted into several threads. Reddit's spam policy names mass-posting repetitive content. Write each one for its thread.
• Reposting old hits. The same policy names reposting old content to gain karma fast. Source for both: Spam.
• Trading upvotes. Subreddits and groups where people upvote each other are coordinated voting, which Reddit's rules call vote manipulation. So is paying a service for votes. Source: Disrupting Communities.
• A second account that votes for the first. Reddit's rule for people with more than one account: don't use them to vote on the same posts or comments. Source: Is it ok to create multiple accounts?.

Two things help. Verify your email: Reddit says it's one sign you use Reddit in good faith, and some communities require it. And if your comments stop showing up for other people, Reddit says the account may have been flagged for spam. Its page on that says what to do next. Sources: Why should I verify my Reddit account with an email address? and My account was flagged for spam or inauthentic activity.

Not sure whether others can see your account? Our free shadowban checker looks at it from outside, and the account analyzer shows its age and karma.