Reddit is everyone's favorite place to learn and chat about niche subjects—and Reddit karma demonstrates your ability to add value to those Reddit interactions.
Redditors put a lot of weight behind users' ability to be genuine—especially if they represent a business—so while a high karma score doesn't automatically lead to trust, it'll help you become a legitimate member of the Reddit community.
To get more karma on Reddit, you have to play by Reddit's rules. Here's how.
What is Reddit karma?
Reddit karma is a user score that represents how much you've contributed to the Reddit community. Whenever you get an upvote on a comment or post, you earn karma. Meanwhile, getting a downvote decreases your karma.
How do you get Reddit karma?
Redditors give each other upvotes and downvotes using the arrows under a post or comment, as you can see in these screenshots from r/blackcats.
How is Reddit karma calculated?
Karma falls into two categories: post karma and comment karma. Reddit adds both of these numbers to calculate your total karma on your profile.
Here's what they look like on Chef J. Kenji López-Alt's profile.
What does Reddit karma do?
Reddit karma is about building trust on Reddit. Whether you're an individual or a business, it shows just what kind of redditor you are. Many Reddit users will check someone's post history or karma if they suspect they're a spam account, so having karma demonstrates your legitimacy as a brand.
It's also worth noting that some communities have karma minimums for posting, meaning that you'll need to earn karma to make content in some parts of Reddit. So if you want to post on Reddit for generative engine optimization (GEO), karma will be your ticket.
How to get karma on Reddit
With that, here are nine ways to get karma on Reddit.
1. Identify subreddits to focus on
Reddit consists of communities called subreddits, covering topics from frugality to television shows to Star Wars prequel memes. If you're an individual, follow whatever niche topics interest you. If you're a creator or a business, start your Reddit journey by following subreddits related to the following:
Your industry. While the most popular subreddits tend to be consumer-focused, there are also plenty of industry-specific communities like r/marketing. You can also look for consumer-centric subreddits related to your industry, such as a home gardening subreddit if you're in the gardening industry.
Your product. Keep an eye out for subreddits that relate to your product, too. If you sell embroidery floss at your craft store, for example, you could join r/Embroidery.
Your location. If your business has a local element to it, there are plenty of regional subreddits out there, like Richmond, Virginia's r/rva.
As you follow and visit different subreddits across the site, your feed will recommend relevant communities, helping you find even more to join. You can also use a tool like Anvaka to discover potential subreddits.
Pay careful attention to each subreddit's rules as you post and comment in them—especially any rules related to promotion. You can see how a micro-bakery owner was able to raise awareness about their business on r/baking by sharing their feature on the news without any promotional information. The community usually doesn't allow self-promotion, but the moderators didn't mind this case because it "doesn't seem too self-promote-y."
2. But don't be afraid to participate in larger subreddits
Besides the niche-centric subreddits, there are also much larger communities on Reddit that cover broad topics like humor or wholesomeness. Large and popular subreddits like r/funny or r/todayilearned can also be good sources of karma because they expose your content to so many people. Pay attention to what redditors typically post and comment in these communities, and follow their lead.
3. Have genuine interactions
Once you find subreddits to post on, post and comment with genuine interaction as your top priority. If you're representing a business, it can be tempting to show off your product in every piece of your Reddit content, but redditors are very wary of promotional content. Instead, think of Reddit as a place to build trust and connections—you'll drive many more people your brand's way.
This post from Korean ramyun brand Nongshim strikes a good balance between human and promotional. It takes the perspective of the Nongshim team ("we're feeling a little nostalgic") instead of a faceless brand. As a result, it sparked plenty of comments from r/KoreanFood members.
4. Post at the right time for your subreddits
Like any other form of social media, Reddit has optimal times for posting. But instead of being platform-wide, these best times vary by subreddit. Check the ideal posting time for your subreddits using Later for Reddit's Top Post Analysis tool.
Enter the subreddit's name, and this tool will break down the posting days and times of its top posts.
5. Comment on new and rising posts
One of the biggest obstacles to getting karma is visibility. You could have the best comment or post, but if it gets buried under other content, no one will even see it. That's why, if you're karma-hunting, it's best to stick with posts that are brand new or rising. If you know how to smell a winner early, you can get maximum visibility with minimum competition.
Zapier can let you know right away if there's a new hot post in the top 10 of a subreddit. That'll let you jump on it more quickly to earn karma.
Send emails through Gmail for hot new Reddit posts
Get Pushover notifications for new hot Reddit posts
6. Always respond to keep the conversation going
If someone comments on your post, give them a reply, even if just to say thanks. This makes the commenter more appreciative, increasing the likelihood of upvotes in the future. Plus, it shows others that you're willing to respond, increasing your comments overall.
As you grow your presence on Reddit, you'll also get comments mentioning your username from people who want to show you a post or recommend you for something. These comments are especially important to respond to because they involve someone who wants to hear from you. You can automatically keep track of them with these Zap workflows.
Get Slack messages for comments made by Reddit user
You might also catch someone posting about your brand, giving you the chance to chime in. In the r/washingtondc subreddit and subreddits for nearby areas, you'll often find Andy of Andy's Pizza responding to community posts. Take this comment on a post asking about the hype around his business as an example.
7. Post good content
At the end of the day, the best way to get upvotes is to post good content. Social media skills can go a long way on Reddit: if you post the kind of content your audience wants, you'll have no problem earning karma.
Some basics in social media posting:
Improve the quality of your titles. Reddit users respond well to upfront, easy-to-understand titles with a personal angle. For example, if you're sharing the results of your content marketing report on r/marketing, you could use the title "Here's what my team discovered about small business content marketing workflows."
Use high-quality visuals. Upgrading the quality of your photos, videos, and GIFs makes your post more appealing. Reddit doesn't have an ideal image size or ratio because it presents each image in its original ratio. As you upload, keep in mind that your image should be under 20MB in size if it's a static image and under 100MB if it's a GIF.
Aim for emotional connections. Particularly when having conversations in the comments, don't be afraid to show your human side.
Use AI smartly. If you use AI for your social media posts, stick to ideation over drafting. Just as they are sensitive to overly promotional content, many redditors will also call out AI-written posts.
8. Repurpose helpful and meaningful content
Reddit does work as a repurposing channel for social media, but like with any other aspect of Reddit posting, you need to play by the community's rules.
For example, Ahrefs CMO Tim Soulo repurposed a Wistia video explaining a new feature as a post in the r/ahrefs subreddit. Since this is the subreddit for his company's tool, Tim can keep the post's tone fairly promotional. But in another subreddit, he would need to deliver value first to earn Reddit's attention.
Meanwhile, in a non-product-focused subreddit, social media marketer Jaskaran Singh gained more than 500 upvotes across multiple subreddits on an r/socialmedia post he repurposed from a blog post about the Instagram algorithm.
9. Tread carefully with promoted posts
Reddit offers the option to pay for promoted posts that appear on users' home feeds. Since these posts can also earn karma, they may seem like an easy way to earn those reputation points. But the opposite is often true: redditors judge these paid posts much more harshly than regular posts because of their promotional nature. For example, they rallied against a Pete Davidson ad from Taco Bell in 2022 because it was all over the platform.
Pay careful attention to the principles of Reddit marketing if you decide to make a promoted post. Keeping things personal and down-to-earth is key here. One of my favorite promoted posts got thousands of karma points because the author was transparent, communicative, and understood the tone and voice of a typical Reddit post. (Although it's an older post now, I haven't seen any comparable sponsored posts since its posting.)
Community first, promotion second
Reddit is a community-first platform, so create content with the goal of building your community over selling your product. Stay transparent and down-to-earth, and you'll build trust with your fellow redditors. You'll do best as an individual who happens to have a business rather than a business with an individual behind it.
Related reading:
This article was originally published by Matt Ellis in May 2019. The most recent update was in May 2026.
