How to Gain Karma on Reddit: Everything You Need to Know

Complete guide to getting karma on Reddit

Written by Kyle Smith

Last Updated: February 27, 2023

What is Karma?

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Gaining Karma

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Finding your Karma (Mobile)

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Finding your Karma (Desktop)

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Q&A

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Tips

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Warnings

This wikiHow guide teaches you how to create Reddit posts and comments that get upvotes and increase your karma. When other Reddit users upvote your content, you receive karma. Small amounts of karma may be necessary to participate in some subreddits, so you’ll need to increase your numbers before you can post or comment there. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to gain karma on Reddit.

Things You Should Know

Karma is a number indirectly reflecting how many upvotes your posts and comments have received.
You can also gain karma by giving and receiving awards.
Post interesting, thought-provoking, or funny posts and comments to quickly increase your karma.

Section 1 of 4:

What is Karma?

1
Know what karma is. Karma refers to points received from upvotes and awards, which are the Reddit equivalents of "likes" on Facebook. Note that karma doesn’t directly correspond to the number of upvotes you get.^{[1]
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- A minimum amount of karma is required to post on certain subreddits. You’ll need to accumulate karma by going to other subreddits before you can participate in subreddits with karma requirements.
- There are also private subreddits, which require getting permission from the moderators before you can join.
2
Understand the different types of karma. You can receive different types of karma while using Reddit:^{[2]
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- Post Karma - Posting an external link or creating a post and then receiving upvotes will grant you "post" karma.
- Comment Karma - Posting a comment on an existing post and receiving upvotes will result in "comment" karma.
- Award Giving Karma - Giving awards to posts and comments will increase your "award giving" karma.
- Award Receiving Karma - Getting awards on your posts and comments will increase your "award receiving" karma.

Section 2 of 4:

Gaining Karma

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Visit large subreddits. Subreddits with more users (especially those in the millions range) have more opportunities for gaining karma. Your posts and comments can be upvoted by more people.
- Sort by either top posts from now/today, rising, or new and leave a comment on those threads. This ensures that your comment won't be buried under those that got there before you.
- Some popular subreddits include r/AskReddit, r/pics, r/funny, and r/aww
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Post early in the morning on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. Ideally, you’ll want to post around 7am so that your post is seen by several people throughout the day. The weekend and Monday are great peak times to post to get the most engagement.
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Post interesting questions on r/AskReddit. This subreddit focuses on title-only posts where users respond to the question in the comments. r/AskReddit has more than 30 million users, so a good post can gather a ton of upvotes and comments.
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Comment on new and rising posts. One of the easiest ways to give your comments visibility when you're starting out is to leave a thought-provoking comment, image, or GIF on other users' existing posts. Witticisms are what get you the most karma, but trivia, stories, and in-depth knowledge also work well.
- Commenting on Reddit is less likely to earn you large amounts of karma all at once, but it will serve to build up your karma score over time while simultaneously establishing you as a dedicated user.
5
Avoid making negative or poor-quality posts. Your links and comments should add something of value to Reddit's overall content base. Posts that fall outside of Reddit's commonly accepted posting rules (also known as "reddiquette") tend to receive downvotes.^{[3]
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- You'll also want to refrain from violating Reddit's terms of use, since doing so will at the very least result in downvotes.
- It's okay to criticize, so long as the criticism is presented in a civil manner. The exception to this rule is comedic posting, though even these posts must err on the side of civility.
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Post relevant and discussion-worthy content. Reddit is a community based around idealistic discussion and expansion of any given topic. Posting well-researched, well-thought-out content may not rake in upvotes, but it will serve to show other users that you're worth listening to.
- The more users who consider you a valuable resource, the larger your future posts' audience — and, therefore, the potential for upvotes — will be.
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Engage people who comment on your posts. When you facilitate a conversation, continuing it will both add to the conversation and net you upvotes based on your responses. It's important to be respectful of others' opinions while doing so.
- It's okay (and encouraged) to disagree with others, so long as you present a thoughtful counter-argument in a respectful manner.
- Ignore negative or provocative comments, as responding to them — even if you're in the right — will likely result in downvotes.
- You can quote other comments to respond directly to something someone said.
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Take advantage of potential top comments. Respond to a prospective top comment soon after it is posted. If the comment does indeed receive a large number of upvotes, your response will likely receive upvotes due to its proximity.
- For this strategy to work, you'll need to gauge the likelihood of a comment receiving mass positive reception, which will take time and practice.
- This is a high-risk, high-reward tactic: if the comment receives negative attention and the resulting downvotes, you'll also probably receive downvotes.
- You can use the RemindMeBot on Reddit to come back to comments that you want to check on at a later time.
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Use creative titles for your links. Since Reddit presents links in the form of the title you add, the context provided for the title will often set up the tone for the discussion.
- Consider using humor in these titles (e.g., puns or irony). Witty or surprising posts tend to receive upvotes.
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Post links to photos or videos. As with any social media platform, users enjoy visual media. Using a creative or informative title in conjunction with an engaging visual is a good way to capture users' interest and earn upvotes. Common subreddits for this include r/pics, r/mildlyinteresting, and r/videos.
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Give awards to posts and comments. Giving Reddit awards will increase your "award giving" karma. The earlier you give an award (compared to other users), the more karma you’ll get!
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Create posts and comments that get awards. Receiving awards will increase your "award receiving" karma. The amount of Karma you get increases depending on the coins spent on the award.
- Posts that are unique, interesting, and wholesome tend to get a lot of awards. Try posting an obscure fact on r/todayilearned or a cute pet photo on r/aww for tons of awards.
- Comments that are in-depth and knowledgeable tend to get several awards from other users. On the flip side, comments that are funny or a reference also usually receive a ton of awards.

Section 3 of 4:

Finding your Karma (Mobile)

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Open the Reddit app. It’s an orange and white icon with the Reddit logo, the character Snoo.
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Tap your profile picture. It’s in the top right of the app. This will open the profile information menu.
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Tap Karma. This is under your profile name. A pop up menu will appear.
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View your karma. You’ll see how much of each type of karma you have in the pop up menu. Note that you can’t see award karma in the app. You’ll need to go to the website to view your award karma.

Section 4 of 4:

Finding your Karma (Desktop)

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Go to https://www.reddit.com/. This is the official Reddit website.
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Click your profile picture. It’s in the top right of the website next to your username. This will open the profile menu.
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Select Profile. It’s an option in the profile menu.
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Hover over the number under “Karma.” This is located under your profile avatar and name. You’ll see how much of each type of karma you have.

Community Q&A

Question

My new posts are deleted by the Reddit auto moderator, what should I do?

wikiHow Staff Editor
Staff Answer
This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

wikiHow Staff Editor

Staff Answer

If you meet the subreddit's karma requirements, something in your post is likely triggering the subreddit's spam filter. Double-check the rules for the subreddit to see if there's something they don't allow, such as links or certain language.
Question

New on Reddit.. I can't comment on anything. Every comment I make is banned b/c I don't have karma. How do you get the ball rolling in the first place?

wikiHow Staff Editor
Staff Answer
This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

wikiHow Staff Editor

Staff Answer

Find a popular subreddit that doesn't have karma requirements for commenting, and join some conversations! Some popular options are /r/Advice and r/mildlyinteresting. You can also check out /r/NewToReddit for a list of other newbie-friendly subreddits.
Question

I never posted anything on /r/RoastMe, but it said I got 1 post karma on /r/RoastMe. Is that a glitch?

Community Answer

When you make an account, you naturally start with one post karma. You have to be quite careful in the beginning because a couple downvotes can render the account unusable.

Warnings

Always include an NSFW (not safe for work) tag in your titles if the content is inappropriate.

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Never ask for upvotes.

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