How to Comment on Reddit Without Getting Banned
TL;DR: Most bans and removals come from three things: spam patterns (repeated or link-heavy comments), new accounts that trip a subreddit's filters, and undisclosed self-promotion. Read the rules first, build some history in the subreddit, answer the question before you mention anything you sell, disclose the connection, and never post the same text twice.
To comment on Reddit without getting banned, treat every subreddit as its own country with its own laws. Reddit's sitewide rules are enforced by admins; each community's rules are enforced by its moderators, mostly through automation. In Reddit's Transparency Report for July to December 2024, 72.5% of moderator removals were proactive AutoModerator removals and spam was 63.2% of admin removals. So the practical job is to avoid looking like spam to a filter that never reads your intentions: verified, aged account; a few genuine comments in the community before anything promotional; a specific answer to the specific comment; your affiliation stated when you mention your own product; and no copy-pasted text across threads.
What gets a commenter banned most often?
Spam patterns get commenters banned most often, followed by ban evasion. Reddit's own numbers make it plain: spam was 63.2% of admin removals in the second half of 2024, and ban evasion was 65.1% of account sanctions. Content manipulation (vote buying, sockpuppets, other attempts to artificially promote content) is a smaller share of removals but the fastest route to a permanent suspension.
| measure | share |
|---|---|
| Admin removals that were spam | 63.2% |
| Mod removals done by AutoModerator | 72.5% |
| Account sanctions for ban evasion | 65.1% |
| All content removed | 2.66% |
Most removals are automatic; the filter sees patterns, not intent.
In practice, the patterns that trip filters and mods are:
- The same or nearly the same comment in several threads or subreddits.
- Most of your comments carrying a link to something you benefit from. Reddit's spam policy asks you to "be thoughtful" about that frequency and leaves the call to each subreddit's mods.
- A brand-new or low-karma account commenting in a subreddit that filters new accounts.
- Recommending your own product in the voice of a neutral user. Reddit's Rule 5 says "do not intentionally mislead others."
- Creating a new account to keep commenting in a subreddit that banned you. Reddit's ban evasion filter links accounts by connection signals and holds their comments until a mod approves them.
How to comment on Reddit without getting banned: 7 steps
Before step 1, have these ready:
- A Reddit account with a verified email. Email verification is one of the inputs to Reddit's Contributor Quality Score, which sorts every account into five tiers from Highest to Lowest and which mods can filter on.
- One account you comment from. Reddit allows multiple accounts, but using them to vote on the same posts or comments is vote manipulation.
- A short list of subreddits where your customers actually ask questions, and 20 minutes to read each one's rules.
- A disclosure line you are comfortable using, such as "I work on X, so weigh this accordingly."
Step 1: Read the subreddit's rules, sidebar and pinned posts
Open the subreddit, read the rules in the sidebar (the "About" tab in the mobile app), the wiki if it has one, and any pinned post about self-promotion. Look for four things: whether links are allowed in comments, whether self-promotion is banned or limited to a weekly thread, whether there is a karma or account-age minimum, and whether the subreddit asks for disclosure. Some communities use the 10% rule: no more than a tenth of your activity there can be self-promotional. Our Reddit self-promotion rules guide collects the common versions.
Rules also show up while you type. Moderators can set up Post and Comment Guidance, which shows an alert in the comment box when your text matches something they don't allow. Newer communities can use the Rules hub, where an LLM checks comments against the written rules and can report, hold or remove them. If an alert appears, rewrite before you post.
Step 2: Check what the subreddit's filters see in your account
Most subreddits run AutoModerator rules on your account, not your words. Here is the kind of rule mods write, using fields from Reddit's AutoModerator documentation:
type: comment
author:
comment_karma: "< 50"
account_age: "< 14 days"
action: remove
comment: "Sorry, your submission has been automatically removed."Other author checks mods can use include comment_subreddit_karma (karma earned in that subreddit only), has_verified_email and contributor_quality. Thresholds are rarely published. If your account is days old or has little karma, assume some comments will vanish silently and start in subreddits that welcome new users. Our guide on getting karma on Reddit covers that part.
Step 3: Build history in the subreddit before you mention anything you sell
Write five to ten comments in the subreddit that help someone and mention nothing of yours. Reddit's help pages note that new users with little karma can hit a spam filter that limits how often they comment in a community, and that earning a small amount of karma there helps. Crowd Control, a moderator setting, collapses or filters comments from accounts with negative karma in that community, new accounts or non-members, depending on its level. A few upvoted comments move you out of that bucket.
Step 4: Pick threads where your answer is actually wanted
Reply where someone asks a question you can answer from experience: "which tool for X", "how do I fix Y", "is Z worth it". Skip threads where a product mention would be off-topic, and skip megathreads you haven't read. A comment that answers the specific person, using their details, reads as a member; a comment that answers the title reads as an ad.
Step 5: Answer first, then mention your product with a disclosure
Put the answer in the first two or three sentences, with the specifics: settings, prices, what you tried. Mention your product last, as one option among others, and say your connection in plain words:
Disclosure: I work on Acme, so take this with salt. For a 3-person team it does
the import in one step; if you only need it once, the free CSV route above is fine.That disclosure is also what US law expects: the FTC's endorsement guides say a material connection the audience would not expect, such as employment or payment, must be disclosed clearly. Name the product without a link unless the subreddit allows links or someone asks for one.
Step 6: Write every comment fresh and space them out
Never paste the same comment into two threads. In October 2026 Reddit began testing a pause on duplicate content across communities, which pauses you for 12 hours (changelog). Rewrite from the thread each time, and spread comments across the day rather than firing ten in ten minutes, which also triggers Reddit's rate limit.
Step 7: When a mod removes something, ask once, then adapt
If a moderator removes your comment, message the mod team through modmail, ask which rule it broke, and accept the answer. Do not repost the same comment, argue in the thread or create a second account to get around a ban: ban evasion is the single largest reason for account sanctions in Reddit's report. If the admins act on your account, the notice includes the reason and appeal instructions; Reddit's enforcement page describes strikes running from a warning to a 3-day ban, a 7-day ban and a permanent ban, with appeals accepted within six months.
A comment can be removed or collapsed at any box without a notice.
How to check your comment survived, and what each error means
Check every comment you care about from the outside:
- Copy the comment's link and open it in a private browser window where you are not logged in.
- If the thread shows "[Removed by moderator]" or your comment is missing, a mod or filter removed it. If it appears collapsed with a "Potential Spam" label, Reddit's spam detection flagged it.
- If none of your recent comments appear logged out, check your whole profile with a shadowban checker.
- Keep a simple log of subreddit, date and whether the comment survived 48 hours. Two removals in the same subreddit is your signal to reread its rules or stop commenting there.
Our guide to why Reddit removes comments explains each of these states in detail.
The messages and states you are most likely to see, and the fix for each:
| What you see | What it means | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| "Sorry, your submission has been automatically removed." | An AutoModerator rule matched (often karma, account age or a banned word or link) | Read the rule it names; build karma in the subreddit or remove the link |
| "You've posted similar content multiple times. Try again in 12 hours." | Reddit's duplicate-content experiment paused you | Wait, then write a new comment specific to the thread |
| "[Removed by moderator]" | A moderator removed it by hand | Ask once in modmail which rule applied |
| Comment collapsed as "Potential Spam" | Reddit's sitewide spam detection flagged it | Fewer links, more history; avoid repeated text |
| Comments invisible logged out, profile missing | Account flagged for spam or inauthentic activity | Appeal from Reddit's appeals page while logged in |
| "You are doing that too much" | Rate limit, common on low-karma accounts | Slow down; it relaxes as karma grows |
Frequently asked questions
What should a new Reddit account do first?
Verify the email, then spend the first week or two commenting helpfully in a few active subreddits that welcome new users, with no links and no mentions of anything you sell. r/NewToReddit maintains a list of communities without high karma limits. Mention your product only after you have history in the specific subreddit.
How do you mention your own product on Reddit without getting removed?
Answer the question fully first, mention the product as one option, state your connection ("I work on it"), and leave out the link unless the subreddit allows links or someone asks. Check the subreddit's self-promotion rule before doing it at all; some ban it outright or limit it to a weekly thread.
Can you get banned from all of Reddit for comments?
Yes. Subreddit bans come from moderators and cover one community. Sitewide suspensions come from Reddit's admins for breaking the Reddit Rules, most often for spam, content manipulation or ban evasion, and can be temporary or permanent.
Why do my Reddit comments keep getting removed?
Usually because the subreddit filters new or low-karma accounts, your comment contained a link or keyword its AutoModerator removes, or Reddit's spam detection flagged repeated text. Check each removed comment logged out and read the subreddit's rules for karma minimums and link policies.
Is it against Reddit's rules to promote your business in comments?
Not by itself. Reddit's spam policy says promotional content is not inherently spam, but asks you to be thoughtful when most of your contributions point to your own business, and each subreddit sets its own limits. Misleading people about your connection is against Rule 5.