What Is the Reddit Rate Limit? Causes, Timers and Fixes
TL;DR: The Reddit rate limit is an anti-spam cap on how often an account can post and comment in a community, and it hits new, low-karma accounts hardest. The message gives you the wait time; earning a little karma in that community makes it ease off. Developers face a separate limit: 100 queries per minute per OAuth client id on the Data API.
The Reddit rate limit is a cap on how often one account can act in a given stretch of time, and it shows up as "You're doing that too much. Try again in 6 minutes." Reddit says the limit exists "to prevent spammers" and that it mostly catches brand-new accounts without much karma, or accounts new to a community that is "especially sensitive to spammers" (Reddit Help). The fix is to wait out the timer, then earn some karma by commenting inside that community; Reddit Premium does not change it. If you're writing code against Reddit, you're dealing with a different limit, covered further down.
Why does Reddit rate limit you?
Reddit rate limits accounts because spam is cheap to produce and expensive to clean up. A brand-new account that drops eight comments in eight threads in ten minutes looks exactly like a spam script, even if a person typed every word. Reddit's spam policy defines spam as "repeated or unsolicited actions (whether automated or manual)" that hurt users or communities (Reddit Help: Spam), so speed alone is a signal.
Here is the scenario that trips most people. You sign up, find a subreddit full of questions you can answer, and reply to five of them back to back. On the sixth you get the timer. Nothing is wrong with your account. It is new, it has no karma in that community, and it is moving faster than a typical new member.
How the "you're doing that too much" limit works
The limit is per community and depends on your standing there. Reddit's help article ties it to three things:
- Account newness: brand-new accounts get the tightest limits.
- Karma: low karma, sitewide and in that community, keeps the limit tight. Reddit says "even earning a small amount of karma by commenting on another post within a community" can get you past it.
- The community: subreddits that attract spam are stricter.
It isn't the only throttle. The PRAW library documentation notes that Reddit has other undocumented limits for actions such as commenting, editing, banning users and adding moderators, with waits "from milliseconds to minutes" (PRAW docs). And since October 2026 Reddit has been testing a separate cross-posting pause: post substantially similar content in too many communities and you'll see "You've posted similar content multiple times. Try again in 12 hours." (Changelog, October 8, 2026).
Karma earned in that community is what loosens the limit.
How long does a Reddit rate limit last?
The message tells you. Reddit prints the wait in the error itself, and the examples in PRAW's documentation show 3 minutes and 6 minutes ("You're doing that too much. Try again in 6 minutes."). Reddit doesn't publish a table of durations, and they vary by account and community. The cross-posting pause is the exception with a fixed number: 12 hours.
Retrying before the timer ends won't shorten it. Close the tab and come back.
What fixes the Reddit rate limit?
Four things fix it, in order of how much they help:
- Wait out the timer. It always ends.
- Earn karma in that community. Comment on other posts there and let upvotes accumulate. This is Reddit's own suggested fix. Our guide on how to get karma on Reddit covers which karma each subreddit checks.
- Space your activity out. Spread comments across the day instead of answering five threads in a row.
- Write something new for each subreddit. Copy-pasting one post into many communities is what triggers the 12-hour pause.
What doesn't fix it: Reddit Premium ("won't affect the spam filter," per Reddit) or opening a second account to keep posting. The last one can look like ban evasion and lead to a much bigger problem; see our Reddit shadowban guide for how that plays out.
What is the Reddit API rate limit?
The Reddit API rate limit is 100 queries per minute (QPM) per OAuth client id for free access to the Data API, averaged over a window that is currently 10 minutes so you can send bursts (Reddit Data API Wiki). It applies to apps and bots, not to people using the website. Rules that come with it:
- Requests must authenticate with a registered OAuth token. Traffic without OAuth or login credentials is blocked, and unidentified clients can be throttled.
- Send a descriptive User-Agent. Default ones such as
Python/urlliborJavaare "drastically limited." - Free access also caps chat messages at 2,000 per day per recipient and 3,000 per day in total.
Reddit's required User-Agent format looks like this:
User-Agent: android:com.example.myredditapp:v1.2.3 (by /u/kemitche)Watch three response headers: X-Ratelimit-Used, X-Ratelimit-Remaining and X-Ratelimit-Reset (approximate seconds until the window ends). The redditwarp library documents slightly different observed numbers, 996 requests per 600 seconds and 600 per 600 seconds for application-only grants, and notes that x-ratelimit-remaining stays at 0 once you're over (redditwarp docs). Plan against Reddit's published figure.
The bigger news is access itself. Reddit announced in October 2026 that public Data API apps and bots are moving to its Developer Platform: new requests for public API access stopped on October 31, 2026, access removal begins January 12, 2027 for apps that haven't registered, and remaining public API access ends in March 2027 (Changelog, October 8, 2026). If you run a bot, register it now. Background on access and pricing is in our Reddit API and Data API pricing entries.
Worked example: spending a 10-minute API budget
Take one OAuth client at 100 QPM averaged over 10 minutes. That is a budget of about 1,000 requests per window.
| Minute | Requests sent | Running total | Left in window |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 400 | 400 | 600 |
| 2-5 | 100 per minute | 800 | 200 |
| 6-10 | 40 per minute | 1,000 | 0 |
The burst in minute one is allowed because the limit is an average. The cost shows up later: from minute six you're down to 40 requests a minute. The X-Ratelimit-Remaining header tracks this for you; read it on every response and sleep when it nears zero.
| Minute | Sent | Total | Left |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 400 | 400 | 600 |
| 2-5 | 400 | 800 | 200 |
| 6-10 | 200 | 1,000 | 0 |
Bursting early leaves less for the rest of the window.
For bots that post, PRAW handles the user-facing timer for you up to a point. Its ratelimit_seconds setting defaults to 5; with it set to 300, a 181-second wait gets retried automatically while a 360-second wait raises RedditAPIException.
User rate limit vs API rate limit: what's different?
| "You're doing that too much" | Data API rate limit | |
|---|---|---|
| Who hits it | People posting and commenting | Apps and bots calling the API |
| Scope | Per account, per community | Per OAuth client id |
| Published number | None; wait shown in the message | 100 QPM, averaged over 10 minutes |
| What loosens it | Karma in that community, slower pace | Fewer requests, caching |
| Way to raise it | None (Premium doesn't help) | Mod bots can ask Reddit through its contact form |
Common mistakes
- Retrying the moment the error appears. It doesn't reset the timer and adds to the burst that caused it.
- Treating it as a ban. A timer is a speed limit. A ban arrives with a notice in your inbox.
- Cross-posting one text everywhere. That now has its own 12-hour pause.
- Running a scraper with a default User-Agent. Reddit says it drastically limits those.
If you comment on Reddit for a brand, the per-account pace is the thing to manage. BoomReddit's Autopilot spaces comments 5 to 90 minutes apart and enforces a daily cap per account, so no account fires replies back to back, and it pauses an account automatically if it looks restricted. Start free, no card.
Frequently asked questions
Why do I keep getting "You're doing that too much" on a new account?
New accounts with little karma get the tightest limits, especially in communities that see a lot of spam. Comment slowly in that community and let the karma build.
Does Reddit Premium remove the rate limit?
No. Reddit says Premium "won't affect the spam filter and isn't a quick fix to get around earning karma."
Is the rate limit the same in every subreddit?
No. Reddit describes it as a limit on how often you post and comment "in a community," and stricter communities apply it harder.
What happens if my bot exceeds 100 QPM?
Reddit's wiki says it enforces the limit for free access; library docs report the remaining-requests header sitting at 0 and HTTP 429 responses until the window resets.
Can I still get Reddit API access?
Reddit stopped accepting new requests for public API access on October 31, 2026 and is moving apps and bots to the Developer Platform. Register through the Developer Platform rather than applying for the old public API.