Account age requirement
Also called: minimum account age, account_age, new account restriction
Definition
An account age requirement is a subreddit rule that blocks or filters posts and comments from Reddit accounts younger than a set age, such as a few days or months. It is usually enforced by AutoModerator and often paired with a karma minimum.
An account age requirement means a subreddit ignores accounts that are too new. Post from a two-day-old account into a community that requires 30 days and your content is removed or held, usually without a notice.
How it works
Moderators set it up in AutoModerator with the account_age check. Reddit's documentation says the check supports units of minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years (days by default), so a rule can be as specific as "under 60 hours." It is commonly combined with a karma requirement, either requiring both or, with the satisfy_any_threshold option, either one.
When you try to post, Reddit's Poster Eligibility Guide shows whether you meet a community's account age, karma and email verification criteria. Reddit says it does not disclose the exact thresholds, to deter misuse.
Your own account age is on your profile card as Reddit Age; hover over it on desktop to see the exact creation date. That date is also your cake day.
Why it matters for marketers
Age rules exist because spam comes from fresh accounts. Anyone launching a Reddit presence with a new account will hit these filters first, in exactly the communities where buyers ask questions, since those attract the most spam.
There is no shortcut that respects Reddit's rules. Reddit's User Agreement says you will not sell or transfer an account without Reddit's prior written approval, and using a second account to get around a ban is ban evasion. The legitimate path is to create the account early and participate normally while it ages: answer questions, earn comment karma, build a history that holds up when someone clicks the username. That process is often called account warming.
Newer signals like the Contributor Quality Score also take into account things like email verification and past actions on the account, so age alone is not the whole picture.
Example
A startup creates a company account the week of launch and tries to answer a recommendation thread in a large software subreddit. The comment is filtered. The sub requires accounts to be at least a month old and have some combined karma. Three weeks of genuine participation elsewhere later, the account clears both bars.
Common mistakes
- Creating the account the day you need it. Start weeks ahead.
- Assuming you were shadowbanned. Usually it is an age or karma filter in that one subreddit. Test with the shadowban checker.
- Deleting and recreating accounts after removals. That resets age to zero and can look like evasion.
Frequently asked questions
How old does a Reddit account need to be to post?
It varies by subreddit. Many have no minimum; others require days, weeks or months. Reddit does not publish community thresholds.
Where can I see my account's age?
On your profile card under Reddit Age. On desktop, hovering shows the exact creation date; the mobile app shows the age but not the exact date.
Does verifying my email help?
Some communities require a verified email, and the Poster Eligibility Guide checks it. Reddit also counts email verification among the signals for Contributor Quality Score.