How to promote your startup on Reddit without getting banned: Reddit's rules, then each subreddit's thread

You can promote a startup on Reddit, but not anywhere and not in any way. Reddit's own rules don't ban promotion. They ban spam and vote manipulation, ask you to take part only where you have a real interest, and leave the rest to each subreddit. Most founder subreddits then send your product to one pinned thread, weekly or monthly, and some ask for a set format.

So the way to avoid a ban is plain: post in the current promotion thread, in the format the moderators ask for, from an account that does more than promote, and never ask anyone for votes. This guide puts the two layers together. First, what Reddit itself says, from its rules and help pages as we read them on 2 October 2026. Then what the subreddits on our list say, turned into steps and a calendar of their promotion threads. We don't post on Reddit or measure what a post brings, and we take no money from the places we list.

Each subreddit's full rule, quoted, is in subreddits for founders. Here each one gets a line, because this page is about how to post, not which subreddit to pick.

01What Reddit itself says

Reddit runs two sets of rules. Each community has its own, enforced by its moderators. Under them sit the sitewide Reddit Rules (opens in a new tab), which apply to everyone and are enforced by Reddit's staff, the admins. Rule 2 is the one a founder runs into:

Abide by community rules. Participate authentically in communities where you have a personal interest, and do not spam or engage in disruptive behaviors (including content manipulation) that interfere with Reddit communities.

Reddit's help page on spam (opens in a new tab) defines it as "repeated or unsolicited actions (whether automated or manual) that negatively affect redditors, communities, and/or Reddit itself". Two of the examples it lists describe a launch week gone wrong: "Mass-posting repetitive content for the purpose of exposure or financial gain" and "Mass-tagging other redditors or sending large amounts of unsolicited chat or private messages."

The same page answers "How do I avoid being labeled as a spammer?" with a line written for people who run a business:

If your contributions to Reddit consist primarily of links to a business that you run, own, or otherwise benefit from, please be thoughtful about the frequency of posting, or consider advertising opportunities using our self-serve platform.

It adds that "community moderators adjudicate what constitutes unwanted/spammy content in their communities". Reddit sets the floor; each subreddit draws its own line above it. For a business whose posts are mostly its own links, Reddit's own suggestion is its ad platform. We don't cover ad prices or what ads bring.

Votes are the other sitewide rule. Reddit's page on disrupting communities (opens in a new tab) counts "Engaging in coordinated voting with an organized group of people (or bots) to target a specific post" as vote manipulation. It also names "Being banned across several communities dealing with the same topics" as a sign of community disruption. Asking a Slack group or a launch-day list to upvote your post is the first. Posting the same product to a dozen subreddits until several ban you is the second.

02The 90/10 rule is a subreddit choice

You'll often read about a "90/10 rule" for Reddit. Reddit's own help pages describe it as something a subreddit can choose. Its page for moderators, How do I keep spam out of my community? (opens in a new tab), says:

On Reddit, promotional content is not inherently considered to be spam. That said, some communities do have strict policies that disallow any kind of promotional content. Other communities abide by the 10% rule: only 10% of your posting and comment history in the community can be self-promotional in nature, while the other 90% should be helpful, organic content unrelated to your personal interest.

The next sentence: "It is ultimately up to you and your team to decide what works best for your community." So the 10% rule is one option Reddit describes to moderators, applied per community. It isn't a sitewide limit, and a subreddit can be stricter (no promotion at all) or looser. It's still a sound habit. An account that only posts its own product looks like the spammer on Reddit's list.

Karma works the same way. We found no sitewide karma minimum on the Reddit pages we read. The thresholds we did find are set by single subreddits: r/IndieDev sends accounts without enough karma to its weekly megathread, and r/iosapps ties its main feed to karma earned there (details). If a guide gives you one karma number for all of Reddit, look for its source. If a subreddit has a number, it's in its sidebar or its pinned posts.

03How to post your startup without getting removed

These steps are the rules above, in order. None of it is our own posting experience; it's what Reddit and the moderators say.

1. Pick subreddits you'd read anyway. Reddit's Rule 2 asks you to take part "in communities where you have a personal interest". A subreddit for your product's language, platform or customers usually fits better than a general startup one.
2. Read the sidebar and the pinned posts. The sidebar has the numbered rules. The pinned posts have the current promotion thread and, often, the format it wants.
3. Find the current thread. Most of the subreddits below keep promotion to a pinned thread that's replaced every week, fortnight or month. Check the date on the thread before you post, and use this week's or this month's, not an old one.
4. Follow the format. Some subreddits remove promotion that skips theirs. r/macapps and r/iosapps each require a named format (the Mac and iOS guide has them), and r/MachineLearning's thread asks you to state your pricing.
5. Write a post, not a link. Say what it is, who it's for, what it costs, that you made it, and what you want back. r/software asks you to be transparent, and the feedback subreddits remove bare links (where to share side projects has their rules).
6. Never ask for votes. Not on Reddit and not for Product Hunt. Reddit counts coordinated voting as manipulation, and r/BootstrappedSaaS, for one, forbids Product Hunt vote requests outright.
7. Don't paste the same post everywhere. Reddit's spam policy names mass-posting repetitive content. Write each post for its subreddit, and space them out.
8. Keep the account real. Answer questions and comment in the subreddit before and after you post. That's what the 10% rule measures, where a subreddit uses it.

04The thread calendar

Here is where each subreddit wants your product: the thread's name and how often it's replaced, from the subreddit's pinned posts. We don't link the threads themselves, because each is replaced on its schedule. Open the subreddit, look at the pinned posts and use the current one. Each subreddit's page on our list has the source and the date we read it.

Weekly

• r/javascript: Showoff Saturday, for your projects.
• r/Entrepreneur: Talent Tuesday, for services. The main feed isn't for self-promotion.
• r/software: the Discovery Thread.
• r/selfhosted: the new-project megathread, for projects under three months old.
• r/AI_Agents: Project Display. Top-voted projects go into its newsletter.
• r/Business_Ideas: the Free For All thread, its only place to solicit.
• r/Solopreneur: the What Are You Working On thread, its only posting guidance we found.
• r/IndieDev: the Monday megathread, for accounts without enough karma to post directly.

Fortnightly

• r/Notion: Self-promo & Showcase, for templates, integrations and dashboards.

Monthly

• r/Python: the Showcase Thread.
• r/MachineLearning: the Self-Promotion Thread.
• r/macapps and r/iosapps: monthly app megathreads, each with a format (details).

Pinned, with no schedule we could read

• r/startups: designated threads stickied at the top of the subreddit.
• r/smallbusiness: the Promote Your Business thread.
• r/ClaudeAI: the Built with Claude megathread, one of several it lists in a pinned post.

05What gets posts removed or accounts banned

Six lines from the moderators, one per subreddit. Each comes from a longer rule, quoted in full in subreddits for founders.

• Posting outside the thread. r/selfhosted: "Standalone new project posts will be removed and the author will be redirected to the current week's megathread."
• An ad dressed as a post. r/smallbusiness: "Thinly-veiled website or video promoting posts will be removed as blogspam."
• Any promotion in the main feed. r/startups: "No direct sales, advertisements, or promotional posts of any kind."
• A first post that only promotes. r/ObsidianMD: "If your first and only post is to promote your project (vibe-coded or otherwise), you will be immediately banned."
• A bare launch announcement. r/indiehackers lists “We built XYZ.” among the low-effort karma-bait threads that "will not be tolerated".
• Asking for Product Hunt votes. r/BootstrappedSaaS allows promotion, but its creator writes: "“please support me on Product Hunt” is a problem and I must forbid it." r/roastmystartup bans one-line Product Hunt links (its rule).

A few others are narrower than a ban but just as easy to trip over. r/Entrepreneur's description says it's a space for ideas, not self-promotion. r/microsaas says self-promotion isn't allowed but can be tolerated, depending on the post. And r/SaaS pinned a rule in June 2026 against promotion, launch posts and feedback requests for SaaS products made for advertising, promotional outreach or ad and content generation. We couldn't read r/SaaS's general rule on self-promotion, so read its sidebar before you post anything there.

06Where promotion is the point

Some subreddits exist so people can post what they've made. r/BootstrappedSaaS is one. r/SideProject and r/sideprojects are two more, with different rules despite the names; they and the feedback subreddits are in where to share side projects. The full sorted list (promotion welcome, thread only, banned) is in subreddits for founders.

These are where a plain "here's what I built" post belongs. Even there, the steps above apply. Write a post, say it's yours, and don't ask for votes.

07Beyond Reddit

Hacker News, Indie Hackers, WIP and other founder communities have their own written rules, and several of them are stricter than most subreddits. They're quoted in self-promotion rules in founder communities. To keep track of which threads you've posted in, add each subreddit to My launch with the + on its poster. All communities on the list are in room 02.

08How we checked

Reddit's sitewide rules come from its own pages, read on 2 October 2026: the Reddit Rules (opens in a new tab), and the help pages on spam (opens in a new tab), disrupting communities (opens in a new tab) and keeping spam out of a community (opens in a new tab).

Subreddit rules come from each subreddit's public RSS feed, at an address like reddit.com/r/SaaS/hot/.rss, which we read on 30 September 2026 because Reddit blocks our link checker. The feed carries the description and the pinned posts; the r/startups rule comes from its sidebar, read on 29 September 2026. Where a rule came from a pinned moderator post, that post is the source on the subreddit's page. We don't know how strictly each rule is enforced day to day. Read the sidebar before you post. Nobody pays to be listed or to appear in a guide. Read how we check for the details.

09Questions

01

Can I post my startup on Reddit?

Yes, where the subreddit allows it. Reddit's sitewide rules ban spam and vote manipulation, not promotion, and leave the line to each subreddit. Most founder subreddits keep promotion to a pinned weekly or monthly thread, a few welcome it in the main feed, and a few ban it. Read the sidebar and the pinned posts first. Subreddits for founders sorts them.

02

What is the 90/10 rule on Reddit?

It isn't a sitewide rule. Reddit's help page for moderators describes it as a rule some communities follow: only a small, fixed share of your posts and comments in that community should be self-promotional, and the rest helpful and unrelated to your own interest. The exact wording is quoted in this guide. Each subreddit decides whether to use it. It is still a good habit everywhere.

03

How much karma do I need to promote on Reddit?

We found no sitewide minimum on Reddit's own pages. Some subreddits set their own: r/IndieDev sends accounts without enough karma to its weekly megathread, and r/iosapps ties its main feed to karma earned in the subreddit. Check each subreddit's sidebar and pinned posts for its number.

04

Where can I promote my startup on r/startups?

Only in its designated threads. Its sidebar, as we read it in September 2026, bans direct sales, ads and promotional posts of any kind, with exceptions in threads that are always stickied at the top of the subreddit. Post in the current one.

05

Why was my Reddit post removed?

We can't see moderators' reasons. The rules we read name the common ones: promotion outside the pinned thread, a missing format or flair, a bare link, a first post that only promotes, and asking for upvotes on Reddit or Product Hunt. Reddit's own spam policy adds posting the same content repeatedly for exposure.