Reddit Self-Promotion Rules: What Reddit Actually Says

Reddit has no single "self-promotion rule" and, as of 2026-10-16, none of the current Reddit policy pages we checked sets a posting ratio. The site-wide Reddit Rules ask you to take part authentically in communities you care about, not to spam, and not to mislead people about who you are. On top of that, every subreddit can set stricter rules of its own, and its moderators decide what counts as spam there. The well-known 90/10 rule comes from an old Reddit wiki page that called it a rule of thumb.

How we checked: we read the Reddit Rules, User Agreement and Moderator Code of Conduct on redditinc.com on 2026-10-16. Reddit Help and reddit.com block automated requests, so we read those pages through Internet Archive copies captured between August and October 2026 (the old wiki: June 2024). Links to Reddit Help below go to the live pages.

Two layers: Reddit-wide rules and subreddit rules

The Reddit Rules page describes the two layers itself:

“Below the rules governing each community are the platform-wide rules that apply to everyone on Reddit. These rules are enforced by us, the admins.”

Source: Reddit Rules. The same page asks you to “abide by the rules of communities in which you participate”.

Moderators get their rule-making power from the User Agreement (Section 8):

“You may create and enforce rules for the subreddits you moderate, provided that such rules do not conflict with these Terms, the Reddit Rules…”

Source: Reddit User Agreement. The Moderator Code of Conduct (effective June 5, 2025) also expects mods to write “rules that explicitly outline your expectations for members of your community.”

In practice, a subreddit could ban self-promotion entirely, allow it only in a weekly thread, or set its own ratio, and all of those are allowed as long as they do not conflict with Reddit's own terms. A post that is fine under the site-wide rules can still be removed under a community's rules.

What Reddit Rules 2 and 5 say

Rule 2 opens with “Abide by community rules.” and continues:

“Participate authentically in communities where you have a personal interest, and do not spam or engage in disruptive behaviors (including content manipulation)…”

Rule 5 is about who you say you are:

“Be authentic. You don't have to use your real name, but do not intentionally mislead others or impersonate an individual or entity in a deceptive manner.”

Source for both: Reddit Rules. Neither rule bans mentioning something you made. In our reading, what they rule out is posting where you have no real interest, flooding communities, and hiding or faking your identity, for example by praising your own product while acting like an unconnected customer.

What Reddit counts as spam

Reddit Help's spam article (updated May 19, 2026) defines the term:

“Spam – defined as repeated or unsolicited actions (whether automated or manual) that negatively affect redditors, communities, and/or Reddit itself – is never allowed.”

Its examples that matter most for founders and marketers:

• mass-posting repetitive content for exposure or financial gain;
• sending large amounts of unsolicited chat or private messages;
• programming a bot that keeps promoting specific products or services in one or many communities;
• repeatedly posting unrelated, off-topic content that disrupts conversations.

On self-promotion specifically, it says:

“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”

It also suggests considering Reddit's self-serve advertising, and notes that “community moderators adjudicate what constitutes unwanted/spammy content in their communities”. Source: Reddit Help: Spam.

Two related help articles are worth knowing. Disrupting Communities lists coordinated or automated voting and using extra accounts to get around a ban as violations, and under community disruption it lists “Being repeatedly reported for violating community rules across several communities.” So repeatedly breaking subreddit rules can become a site-wide problem. Manipulated Content and Misleading Behavior says AI-generated content is generally allowed but must not present itself as human-generated, and asks posters to:

“be transparent and include a tag (or other form of indication) disclosing that the content was generated or modified by AI”

What the User Agreement adds

The User Agreement (effective July 1, 2026) makes the Reddit Rules part of the contract: Section 7 says they “are incorporated by this reference into, and made a part of, these Terms”. Three other clauses are relevant to promotion:

• Accounts (Section 4): “You will not license, sell, or transfer your Account without our prior written approval.” Buying, renting or borrowing an account without that approval is therefore off the table.
• Data (Section 7): you may not “Access, search, or collect data from the Services by any means (automated or otherwise)” except as the terms or a separate agreement allow, and scraping without Reddit's prior written consent is prohibited.
• Contests and giveaways (Section 6): “Your Promotion must state that the Promotion is not sponsored by, endorsed by, or associated with Reddit”, and you are responsible for following the law that applies to it.

Is the 90/10 rule an official Reddit rule?

No, not as of 2026-10-16. The current Reddit Rules, User Agreement and spam article contain no ratio. The spam article asks you to be “thoughtful about the frequency of posting” and leaves the details to each community.

The number comes from an older self-promotion page in Reddit's own site wiki, which advised:

“a general rule of thumb is that 10% or less of your posting and conversation should link to your own content”

Source: Internet Archive copy of the reddit.com self-promotion wiki, June 2024. The archived copies we checked, from January 2019 to June 2024, contain this line. The June 2024 copy also carries the notice “This page is no longer updated” and points readers to Reddit Help.

So 90/10 is fair to call historical Reddit guidance, written as a rule of thumb, not a current site-wide rule. A specific subreddit may still enforce its own ratio, and if it does, that subreddit's rule is the one that applies there.

A checklist before you mention your product

1. Read the rules of the specific subreddit first. If they are unclear, ask the moderators, as Reddit Help suggests.
2. Only post in communities where you have a genuine interest, and add to threads that are not about your product too.
3. Say plainly that you made, work on, or benefit from what you mention. This is the simplest way to stay clear of Rule 5.
4. Do not paste the same link or message across many communities, and do not send unsolicited DMs in bulk.
5. Use your own account. Do not use extra accounts to vote on your posts or get around a ban, and do not buy, rent or borrow one.
6. If content is AI-generated, label it as such.
7. If your posts are mostly links to your own business, consider Reddit's self-serve advertising, as the spam article suggests.
8. If your posts are being removed in several communities, stop and re-read the rules before posting again.

What this does not cover: advertising-law rules such as FTC endorsement guidance, and the rules of any individual subreddit. Reddit can change its policies at any time, so re-check the linked pages before relying on them. This is not legal advice.

Agent Agency is software that learns your product from a link and runs AI agents that promote it in online communities.