Where to Find Subreddit Rules and What to Check Before You Reply

What are subreddit rules?

Each Reddit community writes its own subreddit rules, a numbered list of expectations that the community's moderators define and enforce on top of the rules Reddit applies everywhere. Reddit's help article What are Reddit's rules? puts the two layers in one line: "each community on Reddit may set its own rules, which are defined and enforced by the moderators of that community." Before you reply in a community you have not joined, read its rules, because a reply that is welcome in one subreddit is removed in the next.

The sitewide layer, the Reddit Rules, covers things like spam, harassment and personal information, and it applies in every community. Subreddit rules are narrower and stricter. Reddit's help centre notes that "some communities have very specific rules about things like how you should format a post or staying on-topic." A subreddit about a programming language can ban beginner questions outside a weekly thread, and a subreddit for founders can ban any link to your own product.

What does a subreddit rule contain?

A subreddit rule has four parts: a name, a description, a report reason and a scope. Reddit's moderator help article on Rules lists the fields a moderator fills in, and the scope field is the one that matters most when you reply. On reddit.com, moderators "indicate whether the rule applies to Posts only, Comments and chat messages or Posts, comments and chat messages."

Part	What it tells you	Why it matters for a reply
Name	The short label, such as "No self-promotion"	Shows in the sidebar list and as a report option
Description	The full wording and examples	Holds the details the name leaves out
Report reason	The text members pick when they report content	Every rule is a ready-made reason to report your comment
Scope	Posts only, comments only, or both	A posts-only rule does not cover your comment

The report reason is the part people overlook. Reddit's help centre says rules "provide report reasons for members to select when flagging content in your community that breaks the rules." Any member who dislikes your reply can report it under a specific rule in two taps, and that report lands in the moderators' queue.

Where do you find a subreddit's rules?

On desktop, a subreddit's rules sit in the community sidebar, in the order the moderators chose. Reddit's Rules article tells moderators to "arrange your rules in the order you'd like them to be displayed in your community's sidebar." The rules are only part of the picture, so check the other places a community writes down its expectations too.

Where	What you find there
Sidebar on reddit.com	The numbered rules list, with each rule's description on click
Composer and post page in the app	The community's rules, reachable while you write
Old Reddit sidebar and submit page	The sidebar text and the community's submission text
Community wiki	Longer guidelines, FAQs and posting formats
Pinned posts	Weekly threads, megathreads and rule announcements
Data API	GET /r/{subreddit}/about/rules returns the rules for that community

The app location comes from Reddit's own changelog. Its May 5, 2025 changelog fixed a bug where, on iOS, rules opened "from the composer or page details page" let you expand sections but not open links inside them. Reddit's Welcoming new members article also tells moderators to put the rules in the sidebar widget and community settings, and adds that a stickied thread with the same information can help, so a rule announced in a pinned post counts as much as the sidebar list.

How do moderators enforce subreddit rules on comments?

Moderators enforce subreddit rules on comments in four ways: by removing comments by hand, through AutoModerator, through comment guidance that warns you while you type, and, in newer communities, through an AI-assisted rules hub. Which of these a community uses decides whether a rule-breaking reply is stopped before it posts, removed after, or left for a moderator to judge.

Reddit's Post & Comment Guidance feature informs users "of rule violations during post and comment creation." If a warning appears under the comment box as you write, that community's moderators have configured a pattern your reply matches. Read it and edit the reply instead of posting around it. The same article notes that guidance "won't trigger for moderators of a community."

The rules hub is newer. Reddit's Rules article says newly created public and restricted communities, and those in the beta, get a setup that uses "a large language model (LLM)" to auto-enforce eligible rules. A moderator assigns each rule one of four actions: Report, Remove for review, Remove, or Only show guidance. Reddit lists what the system cannot enforce, including "user attributes like account age, karma, flair, posting frequency, or prior removals." Communities enforce those thresholds through AutoModerator instead, which is why Reddit karma requirements remove comments without any rule in the sidebar saying so.

When a moderator removes your comment, Reddit's Moderation Queue article says other redditors who open it by direct link "will just see [Removed by moderator]." The difference between that and deleting your own comment is covered in removed vs deleted on Reddit.

How a rule-breaking reply gets caught

1

Guidance. A warning appears under the comment box while you write.

2

Automation. AutoModerator or the rules hub can flag or remove the reply.

3

Report. A member reports it under a specific rule.

4

Moderator. A moderator removes it by hand, and repeated breaks can lead to a ban.

What should you check in the rules before replying to a thread?

Read every rule whose scope covers comments, then look for anything about links, promotion and where certain topics belong. You do this once per community, and the notes carry over to every thread you answer there.

1. Open the sidebar rules and read each rule's full description, not only its name.
2. Note any rule that applies to comments, such as no links, no self-promotion, no recommendation requests or English only.
3. Check the pinned posts for a weekly thread where promotion or tool recommendations are allowed.
4. Look in the wiki for a required format, such as disclosing that you work for the company you mention.
5. Check the thread itself. A locked thread takes no new comments, and a thread on a removed post reaches nobody.
6. Write the reply so it answers the question without the link, then decide whether the rules allow adding one.
7. If a rule is unclear, message the moderators and ask before you post.

For anyone who sells something, promotion rules are the ones to read twice. Reddit's self-promotion rule and the per-community variants in our guide to Reddit promotion rules cover those in detail.

What happens when you break a subreddit rule?

Moderators remove the comment and, for repeated or serious breaks, ban the account from the community. Reddit's June 11, 2025 changelog added recommended actions for moderators, and says that "if a redditor has repeatedly violated community rules, a ban option appears." A ban ends your ability to answer buyers in that community, however good the next thread is.

Moderators are bound by rules of their own. Rule 2 of Reddit's Moderator Code of Conduct tells them to "set up rules so your community members know what is expected of them," and lists "suddenly changing the set expectations of the community" as a violation. In practice, the written rules are what a moderator points to when removing your reply, so they are also what you point to if you appeal by modmail.

How does RedReplier help you reply within subreddit rules?

RedReplier puts the rules check before the reply. Its subreddit suggestions rank communities by fit with what you sell and flag each one's posting rules, with an ok-to-post or avoid badge and the exact rule behind it, so communities that ban self-promotion are marked before you spend time in them. RedReplier then watches every public subreddit for your keywords, and you can narrow it to specific communities. Matches land on your RedReplier dashboard within minutes of a post or comment going live, and Reddit alerts go out by email as digests on a cadence you set per keyword, from hourly to daily. RedReplier drafts a reply and never posts it for you, so you check the draft against the rules, edit it and post it yourself.

Frequently asked questions

Where are subreddit rules on the Reddit app?

Reddit's May 5, 2025 changelog shows the iOS app opening a community's rules from the composer and from what it calls the "page details page". On desktop, the rules appear in the community sidebar in the order the moderators set.

Do subreddit rules apply to comments?

Each rule's scope answers that: the moderator sets it to posts only, comments, or both. Read the description of every rule and treat any rule covering comments as binding on your reply.

Who writes subreddit rules?

The community's moderators write and enforce subreddit rules. Reddit's sitewide rules apply on top of them in every community, and moderators must follow Reddit's Moderator Code of Conduct when setting expectations.

Can a subreddit remove my comment automatically?

Yes. Moderators use AutoModerator, comment guidance that warns or blocks while you type, and in newer communities an LLM-based rules hub with Report, Remove for review, Remove and Only show guidance actions. Karma and account-age limits run through AutoModerator, since Reddit says the rules hub cannot enforce user attributes.

How many rules can a subreddit have?

Reddit's help centre states no maximum today. Reddit's open-source code, archived in 2017, capped each subreddit at 10 rules and returned the error "This subreddit already has the maximum number of rules" past that point.

How do I get the rules of a subreddit through the API?

Call GET /r/{subreddit}/about/rules on Reddit's Data API, which the reference describes as "Get the rules for the current subreddit." The endpoint uses the read OAuth scope.

What is the difference between Reddit's rules and subreddit rules?

Reddit's sitewide rules cover things like spam, harassment and personal information, and they apply in every community. Subreddit rules are written and enforced by each community's moderators, and they are narrower and stricter. A reply can follow the sitewide rules and still break a subreddit rule.

Where do I find subreddit rules on old Reddit?

On old Reddit, read the sidebar and the submit page, which carry the sidebar text and the community's submission text. Then check the wiki and the pinned posts, since longer guidelines and rule announcements live there.

Why was my comment removed when I did not break a rule in the sidebar?

Communities enforce limits such as account age, karma, flair and posting frequency through AutoModerator, and the sidebar often does not mention them. Check the wiki and pinned posts for those thresholds before you reply again.

Can I appeal a comment removal?

You can message the moderators by modmail. The written rules are what a moderator points to when removing your reply, so point to the same rule and explain why your reply fits it.