What Reddit karma really means (and whether it matters for your business)

Karma is the number on your Reddit profile. People talk about it a lot, so it’s easy to think it’s the thing to aim for. It isn’t. But it’s worth understanding, because some communities use it as a gate.

The basics

Karma is a score for how much other people liked what you shared. When someone upvotes your post or comment, your karma goes up. A downvote can bring it down.

Reddit shows two kinds on your profile:

Post karma from your posts.
Comment karma from your comments.

Add them together and you get your total.

How it’s counted (roughly)

It isn’t a simple one-point-per-vote system. Reddit doesn’t publish the exact formula. A few things are known:

The score you see on a post is votes up minus votes down, but Reddit adds a bit of random noise to the numbers. This is called vote fuzzing, and it makes cheating harder.
A popular post in a huge community can earn a lot more than a great one in a tiny community.
Karma from some places, like certain types of posts, may count for less.

So don’t read too much into small differences.

What karma tells you

Karma is a rough sign of two things.

How long you’ve been taking part. High karma usually means a long history.
How much people liked what you shared. Although not precisely.

It does not tell you if someone is an expert, honest or good at their job. A person can have a million karma from memes and know nothing about your industry.

Where karma actually matters

For a business, karma matters in a few small ways.

Gates. Some communities need a minimum karma or account age before you can post. An automatic rule checks, and your post is removed if you don’t meet it. See our glossary entry on AutoModerator.

First impressions. When someone clicks your profile, a very low number next to a new account can look suspicious. But what they read in your comments matters more than the number.

Spam filters. Brand new accounts with no karma are more likely to be caught by filters.

That’s about it. Karma doesn’t unlock customers, discounts or special features.

Why chasing karma is a bad idea

Some people try to farm karma: they post memes, reposts and easy questions to push the score up quickly. It’s a bad habit for a business, for several reasons.

It teaches you the wrong thing. You learn what gets cheap votes, not what helps your buyers.
It looks bad. Anyone who reads your history sees a pile of unrelated posts, then a business.
Moderators dislike it. Many communities remove it on purpose.
It doesn’t last. Karma earned from the wrong audience doesn’t help when you talk about your product.

If you want to know more, we explain the term in karma farming.

How to earn karma the right way

Don’t aim for it. Let it follow.

Answer questions where you know something.
Write detailed, specific comments.
Add context and sources.
Reply to people who respond.
Take part in a few communities for a few weeks.

You’ll find karma comes in steadily. A comment that really helps someone can earn more than ten quick ones, and it also builds the kind of reputation that makes people listen when you recommend something.

How much do you need?

It depends on the communities. Many have no minimum at all. Some require a small number, like a few dozen or a few hundred. The exact limits are often not published, so that people can’t just game them. If you can’t post, ask the moderators politely what they look for. They may tell you.

Don’t try to find a shortcut. Buying accounts, trading votes or using bots breaks Reddit’s rules and can get you banned.

What to look at instead

If you want to judge how your Reddit work is going, don’t use karma. Look at:

Replies and conversations that continue.
Visits to your website from Reddit.
Enquiries or sign-ups that say they came from Reddit.
Whether people mention your name in threads you didn’t write.

Our guide on measuring Reddit marketing results shows how.

In short

Karma is a side effect, not a goal. Be useful, be patient and ignore the number. For the full picture of how trust works on the site, read building a credible Reddit account.