Check how old any Reddit account is, see their karma breakdown, and find out if they meet posting requirements.
Reddit does not publish a single, sitewide account age requirement. Instead, each subreddit's mod team configures its own AutoModerator rule with an account_age condition, sometimes paired with a karma or Contributor Quality Score check, sometimes not. Tools like MediaFast can help you find subreddits sized to your current karma and account age so you are not wasting a post on a community that will auto-remove it.
Age restrictions typically apply to posting and link submissions, not commenting. You can comment freely in almost every subreddit from day one and use that time to build karma and establish yourself as a genuine community member.
Creating a new account to bypass an age gate resets your account_age clock to zero and forfeits your existing karma and history. The safer path is to wait it out on the account you already have.
Age and karma are usually checked together. Once an account clears both thresholds a subreddit sets, posting there stops being a coin flip.
Reddit does not define these tiers officially, they are how the stages of account trust tend to play out based on how AutoModerator's account_age condition is documented and commonly configured. Every subreddit still sets its own exact numbers.
Day Zero, Brand New
Unlocks: Voting, commenting, reading, saving, and messaging work in almost every community that allows public participation.
Still blocked: Blocked by nearly every AutoModerator account_age condition. Most link and text post attempts in gated subreddits are removed on submission.
First Couple of Weeks
Unlocks: Clears the lightest AutoModerator gates, the ones mods set purely to filter obvious same-day throwaways.
Still blocked: Still blocked by most niche, professional, finance, and highly moderated subreddits, which tend to set stricter conditions.
A Month or More In
Unlocks: Clears the majority of general and hobbyist subreddit gates, especially once paired with a small amount of genuine comment karma.
Still blocked: Strict finance, legal, medical, and career subreddits may still require karma earned inside that exact community, not sitewide.
Several Months In
Unlocks: Clears nearly all account_age conditions sitewide. If a subreddit checks Contributor Quality Score, it has had time to reflect a real history.
Still blocked: A handful of the strictest professional and finance communities may still gate on karma earned specifically within their own sidebar.
Half a Year or More, Veteran
Unlocks: Effectively clear of account_age gates anywhere on Reddit. Cake day anniversaries start stacking up from here.
Still blocked: No meaningful blockers left tied to age alone. Karma and Contributor Quality Score, where used, become the only remaining checks.
This is the general shape of the journey, not a Reddit-published schedule. How fast you move through it depends entirely on which subreddits you target and the account_age and karma conditions those specific communities configure.
Account created
The created_utc timestamp is set. This single field powers every account_age check and every future cake day.
First comments
Comments are allowed in almost every subreddit from day one. This is the fastest way to start earning comment_karma.
First light gate cleared
The account ages past the lightest AutoModerator thresholds some communities set for same-day throwaways.
First gated post approved
A text or link post clears a subreddit's account_age and karma conditions together for the first time.
Established in a niche
Consistent, genuine participation builds karma inside specific communities, clearing subreddit-specific combined_karma checks.
First cake day
The one year anniversary of created_utc. Check the exact date and countdown with the Reddit Cake Day Checker.
Veteran status
Age gates stop being a factor almost anywhere. Karma and Contributor Quality Score, if a subreddit uses them, carry the rest of the trust signal.
Reddit publishes AutoModerator's condition list in its own full documentation wiki. These are the exact conditions mods can configure, none of them come with a Reddit-mandated number, each subreddit sets its own thresholds.
| Condition | What It Checks | How Mods Commonly Use It |
|---|---|---|
| account_age | Time since the account's created_utc signup timestamp, in minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years. | A hard floor against same-day throwaway and bot accounts. |
| comment_karma | Author's total comment karma. Reddit's own documentation notes it cannot go below -100. | Confirms the account has some approved commenting history before allowing posts. |
| post_karma | Author's total post (link) karma. Reddit's documentation notes it cannot go below 0. | Used on subreddits that specifically vet link or self post submitters. |
| combined_karma | Comment karma plus post karma together, with a documented floor of -100 combined. | A single blended threshold instead of checking each karma type separately. |
| satisfy_any_threshold | A true/false switch. If true, only one age or karma check needs to pass. If false, the default, all configured checks must pass. | Lets mods decide whether age and karma are alternatives or both mandatory. |
| has_verified_email | Whether the account has a verified email address or phone number attached. | An extra baseline trust signal some subreddits require alongside age or karma. |
| contributor_quality (CQS) | One of five tiers: highest, high, moderate, low, or lowest, assigned by Reddit itself. | Described in Reddit's own documentation as a more holistic replacement for flat karma or age checks. |
They get lumped together as "trust signals," but age and karma behave completely differently, and subreddits often gate on both at once.
| Aspect | Account Age | Karma |
|---|---|---|
| What it measures | Time since the account's created_utc signup timestamp. | Community approval of your posts and comments, tracked as comment_karma and post_karma. |
| Who sets the threshold | Each subreddit's own AutoModerator account_age condition. | Each subreddit's own comment_karma, post_karma, or combined_karma condition. |
| Can it go down | No, it only ever increases. | Yes. Reddit's documentation notes comment karma has a floor of -100 and post karma a floor of 0, but downvotes can pull it toward those floors. |
| Can you influence it today | No, only time changes it. | Yes, genuine comments and posts start building it from day one. |
| What it signals to mods | "This is not a same-day throwaway account." | "This account has some community-approved history." |
Match what you are seeing to the most likely cause before you assume the worst.
| Symptom | Likely Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| My post vanished instantly with no rejection message. | AutoModerator matched an account_age or karma condition and removed it automatically before any human saw it. | Check the subreddit's rules or wiki for its posting requirements, and look for an AutoModerator comment left on the post explaining the removal. |
| Comments work fine but my link post disappears. | Many subreddits set a separate, stricter post_karma or link-specific rule than they do for comments. | Build comment karma first, then try a text post before attempting an external link submission. |
| I'm blocked here but post fine in other subreddits. | That subreddit may check combined_karma earned inside its own community specifically, not your sitewide total. | Comment genuinely in that specific subreddit for a while before attempting to post there. |
| My account is old with plenty of karma but still blocked. | The subreddit may also require has_verified_email, or set a minimum Contributor Quality Score. | Verify the email address on your account, then message the moderators if you believe your recent activity reflects genuine participation. |
| I was approved once but got blocked again later. | Karma and Contributor Quality Score are not fixed. Downvotes can lower them, and a satisfy_any_threshold: false rule re-checks every time. | Keep contributing constructively rather than treating one high-karma moment as permanent clearance. |
There is no shortcut for age, but there is a right and a wrong way to spend the waiting period. If you would rather automate the subreddit matching step, MediaFast can also suggest niche communities sized to where your account already stands.
Verify the email address on the account right away. Some AutoModerator configurations check has_verified_email as a baseline trust signal alongside age and karma.
Pick three to five subreddits in your niche and actually read the rules and wiki before posting anything in them.
Comment before you post. Comments are allowed in almost every subreddit from day one and start building comment_karma immediately.
Answer questions you can genuinely help with. Effortful, on-topic comments earn karma and, per Reddit's own documentation, tend to reflect better on Contributor Quality Score than copy-paste replies.
Space activity out over days and weeks. A sudden burst of posts from a brand-new account reads as spam behavior to both automated checks and human moderators.
Check each target subreddit's own sidebar or rules wiki for its specific requirements before submitting anything there.
If a post gets removed, read the AutoModerator comment carefully. It usually names the exact condition that blocked you.
Build karma inside the specific community you actually want to post in, not just sitewide. Some subreddits check combined_karma earned within that community alone.
Never buy an aged or pre-loaded karma account. It is a Terms of Service violation, covered in the warning below, and the account can be suspended outright.
Once you clear a subreddit's gate, keep participating. Karma and Contributor Quality Score reflect recent behavior, not a one-time peak.
Reddit reads the same created_utc field for two very different purposes: AutoModerator's account_age condition, and the small cake icon Reddit shows next to your username on your account's yearly anniversary. Older accounts simply have more cake days behind them.
Check the exact cake day date, days since signup, and countdown to the next anniversary for any account with the Reddit Cake Day Checker.
Want to see which specific subreddits actually enforce an account_age minimum, and how many days they require? See the real subreddit posting requirements dataset.
Marketplaces that sell "aged" or "pre-loaded karma" Reddit accounts exist specifically to help people skip account_age and karma gates. Reddit's User Agreement is explicit on this: you "will not license, sell, or transfer your Account without our prior written approval."
Buying, selling, or transferring an account breaks that agreement. Purchased accounts are routinely suspended once flagged, which erases the age and karma you paid for and can put any content you already posted at risk. Building age and karma yourself, using the playbook above, is the only approach that holds up.
MediaFast tracks your account age and karma trend so you know when it's safe to post more aggressively.
Everything you need to know about Reddit account age, karma gates, and trust requirements.
Reddit treats every brand-new account as an unknown quantity. Individual subreddits configure AutoModerator to check the account_age of anyone who posts or comments, and moderators commonly use that check specifically to catch same-day throwaway accounts used for spam, scams, or ban evasion. There is no sitewide age requirement. Each community's mod team decides its own threshold.
There is no single number and Reddit does not publish a universal minimum. Each subreddit's mod team sets its own account_age and karma conditions inside AutoModerator, and plenty of subreddits set no gate at all. The only way to know a specific community's rule is to check its sidebar, its rules wiki, or the removal message AutoModerator posts when it blocks you.
No. Account age is measured from the account's actual creation timestamp and cannot be changed, boosted, or reset, except by creating a different account, which restarts the clock and forfeits your existing karma and history. The one lever you fully control is karma, which you can start building immediately by commenting in communities that allow it from day one.
Account age only ever increases and cannot be influenced, it is simply the time since the account was created. Karma is earned through community approval of your posts and comments, can go up or down based on votes, and is something you can actively build starting today. Subreddits often gate on both at once, requiring a minimum account_age plus a minimum comment_karma, post_karma, or combined_karma.
An instant, silent removal almost always means AutoModerator matched a rule automatically, most often an account_age or karma condition, before a human moderator ever saw the post. Check the subreddit's rules or wiki for its posting requirements, and look for an AutoModerator comment left on the post, it usually names the exact rule that triggered the removal.
CQS is a five tier score, highest, high, moderate, low, or lowest, that Reddit's own AutoModerator documentation describes as a more holistic replacement for flat karma or account age checks. Moderators can require a minimum score through the contributor_quality field instead of, or alongside, account_age and karma conditions.
Cake day is the yearly anniversary of your account's creation date, the same created_utc timestamp AutoModerator reads for age gates. Reddit shows a small cake icon next to your username on that day. You can check any account's exact cake day, days since signup, and countdown to the next anniversary with the Reddit Cake Day Checker.
No. Reddit's User Agreement states you "will not license, sell, or transfer your Account without our prior written approval," so buying, selling, or transferring an account is a Terms of Service violation. Purchased accounts are routinely suspended once flagged, which erases the age and karma you paid for and can put any content you posted with it at risk too.
