Free CQS estimator, no signup
Short answer: CQS is Reddit's hidden trust score, one of 5 tiers from Lowest to Highest. Enter any username to estimate the tier from 4 public signals.
We fetch the public profile only. No login, nothing stored.
The real CQS is hidden. Reddit does not expose it through any API, and only moderators glimpse the tier through AutoModerator. This tool reads four publicly observable signals from a live profile, account age, total karma, subreddit diversity, and comment-vs-post mix, and maps them to an estimate. Three more signals Reddit uses (email verification, network or location, and recent removals) are not public, so treat this as a directional self-check, not the real score.
CQS meaning, in 30 seconds
A hidden rating Reddit gives every account. Moderators use it to decide whose posts reach the feed and whose wait in a queue.
The Contributor Quality Score (CQS) is a hidden trust rating Reddit assigns to every account to estimate whether you act like a real community member or like a spammer. It is not shown on your profile the way karma is. Reddit places each account into one of five bands, Lowest, Low, Moderate, High, or Highest, and moderators plug that band into AutoModerator to decide whose content gets through and whose gets filtered. The score updates regularly, so it rises with genuine participation and falls quickly after a run of removed or reported posts. Reddit describes it in its own Contributor Quality Score help article and rolled it out to every community in a September 2023 r/modnews announcement.
In Reddit's words, CQS is "a user classification that was established to identify potential spammers or users less likely to contribute positively on Reddit." Reddit is deliberately vague about the exact math, but the help center confirms the five tiers, the three signal groups, and that "users have the ability to move up or down tiers based on their activity and/or behavior." Checked October 2026.
In one sentence
CQS is Reddit's private, behavior-based trust rating that decides how much friction your posts hit before anyone sees them.
Why it matters
A Low tier means many subreddits auto-remove or hold your posts before the community ever sees them, and you get no notification that it happened.
What you can do
You cannot read the exact score, but you can estimate your tier from known signals and move it up with steady, genuine contribution.
The 5 CQS tiers
Reddit sorts every account into one band. Each subreddit decides which bands get through.
| Tier | Who sits here | What happens to your posts | Typical fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lowest | Brand new accounts and accounts flagged for spam or manipulation. | Auto-removed in most quality-gated subreddits before anyone sees them. | Stop posting links, verify email, and build genuine comment history for weeks. |
| Low | Promo-heavy or thin-history accounts that look risky to the classifier. | Filtered or held in many strict communities that gate on contributor quality. | Shift to comment-first participation and spread activity across subreddits. |
| Moderate | Average accounts with mixed history, neither trusted nor flagged. | Through in most subreddits, but still filtered by the strictest ones. | Keep a clean 30-day window and grow karma steadily to climb. |
| High | Established, low-risk accounts with a consistent, genuine footprint. | Clear almost all AutoModerator quality gates without extra scrutiny. | Maintain the pattern and avoid sudden bursts of promotion. |
| Highest | Long-standing, highly trusted contributors with deep history. | Effectively never blocked by contributor-quality rules. | Nothing to fix. Keep contributing and protect the account. |
Who sits where is our reading of Reddit's description plus how moderators tend to configure AutoModerator. Reddit publishes the tier names, not the cutoffs.
How to check your real CQS
Reddit has no CQS button. A community subreddit runs an AutoModerator bot that replies to your post with your tier.
Post in r/WhatIsMyCQS
Make a text post from the account you want to check. A title like "Checking my CQS" and the body "Test" is enough.
Wait for the bot
An AutoModerator-based bot reads your contributor_quality and replies on the post, usually within minutes.
Read your tier
The reply names one of the 5 tiers. Delete the post afterward if you do not want it in your history.
r/WhatIsMyCQS · Posted by u/example_founder · 2 min ago
Checking my CQS
Test
1 commentAutoModerator MOD · 1 min ago
Hi u/example_founder, your contributor quality score is: Moderate
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically.
Illustrative mockup, the bot's wording varies
| Method | What you get | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| r/WhatIsMyCQS post | Your real tier, from an AutoModerator rule | Leaves a post in your public history. Community run, so the result cannot be independently confirmed. |
| Private subreddit test | Your real tier, without a public post | Takes setup: create a subreddit, add the account as an approved user, write one AutoMod rule per tier. |
| This CQS checker | A directional tier for any username in seconds | Reads 4 public signals only. Email verification, network and removals stay hidden. |
Create a private subreddit, add the account you want to test as an approved user, and give AutoModerator one rule per tier that comments the tier back. Then post from that account. Only you and the account see the result. Method described by UpvoteGG's CQS guide, rule syntax from Reddit's AutoMod docs.
# One rule per tier, in your private subreddit's AutoMod config
type: submission
author:
contributor_quality: "= lowest"
comment: "CQS tier: lowest"
---
type: submission
author:
contributor_quality: "= moderate"
comment: "CQS tier: moderate"
# Repeat for low, high and highestAbout r/WhatIsMyCQS: it is run by the community, not by Reddit admins. Postpone points out the bot's answer cannot be independently confirmed, and some guides also mention r/CQS. Checked October 2026.
What feeds your CQS score
Reddit names three signal groups. The checker above adds four public ones it can read, each worth up to 25 points.
3 signal groups no profile page shows
Past actions on the account
Removed and reported content lowers trust; a clean record raises it.
Network and location signals
Datacenter IPs, flagged VPNs, and reused devices raise spam risk.
Account security steps
A verified email is a basic legitimacy signal that throwaways skip.
Account age
Older accounts with steady activity look more reliable than day-old accounts.
Total karma
Read from the karma total on the public profile. Steady growth looks better than sudden spikes.
Subreddit diversity
Counted from up to 100 recent public items. One community looks single-purpose.
Comment vs post mix
Thoughtful comments read as human; link dumps read as promotion.
The point ladders are this estimator's own scoring, normalized over the signals a profile shows. Reddit does not publish weights.
Reddit names the categories of signals it uses without publishing exact weights. These are the levers the estimator above scores, what each one means, and the move that improves it.
| Signal | What it tells Reddit | Action to improve it |
|---|---|---|
| Account age and consistency | Older accounts with steady activity look more reliable than day-old accounts. | Give it time and keep participating regularly instead of in one burst. |
| Karma | Accumulated upvotes signal that other users find your contributions useful. | Earn it naturally by commenting where you add value, not by farming. |
| Account security steps | A verified email is a basic legitimacy signal that throwaways skip. | Verify your email in settings. It takes a minute and it counts. |
| Engagement quality | Thoughtful comments read as human; link dumps read as promotion. | Comment more than you post and keep replies substantive. |
| Subreddit diversity | Activity across several communities looks authentic, not single-purpose. | Participate in at least a handful of subreddits you genuinely care about. |
| Past actions on the account | Removed and reported content lowers trust; a clean record raises it. | Fix whatever gets removed and keep a clean recent window. |
| Network and location signals | Datacenter IPs, flagged VPNs, and reused devices raise spam risk. | Post from a stable home or mobile connection where you can. |
How mods use CQS
Mods add contributor_quality to a rule. Accounts below the chosen tier land in the mod queue before anyone sees them.
#Basic rule filtering users with <5 subreddit karma and CQS scores of either "lowest" or "low"
type: comment
author:
combined_subreddit_karma: "< 5"
contributor_quality: "< moderate"
action: filter
action_reason: "CQS Filter"
---
#Exclude "high" and "highest" CQS users from existing karma or account age minimums.
type: comment
author:
combined_karma: "< 20"
contributor_quality: "< high"
action: filter
action_reason: "karma minimum"
---
#Filter all posts posted by a user with "lowest" CQS, regardless of karma.
type: submission
author:
contributor_quality: "= lowest"
action: filter
action_reason: "lowest CQS user"Copied from Reddit's CQS help article, checked October 2026. The field lives under author: in a rule.
u/new_account_123
Check out my new app (link)
Filtered by AutoModerator: lowest CQS user
u/regular_poster
What tools do you use for invoicing?
Approved, live in the feed
u/promo_only_acc
50% off this week only
Filtered by AutoModerator: CQS Filter
Illustrative mockup, not a real queue
action: filterSends your post to the mod queue instead of the feed, where it waits for a human. If mods are slow or absent, it may never get approved.
action: removeTakes the post down outright. You still see it on your profile, which is exactly why a low CQS feels like a shadowban even though your account is fine.
The operator edge case: Reddit's CQS help article says "< moderate" matches lowest and low. Reddit's full AutoModerator documentation describes a similar example as moderate or lower. If you moderate, test the rule on an account you know before you rely on the boundary.
Reddit's docs also suggest CQS for more than spam: vetting good contributors for specific kinds of content, like weekly threads or posts with a specific flair.
About contributor_quality_net: earlier versions of this page described it as a stricter, network-adjusted variant. Reddit's AutoModerator docs, checked October 2026, only document contributor_quality, so we no longer treat _net as a real field. Either way, the fix is the same: raise your standing.
CQS vs karma
High karma does not mean a trusted account. Six differences that clear up the most common mix-up.
| Attribute | Karma | Contributor Quality Score |
|---|---|---|
| Visible to you | Yes, shown on your profile | No, hidden from users |
| What it measures | Lifetime upvotes on posts and comments | Current trust and behavior across the site |
| How fast it moves | Mostly climbs over time, downvotes can pull it down | Rises and falls, updated regularly |
| Who uses it | Subreddits set karma minimums in AutoMod | Subreddits gate on contributor_quality in AutoMod |
| Can it be gamed | Somewhat, via karma farming | Much harder, it weighs behavior and network signals |
| The gotcha | 50k karma does not guarantee trust | A recent bad week can drop you a tier regardless of karma |
This is why founders who buy or farm karma still get filtered. If you want to grow on Reddit without fighting invisible quality gates, tools like MediaFast focus you on genuine participation in the right communities, which is the same behavior that lifts your CQS in the first place.
How to increase your CQS
CQS updates regularly, so a consistent month of good behavior moves the needle. Work these in order, fastest win first.
Verify your email today
This is the one instant win. A verified email is a basic account-security signal Reddit names directly, and unverified throwaways sit at the bottom by default.
Stop posting whatever gets removed
Recent removals weigh heavily. If a certain link or subreddit keeps rejecting you, pause it. One clean 30-day window does more than months of old history.
Flip your ratio to comment-first
Aim for far more genuine comments than posts. Engagement quality is a core input, and a commenter footprint reads as a real member, not a promoter.
Spread across 5 or more subreddits
Single-subreddit accounts look single-purpose. Participate in several communities you care about so your activity looks authentic and varied.
Grow karma the slow way
Comment where you can genuinely help. Do not farm. Steady karma from real threads is a trust signal; sudden karma spikes are a manipulation flag.
Post from a stable connection
Where privacy allows, post from your normal home or mobile network rather than a datacenter IP, flagged VPN, or a brand new device tied to nothing.
Keep a steady cadence, not bursts
Consistency beats volume. A little activity most days looks human. Going from silent to 15 posts in a day is a classic bot pattern that tanks trust.
Read each subreddit's rules before posting
Removals from rule breaks hurt your standing even when they feel unfair. Skim the sidebar and pinned rules so you stop collecting avoidable removals.
Give it a few weeks, then re-check
CQS is not instant. Work the steps above for three to four weeks, then run the estimator again to see whether your tier has likely moved up.
The live demo builds a sample Reddit roadmap for your website: which subreddits to start in and what to post first, about 10 minutes a day.
Free live demo with your own website, no signup.
Do and don't
The habits that lift your tier, next to the ones that drag it down without any warning.
Do
Lifts your tierDon't
Drags it downMost people never realize they are doing these, because Reddit never tells them their tier dropped.
Treating karma as a trust score.
High karma feels like credibility, but CQS weighs current behavior. A viral post from last year does nothing for a bad recent month.
Posting before the account has any history.
A day-old account that immediately drops links looks exactly like a spam bot to the classifier. Warm the account up first.
Only ever posting, never commenting.
A post-only footprint reads as promotion. Engagement quality is a core signal, and comments are how you build it.
Living in a single subreddit.
Concentrated activity in one community looks single-purpose. Diversity across subreddits reads as a genuine user.
Ignoring removals.
Every removed or reported post chips away at standing. If something keeps getting pulled, stop doing it instead of retrying.
Always posting through a VPN or proxy.
Network signals count. Exclusive use of datacenter IPs or flagged VPNs adds risk that a home connection would not.
Expecting an overnight fix.
CQS moves with sustained behavior, not a single good day. People give up after 48 hours and miss the recovery that a steady month brings.
Yes. A higher tier means your posts clear more AutoModerator quality gates, so more of your content reaches communities instead of being silently filtered. The catch is that CQS rewards genuine participation, not promotion, so the way you raise it is by being a real contributor first. That is also what keeps you out of shadowban and spam-filter trouble later.
CQS glossary
The vocabulary that comes up whenever moderators and marketers talk about Reddit account quality.
CQSContributor Quality Score. Reddit's hidden, behavior-based trust rating for every account, sorted into five tiers from Lowest to Highest. It decides how much friction your posts hit before they reach a community.
contributor_qualityThe AutoModerator check that reads your CQS tier. Moderators use it in subreddit rules to filter or remove posts from accounts below a chosen tier. It is the mechanism that turns an invisible score into a real gate.
contributor_quality_netA name you may see in guides and forums, sometimes described as a stricter, network-adjusted variant. Reddit's AutoModerator documentation, checked October 2026, only documents contributor_quality, so treat any _net rule as unverified.
KarmaThe public point total from upvotes on your posts and comments. Related to CQS but separate: karma is a visible lifetime tally, CQS is a hidden live trust rating that can drop even while karma stays high.
AutoModeratorThe bot built into every subreddit that moderators configure with rules. It is where contributor_quality, karma minimums, and account-age gates are enforced automatically, per post, before a human sees anything.
ShadowbanA separate, site-wide silent restriction applied by Reddit admins, not the same as a low CQS. Both make your posts invisible to others, which is why they are so often confused. A low CQS is a subreddit-level quality gate; a shadowban hides you everywhere.
A practical walkthrough of building genuine Reddit karma and account standing, the same participation signals that lift your Contributor Quality Score tier over time.
If your CQS is holding your posts back, the underlying fix is the same as the growth strategy: show up as a real contributor in the communities that matter to you. That is exactly what MediaFast is built to help founders do, so you spend your time on genuine engagement instead of guessing why your posts keep vanishing.
Weekly tips on the genuine engagement patterns that lift your Contributor Quality Score and grow your account. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
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Everything about the Contributor Quality Score and how to read your tier.
CQS stands for Contributor Quality Score. It is a hidden signal Reddit assigns to every account to estimate whether you behave like a genuine community member or like a spammer. Unlike karma, it is not shown on your profile. Reddit sorts accounts into five tiers: Lowest, Low, Moderate, High, and Highest. Moderators use it inside AutoModerator to decide whose posts get through and whose get filtered.
No, and any tool that claims to is guessing. Reddit does not expose the Contributor Quality Score through a public API, and even moderators only see the tier band, not a number. This checker is an estimator: you enter a username, it reads the four signals it can observe on the live public profile, account age, total karma as shown on the profile, subreddit diversity, and comment-vs-post mix, and maps them to a directional tier. Signals a profile hides, such as a curated or empty post history, are excluded from the estimate instead of counted as zero. The other signals Reddit uses, such as email verification, recent removals, and network or location, are not public, so they cannot be read from a profile and are left out of the estimate.
There is no official button or profile field that displays your CQS. The common method in 2026 is r/WhatIsMyCQS: make a post with a simple title like "Checking my CQS" and the body "Test", and an AutoModerator-based bot replies with your tier, usually within minutes. The post stays in your public history until you delete it, and the result comes from a community-run rule, not from Reddit itself. A second option is a private subreddit with one AutoModerator rule per tier. For a no-post read, use an estimator like the one above to gauge your tier from your public account signals.
Karma is public and counts upvotes on your posts and comments over the life of the account. CQS is private and measures trust and behavior right now. An account can have tens of thousands of karma from one viral post and still sit in a Low CQS tier after a recent run of removed or reported content. Karma is a lifetime scoreboard; CQS is a live trust rating that moves up and down.
Verify your email, comment more than you post, participate genuinely across several subreddits instead of one, avoid getting content removed or reported, build karma naturally over time, and post from a stable connection rather than a datacenter IP or fresh throwaway device. CQS updates regularly, so consistent good behavior raises it and a spammy stretch drops it fast.
A very common cause is a low Contributor Quality Score combined with a subreddit AutoModerator rule. Many communities configure AutoMod to filter or remove posts from accounts whose contributor_quality falls below a set tier, often combined with a karma minimum. You are not banned, your account is simply below that subreddit's trust threshold, so your post never reaches the feed.
Reddit tested CQS quietly through early 2023 and then rolled it out to all communities in September 2023, announced on the r/modnews moderator community. It was introduced to give moderators a better spam signal than blunt account age and karma minimums, which were filtering out real users while missing some spammers.
It can. Reddit lists network and location signals among the inputs to Contributor Quality Score. Posting through datacenter IP ranges, known VPN providers, or an IP previously tied to banned accounts adds risk signals. An occasional VPN session is unlikely to sink an otherwise healthy account, but posting exclusively through flagged infrastructure is a pattern that drags the score down.
