Reddit karma is the number on a profile that goes up when people upvote your posts and comments, and down when they downvote them. It is public. It follows the account into every subreddit. It is not currency, it is not a badge you buy from Reddit, and it is not a ranking multiplier on the next thread you submit.
Post karma vs comment karma
Reddit tracks them separately and shows both on the profile.
| Post karma | Comment karma | |
|---|---|---|
| Comes from | Votes on submissions | Votes on replies |
| How it usually grows | Lumpy. One hit post, or nothing | Steady if you comment in busy threads |
| How AutoMod uses it | Some rooms count it | Stricter rooms often want this one |
| How it looks to mods | Only-post-karma can read as promo | Comments make the account look like a person |
Combined karma is just the two added together. If a rule says “comment karma,” the combined number does not matter.
What karma actually gets you
Access. A lot of communities will not let a new account post or comment until some minimum is met. AutoMod removes the content silently. You think you posted. Nobody else saw it.
Low karma also makes spam filters more suspicious. That is a separate system from Hot ranking. A 50,000-karma account can still flop. A 200-karma account can still hit Hot in a small room if the post is allowed up.
What karma does not do
- It does not boost a post in Hot because the author is famous.
- It does not stop downvotes.
- It does not override a subreddit rule or a moderator.
- It does not transfer if you change usernames — Reddit usernames do not change.
How the number is calculated
Roughly: upvotes minus downvotes, over your history. Two wrinkles matter in practice.
Reddit fuzzes the score you see on a post, so the public number wiggles and is not an exact vote count. Karma on the profile is based on the real votes, not that display.
Karma is also not a perfect 1:1 with every upvote a viral post ever received. Do not reverse-engineer a profile from one thread.
What counts as “enough”
| Range | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| 0–100 | New. Many gates still closed. |
| 100–1,000 | Most ordinary rooms will take you. |
| 1,000–10,000 | Fine for almost all posting. Filters calm down. |
| 10,000+ | Looks established. Still will not save a bad post. |
For anything promotional, plan on being past 1,000 combined before you bother. Below that you fight the filter on every submission. How to get there is a separate guide: how to get karma on Reddit.
You cannot buy the points
You can buy the two things that create them: votes on your own content, or an aged account that already has a score. Check a username’s public karma with Reddit itself, or estimate filters with the CQS estimator — CQS is not karma, and mods often care about both.
Questions
What is Reddit karma?
Karma is a public reputation score on your Reddit account. Post karma comes from votes on your submissions. Comment karma comes from votes on your replies. Combined karma is those two added together.
Does karma make your posts rank higher?
No. A post’s rank is driven by votes and comments on that post, plus how new it is. Karma mostly decides whether AutoMod lets you post or comment at all.
How much karma do you need to post on Reddit?
It depends on the subreddit. Many rooms want somewhere between 10 and 100 combined karma plus a minimum account age. Stricter finance, deals, and crypto rooms often want several hundred comment karma. Always read that community’s sidebar.
Why is the vote count different from the karma I received?
Reddit fuzzes displayed scores so they are harder to game. Karma also does not map one-to-one with every upvote over a post’s life. Treat the number on a post as approximate.