You need karma to post in the subreddits worth posting in. But the fast shortcuts — farming subs, buying accounts — are exactly what gets creators banned and shadow-filtered. Here's how karma really works and the safe way to build it quickly.
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This zooms in on one piece of the full Reddit guide: getting past the karma gates the good subreddits put up, without doing the thing that gets you quietly buried. If you're new to all of this, read the main guide first, then come back here.
Karma is a running points total from people upvoting your posts and comments. There are two kinds, and subreddits often set a minimum for each before they'll let you post.
| Type | How you earn it | What it unlocks |
|---|---|---|
| Post karma | Upvotes on the things you post | Most NSFW subs want a post-karma minimum before you can promote |
| Comment karma | Upvotes on your comments in discussions | Proves you actually talk to people, not just advertise |
Here's the thing most guides get wrong: karma is a gate, not an engine. Hitting the karma minimum gets you allowed to post in a subreddit. It does nothing to make people see your post once you're in — that's Contributor Quality Score, which is a separate system. Chase karma without building CQS and you'll get into the big subs only to post into the void.
Karma opens the door. CQS decides whether anyone's in the room.
Every subreddit sets its own bar and changes it whenever it likes, so treat these as ranges, never rules.
| Requirement | Typical minimum | How long it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Post karma | Commonly 1,000–5,000 | A few days of real posting |
| Comment karma | Commonly 100–500 | A few days of commenting |
| Account age | Often 30 days; 90+ for some large subs | You simply wait — nothing to farm |
Read the real number — don't trust any manual
The figures above are ballpark. The actual requirement lives in the subreddit's sidebar, or in the AutoMod message you get when a post is blocked. Trigger it once from a test account, write the real number down in your own subreddit list, and plan around that — not around a figure you read in a guide, including this one.
There's a whole ecosystem promising fast karma: free-karma subreddits, "upvote for upvote" threads, reposting viral content, buying aged accounts. It's tempting because it looks fast. It's also the single most common way creators quietly kill an account.
| The shortcut | What it actually does |
|---|---|
| Posting in free-karma / farming subs | Many real subreddits now auto-ban accounts with that history the moment you try to post |
| Reposting viral content for easy upvotes | Builds a number, builds zero trust — and the history is visible |
| Buying an aged, high-karma account | Anyone can read its deleted past and see the previous owner; big subs remove it |
| Bot rings / vote exchanges | Reddit is good at spotting these; it's a fast route to a site-wide ban |
The permanent mark
Deleted posts don't really disappear — free tools can still read an account's history. So a week of farming isn't a shortcut you can clean up later; it's a stain that stays on the account. And none of it raises your CQS, which means even "successful" farming leaves you allowed to post but invisible.
The good news: the honest route is barely slower than the shortcut, and it builds karma and CQS at the same time. You're not choosing between "fast" and "safe" — real participation is both.
Comments are the fastest karma there is, because you can leave a lot of them and good ones get upvoted quickly.
A realistic first week
Comment 5–10 times a day in communities you actually follow, and make one or two ordinary posts a day. That alone clears most comment-karma minimums within days, builds real post karma, and — the part farming can never do — raises your CQS so your promo posts are actually seen when you start. Boring, yes. It's also the whole game.
The account that earned its karma by being a real person is the same account Reddit trusts to promote. That's not a coincidence — it's the entire design.
You hit a subreddit's 2,000 post-karma minimum by reposting viral memes in a free-karma sub. You're allowed to post now. What's the problem?
B. Karma got you through the gate, but many subs auto-ban known farming history, and farming never touches CQS — so you can be allowed to post and still invisible. Real participation avoids both problems at once.
You want comment karma quickly. Best move?
B. Low-effort filler gets downvoted or ignored; replies on your own posts don't build karma across the site. Real comments on active posts get upvoted and raise CQS — the same effort doing double duty.
The fastest way to know the current bar in a subreddit — and whether it still allows creators at all — is other creators who posted there this week. That's a normal day in the Circle. Free, private, verified by hand.
Join the communityKeep going: the full Reddit guide · what CQS is and why it matters more than karma · finding the right subreddits
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