A Reddit moderator runs a community: they set and enforce the rules, remove posts and comments that break them, approve borderline content, answer messages from members and keep spam out. Most of this is done by volunteers with the help of automation. In July to December 2025, community moderators accounted for 52.7% of all removals on Reddit.
I moderate seven subreddits, including r/Smokingmeat at 82,600 members. People often picture moderators banning people for fun. The honest answer is that most of the job is boring queue work, and most of the interesting calls are small ones: leave this post up, remove that one, write the rule that stops the same problem next week.
This page covers the job as Reddit describes it, the numbers behind it, what my own moderating looks like, and what Reddit's Moderator Code of Conduct requires. If you run a brand, it also answers a question I get a lot: can you moderate your own community, and what are the rules for it?
What Does A Reddit Moderator Actually Do?
The job splits into five parts. In a large community they are shared across a team. In a small one, one person does all of it.
| Part of the job | What it involves | Tool used |
|---|---|---|
| Set the rules | Write the community rules and keep them clear, so people know what to expect | Rules page, sidebar, wiki |
| Clear the queue | Review posts and comments that were reported or caught by filters; approve or remove them | Mod queue, mod log |
| Automate repetition | Catch the same problems automatically, such as banned phrases, link spam or low-effort posts | AutoModerator |
| Talk to members | Answer modmail, explain removals, handle appeals | Modmail |
| Build the community | Start discussions, pin useful posts, recruit and train other mods, run the wiki and FAQ | Posts, wiki, flair |
Source: Reddit's moderation tools as I use them across seven communities
A good moderator mostly prevents problems before they appear. The best subreddit rule is the one that stops a hundred bad posts you never have to read. That is why I put a lot of effort into the setup in how to create a subreddit, and why I treat AutoModerator as the first hire.
How Much Moderating Happens On Reddit?
A lot, and Reddit publishes it. The July to December 2025 transparency report shows what happens when 2.2 billion posts and comments land on the site in six months.
| Metric | January to June 2025 | July to December 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Posts and comments created | 2,163,255,403 | 2,210,675,258 |
| Posts and comments removed (mods and admins) | Not reported in this form | 154,198,211 |
| Share of removals by community mods | Not reported in this form | 52.7% |
| Share of mod removals done by automation | 71.3% (non-spam removals, AutoModerator only) | 68.6% |
| Moderator Code of Conduct reports actioned | 948 | 878 |
Source: Reddit Inc. transparency reports, January to June 2025 and July to December 2025
Source: Reddit Inc. transparency report, July to December 2025
Volunteer moderators remove more content than Reddit's own staff do: 52.7% against 44.7% for admins. Community moderators removed over 81 million posts and comments in that half-year alone. Without them, Reddit would be a different, and much worse, product.
How Much Of Moderation Is Automated?
Most of it. Reddit reports that 68.6% of moderator removals in July to December 2025 were handled by automated systems such as AutoModerator. For January to June 2025 it reported 71.3%, but that figure covered non-spam mod removals by AutoModerator only, so the two halves aren't a like-for-like comparison. The other third or so is done by a human clicking Remove.
In practice, AutoModerator catches the repeat offenders, such as certain link types or banned phrases, and a person handles what the rules cannot judge: is this a genuine question or a disguised ad? Is this argument heated but fine, or has it turned into harassment? Those calls need a person who knows the community's tone.
My takeAutomation is not a reason to skip human moderation. It is the reason a small team can afford to do it properly. If you automate the 70% that is repetitive, the 30% that needs judgment gets your full attention.
What Is The Moderator Code Of Conduct?
It is Reddit's rulebook for moderators, effective June 5, 2025. The full text is on redditinc.com. Reddit's own summary is a TL;DR: follow the tenets and Reddit stays out of your way, break them and Reddit will reach out to fix the problem. It has five rules.
| Rule | Title | What it asks |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Create, Facilitate, and Maintain a Stable Community | Uphold the Reddit Rules; never create, approve, enable or encourage rule-breaking content or behaviour. This covers posts, comments, flairs, rules, wiki pages, styling, modmail and bots. |
| 2 | Set Appropriate and Reasonable Expectations | Be clear about what the community is and what its rules are, label mature content accurately, and mark a brand community as official or unofficial. |
| 3 | Respect Your Neighbors | Do not direct, coordinate or encourage interference in other communities or targeted harassment. |
| 4 | Be Active and Engaged | Have enough mods to manage the community consistently, which means regularly monitoring ModQueue and ModMail; camping or sitting on a community is discouraged. |
| 5 | Moderate with Integrity | No moderation actions in exchange for compensation, gifts or favours from third parties. |
Source: Reddit, Moderator Code of Conduct, effective June 5, 2025
Enforcement is graduated. Reddit says it prefers to resolve issues by discussion, and if that fails it can issue warnings, remove rule-breaking content or styling, remove moderators, adjust subreddit settings or access to tools, seek new moderators or allow a community to be adopted, prohibit a moderator from joining additional teams or creating new subreddits, remove privileges from or restrict accounts, suspend accounts temporarily or permanently, or ban communities. Reddit investigated and actioned 878 Code of Conduct reports in the second half of 2025.
What Does Moderating A Large Subreddit Look Like?
Here are my own numbers for r/Smokingmeat, a community about smoking and barbecuing meat that I moderate. They come from Reddit's Insights page for moderators over the past 12 months.
| r/Smokingmeat, past 12 months | Figure |
|---|---|
| Members | 82,600 |
| Member growth | +36,900 |
| Views | 1.5M |
| Comments | 25,200 |
| Posts removed in moderation | 957 |
| Comments removed in moderation | 3,600 |
Source: Reddit Insights for r/Smokingmeat, which I moderate
The growth works out at roughly 100 new members a day (my calculation). The removals are the part people ask about. 957 posts and 3,600 comments were removed over the year. That is a small fraction of what is posted, and it is why a healthy community feels calm: most of the cleaning is invisible. If your own post was removed, the most common reasons are covered in why Reddit posts get removed.
I run the same work on the others, including r/GoingToPeru (876,000 views in a year) and r/galapagostourism. The principles scale down fine: clear rules, automated filters, quick replies to modmail, and a second mod you trust for when you are away.
Are Reddit Moderators Paid?
Moderators of community subreddits are generally unpaid volunteers, and Reddit actively prohibits the opposite arrangement. Rule 5 of the Moderator Code of Conduct says moderators may not take moderation actions in exchange for any form of compensation, consideration, gift or favour from or on behalf of third parties. Banning or unbanning users, approving content, granting flair or sending mod invites are all listed as actions covered. Offering to pin a post for a fee is listed as creating "ad space", and that is banned too.
This is where brands and agencies need to be careful. The Code also says events and engagements with third parties, activity from a brand in your subreddit, or company employees starting and maintaining a subreddit are allowed, so long as no compensation is received for moderation actions. I read that as separating two very different things: a brand running its own community in the open, and someone selling approvals or removals in a community that belongs to others. My own rule is simple. I will help a brand build and run its own disclosed community, and I will never take money to approve, remove or promote anything in somebody else's.
How Many Subreddits Can One Person Moderate?
Reddit's moderation limits page says that since March 31, 2026 each moderator can moderate at most five high-traffic communities, defined as those with over 100,000 weekly visitors. Reddit says this affects 0.1% of active moderators. The limit is about high-traffic communities only, so there is no cap on small ones. I moderate seven communities; the cap only counts the high-traffic ones.
The rule exists for the same reason as Rule 4 of the Code. A community with an absent mod is a community where spam and abuse sit unattended. If you recruit volunteer mods for your own community, give them a clear scope and a written guide. I cover the setup in the community management service I offer, which includes recruiting and training volunteer mods.
How Do Mods Keep Each Other Honest?
Through the moderation log. Reddit's help center says the log stores all mod and admin actions for up to 90 days, which means every removal, ban and approval is attributable and reviewable by the rest of the team. If you run a brand community, treat that log as your audit trail. It lets you show a member exactly what happened and why, which settles most appeals without a fight.
A few habits worth keeping on every community:
- Always leave a removal reason. People accept removals they understand.
- Have at least two active mods. One person on holiday should not mean a week of spam.
- Review the log weekly. Patterns show up in the log before they show up in complaints.
- Update the rules after each repeat problem. If you remove the same type of post three times, write the rule.
How Do I Become A Reddit Moderator?
There are two honest routes: start a community of your own, or earn a seat on an existing team. Nobody hands out moderator roles for a fee, and Rule 5 of the Code is the reason.
| Route | How it works | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Create a subreddit | Make a community on a topic you know and set the rules from day one | Brands, hobbyists, anyone with a niche | You are alone at first; recruit a second mod early |
| Join an existing team | Be a regular contributor, then offer help to the mods | People who want to learn the job on a live community | Mods choose who they trust; expect a trial period |
| Answer a mod call | Some communities post that they need moderators, and r/NeedAMod collects such requests | Experienced Redditors with free time | Read the rules and the team first; check the community is active |
Source: Oleg G., October 2026; no official Reddit statistics
Whichever route you take, the thing that makes a candidate valuable is a record of useful contributions in the community itself. A long history of helpful comments tells a team more than any application. The work itself is the same queue and the same rule tuning whichever route got you there.
If you are weighing whether to take it on, count the hours before you say yes. A small community takes a few focused passes a day. A growing one takes more, and a mod team that cannot cover the queue is exactly the case Rule 4 warns about.
What Tools Do Moderators Use?
Reddit gives moderators a toolkit, and I use most of it every week. The rough mapping between a problem and its tool looks like this.
| Problem | Tool | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Repeated spam or banned phrases | AutoModerator | Applies rules you write to every new post and comment |
| Reported content | Mod queue | One list of reported and filtered items to approve or remove |
| Member complaints and appeals | Modmail | Shared inbox for the mod team |
| Who did what and when | Moderation log | Records mod and admin actions for up to 90 days |
| New rules and house knowledge | Rules page and wiki | A single place to point members at |
| Interactive community features | Devvit apps | Custom apps, such as quizzes or calculators, built for a subreddit |
Source: Reddit moderator tools as described in Reddit's help center and used in the communities I moderate
The last row is a growing area. Reddit's developer platform lets teams build apps that live inside a community, which I offer to brands and cover in Reddit Devvit apps for brands. For most communities though, the first three tools cover most of the daily work.
Can A Brand Moderate Its Own Subreddit?
Yes. A brand can start a subreddit and moderate it, provided it follows the Code and says plainly what the community is. Rule 2 of the Code asks mods to mark a brand community as official if the company is officially affiliated, and unofficial if it is not. That is the transparency principle running through all of Reddit's guidance.
What goes wrong is neglect. A brand sets up a subreddit, posts three announcements and leaves. Within a month the new queue holds spam and unanswered questions, and the community looks abandoned. Moderating a brand subreddit well means daily presence, patient replies to criticism and room for members to talk about things that are not your product. That is the whole job description of the brand subreddit program I run, and the day-to-day work is covered under community management.
Questions About What A Reddit Moderator Does
What does a Reddit moderator do?
A Reddit moderator sets and enforces community rules, reviews and removes rule-breaking posts and comments, approves borderline content, answers modmail from members and works with automation like AutoModerator. Community moderators accounted for 52.7% of removals on Reddit in July to December 2025.
Are Reddit moderators paid?
Moderators of community subreddits are generally volunteers. Rule 5 of Reddit's Moderator Code of Conduct prohibits taking moderation actions in exchange for compensation, gifts or favours from or on behalf of third parties.
How many subreddits can a moderator manage?
Since March 31, 2026, Reddit limits each moderator to five high-traffic communities, meaning those with over 100,000 weekly visitors. Reddit says this affects 0.1% of active moderators. There is no such cap on smaller communities.
Does Reddit use automation for moderation?
Yes. Reddit reports that 68.6% of moderator removals in July to December 2025 were handled by automated systems such as AutoModerator.
What is the Moderator Code of Conduct?
It is Reddit's set of five rules for moderators, effective June 5, 2025: keep a stable community, set clear expectations, respect neighbouring communities, stay active and engaged, and moderate with integrity. Reddit actioned 878 reports under it in July to December 2025.