The strictest subreddits on Reddit: how much is written down and how much gets removed

I pulled Reddit posts from October 2025 through September 2026. Then I dropped any posts made by bots, and any posts that were later removed by the original poster. With the rest, I measured the share of posts in each subreddit that had some kind of removal label, about one and a half days after being posted. I compared that share with two things: the number of written rules for each subreddit and whether each subreddit required flair. I also compared it with certain settings on Reddit that can hold back newer accounts or accounts with low karma.

Before diving into the figures, it’s worth putting up a “caution” sign: removal labels aren’t the same thing as strictness. So they should be thought of more as a picture of where posts get labelled, rather than a way to rank moderators.

Which large subreddits label the most posts as removed?

I ranked the safe-for-work subreddit communities that have had at least one post every month for the last twelve months, a total of 4,166 subreddits. Each has had at least 6,168 posts in the past year and at least 113,453 subscribers.

Of those 4,166, there are 123 (about 3 in 100) where more than 90% of posts have at least one removal label.

41 of the 123 subreddits have at least a million subscribers, so they're certainly no small corners of Reddit.

The routes to removal differ quite sharply. For example, r/Fitness is almost entirely moderator-labeled, while r/askscience is primarily labeled by Reddit itself. r/femalefashionadvice is mostly held in the clutches of AutoModerator.

Keep in mind that the label here doesn’t necessarily tell you who the real decision-maker is.

Try itRemoved posts out of every 100 and the posting rules for a subreddit you pick: Subreddits

Do subreddits with strict rules remove more posts?

Partly. In the raw numbers, subreddits with strict rules in the form of a karma or account-age bar had more posts removed, but a good part of that gap goes with size.

In this case, I only counted labels applied by moderators and AutoModerator.

The typical removed share, with two checkable requirements toggled on and off.

The raw gap is confounded by the size of the subreddit. If you compare just subreddits with a similar number of subscribers, the gap drops to 1.5 points, and if you compare just those with a similar volume of posts, it’s 3.5.

If instead of counting just the “removed” label, you count any removal label (Reddit’s own included), the adjusted gap is −0.7 points, and the confidence interval includes zero.

The direction of the gap is not consistent across groups of different subscriber counts.

In the smallest three fifths, the bar-present subreddits are ahead on removals, though by only about three to four points. In the fourth fifth there’s not much of a difference, and in the largest fifth the gap disappears or even reverses. I’m not sure if this is a real reversal or not; I’m comparing five groups here, and I haven’t made any kind of multiple-comparison correction.

How common are karma and account-age limits?

I went through the pool of 4,164 subreddits, checking their Reddit settings to see if they had any account-age or karma requirements in place. Sure enough, I found that 37.7% did, which means they’re pretty common.

Required flair was also quite common (57.9%), meaning that more than half the pool wanted posts to be tagged in some way. Minimum account age was also fairly common (24.8%), meaning that roughly one quarter of the pool had this requirement in place.

A subreddit could have added its bar in the middle of the year.

Do long rule lists mean more removals?

As the list of rules gets longer, the typical share removed also increases.

For example, I can restrict the analysis to only subreddits with a similar number of subscribers, and the gap is still 4.7 points. Or I can limit the data to only rules that existed prior to October 2025, and the gap is 8.2 points. After controlling for factors like size, topic, flair, and karma bar, I estimate that each additional rule is associated with around 0.36 points more removed.

Of course, this is only a correlation, not causation. One possibility is that subreddits that get spammed heavily might be more inclined to write lots of rules.

The same comparison can be broken out by the exact number of rules.

Try itThe written rules of a subreddit you pick, word for word: Subreddits

Do the most-labelled subreddits stay on top from one half-year to the next?

The level is fairly steady over time. I did split the year in two and check each half. Of the 123 subreddits that were above 90% all year, 111 were above 90% in both halves, or 90.2%.

Going the other way around gives a similar picture: there were 121 subreddits above 90% from October through March. Of those, 111 were still above 90% from April through September, or 91.7%.

Who removes more posts, moderators or Reddit?

The answer to this question depends on how you choose to tally things. There is no clear winner.

The Reddit label isn’t the same as Reddit making the decision.

What this data can't tell you

Corrections: contact me; each fix gets a dated note on this page.

Questions people ask (FAQ)

Method

Planned before looking, and found while analysing

Conflict of interest: KissMyPost makes Reddit research tools. Funding: none.

The data

• CSVLargest subreddits above 90%The ten largest pool subreddits where more than 90% of posts carried a removal label: subscribers, posts counted and the share with each label.
• CSVRemovals by number of rules, groupedMedian share of posts removed by moderators or AutoModerator in five groups by number of written rules, with 95% intervals and subreddit counts.
• CSVRemovals by exact number of rulesMedian, 10th and 90th percentile of the share removed for each count of written rules from 0 to 15.
• CSVRemovals by posting requirementMedian share removed with and without a karma or account-age requirement and with and without required flair, with 95% intervals.
• CSVKarma-bar gap by subscriber groupDifference in median share removed, subreddits with a karma or age requirement minus those without, in five groups by subscribers, in percentage points.
• CSVHeadline numbers with and without profile pagesThe ranking thresholds, pool size, count above 90% and all-Reddit shares as in the main analysis and with every user profile page removed.
• PNGCover chartSubreddits above each removal-label level, as an image.

Zenodo DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.24143497