Which subreddits allow self-promotion? 70 communities checked (2026)
By the Content Desk team · Updated
Key takeaways
- Of 70 popular subreddits we checked in November 2026, 9 accept posts about something you made, 4 allow it only in a weekly or themed thread, 19 are comment-first, and 38 don't allow self-promotion at all.
- The friendliest places for a side project are r/SideProject, r/indiehackers, r/buildinpublic, r/ProductivityApps and r/alphaandbetausers, each with its own format.
- The biggest communities (r/AskReddit, r/todayilearned, r/LifeProTips, r/explainlikeimfive) have no place for promotion, and several ban AI-written text too.
- Several communities spell out a ratio: r/webdev points to the 9:1 rule, r/InternetIsBeautiful to 90/10, and r/learnprogramming bans self-promotion from people who haven't taken part before.
Subreddits that welcome posts about what you made
These 9 accept a post about your own project, as long as you follow their format.
| Subreddit | Members | What it expects |
|---|---|---|
| r/developersIndia | 1.6M | 6 of the year's top 25 posts carry the "I Made This" flair. The full rules are on the sub's wiki. |
| r/ClaudeAI | 1.3M | Projects built with Claude, under the "Built with Claude" flair. Some of the year's biggest posts used it. |
| r/SideProject | 894k | Feedback is the point. Link posts use "[Project name] - [Short description]". Top posts are visual demos: screenshots and screen recordings. |
| r/ChatGPTPro | 623k | Other AI tools are allowed only if they do something ChatGPT can't. Show the workflow. |
| r/ProductivityApps | 203k | "Self Promotion" and "Feedback wanted" flairs are in use. "Free, no ads, no account" titles do well. |
| r/indiehackers | 200k | Use the "Sharing story/journey/experience" or "Self Promotion" flair. No revenue claims you can't show. |
| r/buildinpublic | 129k | Progress logs. 16 of the top 25 titles carry a real number: users, revenue, first sale. |
| r/alphaandbetausers | 52k | The link must be testable today, no waitlists or email-only pages. Tag the title, e.g. [Android, Beta]. |
| r/droidappshowcase | 21k | Built for developers posting Android apps. Template: App name / What it does / Key features. |
Promotion only in a weekly or themed thread
| Subreddit | Members | Where |
|---|---|---|
| r/webdev | 3.3M | Showoff Saturday (flair) |
| r/smallbusiness | 2.6M | the weekly Promote-your-business thread |
| r/startups | 2.1M | Share Your Startup (stickied; reported monthly, check) |
| r/WritingWithAI | 170k | Weekly Tool Thread: Promote, Share, Discover, and Ask for AI Writing Tools |
Posting outside the thread gets the post removed.
Comment-first communities
In these 19, a post about your product is out of place. Answer people's questions well. If someone asks for a tool and yours fits, say so in a reply and say that you made it.
r/ChatGPT, r/languagelearning, r/Android, r/jobs, r/privacy, r/LocalLLaMA, r/EnglishLearning, r/remotework, r/androidapps, r/degoogle, r/PromptEngineering, r/androiddev, r/IndianWorkplace, r/indianstartups, r/IELTS, r/publicspeaking, r/LearningEnglish, r/JudgeMyAccent, r/TOEFL.
No self-promotion at all
38 of the 70 don't allow promotion. They include the largest communities on Reddit:
| Subreddit | Members | Also bans AI-written text? |
|---|---|---|
| r/AskReddit | 60.1M | Yes |
| r/todayilearned | 41.7M | No rule found |
| r/Showerthoughts | 34.2M | Yes |
| r/explainlikeimfive | 23.7M | No rule found |
| r/LifeProTips | 23.1M | Yes |
| r/dataisbeautiful | 21.9M | No rule found |
| r/Futurology | 21.7M | No rule found |
| r/technology | 20.6M | No rule found |
| r/InternetIsBeautiful | 16.6M | Yes |
| r/NoStupidQuestions | 7.6M | Yes |
| r/socialskills | 6.4M | Yes |
| r/coolguides | 6.1M | No rule found |
| r/YouShouldKnow | 5.6M | No rule found |
| r/Entrepreneur | 5.3M | Yes |
The rest: r/careerguidance, r/unpopularopinion, r/learnprogramming, r/productivity, r/singularity, r/india, r/CasualConversation, r/OpenAI, r/cscareerquestions, r/getdisciplined, r/artificial, r/resumes, r/AskIndia, r/SaaS, r/IndiaTech, r/GeminiAI, r/interviews, r/language_exchange, r/grok, r/microsaas, r/grammar, r/perplexity_ai, r/ENGLISH, r/Pronunciation.
How to post where it's allowed without getting removed
- Use the community's own format. r/SideProject wants "[Project name] - [Short description]"; r/alphaandbetausers wants a tag like [Android, Beta] and a link people can test today.
- Say you made it. Post as the maker. Pretending to be a happy user who "found this app" is exactly what r/androidapps calls out as banned behaviour.
- Lead with something real. In r/buildinpublic, 16 of the year's 25 biggest titles carry a real number. Concrete details beat adjectives; the research behind that is in what makes a Reddit post get upvoted.
- Take part before you post. r/learnprogramming forbids self-promotion from people who haven't taken part before, and r/webdev points to the 9:1 rule.
- Write it yourself where AI text is banned. See which subreddits ban AI-generated posts.
How we checked
On 6 November 2026 we read 64 subreddits through Reddit's own developer platform: each sidebar, the 25 most upvoted posts of the past year in full, and the top comments on each sub's five biggest posts. Six more came from an earlier pass that read sidebars only, for 70 in all. Reddit didn't let us read each community's separate Rules tab, so where a sidebar was empty we say so, and the guide for that sub tells you to check the Rules tab before posting. Rules change; treat dates as part of the answer.
Questions people ask
Can I promote my app on Reddit?
Yes, in the communities built for it, such as r/SideProject, r/indiehackers, r/buildinpublic, r/ProductivityApps and r/alphaandbetausers, following each one's format and saying that you made it. In most large subreddits promotion is removed, and some ban accounts for it.
What is the 9:1 rule on Reddit?
It's a guideline that at most one in ten of your posts should promote something you're connected to; the rest should be ordinary participation. r/webdev asks people to follow it, and r/InternetIsBeautiful uses a 90/10 version.
Which subreddit is best for posting a side project?
r/SideProject (about 894,000 members) is built for it: feedback is the point, link posts use "[Project name] - [Short description]", and its top posts are visual demos. For Android apps, r/droidappshowcase is smaller but its top posts get far more upvotes per member.
Where can I promote in a weekly thread?
r/webdev on Showoff Saturday, r/smallbusiness in its weekly promote-your-business thread, r/startups in its "Share Your Startup" thread, and r/WritingWithAI in its weekly tool thread. A standalone post in those subs is removed.
Draft posts that follow each community's rules, scored before you post them.
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