App Logo
Growth hacking

Subreddits that allow self-promotion: find them and check their rules with AI (2026)

Prompt template

Find subreddits where your product would be useful, and read the live rules of each one, plus r/subreddits I already know. Tell me where self-promotion is allowed, where it is limited to a weekly or monthly thread, and where it is banned, with the rule that says so. Then draft one post for the best fit and post nothing until I approve.

Get started for free

Overview

Find subreddits that allow self-promotion for your startup or SaaS: with Reduck, your AI agent reads each subreddit's live rules and tells you where you can post, where promotion is limited to a weekly or monthly thread, and where it is banned, before you post. Such subreddits are rarer than most lists say, and their rules change.

Why it's hard

Every subreddit writes its own rules, and they move. On October 9, 2026, r/SaaS limited promotion to one mention every 60 days and banned whole categories of SaaS products, and r/smallbusiness's rules said it removes promotional product mentions as of June 2026. Lists of "subreddits that allow self-promotion" are snapshots: some are years old.

Checking by hand means opening the rules page of every subreddit, reading rules written in different words ("no vendor spam", "Share Your Startup thread only", "use the Self Promotion flair once"), and remembering which one applies where. Free checkers help, one subreddit at a time.

How Reduck does it

Reduck's Reddit scripts run in your own Chrome, through the Reduck extension, where you are signed in to Reddit. Your agent searches Reddit for the communities that discuss your problem, adds the ones you already know, and reads each subreddit's rules, weekly active users and moderators. In a test on October 9, 2026, one search for "invoice tool for freelancers" returned 25 posts from 14 subreddits: communities of buyers (r/Invoice, r/freelancing, r/smallbusiness) and communities where other founders had launched a similar tool (r/SideProject, r/vibecoding, r/IMadeThis, r/TestMyApp). It sorts them into allowed, limited to a thread, or banned, and quotes the rule behind each verdict.

It can read a subreddit's top threads to show what a well-received post looks like there, then draft one post for the best fit. When you approve, it joins the subreddit if needed and submits the post from your account.

Rules of 10 startup subreddits, read on October 9, 2026

Read with get_subreddit_info from Reddit's own rules pages. "Weekly active" is the figure Reddit shows on each subreddit.

Subreddit Weekly active What its rules say about self-promotion
r/SideProject 310,242 No rules listed; a community for sharing side projects and getting feedback
r/alphaandbetausers 11,200 No rules listed; made for recruiting early users and testers
r/IMadeThis 24,239 No rules listed
r/indiehackers 9,370 You may promote your product once, with the Self Promotion flair, for feedback
r/microsaas 23,781 Allowed if it adds value: include the backstory, stack, revenue or a lesson; no "DM me"
r/buildinpublic 39,258 Allowed with context (progress, lessons, feedback), not as a bare ad; disclose paid or affiliate tools
r/SaaS 284,991 1 mention or 3 links every 60 days, with your affiliation disclosed; no promotion at all for advertising, outreach, lead detection or content generation tools
r/startups 91,000 No promotion, except in the monthly Share Your Startup thread
r/Entrepreneur 239,149 No promotion; free offers only in the weekly threads; comment on other posts before you post
r/smallbusiness 317,557 Questions only; promote your business only in the weekly Promote-your-business thread

What your agent does

  1. Search Reddit for the communities that discuss your problem, and add the ones you name
  2. Read each subreddit's rules, weekly active users and moderators, and your own account's karma and age
  3. Sort them into allowed, limited to a thread, or banned, with the rule that says so
  4. Read the top threads of the best fits to see what works there
  5. Draft one post, and submit it from your account when you approve

Rules checkers or Reduck

Free rules checkers (RedShip, RedNudge) and lists (OneUp Today) Reduck
How many subreddits One per check, or a fixed list of 64 As many as your agent reads in one conversation
How fresh RedNudge caches rules for 7 days; OneUp's list was checked July 13, 2026 Read live, when your agent runs
Finds subreddits A separate finder tool Your agent searches Reddit for your problem
After the check You write and post yourself Your agent drafts the post and submits the one you approve
Setup None: a web page The Reduck extension and an MCP client

Who it's for

  • Founders launching a startup or SaaS who want to know where they can post
  • Indie hackers sharing a side project without getting removed or banned
  • Marketers who plan Reddit posts across many communities

FAQ

On October 9, 2026, r/SideProject, r/alphaandbetausers and r/IMadeThis listed no rules on their Reddit rules page, and they exist for sharing what you build. r/indiehackers, r/microsaas and r/buildinpublic allow it with conditions. r/startups, r/Entrepreneur and r/smallbusiness allow it only in a recurring thread, and r/SaaS limits it to one mention every 60 days. The table above has each rule. Rules change, so your agent reads them again before each post.
Yes. Free checkers such as RedShip's and RedNudge's read one subreddit at a time, and OneUp Today keeps a database of 64 subreddits checked on July 13, 2026 (from their own pages, October 2026). With Reduck, your AI agent searches Reddit for the communities that discuss your problem and reads the live rules of every one of them in the same conversation, from your own Chrome.
Read the rules of the subreddit first, every time: they decide more than any general advice. Post where promotion is allowed, or in the thread a subreddit sets aside for it. Disclose that you built the product, give context (the problem, what you learned) rather than a bare link, and do not post the same thing in many subreddits at once. Your agent checks the rules and drafts the post; you approve it.
A common guideline: about nine helpful posts or comments for each one that promotes your own work. Some subreddits write it into their rules and others write stricter limits: r/SaaS allows 1 mention or 3 links every 60 days. Your agent reports the limit each subreddit writes, not a general rule.
Some subreddits filter new or low-karma accounts with automatic moderation that is not written on their rules page, and some communities downvote any post that reads like an ad. The rules page cannot show either. Your agent checks your own account's karma and age with get_user, reads the subreddit's top threads to show what its members upvote, and flags written conditions such as r/Entrepreneur's rule that you comment on other posts before you post.
Usually for a written rule: the wrong day or thread, a missing flair, a bare link, a limit already used (r/SaaS allows 1 mention every 60 days), or the same text posted in several subreddits. Your agent quotes the rule that applies before you post, so you can pick the right thread or skip the subreddit.
Yes. On October 9, 2026, r/SaaS had a rule against promoting SaaS products made for advertising, promotional outreach, lead detection or content generation, with tool names and URLs blacklisted on violation. A general list of promotion-friendly subreddits does not show this kind of rule; reading the full rules does.
Only when you approve. Your agent shows you the draft and the rules it checked. When you say yes, submit_post creates the text post under your account and returns its link. Some subreddits require a flair or block new posts; the script then fails and says so instead of posting somewhere else.
No. There is no app to register and no key to paste. You stay signed in to Reddit in Chrome, and the Reduck extension runs each script there. Reddit blocks connections from datacenter addresses, which is why the scripts run in your own browser.
Reddit's rules forbid spam and vote manipulation, whatever tool does it. Your agent reads rules and posts one post at a time, only when you approve it. Follow each subreddit's own rules as well: that is what the rules check is for.

Similar use cases

Reddit

Reddit lead generation

Your AI agent finds the Reddit posts where people ask for a tool like yours, checks each subreddit's rules, and drafts a helpful reply that you approve before anything is posted.

Growth hacking
Reddit

Reddit keyword alerts

Your AI agent searches Reddit for your keywords on a schedule and sends you only the new posts that are really about them, with no RSS feed and no API key.

Social media
Reddit

Reddit MCP

Give Claude, ChatGPT or any MCP client your Reddit account, as you, with no API key, no OAuth app and no RSS feed.

Social media

Start building not clicking

Get started for free