r/ChatGPT: rules, karma requirements and posting culture

Who posts here

Most of the room is everyday users of the app: people sharing a funny reply, asking why image generation failed or why they hit a limit. Next to them are developers running coding agents and building on the tools, who write without explaining their terms. Neither group is turned away, and a basic question is answered or ignored, not removed. The only posts pitched too low are the ones asking whether the service is down, which the rules name for removal.

• Everyday ChatGPT users sharing screenshots, jokes and generated images.
• Paying subscribers reporting bugs, limits, bans and billing problems, often after getting nowhere with support.
• Developers and hobbyists using the coding and agent tools for their own projects.
• People who use the assistant as a companion or for emotional support, and the people who argue with them about it.
• Builders of small tools, games and benchmarks showing what they made.

Karma and account requirements

What it takes to get a post through in r/ChatGPT.

What you can post

What happens to a new post

Where the most recent posts ended up. Sample size: 400.

• Stayed up98%
• Removed by Reddit's filters<1%
• Removed by moderators2%
• Deleted by the author<1%

Reddit counts a removal by the subreddit's own AutoModerator rules as a moderator removal, so that share is not all human. Held by AutoModerator means the post is waiting in the mod queue.

The rules, in the mods' words

1. 1

   Malicious Communication

   Posters and commenters are expected to act in good faith. Treat other users the way you want to be treated. Avoid straw-manning and bad-faith interpretations. Report posts/comments that aren't appropriate for the "serious" flair.

2. 2

   No Trashposts

   Posts deemed to be entirely without value or effort may be removed if they have not generated interesting discussions before their discovery. Anyone sharing disturbing content will be banned. Users are encouraged to report posts they feel are of significantly low effort. Specifically mentioning that “Is chat GPT down posts?” will be removed. The stickied FAQ deals with that.

3. 3

   Self Advertising

   Posts must be directly related to ChatGPT or the topic of AI. They may not be solely focused on advertising a single other LLM service(all these posts should directly go to weekly self-promotional mega thread, which is pinned)

4. 4

   Political Discussion

   Having ChatGPT create political content is completely fine. Discussion of the politics around AI and LLMs is allowed. This is not the place to discuss the merits of Trump's foreign policy or Hunter Biden’s laptop.

5. 5

   No NSFW Content

   This is a SFW sub. Any posts violating this rule will be removed, and repeated offenses may result in a ban.

6. 6

   AI Art

   1. Quality over Quantity: AI art submissions are allowed only if they showcase something unique, unusual, or particularly interesting. Generic memes, low-effort images, or art intended solely for karma farming will be removed. 2. Encourage Tech Discussion: Posts that include insights, techniques, or thought-provoking commentary about the AI process or technology behind the art are highly encouraged. 3. Mod Discretion: Mods reserve the right to remove posts that do not meet the above criteria.

These are the rules as archived in January 2025. Rules change. Check the sidebar before you post.

The culture

r/ChatGPT has about 11.7 million members and close to 200 posts a day. It is not run by OpenAI and says so in several places, including a note that it is not a support channel. About half of posts are text and more than a third are images. Text posts are short, around 85 words.

There are two subreddits in one. The front page is entertainment: generated images, screenshots of odd or funny replies, and jokes about the AI companies and the people who run them. Nearly every top post in our sample was an image, most of them flaired Funny, and the biggest ran to thousands of upvotes. Below that is the daily feed, which is mostly people with a problem. A limit that kicked in too early, an image that will not generate, a feature missing on one device, an account banned with no explanation.

The mood toward the product is fond and irritated at once. People complain about guardrails, changes in the assistant's tone and unhelpful support, and they also share what it does well. Moderation is light. With so little removed, the feed carries a lot of low-effort posts, and most posts simply scroll past with a handful of comments.

What lands

• A single image that is funny without explanation. This is what reaches the top, by a wide margin.
• A generated image or video with a strong idea behind it, with the tools named in the body.
• A screenshot of the assistant doing something strange or unexpectedly sensible.
• A complaint many others share, such as a ban or limit that seems unjustified, written with the details of what happened.
• A longer first-person post about how ordinary people outside tech see AI. One of these was among the few text posts near the top.

What gets removed or ignored

• Posts from accounts with less than 5 comment karma. This is automatic.
• Posts asking whether the service is down, which the rules single out and point to the pinned FAQ.
• Posts whose only purpose is to advertise another AI service.
• Generic or low-effort AI images, which the rules say will be removed, though in practice plenty stay up.
• Moderators removed under 2% of posts in our sample. The handful we saw included a long support grievance and a few short discussion prompts, and our data does not show the reasons.

The unwritten rules

• Expect an AutoModerator comment on every post asking for the conversation link or prompt. People who answer it get more trust in the comments.
• Choosing the serious flair changes the thread. Jokes and off-topic replies are not permitted under it at any level, and posts that do not suit it get removed.
• Comments are short, about 16 words, and many are a screenshot of the commenter's own result. Trying the same prompt and posting what you got is the normal way to join in.
• Images win. A text post can do well, but it has to carry a story or a grievance that others recognise.
• Politics is fine when it is about AI or made with AI. General political argument is what the rules rule out.

Self-promotion

The written rule is narrow. Posts must relate to ChatGPT or AI and may not be solely focused on advertising a single other AI service, and the rules send that kind of post to a pinned weekly self-promotion thread. In practice people do share things they built, including games, small tools and benchmarks, and those posts stay up when there is something to look at or talk about beyond the link. With nearly everything staying up, removal is not the main risk. Being ignored is. A project post with a good image and an honest account of how it was made has a chance. A bare product announcement gets a few comments at best.

How people write here

Typical post length

84 words

Typical title length

9 words

Titles phrased as a question

36%

Typical comment length

16 words

Comments that include a link

6%

Posts that carry a flair

100%

The regulars

The accounts that showed up most in our sample. Worth reading before you post: they set the tone, and they are usually the first to reply.

Top keywords

The words and phrases that show up far more often here than in other communities, from recent posts in r/ChatGPT.

• chatgpt 145 posts
• chat 69 posts
• gpt 41 posts
• openai 36 posts
• codex 33 posts
• sol 24 posts
• astra 22 posts
• chats 21 posts
• image 27 posts
• dots 17 posts
• prompt 30 posts
• dot 15 posts
• gpt sol 9 posts
• asked 32 posts
• chatgpt plus 10 posts
• model 37 posts
• usage 21 posts
• images 18 posts
• conversation 22 posts
• plus 27 posts
• chatgpt web 6 posts
• files 19 posts
• gpt-6 8 posts
• subscription 17 posts
• pro 18 posts
• reasoning 12 posts
• desktop 13 posts
• limit 15 posts
• plus subscription 5 posts
• create 21 posts
• claude 23 posts
• generate 13 posts
• reset 10 posts
• prompts 13 posts
• conversations 13 posts
• image due 3 posts
• chatgpt today 3 posts
• chatgpt thinks 3 posts
• asked chat 3 posts
• ai consciousness 3 posts

Posts that did well

• Q: Who should be held accountable when the AI agents commit a crime? | Trump: It's not AI. It's SI. We changed the name officially today13k upvotes · 4.3k comments · Other
• Skyrim: Soviet Edition11k upvotes · 501 comments · Funny
• I don't even know what to say. En...joy?9.6k upvotes · 467 comments · Funny
• As so it begins .... (Over 3 million views on this Tweet so far, with several people in the comments reporting similar, recent incidents)8.2k upvotes · 510 comments · Other
• Current AI race situation6.5k upvotes · 498 comments · Funny
• Ai girlfriend5.8k upvotes · 188 comments · Funny
• Trump as a Mexican Abuelita5.1k upvotes · 240 comments · Funny
• "helping GPT6 Astra become agi"5k upvotes · 121 comments · Funny

Common questions