r/passive_income: rules, karma requirements and posting culture
Over a million people looking for ways to earn without a second job. Mostly beginners asking where to start, plus a steady stream of referral links and spam.
Passive Income · Open on Reddit
- Members
- 1.3M
- Created
- 2012
- New posts a day
- 70.4
- Comments on a typical post
- 6
- New posts removed
- 59%
The short answer
r/passive_income does not publish a karma or account age requirement. It is a text subreddit where every post carries a flair, and only about 40% of new posts stay up: Reddit's filters take roughly 29% and moderators about a quarter. Nearly half of posts are beginners asking for advice, and replies are short. Referral links are allowed only with a clear disclaimer, and the room is tired of them.
Who posts here
The typical post is from someone with no money, no experience and a phone, asking how to earn a first small amount online. Nothing is assumed, and the wiki's FAQ is written for minors and college students. Basic questions are not turned away. They mostly get a few short replies, some of them referral codes.
- Students and teenagers looking for a first income online.
- People in a hard spot who need money soon and call it passive income.
- Side project builders sharing an app, a digital product or a small store.
- Referral and affiliate posters working signup bonuses.
- A smaller group with real assets: rentals, dividends, a local business.
Karma and account requirements
What it takes to get a post through in r/passive_income.
| Karma | Not stated publicly. |
|---|---|
| Account age | Not stated publicly. |
| Post flair | Every recent post carries one. Seeking Advice/Help is close to half of them. |
| Referral links | Must be labelled with a disclaimer. Referral links on low effort posts are removed, and a short list of overused programmes is unwelcome.Mods' wording: “you must clearly label it with a disclaimer” |
| Topic | It has to be passive. The rules name gig work, surveys and referrals as things that are not.Mods' wording: “Examples of non-passive income: gig economy work, surveys, referrals, etc.” |
| Affiliate products | The sidebar lists links to affiliate products under content not to post.Mods' wording: “Links to affiliate products.” |
What AutoModerator says
The moderators' bot leaves these messages on posts. They are the closest thing to an official statement of the thresholds.
Visit Passive Piggie to run a personalized quiz on what passive income suits your situation. Check out the Community Highlights for Mod Vetted opportunities and Newsletter Episodes. Please do due diligence on any crypto opportunity. A simple google search could save you a fortune. And make sure to read the Scam & Pitfall Guide.
What you can post
| Post type | Subreddit setting | Share of recent posts |
|---|---|---|
| Text | Allowed | 98% |
| Link | Allowed | 2% |
| Image | Allowed | <1% |
| Video | Allowed | 0% |
| Poll | Allowed | 0% |
Post flairs in use
- Seeking Advice/Help 47%
- Social Media 14%
- My Experience 10%
- Referral Link 9%
- Offering Advice/Resource 5%
- Affiliate Marketing 4%
- Blog 2%
- What do I do with $X? 2%
- Real Estate 2%
- Just here to brag 2%
What happens to a new post
Where the most recent posts ended up. Sample size: 400.
- Stayed up40%
- Removed by Reddit's filters30%
- Held by AutoModerator4%
- Removed by moderators25%
- Deleted by the author2%
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.
What happened when we posted here
We have posted here ourselves. This is how our own posts and comments fared.
- Stayed up
- 100%
- Removed by Reddit's filters
- 0%
- Removed by moderators
- 0%
- Period
- October 2025 to August 2026
The rules, in the mods' words
- 1
All referral links must have a disclaimer
This sub is to discuss and inspire each other. Not profit from getting people here to click on your referral link. All referral or affiliate links on low effort posts will be removed. If you do include a referral link, you must clearly label it with a disclaimer. The following have been brought up many times. If you have a unique insight or method, please post. But we don't need any more referral links to these sites. - Honeygain - Robinhood / Webull - Swagbucks - Anything to do with Tai Lopez
- 2
Don't be a jerk
Not going to force you to bow and curtsy. Just don't be a jerk. Make a friend!
- 3
Content must be relevant to Passive Income
Examples of non-passive income: gig economy work, surveys, referrals, etc.
These are the rules as archived in January 2025. Rules change. Check the sidebar before you post.
The culture
r/passive_income is large, about 1.26 million members and 70 posts a day, and thin. A typical post gets five or six comments and a typical comment is ten words. Almost everything is a text post, around 95 words long.
Close to half of posts are requests for advice, and most of those come from people starting at zero: a student with a laptop, a teenager, someone who needs a set amount by a set date. The rest is a mix of experience write-ups, social media money questions and referral posts, which have their own flair and make up about 9% of the feed. AutoModerator comments on every post with a link to a moderator-run quiz site and a scam guide.
The fault line is the word passive. The rules say gig work, surveys and referrals are not passive income, and the wiki sends people who want quick cash to other subreddits. Much of the feed is exactly that anyway. The more thoughtful regulars keep saying the same thing: nothing here is passive at the start, and anything already going around on social media is crowded.
What lands
- An honest write-up of something you tried, with what it cost, what it earned and how long it took.
- Advice that lowers expectations, such as telling newcomers to learn one small online income process before chasing anything passive.
- A build in progress with the numbers stated, including when the number is zero.
- A specific question with your budget, your hours and your country, instead of a bare request for ideas.
What gets removed or ignored
- Revenue brags with a screenshot and a big number in the title.
- Referral and free cash signup posts, especially without a disclaimer.
- Link posts pushing a workbook, a guide or a tool.
- Plenty of ordinary advice requests too. Moderators removed about a quarter of our sample and Seeking Advice/Help was the most removed flair. The reasons are not shown. An account or karma filter catching new posters is a likely explanation, not a confirmed one.
- Off topic money requests: gig work, surveys, job hunting.
The unwritten rules
- Say what you have: money, hours, skills, country. Posts without that get generic answers.
- Readers assume a pitch. A post that reads like a launch gets called one in the comments.
- Disclose a referral code in the first line. Hiding it is what gets a post reported.
- Do not expect depth. Replies are short and some are other people's referral codes.
- Moderation is uneven. Obvious spam sits in the feed for a while, so a careful post stands out more than you would expect.
Self-promotion
The written rule is about referral links: they need a clear disclaimer, they are removed from low effort posts, and the moderators say they do not need more links to a handful of well known programmes. The sidebar separately asks people not to post links to affiliate products. In practice there is a Referral Link flair and an Affiliate Marketing flair, both in regular use, and product posts from founders do stay up, including one recruiting affiliates for a software tool. They get little response. What works better is a plain account of what you built and what it has or has not earned, with the product as a detail.
How people write here
- Typical post length
- 94 words
- Typical title length
- 9 words
- Titles phrased as a question
- 30%
- Typical comment length
- 10 words
- Comments that include a link
- 1%
- Posts that carry a flair
- 100%
When people post
- 0:00 UTC, 15
- 1:00 UTC, 10
- 2:00 UTC, 14
- 3:00 UTC, 10
- 4:00 UTC, 14
- 5:00 UTC, 12
- 6:00 UTC, 17
- 7:00 UTC, 13
- 8:00 UTC, 15
- 9:00 UTC, 19
- 10:00 UTC, 20
- 11:00 UTC, 29
- 12:00 UTC, 18
- 13:00 UTC, 24
- 14:00 UTC, 24
- 15:00 UTC, 19
- 16:00 UTC, 24
- 17:00 UTC, 17
- 18:00 UTC, 22
- 19:00 UTC, 13
- 20:00 UTC, 14
- 21:00 UTC, 19
- 22:00 UTC, 9
- 23:00 UTC, 9
New posts by hour of day, UTC.
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.
Most active posters
- u/bharath_br03086 posts
- u/lroberson805 posts
Most active commenters
- u/Adept_Storm80519 comments
- u/bharath_br030816 comments
- u/Additional-End146910 comments
- u/bangtangotjams_128 comments
- u/sashame19985 comments
Top keywords
The words and phrases that show up far more often here than in other communities, from recent posts in r/passive_income.
- income 71 posts
- passive income 29 posts
- money 64 posts
- online 51 posts
- earn 28 posts
- digital 32 posts
- money online 16 posts
- income stream 11 posts
- digital products 13 posts
- freelancing 13 posts
- affiliate 15 posts
- selling 26 posts
- earning 16 posts
- digital product 9 posts
- side 35 posts
- side hustle 13 posts
- side income 9 posts
- ideas 25 posts
- rich quick 7 posts
- income ideas 5 posts
- clipping 8 posts
- earn money 8 posts
- affiliate marketing 7 posts
- student 17 posts
- videos 17 posts
- commission 11 posts
- facebook page 6 posts
- genuine online 4 posts
- selling digital 5 posts
- get-rich-quick 5 posts
- genuine 12 posts
- realistic 12 posts
- zero 18 posts
- online income 4 posts
- opportunities 13 posts
- rich 9 posts
- audience 12 posts
- products 20 posts
- side hustles 7 posts
- content 22 posts
Recurring topics: make money, money, income, ai, passive, earn, side hustle, looking for, side.
Growth
- 20123
- 201381
- 2014315
- 20151.2k
- 20162.7k
- 20176.4k
- 201816k
- 201940k
- 2020104k
- 2023413k
- 2024614k
- 2025968k
- 20261.3M
Related subreddits
- r/OnlineIncomeHustle
- r/thesidehustle
- r/HowEarnMoneyOnline
- r/AffiliateMarketers
- r/AiMoneyMaking
- r/beermoneyindia
- r/AffiliateCommunity
- r/SideHustleGold
- r/NewAusBeerMoney
- r/AffiliateMarket
Common questions
How much karma do you need to post in r/passive_income?
No karma or account age minimum is published. Only about 40% of posts in our sample stayed up, with Reddit's filters and moderators removing most of the rest, including ordinary questions. That pattern suggests new or low karma accounts are filtered, but the subreddit does not say so.
Can I post a referral link in r/passive_income?
Yes, with a clear disclaimer, and use the Referral Link flair. Referral links on low effort posts are removed, and the rules list several well known programmes they do not want more links to. The rules also say referrals are not passive income, so expect a cool reception.
Why was my r/passive_income post removed?
The common causes are a referral or affiliate link without a disclaimer, a topic that is not passive income, or a post that reads as an ad. Reddit's own filters removed about 29% of posts in our sample and moderators about 25%.
What counts as passive income in r/passive_income?
The wiki lists income from an asset you own, such as a rental, a vending machine or a website, interest and dividends, royalties, and a business you own but do not work in. The rules say gig work, surveys and referrals are not passive income.
Data as of October 4, 2026. Numbers come from public Reddit data (the Arctic Shift archive and GummySearch) sampled on this date. Removal share counts posts taken down by moderators, AutoModerator or Reddit's own filters. Banner and icon belong to the community. Moderators change rules without notice, so treat the sidebar as the final word.
