r/Supplements: rules, karma requirements and posting culture
A big, busy board where people compare notes on magnesium, creatine, vitamin D and sleep stacks. Open to beginners, hands-on mods, and a ban waiting for marketers.
Supplements · Open on Reddit
- Members
- 620k
- Created
- 2008
- New posts a day
- 61.6
- Comments on a typical post
- 8
- New posts removed
- 19%
The short answer
r/Supplements publishes no karma or account age requirement. The gate is the moderators: about 15% of posts in our sample were removed by them, far more than Reddit's filters or AutoModerator caught. Most posts are text questions about a specific supplement, dose or side effect, and a post with an empty body is removed automatically. Talk about the ingredient, not the brand, and do not promote anything. The submit page says advertising will in all likelihood lead to a permanent ban.
Who posts here
The sidebar calls this a science intensive subreddit and tells you to read up on a compound before asking. The feed is gentler than that. Most posts are from ordinary people asking whether a dose is safe, which form of magnesium to buy or why something gave them palpitations, and they get patient answers. A question with no body or no context is the one that fails: AutoModerator removes it and points you to search.
- People new to supplements asking what to take for sleep, stress, energy or low vitamin D.
- Gym goers building a stack around creatine, protein, omega-3 and magnesium.
- People managing a health problem alongside their doctor, comparing side effects and interactions.
- Long-time hobbyists who read studies, post them and argue about dosing and forms.
- Sceptics who push back on hype and remind everyone that food and bloodwork come first.
Karma and account requirements
What it takes to get a post through in r/Supplements.
| Karma | Not stated publicly. Reddit's filters and AutoModerator each caught only about 2% of posts in our sample. |
|---|---|
| Account age | Not stated publicly. |
| Post body | Required. A post with an empty or nearly empty body is removed automatically, with a note to use search for simple questions.Mods' wording: “Your submission contained an empty or nearly empty body.” |
| Brand names | A post built around a brand name product may be removed. Describe the ingredients and doses instead.Mods' wording: “simply list the ingredients and dosages, not the brand name” |
| Advertising | Not allowed, including for things you do not make money from. Referral, affiliate and discount codes are banned too.Mods' wording: “Advertising and marketing will in all likelihood lead to a permanent ban” |
| Post flair | Optional. About half of posts carry one. General Question is the most common at roughly a third of posts, then Recommendations and Experience. |
What AutoModerator says
The moderators' bot leaves these messages on posts. They are the closest thing to an official statement of the thresholds.
Rules of r/supplements 1. Do Not Suggest Prescription Drugs Posts & Comments Reported as: Do Not Suggest Prescription Drugs Prescription drugs are not Supplements; do not recommend prescription medication. Sensible/Suggest talking to DR. can be allowable etc 2. Dangerous Grey Area Substance Posts & Comments Reported as: Dangerous Grey Area Substance Potentially dangerous grey area substances can not be recommended. 3. Be Polite Posts & Comments Reported as: Rude/Personal Attacks You shouldn't ever be personally attacking another user in this subreddit. 4. No Advertisements Posts & Comments Reported as: Advertisement. No selling / buying / trading posts No advertisements. No selling/trading posts between users.”
Sorry, your submission has been automatically removed. Your submission contained an empty or nearly empty body. If you're asking a simple question be sure to use the search function first, most simple questions have been answered before.
What you can post
| Post type | Subreddit setting | Share of recent posts |
|---|---|---|
| Text | Allowed | 71% |
| Link | Allowed | 11% |
| Image | Allowed | 18% |
| Video | Not allowed | <1% |
| Poll | Allowed | 0% |
Post flairs in use
- General Question 33%
- Recommendations 10%
- Experience 7%
- Scientific Study 2%
- Survey <1%
- Article <1%
What happens to a new post
Where the most recent posts ended up. Sample size: 400.
- Stayed up80%
- Removed by Reddit's filters2%
- Held by AutoModerator2%
- Removed by moderators15%
- Deleted by the author1%
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
- February 2026 to July 2026
The rules, in the mods' words
- 1
Rule #1 – Submission guidelines
- Respect & Positivity: Treat everyone with respect, avoid negativity, and offer constructive feedback. - Focus on the Topic: Keep posts & comments relevant to supplements. Use clear titles and provide relevant information for context! No Self-Promotion: Share resources, but avoid promoting personal businesses (unless mod-approved).
- 2
Rule #2 – Self-promotional advertising or soliciting
Avoid: - Company Pitches: Advertisements, announcements, or petitions for companies, websites, blogs, videos, apps, or products – even if seemingly helpful – aren't allowed. - Self-Promotion: Promoting anything you or someone you know owns, even if it's not monetized. - Referral Chasing: Sharing referral, affiliate, invite, or discount links/codes.
- 3
Rule #3 – Unhelpful or disrespectful content
We strongly condemn: - Circlejerking/Karmawhoring - Insincerity/Dishonesty - Trolling/Provocation We also advise you against: - Vote Manipulation - Profanity - Poor Reddiquette - Clickbait Titles - Bots/Novelty Accounts - Fleeting Content
- 4
Rule #4 – Health advice
While navigating through your supplements journey, keep in mind that any post or comment on r/Supplements isn't a replacement for a doctor’s consultation.
- 5
Rule #5 – Prescription or illegal products
- Promoting Prescription Products: We don't allow suggestions for illegally obtaining prescription medication, regardless of location. - Promoting Illegal Products: We don’t allow suggestions for obtaining any illegal products.
- 6
Rule #6 – Personal attacks or abusive language
- Focus on the Issue, Not the Person - Words Matter - Safety First - Zero Tolerance for Discrimination - Respect All Viewpoints - No Sex Work Discussion - Avoid Retaliation - Report Issues
- 7
Rule #7 – Relationship or personal advice discussion
- Relationship Advice: This subreddit focuses on supplements, not relationship dynamics. - Relationship Ultimatums: Recommending someone break up or start a relationship based solely on health issues isn't helpful. - Mental Health Concerns: If you're struggling with suicidal thoughts or violence, please reach out to professional resources. - Changing Others: Posts focused on controlling or influencing someone else's health goals and tendencies don't directly address your health goals.
- 8
Rule #8 - General bad behavior
- Going MIA - Posting for Others (Without Context) - Stirring the Pot - Privacy Matters - Flooding the Feed - Double-Posting - Plagiarism is a Drag For a complete list of Reddit's content policy violations, please refer to the official guidelines: Content policy violations.
These are the rules as archived in January 2025. Rules change. Check the sidebar before you post.
The culture
r/Supplements has about 620,000 members and around 60 new posts a day. It runs on personal experience. Someone says what they took, how much, and what happened, and the comments fill up with people who had the same result or the opposite one. About 70% of posts are text, more than half of titles are questions, and the typical post gets eight comments.
A small set of compounds carries most of the conversation: magnesium in its various forms, creatine, vitamin D, omega-3, L-theanine, zinc, ashwagandha. Sleep, anxiety and energy are the usual reasons. The biggest threads are either a strong personal result, like a calming supplement that changed someone's evenings, or a warning that a popular supplement made things worse. Both draw hundreds of replies.
The running argument is hype against evidence. The sidebar asks for sources and says anecdote is welcome if you label it as anecdote. It also warns the other way: dismissing supplements wholesale without a scientific reason is moderated. So the room is pro-supplement but likes to be argued with, and a post asking which supplement is most overrated got more comments than anything else in the sample.
What lands
- A first-person result with the dose, the timing and how long you took it, good or bad.
- A contrarian warning backed by your own bloodwork or symptoms, such as a common mineral making your mood worse.
- A study or expert claim posted with the abstract or a plain summary, on a compound people already take.
- An open question that invites everyone's experience, like what fixed a specific kind of fatigue or brain fog.
- A stack list with your age, training and goals, written out in text so people can comment on each item.
What gets removed or ignored
- Photo-only posts of a pile of bottles asking to be rated or guided, with nothing in the body. Some stay up, many are removed.
- Long explainer posts that read like an article or a content piece on one ingredient, including the same piece posted twice.
- Anything that looks like selling or sourcing: offers to meet up or ship, requests for a supplier, bragging about stockpiling a banned product.
- Posts centred on one brand's product, and questions about what to look for in a quality product that read like a lead-in to one.
- Posts recommending prescription drugs or dangerous grey area substances, which the mods' pinned comment lists as rules one and two.
The unwritten rules
- Give numbers. Dose in milligrams, the form, how long, what else you take. Vague posts get told to get bloodwork.
- Say when it is only your experience. People will ask for a source if you state it as fact.
- Brand names come up in comments all the time and are tolerated there. A post about a brand is where it turns into suspected spam.
- Comments are short, around 18 words, and about 3% carry a link, usually to a study. A link to a store stands out.
- Expect the answer to be eat better, sleep and see a doctor. The wiki says outright that the tone can be harsh for your own good.
Self-promotion
The rules are broad. No ads, announcements or pitches for companies, websites, blogs, videos, apps or products, even helpful ones. No promoting anything you or someone you know owns, even if it makes no money. No referral or discount codes. The wiki adds that advertising without disclosing your affiliation gets you banned, sometimes with no warning, and that even suspicion of an affiliation can be enough. In practice a few disclosed feedback requests for free tools and homemade formulas were still up in our sample, so disclosure and a real question buy some tolerance. A company account dropping links does not get that.
How people write here
- Typical post length
- 70 words
- Typical title length
- 7 words
- Titles phrased as a question
- 56%
- Typical comment length
- 18 words
- Comments that include a link
- 3%
- Posts that carry a flair
- 52%
When people post
- 0:00 UTC, 10
- 1:00 UTC, 9
- 2:00 UTC, 13
- 3:00 UTC, 12
- 4:00 UTC, 6
- 5:00 UTC, 9
- 6:00 UTC, 12
- 7:00 UTC, 14
- 8:00 UTC, 20
- 9:00 UTC, 18
- 10:00 UTC, 8
- 11:00 UTC, 27
- 12:00 UTC, 24
- 13:00 UTC, 19
- 14:00 UTC, 20
- 15:00 UTC, 25
- 16:00 UTC, 22
- 17:00 UTC, 32
- 18:00 UTC, 23
- 19:00 UTC, 18
- 20:00 UTC, 19
- 21:00 UTC, 15
- 22:00 UTC, 9
- 23:00 UTC, 16
New posts by hour of day, UTC.
Top keywords
The words and phrases that show up far more often here than in other communities, from recent posts in r/Supplements.
- supplements 81 posts
- magnesium 57 posts
- supplement 61 posts
- vitamin 56 posts
- taking 93 posts
- creatine 38 posts
- glycinate 22 posts
- magnesium glycinate 19 posts
- dose 34 posts
- capsules 18 posts
- sleep 40 posts
- l-theanine 15 posts
- zinc 16 posts
- vitamins 17 posts
- melatonin 13 posts
- collagen 15 posts
- omega 12 posts
- pills 16 posts
- daily 38 posts
- powder 20 posts
- fish oil 12 posts
- stack 30 posts
- fish 17 posts
- protein 22 posts
- ashwagandha 7 posts
- effects 21 posts
- doses 14 posts
- theanine 9 posts
- multivitamin 9 posts
- caffeine 13 posts
- capsule 11 posts
- energy 21 posts
- supplementing 10 posts
- taking mg 10 posts
- effect 17 posts
- pill 10 posts
- health 29 posts
- vitamin d3 8 posts
- omega-3 8 posts
- supplementation 8 posts
Common questions
How much karma do you need to post in r/Supplements?
No requirement is published. Automatic filtering is light, with Reddit's filters and AutoModerator each catching about 2% of posts in our sample. Moderators removed about 15%, so what matters is whether the post follows the rules, not the age of the account.
Can I promote my supplement brand in r/Supplements?
No. The rules ban company pitches, self-promotion of anything you own and referral or discount codes, and the submit page warns that advertising will likely lead to a permanent ban. The wiki says undisclosed affiliation is a banning offence and that link dropping by a company can be banned instantly.
Why was my r/Supplements post removed?
The common reasons are an empty body, a photo of products with no context, a post about a brand instead of an ingredient, anything that looks like selling or sourcing, or a mention of prescription or grey area substances. Article-style explainers are also removed often.
What kind of posts work in r/Supplements?
Text posts about one compound or one problem, with doses and your own experience. About 70% of posts are text and more than half of titles are questions. The most upvoted threads are personal results and warnings about magnesium, creatine and L-theanine.
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.
