Reddit Guides·By DeadSubs

How to Become a Reddit Moderator in 2026 (4 Ways That Work)

How to become a Reddit moderator: create a subreddit, answer mod applications, get promoted as a regular, or claim an abandoned subreddit. Plus how to add someone as a mod and what moderators actually do.

How to Become a Reddit Moderator

Quick answer: There are four ways to become a Reddit moderator: create your own subreddit, apply when a subreddit recruits moderators, get invited as a trusted regular, or claim an abandoned subreddit through r/redditrequest. The last one is the only way to become the moderator of an existing community with thousands of subscribers without being invited.

Key takeaways

  • Reddit moderators are unpaid volunteers who run individual subreddits, not Reddit employees.
  • Creating a subreddit is instant but starts with zero members.
  • Mod applications and invitations depend on another moderator choosing you.
  • r/redditrequest lets you take over a subreddit whose moderators have all been inactive for 60+ days — often with an existing audience.

What Reddit Moderators Actually Do

Moderators run a single community. Day to day, that means:

  • Setting and enforcing rules, including removing posts and comments that break them
  • Working the mod queue, where reported and filtered content waits for review
  • Fighting spam, largely through AutoModerator rules
  • Shaping the community with pinned posts, flairs, the sidebar, and wiki pages
  • Banning users who repeatedly break the rules

Moderators must also follow Reddit's Moderator Code of Conduct, which covers things like not interfering with other communities and actually enforcing Reddit's content policy.

Way 1: Create Your Own Subreddit

The fastest route. Anyone who creates a subreddit becomes its first moderator.

  1. Click Create a community (from the left menu on desktop or the + menu in the app).
  2. Choose a name. It's permanent and limited to 21 characters, letters, numbers, and underscores.
  3. Pick the community type: public, restricted, or private.
  4. Add a description, topics, and rules.

Reddit requires accounts to meet some minimum age and karma thresholds before they can create communities, and it doesn't publish the exact numbers. If creation is blocked, keep using Reddit normally for a few weeks.

The catch: a new subreddit starts with nobody in it. Growing from zero is slow. See how to grow a subreddit for the full playbook.

Way 2: Apply When a Subreddit Recruits Moderators

Busy subreddits regularly post moderator applications, usually as a pinned post or a form linked in the sidebar.

  • Watch the subreddits you already use for "we're looking for moderators" posts.
  • Browse r/needamod, where communities post openings and users offer to help.
  • Apply with specifics: how long you've been active there, your time zone, and any mod experience.

Your post and comment history in that community matters more than anything you write in the application.

Way 3: Become a Trusted Regular

Many moderators are recruited without applying. Moderators notice people who:

  • Post and comment helpfully and often
  • Report rule-breaking content instead of arguing with it
  • Follow the rules themselves

If you're already one of those people, you can message the mod team and offer to help. Keep it short and specific.

Way 4: Claim an Abandoned Subreddit

This is the route most people don't know about, and it's the only one that gets you an existing audience without anyone inviting you.

Reddit runs an official process, r/redditrequest, for handing over communities whose moderators have disappeared. If every human moderator has been inactive on Reddit for 60+ days, you can request the subreddit:

  1. Confirm every human moderator is inactive across all of Reddit (bots like AutoModerator don't count).
  2. Send the mod team a modmail saying you'd like to help revive the community.
  3. Wait five full days.
  4. Post a link post on r/redditrequest titled with the exact subreddit name.
  5. Reply to request_bot with your revival plan and a link to your modmail.

Admins review the request, usually within about a week. Our step-by-step takeover guide has copy-paste templates for every step, and the dead subreddits list shows large communities that have already gone quiet.

Finding eligible subreddits by hand is slow — most communities you check will still have an active mod somewhere. DeadSubs scans Reddit by keyword and flags the abandoned ones.

How to Make Someone a Mod on Reddit

If you already moderate a subreddit and want to add someone:

  1. Open your subreddit and go to Mod Tools.
  2. Select Moderators.
  3. Choose Invite user as mod and enter their username.
  4. Pick their permissions (full permissions, or limited ones like Posts & Comments only).
  5. Send the invite. They become a moderator when they accept it.

Moderators are ranked by when they were added. Newer mods can't remove moderators listed above them, so think about who you add early. For more on how the mod list works, see who owns a subreddit.

Where to Get Help as a New Moderator

Further Reading