Reddit's October 2026 Algorithm Update: How Marketers Can Shape What People See
Last updated: 29 October 2026.
Short answer: On 28 October 2026, Reddit updated the help page that explains how it recommends content. Community pages now sort by "Best" by default instead of "Hot", the first change to that default in every archived version since at least March 2025. It matters most for logged-out visitors, who are 60% of Reddit's daily users and can't change the default. Brands can't touch anyone's settings, but they can earn the signals Reddit ranks on and avoid the five controls that switch them off.
Key takeaways
Reddit edited Reddit's Approach to Content Recommendations on 28 October 2026. Community pages now default to Best. Every archived version from March 2025 to August 2026 said Hot.
Defaults decide what most people see. 77.7 million of Reddit's 130.3 million daily active uniques were logged out in Q2 2026, and logged-out visitors can't save a different default sort.
"Best" means three different things on Reddit. On the home feed it's a personalised machine-learning sort. On comments it ranks by a confidence score on the upvote ratio. On community pages, Reddit hasn't said how it works.
One click on "show fewer posts like this" removes the whole community from that person's recommendations. A pushy brand post can cost a subreddit its reach with the exact people you wanted.
Recommendations now skip posts from accounts Reddit has asked to verify as human or register as automation, until they do. Unregistered posting tools put your reach at risk.
Reddit limits recommendations of mature and sensitive content to people who subscribe or have shown interest. Brands in sensitive categories need subscribers and search, not recommendations.
Respond in 30 days: audit your settings, rewrite for Best, stop duplicate posting and measure with Mod Insights before and after.
What changed in Reddit's recommendation docs on 28 October 2026?
Reddit's help centre shows the recommendations page was edited on 28 October 2026. We compared it with Internet Archive copies from March 2025, October 2025, January 2026, April 2026 and 9 August 2026.
Section | August 2026 version | 28 October 2026 version | What it means for brands |
|---|---|---|---|
Default sort on community pages | Hot | Best | Subreddit pages are no longer described as ordered by recency plus upvotes |
Home feed sorting | Explained Hot, Top, New and Rising on reddit.com, and the app's Latest feed | Section removed | The page now presents the home feed only as a personalised feed. The sorts still exist: Reddit's feed help page, edited the same day, still lists Latest |
Private browsing | Anonymous Browsing mode | Incognito mode | Same idea, new name: activity isn't tied to the account |
Wording | "Redditors" | "Users" | Cosmetic |
How big a change is this?
Bigger than it looks. Between March 2025 and August 2026, the page's list of ranking factors and its four-step recommendation process didn't change at all. The edits in that time were wording ("subreddit" became "community") and one renamed menu (the app's Communities tab became Explore Communities). The "hot" default appeared in every version. Reddit doesn't publish a change log for this page, so we can't date the October edits more precisely than "after 9 August, published by 28 October".
It also arrives alongside a run of feed experiments in Reddit's public changelogs:
For You and Following feeds. In September Reddit re-launched a test that splits the home feed in two. Following shows only communities and people a user follows, and Reddit added logic so people default to the feed they prefer. In October it started testing swiping and sorting options too.
Fewer recommendations for unverified automation. Also in September, Reddit said it will exclude posts and comments from recommendations if the account has been asked to verify it's human or register its automation and hasn't done either.
Trending labels and a duplicate-posting pause. The 8 October changelog added a test of trending labels on feed posts, and a 12-hour pause for accounts posting substantially similar content in too many communities.
Read together, the direction is clear: more personal feeds, fewer recommendations for anything that looks automated or repetitive, and more weight on what readers choose.
Why does the switch from Hot to Best matter?
Because "Hot" has a published definition and "Best" on community pages doesn't. Reddit's August page described Hot as a sort that "prioritizes recent posts that have been getting upvotes". That rewarded speed: post at the right time, collect early upvotes, rise. Best is a different system, and the word means different things in different places.
Sort | Where it applies | How Reddit describes it | What tends to win |
|---|---|---|---|
Hot | Community pages (old default), home feed option | Recent posts that are getting upvotes | Fast early upvotes |
Best (home feed) | Logged-in home feed | A personalised sort using machine learning, based on the reader's activity and continuously improved | Posts that match what that reader engages with |
Best (comments) | Comment threads | Ranks by the 95% confidence score of a comment's upvote ratio (Reddit, 2009) | Comments with a high, consistent upvote ratio |
Best (community pages) | Subreddit pages (new default) | Not published | Unknown. Plan for posts that keep earning votes and replies |
Top, New, Rising | All feeds, by choice | Most upvotes and comments; newest; most recent views | Strong all-round posts; timing; momentum |
The comment version is the best documented. Reddit's 2009 post on comment sorting, the last detailed explanation it has published, says Best treats the votes so far as a sample, then ranks by the score it's 95% confident the comment would reach if everyone voted. A comment with one upvote and no downvotes stays near the bottom; one with 10 upvotes and 1 downvote ranks much higher. Ratio and consistency matter more than raw totals or speed.
What we don't know is whether community-page Best uses the same idea, the home feed's personalised model, or something new. So don't build tactics on a guess. Build on the signals Reddit does publish: votes, comment history, post type, age, flair and the community itself. If you're new to how Reddit ranks posts, start with our guide to the Reddit algorithm.
Who does this update affect most?
Logged-out visitors. They are the majority of Reddit's daily audience, and they see defaults.
Audience (Q2 2026) | Daily active uniques | Year-on-year growth | Default feed | Can save a different default sort? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Logged-out | 77.7 million | Up 27% | Popular, ranked by net upvotes, localised by IP in some countries | No |
Logged-in | 52.6 million | Up 7% | Home feed, personalised, with recommendations | Yes, or let each community remember the last sort |
Source: Reddit Q2 2026 shareholder letter (30 July 2026).
Logged-out growth is mostly international: 47.6 million of those 77.7 million are outside the US, up 41%. Search matters for this group: the same letter said product work had offset headwinds in users coming from search, and that search referrals were choppy in the quarter. These visitors never see "show fewer" buttons or recommendations. They see a thread, or a community page in its default order, and decide whether to trust you.
For marketers that means two jobs. For logged-in users, earn personalised recommendations and avoid negative feedback. For logged-out users, make sure your threads rank and read well in their default order, which is now Best. Our explainer on why Reddit posts rank in Google and ChatGPT covers the search side.
How does Reddit decide what people see?
Reddit builds each logged-in feed in four steps. Each one is a place where brand content can win or lose.
Step | What Reddit does | What it means for brands |
|---|---|---|
1. Candidate generation | Builds a list of content the person might enjoy | You only enter the pool if you're active in communities and topics your buyers use |
2. Filtering | Removes spam, content already seen and content from blocked accounts | Spammy behaviour and unverified automation are cut before ranking even starts |
3. Prediction | Models predict what the person will or won't like | Past engagement with your community and content type drives this |
4. Sorting with diversity | Ranks by those predictions and avoids too many similar posts in a row | Three similar brand posts in a week compete with each other, not just with rivals |
Reddit adds that the weight of each factor "can change dynamically" for each person, based on their activity and feedback. There is no single ranking formula to game. The signals it names fall into four groups:
Signal Reddit names | What it covers | What brands can influence |
|---|---|---|
Content information | Upvotes and downvotes, the community, comment history, post type, post age and post flair | Posts that earn votes and real discussion, in the right community, with accurate flair |
The reader's activity | What they engage with, time spent in communities, recent visits, subscriptions, sign-up topics, and what they asked to see less of | Being where your buyers already spend time, and never earning a "show fewer" click |
Account age | Newer accounts, or those with few subscriptions, get more recommendations | New Redditors meet communities mainly through recommendations, so a recommendable community is how you reach them |
Location setting | Recommendations follow the country a user picks | Country and city communities for each market you sell in |
Reddit also recommends whole communities, through Explore Communities in the apps and trending topics in search. It picks them based on activity locally and globally, links to trending topics and, for logged-in users, similarity to communities they already use.
What are the 5 ways people control their Reddit feed, and how do you win each one?
The updated page lists five controls. Each is a switch in the reader's hands. Your job is to earn the positive signals and never trigger the negative ones.
1. Feedback buttons: be "popular" or be "similar", never be "show fewer"
What Reddit says: when someone sees a recommended post on their home feed, Reddit tells them why. Either it's popular on Reddit right now, or it's similar to content they've engaged with before. If they click "show fewer posts like this", Reddit stops recommending that community to them and shows fewer posts from similar communities. Reddit's community muting page confirms they won't get suggestions from that community again.
The insight: those two labels are the two doors into recommendations. "Popular right now" needs broad engagement. "Similar to content you've interacted with" needs topical consistency, so a community and a brand account that stay on one clear subject are easier to recommend. And the exit door is shared: the penalty for a bad post falls on the whole community, for that reader, and spills over to similar communities.
Do this:
Post only what a non-member would be glad to see in their feed. If it would only interest existing customers, keep it in your own subreddit.
Lead with the answer, the data or the story. Put the brand in the disclosure, not the headline.
Keep each account and community focused on one topic area, so "similar to content you've engaged with" keeps applying.
Use accurate flair. Reddit lists flair as a ranking input, and it helps readers filter for exactly what they came for.
2. Personalisation settings: recommendations rent attention, subscriptions keep it
What Reddit says: logged-in users can turn off home feed recommendations and see only communities they've joined. They can also choose how their location shapes recommendations, or opt out of location-based customisation.
The insight: two forces push in opposite directions. New accounts get more recommendations, so recommendations are how newcomers find you. Experienced users can switch them off, and the Following feed test gives them an easy way to do it. The users most likely to opt out are the engaged ones you most want to keep. Turning recommendation reach into subscriptions is the only way to keep it.
Do this:
In every useful post, give people a reason to join: a recurring thread, a weekly data drop, an AMA series.
Build in the communities your buyers already belong to, not only your own. Our guides to growing a subreddit and running a brand subreddit cover set-up.
For local markets, take part in country and city communities. Recommendations follow the location setting, and logged-out Popular is localised by IP in some countries.
3. Community and search sorting: write for Best, not for a spike
What Reddit says: community pages now sort by Best by default. Logged-in users can change that default, or let each community remember the last sort they picked. Search results have their own sorts. Reddit's search help page says the default, Relevance, weighs how rare each search word is, the post's age, and its votes and comments.
The insight: under Hot, timing was a tactic. Under Best, durability is the safer bet, and for comments the ratio of upvotes to downvotes matters more than speed. A comment that divides opinion can sink below a smaller, cleaner answer.
Do this:
Titles: write the question people search, using their exact words. Specific, less common words help in Relevance.
Posts: give a complete answer in the post itself, so the post keeps earning upvotes and saves after the first wave of readers.
Comments: answer the question first, cite a source, skip the pitch. Answers that nobody has reason to downvote rise under Best.
Threads you run: moderators can set a suggested comment sort for each post: Best, Old, Top, Q&A, Controversial or New. Use Q&A for AMAs so answers sit directly under questions. See how to run a Reddit AMA for your brand.
Stay in the thread for the first day. Replies keep a post's comment history growing, which is one of the content signals Reddit names.
4. Community muting: the quiet unsubscribe
What Reddit says: logged-in users can mute a community so it disappears from their notifications, home feed (including recommendations) and Popular feed. They can mute up to 1,000 communities.
The insight: muting is worse than leaving. A muted community can't reach that person through feeds, recommendations or notifications, and Mod Insights doesn't report mutes, so you won't see it happen. Brand subreddits are especially exposed because they tend to over-post and over-notify.
Do this:
Post less, but better. One strong post a week beats five announcements.
Pin evergreen information in community highlights (up to six posts) instead of reposting it.
Save notifications for news people would choose to be interrupted by.
Watch the unsubscriber trend in Mod Insights. A rising line after a run of announcements is your muting warning too.
5. Incognito mode: every thread is a first impression
What Reddit says: incognito lets people browse and search the Reddit app without linking that activity to their account. Reddit's incognito help page says it won't influence their feed, recommendations, notifications or ads personalisation.
The insight: incognito is built for browsing people don't want tied to their account, which makes private purchase research a likely use. Those visits don't count towards Reddit's weekly visitors figure for a community either, so part of your audience is invisible in every Reddit metric.
Do this: make every thread work for a reader who arrives cold and won't come back. Answer fully, state prices and limits, and link to one primary source. Measure Reddit with signals that don't need an account, such as branded search and "how did you hear about us?" answers.
What content will Reddit not recommend?
Three kinds of content are held back from recommendations, whatever their engagement.
Spam and repeated content. Spam is filtered out before ranking, and Reddit is testing a 12-hour pause for accounts posting substantially similar content in too many communities.
Content from unverified automation. Since September 2026, accounts that Reddit has prompted to verify they're human, or to register their automation, are excluded from recommendations until they complete one of those steps. Reddit's Rule 8 covers automated accounts. If you schedule or post through tools, make sure the accounts comply.
Mature and sensitive content. Reddit tries to keep mature content, and even content with sensitive themes, out of recommendations unless the person subscribes to that community or has shown interest. Even then, it may limit them.
If you market alcohol, gambling, sexual health, cannabis or similar categories, assume recommendations won't carry you. Build subscribers in the communities where your topic is welcome, make your threads easy to find in Reddit search and Google, and, where Reddit's ad policies allow your category, use ads to reach people outside those communities.
How should your brand respond?
The right response depends on how you use Reddit.
If you are | Your main risk | What to do first |
|---|---|---|
A brand with its own subreddit | Muting and unsubscribes from over-posting | Check community settings, set suggested comment sorts, move evergreen posts into highlights, cut announcement volume |
A brand taking part in other communities | "Show fewer" clicks that cost the community reach | Answer questions instead of posting promotions; disclose; never cross-post the same text |
A local or regional business | Missing location-based recommendations | Be active in country and city communities; post with local detail (prices, delivery, opening times) |
A brand in a sensitive category | Recommendations held back by Reddit's content limits | Grow subscribers where your topic is welcome; focus on search, and on ads where policy allows |
A B2B or niche brand | Small communities that rarely hit "popular right now" | Win the "similar to content you've engaged with" route: consistent, expert answers in a few focused communities |
A team using scheduling or automation tools | Exclusion from recommendations | Complete any human verification or automation registration Reddit asks for; keep posting human-led |
What does a 30-day response plan look like?
Week | Actions | Done when |
|---|---|---|
Week 1 | Export Mod Insights for the last 30 days (pageviews, daily uniques, subscribers, unsubscribers). Note weekly visitors. List your last 20 posts with upvotes and comments at 24 hours and 7 days | You have a baseline to compare against |
Week 2 | Audit community settings (recommendations and high-traffic feeds, default comment sort, highlights). Check every posting account for pending verification prompts. Stop any cross-posting of identical text | Settings fixed; no account at risk of exclusion |
Week 3 | Publish 3 to 5 posts written for Best: question titles, full answers, accurate flair, no duplicates. Stay in each thread for the first day | Posts live with a named owner replying |
Week 4 | Compare 7-day engagement and Mod Insights against week 1. Keep the formats that held engagement longest; drop the rest | A posting format and cadence you can repeat |
How do you measure whether the update helped or hurt you?
Compare like with like, before and after 28 October, over at least 30 days.
Metric | Where to find it | What a change tells you |
|---|---|---|
Pageviews and daily unique visitors | Mod Insights, Activity section | Whether your community's reach rose or fell |
Subscribers and unsubscribers | Mod Insights | Whether people keep you after finding you |
Weekly visitors and weekly contributions | Community homepage (apps and new reddit.com) | Current activity, excluding bots and incognito visitors |
Engagement at 24 hours vs 7 days | Your own post log | Whether posts keep earning activity, which Best favours over a quick spike |
Comment position in key threads | Check threads in default sort while logged out | Whether your answers rise under Best for the majority who can't change sort |
Branded search and "how did you hear about us?" | Search Console, forms | Influence that Reddit's own metrics can't see, including incognito research |
Don't judge a post in its first hours. Reddit and some communities hide vote counts for a while after posting, and Best appears to reward posts and comments that hold up over time.
How can marketers positively influence what people see on their threads?
Run through these eight steps before and after every post.
Pick the community your buyers already use. The community is a ranking signal, and subscribers still see you when recommendations are off.
Read the rules and use accurate flair. Flair is one of the content signals Reddit lists.
Write the title as the question. Use the words people search for. See how to write high-performing Reddit posts.
Lead with value, then disclose. Say who you work for, and make the post useful to someone who will never buy from you.
Post once per community, written for that community. Identical text across subreddits risks the 12-hour pause, and the feed avoids similar posts in a row.
Stay in the thread. Answer follow-ups, so the post keeps earning comments and votes.
Set up your own subreddit properly. In community settings, switch on "Show up in high-traffic feeds" and "Get recommended to individual users" if you want reach, choose a default comment sort and use highlights.
Never manipulate votes or automate without registering. Voting from several accounts is vote manipulation, and unverified automation is now kept out of recommendations.
Template: pre-post check for the Best default
Community: [name], and why our buyers use it: [one line] Rules checked on: [date]. Flair: [flair] Title, written as the question people search: [title] First line answers the question: [yes or no] Brand disclosure included: [yes or no] Would a non-member be glad to see this in their feed? [yes or no] Reason someone would join after reading: [recurring thread, data, AMA] Posted anywhere else in the last 12 hours? [no, or which communities] Posting account verified and compliant with Rule 8? [yes or no] Who replies to comments, and for how long: [name, hours] Results: upvotes, comments and saves at 24 hours [ ] and at 7 days [ ]
What should brands stop doing after this update?
Timing posts to game Hot. It's no longer the community default. Durability beats timing.
Cross-posting the same text everywhere. Reddit is testing a 12-hour pause for it, and similar posts in a row are what its feed avoids.
Posting ads as posts. One "show fewer posts like this" removes the whole community from that person's recommendations.
Over-notifying your own subscribers. Muting removes you from their feeds and notifications, and Mod Insights won't show you it happened.
Running unregistered automation. Accounts with pending verification are kept out of recommendations.
Buying votes or using sockpuppets. It breaks Reddit's rules, and spam is filtered before ranking. Our authentic engagement playbook covers what works instead.
Frequently asked questions
Did Reddit change its algorithm on 28 October 2026?
Reddit updated its documentation on 28 October 2026. The clearest change is that community pages now default to the Best sort instead of Hot. We found no separate announcement of a ranking change as of 29 October, so treat this as Reddit describing how its feeds now work.
What is the difference between Hot and Best on Reddit?
Hot favours recent posts that are getting upvotes. Best depends on where you see it: on the home feed it's personalised, on comments it ranks by a confidence score on the upvote ratio, and on community pages Reddit hasn't published how it works.
Does the update affect logged-out visitors?
Yes, more than anyone. Logged-out visitors were 77.7 million of Reddit's 130.3 million daily active uniques in Q2 2026, and they can't save a different default sort. They see community pages and threads in Reddit's default order.
What does "show fewer posts like this" do on Reddit?
It stops Reddit recommending posts from that community to you, and shows you fewer posts from similar communities. Reddit's help centre treats it as muting the community for recommendations.
Can people turn off Reddit recommendations?
Yes. Logged-in users can switch off home feed recommendations and see only communities they've joined. Reddit is also testing a Following feed that does the same.
Will scheduling or automation tools hurt my reach?
They can. Since September 2026, Reddit has excluded posts and comments from recommendations if the account was asked to verify it's human or register its automation and hasn't done so. Complete any prompts Reddit sends, and keep a person in the loop for replies.
How do I get my brand's subreddit recommended?
Turn on "Get recommended to individual users" and "Show up in high-traffic feeds" in community settings. Reddit then recommends communities based on activity, links to trending topics and similarity to communities people already use, so steady, useful activity matters most.
Need help keeping your brand in front of the right Redditors?
The Reddit Marketing Agency helps brands earn their place in feeds and threads: choosing the right communities, writing posts people want more of, and running brand subreddits people don't mute. Talk to us about your Reddit strategy.
Sources
Reddit Help: Reddit's Approach to Content Recommendations (edited 28 October 2026)
Reddit blog: Reddit's new comment sorting system (15 October 2009)
Reddit Help: What are home feed recommendations? (edited 5 October 2026)
Reddit Help: What is community muting? (edited 5 October 2026)
Reddit Help: What is incognito and how does it work? (edited 27 October 2026)
Reddit Help: Understanding weekly visitors and contributions (edited 27 October 2026)
Reddit Help: What filters and sorts are available? (edited 27 March 2026)
Reddit Help: What are upvotes and downvotes? (edited 5 October 2026)
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