Reddit Shadowban Checker

What Is a Reddit Shadowban and How Does It Work

A shadowban is one of Reddit's most disorienting penalties. Unlike a regular ban, where you receive a notification and can no longer post in a specific subreddit, a shadowban is site-wide and silent. Your account appears normal to you (you can still log in, post, and comment) but nobody else can see any of it. Your content becomes invisible across all of Reddit without any warning.

Regular bans are issued by subreddit moderators and affect only that community. Shadowbans are issued by Reddit's administrators or automated systems and affect your entire account on every subreddit.

Common Reasons Accounts Get Shadowbanned

Reddit's anti-spam systems are aggressive, and they can sometimes flag legitimate accounts. The most common triggers include:

Spamming the same link across multiple subreddits, even if the content is genuinely relevant to each community. Reddit's systems interpret rapid cross-posting of the same URL as spam behavior.

Vote manipulation of any kind, including asking friends to upvote your posts, using multiple accounts to upvote yourself, or participating in upvote exchange groups.

Using link shorteners like bit.ly or t.co. Reddit's spam filters flag shortened URLs because they obscure the destination, which is a common tactic used by actual spammers.

Aggressive self-promotion without meaningful community participation. If the majority of your activity is posting links to your own content, automated systems may flag your account.

Signs You Might Be Shadowbanned

The clearest sign is a sudden and complete drop in engagement. If your posts and comments consistently receive zero votes and zero replies across multiple subreddits, something is wrong. You can also check by logging out and trying to view your profile. If you see a "page not found" error, your account has likely been shadowbanned.

Another indicator is if your posts do not appear in a subreddit's "new" feed, even seconds after posting.

How to Appeal a Shadowban

If you believe your account was shadowbanned unfairly, you can submit an appeal to Reddit directly at reddit.com/appeals. Be honest and specific about your activity. If the ban was triggered by a mistake (for example, sharing the same link a few too many times), explain the context. Many shadowbans are reversed when the account holder demonstrates they are a real person engaging in good faith.

How to Avoid a Shadowban

The simplest prevention strategy is to behave like a genuine community member. Vary the links you share. Participate in discussions where you have no promotional interest. Never ask others to upvote your content. Use full URLs instead of link shorteners. And keep your self-promotion ratio well below the commonly cited 10% guideline.

Use RedShip's free shadowban checker above to verify your account status at any time and catch issues before they derail your Reddit strategy.