Quick picks: what are you trying to do?
- Get your brand talked about, and you have time: answer threads yourself from an account with history. Steps are below.
- Get mentioned without spending hours a week: pay per mention (see best places to buy Reddit mentions) or a daily service (see services that post every day).
- Get mentioned so ChatGPT or Perplexity picks you up: the threads AI answers cite matter more than any thread. Read how to use Reddit for AI search visibility.
- Find the mentions you already have: Reddit search sorted by New, or a free F5Bot alert. See the tracking section below.
- Tag a person or a subreddit in a comment: type u/ or r/ before the name. See the last section.
Ways to get mentions, and what each takes
Prices for the paid rows were read from each service's own page on November 13, 2026. CommunityMentions is ours.
| Way | What it takes | Cost | How fast | Main limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Answer existing threads from your own account | A few hours a week, an account with comment history, and answers that solve the question before naming anything | $0 | Weeks before it adds up | Moderators remove comments that read as promotion; one account reaches only so many threads |
| Share original data or a useful guide as a post | Something people would save: a dataset, a teardown, a benchmark | $0 plus the work | One post at a time | Many subreddits limit self-promotion in posts; read each sidebar first |
| Run an AMA | News or real expertise, and the moderators' agreement | $0 | One day | Needs a reason people want to ask you things |
| Pay per mention | Your keywords and a budget; the seller finds threads and posts | Mention.Broker $89.99 for 30 a month at launch pricing ($149.99 list); ReplyAgent lists $4 a comment | Days | Reddit only; you check each one yourself |
| A daily done-for-you service: CommunityMentions (ours) | A free sample first, then you approve the voice in Slack | $1,000 a month, month to month, plus a $1 setup charge | Daily once approved | Median 49 verified placements per brand in 30 days, 9 of them on Reddit (55 brands, to Nov 5, 2026); the niche sets the real number |
| Reddit Ads | A self-serve ad account and a budget | Your bid and budget | Same day | An ad, not a mention; Reddit's spam policy points businesses that post mostly their own links to its ad platform |
How to do it yourself, step by step
Each step lists what done looks like.
| Step | What to do | What done looks like |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | List 5 subreddits where your buyers ask questions. The subreddit finder ranks them by how often AI answers cite them | Five subreddits, each with its rules read |
| 2 | Search each one for your category words and competitor names, sorted by New and by Top of the year | A list of 10 open threads where your product is a fair answer |
| 3 | Answer the question first, with numbers or steps from your own experience, then name your product as one option where it fits, in words and without a link unless the subreddit clearly allows one. The spam help page has the detail | A comment that would still be useful with the product name removed, and readers can search the name |
| 4 | Come back after 24 hours and reply to anyone who answered you | The comment is still up and has replies or votes |
| 5 | Set a free alert for your brand name so new mentions reach you | An email or Slack alert the next time someone names you |
A worked example: a SaaS tool and r/SaaS
Say you sell a B2B software tool. Our r/SaaS data page, read November 13, 2026, shows its threads were cited 302 times in AI answers we tracked, and 43% of those answers came from someone looking for a product to buy. The most-cited thread is "3 ways to promote your product on reddit without…", cited 25 times. Under 1% of the 359 comments we scanned in r/SaaS contained a link. So the plan there is a useful answer in a thread like that one, naming your tool in words, with no link. Then check the comment the next day and answer replies. The full numbers are on the r/SaaS page.
What Reddit's own rules say
Reddit Rule 2, read November 13, 2026: "Participate authentically in communities where you have a personal interest, and do not spam or engage in disruptive behaviors (including content manipulation) that interfere with Reddit communities." Reddit's spam policy, updated November 11, 2026, lists "mass-posting repetitive content for the purpose of exposure or financial gain" and "mass-tagging other users" as violations. It also says that if your contributions "consist primarily of links to a business that you run, own, or otherwise benefit from," you should "be thoughtful about the frequency of posting, or consider advertising opportunities". Each subreddit adds its own rules, and moderators decide what counts as spam there. Rule 5 and how to write a comment that reads as help are covered in Reddit marketing without it reading as spam.
How to track the mentions you get
- Reddit search: search your brand name and sort by New. It's free and shows posts and comments, but you have to remember to look.
- F5Bot: a free account with an email address alerts you when your keywords appear on Reddit, Hacker News or Lobsters (f5bot.com, read November 13, 2026). The free plan covers 5 keywords with alerts delayed up to 2 hours, and F5Bot's tiers page lists it as personal use only; for a business, Gold is $49.99 a month for 200 keywords (f5bot.com/tiers, read November 13, 2026; see F5Bot pricing).
- Paid monitoring tools cover more keywords and channels; F5Bot alternatives compares them with prices.
- A daily service reports for you: CommunityMentions sends a Slack report each day linking every comment that passed our check.
If you meant tagging a user or subreddit in a comment
Reddit's help center, read November 13, 2026, says typing r/ followed by a community's name in a comment, such as r/YourCommunityName, "will automatically create a hyperlink" to that community. Usernames work the same way with u/, such as u/spez, which links to that person's profile; whether they're notified depends on their notification settings, which Reddit says are under Settings, then Notifications. Reddit's spam policy lists mass-tagging users as a violation, so tag the one person a reply is for.
Limits to know
- There is no shortcut that makes people mention you on their own; every way above is either your time or someone else's paid time.
- Moderators remove comments and can ban accounts, and their rules differ by subreddit. Read the sidebar before every new subreddit.
- Paid prices change; the ones above were read November 13, 2026.
- The link share comes from comments we scanned in 187 subreddits with data pages, not from all of Reddit.
Sources
- Reddit Rules, Rule 2, read November 13, 2026.
- Reddit Help, Spam, updated November 11, 2026, read November 13, 2026.
- Reddit Help, How to use community mentions in comments and notification settings, read November 13, 2026.
- F5Bot and its tiers page, read November 13, 2026; more in our F5Bot pricing page.
- Mention.Broker, ReplyAgent and CommunityMentions prices: services that post every day, each read from the vendor's own page November 13, 2026.
- CommunityMentions subreddit data: 115,236 comments scanned in 187 subreddits for links; 80,500 AI answers tracked January 9 to November 6, 2026 citing 2,929 subreddits; data as of November 8, 2026. r/SaaS data page read November 13, 2026.
- CommunityMentions delivery database, verified placements October 7 to November 5, 2026, read November 6, 2026. Our price and terms: pricing section and company facts.