54.1% of brand-mention comments on Reddit were removed within a week, and 47.1% of those removals came on the day of posting
We tracked 10,757 comments that named a product or company across 3,015 subreddits from 16 July to 16 September 2026. A quarter were gone by the same afternoon, and subreddit size barely changed the odds.
Summary
Of 10,757 brand-mention comments placed on Reddit by a Reddit marketing service between 16 July and 16 September 2026, 54.1% were removed within about a week of posting. 25.5% were already gone at the first check, which ran the afternoon of the posting day, a median 12.8 hours after each comment was assigned. Of the 5,824 removals, 47.1% were found at that first check and 63.7% by the first nightly re-check, with the rest spread over the next five nights. Removal rates were close across subreddit sizes, from 52.9% in subreddits with 10,000 to 99,999 members to 57.9% in those with a million or more, and the 54 subreddits with at least 30 comments differed from each other by no more than sample size alone would produce. In the two weeks starting 3 September, removals rose to 80.3% and 83.7%, and the rate went up in 39 of 42 subreddits at once.
Findings
- 54.1% of 10,757 brand-mention comments posted on Reddit between 16 July and 16 September 2026 were removed within about a week.
- 25.5% of the 10,757 were already gone at the first check, which ran the afternoon of the posting day, a median 12.8 hours after the comment was assigned.
- Of the 8,013 comments that passed the first check, 38.4% were removed over the next six nights.
- 47.1% of the 5,824 removals were found at the first check and 63.7% by the first nightly re-check; the sixth night still turned up 6.0%.
- Subreddit size changed little: removal ran from 52.9% (n = 4,387) in subreddits with 10,000 to 99,999 members to 57.9% (n = 425) in those with a million or more.
- Across the 54 subreddits with at least 30 comments, removal rates ran from 34.2% to 64.1%, a spread no wider than sample size alone would produce.
- For comments posted in the weeks starting 3 and 10 September, removal rose to 80.3% (n = 946) and 83.7% (n = 729), and it rose in 39 of 42 subreddits at once.
Most removals happen within two days
Source: Strandline Research analysis of 10,757 brand-mention comments posted 16 July to 16 September 2026. The first check ran the afternoon of the posting day; re-checks ran around 11 PM Eastern on the six nights after it.
Every comment in this study was checked on the afternoon of the day it was posted, then again around 11 PM Eastern on each of the next six nights. A removal is dated by the check that first found it.
The first check caught the largest share. 2,744 comments, 25.5% of the 10,757, were gone before that check ran. Assignments went out in the early morning, Eastern time, and the check ran a median 12.8 hours later (10th to 90th percentile: 12.4 to 14.1 hours), so these comments lasted less than about 13 hours. The records cannot split that window further, so a comment removed in its first minute and one removed at hour twelve look the same here.
Passing the first check did not mean a comment was safe. Of the 8,013 comments still visible that afternoon, 3,080 (38.4%) were removed by the sixth night. The first nightly re-check, a median 45.6 hours after assignment, found 963 of them. Each later night found fewer, from 561 on night two to 351 on night six. By the end of the second day, 63.7% of all 5,824 removals had been found, and 94.0% by night five.
The steady tail matters for anyone counting results. A comment that is still live that afternoon has cleared the first filter, yet 28.6% of all comments (n = 10,757) were removed after that point. Of the 4,933 comments that survived the week, 4,919 were confirmed visible at the sixth-night check.
Removal by week, and the September rise
- Removed by the first check
- Removed within a week
Chart data
| week_starting | Removed by the first check | Removed within a week |
|---|---|---|
| Jul 16 | 10.8% | 52.0% |
| Jul 23 | 21.7% | 52.7% |
| Jul 30 | 22.9% | 42.1% |
| Aug 06 | 22.7% | 44.5% |
| Aug 13 | 24.0% | 47.4% |
| Aug 20 | 22.7% | 50.7% |
| Aug 27 | 26.3% | 52.4% |
| Sep 03 | 52.7% | 80.3% |
| Sep 10 | 46.2% | 83.7% |
Source: Strandline Research. Weeks run Thursday to Wednesday from 16 July 2026. Every week has at least 729 comments.
For comments posted from 30 July to 2 September, the within-week removal rate stayed between 42.1% (n = 1,217) and 52.4% (n = 1,185), and 22.7% to 26.3% of comments failed the first check.
The first two weeks show a different shape. Few comments failed the first check (10.8% of 1,701 in the week of 16 July), yet 52.0% were removed within the week, so most of those removals came days after posting.
September changed both lines. In the week of 3 September, 52.7% of 946 comments were gone at the first check and 80.3% within the week. The next week was similar, at 46.2% and 83.7% (n = 729). The rise was broad: among the 42 subreddits with at least five comments both before and during September, the rate rose in 39 (92.9%), and the median subreddit went from 40.5% to 80.0%. A jump that hits nearly every subreddit in the same week is the pattern expected when Reddit acts on the posting accounts or tightens a site-wide filter. Individual moderators changing their minds would not line up that way.
Subreddit size
| Subreddit size | Subreddits | Comments | Removed by first check (%) | Removal rate (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10,000 members | 390 | 1,188 | 25.8 | 53.5 |
| 10,000 to 99,999 | 960 | 4,387 | 22.9 | 52.9 |
| 100,000 to 999,999 | 456 | 2,703 | 27.8 | 55.7 |
| 1 million or more | 70 | 425 | 31.5 | 57.9 |
| Size not recorded | 1,139 | 2,054 | 26.7 | 54.4 |
Removal rates barely moved with size. Subreddits with 10,000 to 99,999 members removed 52.9% (n = 4,387) and those with a million or more removed 57.9% (n = 425). The largest subreddits removed more at the first check, 31.5% against 22.9%, but the within-week totals end up close. Member counts were not on file for 1,139 subreddits (2,054 comments), and their rate, 54.4%, sits with the rest.
Which subreddits remove the most
Source: Strandline Research. Comment counts and 95% intervals are in subreddits.csv. The intervals of all eight subreddits overlap.
| Subreddit | Comments | Brands | Removed | Removal rate (%) | Interval low (%) | Interval high (%) | Removed by first check | Median hours to removal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| r/honeymoonplanning | 48 | 3 | 20 | 41.7 | 28.8 | 55.7 | 8 | 57.5 |
| r/Nootropics | 75 | 10 | 34 | 45.3 | 34.6 | 56.6 | 10 | 54.2 |
| r/AI_Agents | 116 | 13 | 54 | 46.6 | 37.7 | 55.6 | 16 | 45.6 |
| r/Supplements | 114 | 12 | 59 | 51.8 | 42.7 | 60.7 | 35 | 13.4 |
| r/AskReddit | 42 | 21 | 23 | 54.8 | 39.9 | 68.8 | 16 | 14.0 |
| r/BrainFog | 43 | 6 | 24 | 55.8 | 41.1 | 69.6 | 8 | 45.7 |
| r/Mounjaro | 32 | 4 | 19 | 59.4 | 42.3 | 74.5 | 9 | 45.5 |
| r/decaf | 55 | 7 | 35 | 63.6 | 50.4 | 75.1 | 15 | 45.5 |
The sample spreads thinly: 3,015 subreddits, of which 1,728 received a single comment and only 54 received 30 or more. Among those 54, removal rates ran from 34.2% to 64.1% around a pooled rate of 50.3% (n = 2,837). That spread looks wide, but it is what sampling alone would produce with 30 or more comments per subreddit. The rates have a standard deviation of 7.4 points, the same 7.4 points expected if every subreddit removed comments at the pooled rate (chi-square 54.7 on 53 degrees of freedom).
We name 8 of the 54. A subreddit is named only if its comments came from at least three brands and no brand accounted for more than half. In 22 of the 54, every comment was for a single brand, so the subreddit's rate would really describe one brand's comments, and naming it would point to that brand.
Among the eight, r/honeymoonplanning removed the least, 41.7% of 48 comments, and r/decaf the most, 63.6% of 55. Their 95% intervals overlap, as do those of all eight. The timing differs more than the totals. In r/Supplements, 35 of 59 removals were already in place at the first check (median 13.4 hours after assignment), while in r/Nootropics only 10 of 34 were, and its median removal was found after 54.2 hours.
| Comments in subreddit | Subreddits | Comments | Removal rate (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 comment | 1,728 | 1,728 | 55.4 |
| 2 to 9 comments | 1,078 | 3,832 | 57.4 |
| 10 to 29 comments | 155 | 2,360 | 52.6 |
| 30 or more comments | 54 | 2,837 | 50.3 |
Subreddits that received more comments had slightly lower removal rates: 50.3% for those with 30 or more comments against 55.4% for those with one (n = 1,728). This is partly selection. The service sending these comments moves future comments away from subreddits where earlier ones were removed, so subreddits with long histories are the ones where comments had survived before.
Method
Source. 10,757 brand-mention comments placed on Reddit by a Reddit marketing service between 16 July and 16 September 2026, each tracked for removal. The comments were written for 80 brands and posted by the service's contractors in threads where the brand was relevant. The records are the service's own delivery data. We use only counts, dates, subreddit names and check results. No comment text, links, usernames, search terms or brand names are published.
Sample. A comment is included when it was posted to a thread as a reply (Reddit posts are excluded), the contractor supplied a link to the placed comment, and the first check reached a verdict. Assignments that were never posted, or whose link pointed to the wrong thread, are excluded. The window starts on 16 July because the nightly re-check began on 14 July and a fix for mismatched comment links went live on 15 July. It ends on 16 September so that every comment had all six nightly re-checks by 22 September.
How removal was detected. Each comment was fetched through Reddit's API with the ID from its link. A comment counts as visible only when the API returns it with its text. It counts as removed when the API returns no comment, a body of "[removed]", a "[ Removed by Reddit ]" notice or a removal flag.
When it was checked. The first check ran the afternoon of the posting day, a median 12.8 hours after the assignment was released (n = 10,533 comments matched to a check run). Comments that passed were fetched again at about 11 PM Eastern on each of the six nights after the posting day; the posting-day night is skipped because the first check was only hours old. Comments that failed the first check were also re-fetched each night, and any that reappeared (for example after a moderator approved a held comment) count as visible unless later removed. Of the 4,933 comments counted as visible at the end, 4,919 were confirmed at the sixth-night check.
Time to removal. Measured from the release of the assignment to the check that first found the comment removed. The true removal came earlier, so every figure is an upper bound, and nothing faster than the first check (about 13 hours) can be resolved. median_hours_to_removal in subreddits.csv uses the same definition.
What counts as removed. The records do not say who removed a comment. Removal by subreddit moderators, by AutoModerator, by Reddit's spam filters and by action against the posting account all look alike here. At the first check, a comment deleted by its own author also counts as removed; at the nightly re-checks it does not.
Subreddit size. The latest subscriber count the service recorded for the subreddit between February and July 2026, or its own subreddit list where that was missing. Counts were not available for 1,139 subreddits.
Naming. A subreddit appears by name only with 30 or more comments from at least three brands, with no brand above half. All other subreddits are reported in aggregate. The spread test in subreddit-spread.csv covers all 54 subreddits with 30 or more comments.
Not measured. None of the 10,757 comments contained a web link, so this study cannot compare linked and unlinked comments. Replies were recorded only while a comment was visible, and only from 31 August, so replies on removed and surviving comments cannot be compared fairly.
Limits.
- One service's placements. The results describe comments written, placed and timed by one company's contractors, in threads its software selected, for its 80 brands. Other services, and brands commenting under their own names, may see different rates.
- Its own posting practices. The comments carried no links, followed the service's writing guidelines and came from accounts the service's contractors ran. The September rise suggests those accounts were a large part of the outcome.
- Survivorship. The service steers new comments away from subreddits where earlier ones were removed, and never posts in subreddits it considers off limits. The subreddits in this sample, and especially those with many comments, lean toward places where comments had survived before, so the rates here are likely lower than a random subreddit would show.
- Timing resolution. Removals are dated by check, the first check comes about 13 hours after assignment, and the follow-up ends after six nights. Removals after that are not counted.
Data
The CSV files below hold every number in this report, and queries.sql holds the query behind each one. They are free to reuse with credit to Strandline Research.
- Sample totals and outcomes One row: comments, subreddits and brands in the sample, posting dates, comments removed by the first check, removed later, still visible, the matching rates, re-check coverage and the count of comments with a web link.
- When removals were found One row per check: removed comments first found at that check, share and cumulative share of all removals, and median hours from assignment to that check.
- Timing of the first check Comments matched to a first-check run, and the 10th, 50th and 90th percentile hours from assignment to the first check.
- Removal by week of posting One row per week: comments, subreddits, share removed by the first check and share removed within a week.
- Removal by subreddit size Subreddits and comments in each member-count band, with the share removed by the first check and within a week.
- Removal by how many comments a subreddit received Subreddits grouped by their comment count in the sample, with comments and the share removed within a week.
- Named subreddits Subreddits with 30 or more comments from at least 3 brands, where no brand has more than half the comments: comments, brands, removed, removal rate with a 95% Wilson interval, removals found at the first check, and median hours from assignment to the check that found each removal.
- Spread across subreddits with 30 or more comments All 54 subreddits with 30 or more comments: pooled, lowest and highest removal rate, observed standard deviation against the one expected from sample size, and a chi-square test of equal rates.
- How widely the September rise spread Subreddits with at least 5 comments both from 30 July to 2 September and from 3 to 16 September: how many saw their removal rate rise, and the median rate in each period.
- SQL queries The read-only query behind every CSV in this report.
How to cite: Strandline Research. "54.1% of brand-mention comments on Reddit were removed within a week, and 47.1% of those removals came on the day of posting." 23 September 2026. https://strandlineresearch.com/reports/subreddit-removal-rates