Promo Codes on Reddit: How to Find Valid Coupons and Codes
Finding promo codes for extra savings on the Internet can be a frustrating process. Many are outdated or expired, and it takes ages to comb through them all to find a working code.
Reddit, the so-called “front page of the Internet,” can be a decent place to look for promo codes. But for best results, you need to know where — and how — to look.
This guide to finding Reddit promo codes covers everything you need to know to find a more attractive price for the items you want.
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The basics of Reddit promo codes
Reddit is an online community that is essentially a large collection of forums.
Anyone can sign up for a Reddit account and start posting. Redditors can join specific communities, which can be centered around anything from personal finance to a local sports team or funny cat pictures.
Reddit content is also user-moderated and controlled through a system of upvotes and downvotes. If you like something, you can give it an upvote — essentially a “thumbs up” that tells the Reddit algorithm that this is good content.
Each community on Reddit is called a “subreddit,” The name of this subreddit will be displayed in the URL: Reddit.com/r/funny is the “funny” subreddit.
There are many subreddits relevant for those looking for Reddit promo codes. This includes /r/deals, /r/coupons, /r/promocodes, and many more.
When looking for promo codes on Reddit, it’s important to remember that Reddit is 100% user-submitted content. This means that anyone can submit a promo code — even if it’s no longer valid or was targeted to that specific person.
For this reason, Reddit coupon codes can be hit-and-miss. You’re likely to find many codes that are already expired.
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Finding active codes on Reddit can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. But this guide will show you how to find Reddit coupon codes that will improve your odds of success.
While expired codes can be a problem, Reddit is unique in that it can be useful for finding coupon codes for more obscure merchants. Since there are so many different subreddits, Reddit can also enable a lot of fine-tuning when it comes to finding coupon codes.
How to find Reddit promo codes
Reddit is a massive website. If you’re new to the platform, you’ll be shown the generic front page, consisting of content from popular subreddits. Often, this includes news, politics, memes, cute animal pictures, and a random selection of user-generated content.
When you sign up for an account, you can start following specific subreddits. By clicking the small “join” button next to the subreddit’s name, you can subscribe to that particular page. You will now see posts and updates from that subreddit on your homepage.
By default, content from the sub you just added will be mixed into all standard Reddit material. You can customize this by removing subscriptions to subreddits that don’t interest you.
Overall, there are three main ways to find deals on Reddit:
- Browsing deals and coupon-related subreddits to hopefully stumble across relevant deals.
- Joining category-specific subreddits (like r/Boardgamedeals).
- Searching Reddit for what you are looking for.
We’ll go over some of the more advanced techniques later on in this comprehensive guide. First, let’s cover the top deals subreddits that every deal-seeker should know.
Top subreddits for deals and coupons
A great way to start finding Reddit coupon codes is to head to some of Reddit’s most popular deals-related forums.
These subreddits have thousands of members who are actively posting every day.
Most of these subreddits are general, meaning they don’t have a specific focus on a certain type of product or service.
Here are the top options.
Members: 200k+
Focus: Discounted items and sales
Members: 800k+
Focus: Free items, free after coupon items, free trials
Members: 98k+
Focus: Discounted items and sales
r/couponsMembers: 88k+
Focus: Promo codes and coupon codes; single-use promo codes/discounts
Members: 42k+
Focus: Referral codes, “refer a friend” deals, and user-generated discount codes
Members: 37k+
Focus: Sale items and discounted products
Members: 10k+
Focus: Promo codes and coupon codes
Members: 2.5k+
Focus: Sharing promo codes and coupon codes
There are also more general money-saving communities on Reddit. They don’t necessarily post specific deals. Instead, they talk about how users can save more money on everyday items and expenses. r/frugal is the most popular, with over 2 million members.
Category-specific subreddits
Reddit is unique because it has so many different subreddits, each with its own very unique focus.
The variety of subreddits can be useful for finding specific types of deals, like coupon codes for men’s clothing or free software for students.
Here are some category-specific subreddits to explore:
Members: 70k+
Focus: Deals and promo codes on board games and card games
Members: 2.6m+
Focus: Deals, promo codes, and advice for men’s clothing and accessories
Members: 660k+
Focus: Deals, promo codes, and advice for women’s clothing and accessories
Members: 80k+
Focus: Giveaways, sweepstakes, contests
Members: 22k+
Focus: Couponing advice and strategies, coupon swaps, and sharing coupon codes
Members: 5k+
Focus: Deals and promo codes for students and college students. Free software/subscriptions for students
Members: 1.5m+
Focus: Discounted travel, budget travel tips, last-minute travel deals, travel advice
Members: 50k+
Focus: Deals and discounts on sneakers and other shoes
Members: 250+
Focus: Deals and promo codes for military members and their families
Members: 220k+
Focus: Grocery, sample, and restaurant coupons and discounts
Members: 1.8m+
Focus: Free or deeply discounted ebooks and other digital content
Members: 850k+
Focus: Video game promo codes, discounts, and sales
Members: 310k+
Focus: Promo codes, discounts, and sales on Nintendo Switch games and consoles
Members: 230k+
Focus: Promo codes, discounts, and sales on PC games via Steam
Members: 88k+
Focus: Promo codes, discounts, and sales on console video games (Xbox One, PS5, Wii, etc.)
Members: 848k+
Focus: Deals and sales on PC hardware and parts (GPUs, CPUs, monitors, cables, etc.)
There are many other subreddits to explore as well. Whatever you are interested in, chances are there’s a subreddit for it.
And even if there isn’t a deal-specific subreddit to explore, it’s still worthwhile to follow the general subreddit for that hobby or topic.
For example, there aren’t many active subreddits for deals on running shoes. But Reddit’s r/running community is very active, with over 1.7 million members. Deals are posted by members occasionally.
In other words, you don’t have to stick exclusively to deal-related or coupon-related subreddits. Joining the communities for any topic you’re interested in can be beneficial for finding good deals.
You can also look at the “related communities” tab on the homepage of any subreddit. This will show you subreddits that are related to the current one you’re browsing.
Advanced Reddit strategies for finding the best deals
The basics of finding deals on Reddit include following the right subreddits, understanding how to search Reddit and Google for codes, and understanding how to find niche subreddits for category-specific deals.
But what about more advanced strategies? Advanced Reddit users can employ some of Reddit’s lesser-known features to improve their success in finding Reddit coupon codes that actually work.
Here’s how to start.
1. Create a custom Reddit feed (or start a new account)
When you follow a new subreddit, you’ll start to see posts from that subreddit on your homepage feed.
However, those posts will be mixed with everything else Reddit has to offer, like news, cat videos, and AMAs.
A solution may be to create a custom Reddit feed.
To do this, navigate to a subreddit and click the three dots next to the “About Community” blurb (on the right side of the screen). Then, click “Add to Custom Feed.”
You can add that community to a custom feed or create a new custom feed.
This custom feed feature lets you add several communities (subreddits) to a single feed. From there, you can choose to browse only this feed whenever you want.
You will now see this custom feed as an option in the subreddit dropdown menu on the Reddit menu.
Reddit’s custom feed feature is a great way to browse all your favorite deal-related subreddits at once without seeing general subreddit content mixed in.
Alternative: Start a new account and unfollow default subreddits
If you don’t want to mess with custom feeds, you can also choose to simply start a second Reddit account to use specifically for deal searching.
It’s simple to create a new account. Once you have, you can start unfollowing the default subreddits to clean up your homepage feed.
Navigate to a subreddit that you’re subscribed to, then click “Leave” (where the “Join” button was).
Next, follow all the deal-related subreddits that interest you. Now your homepage will be 100% deal-related content.
You can simply switch back to your normal Reddit account for casual browsing and discussion, then use the new coupons-focused account when you’re looking for good deals.
2. Search Reddit for codes
Reddit has a search feature that lets users narrow results to find what they’re looking for.
This can be done within a specific subreddit. Simply navigate to the relevant subreddit, then type your search phrase in the search bar up top.
Alternatively, you can search all of Reddit instead of a specific subreddit. This will cast a wider net, but you’ll have to dig through a lot of older and/or less relevant content.
Reddit is notorious for having a mediocre search engine. It can be difficult to find exactly what you’re looking for using the built-in search tool.
For this reason, many savvy Redditors use Google’s search engine to do their research.
3. Search Google for codes
Google is king when it comes to searching. And did you know that you can use Google to search results for a specific website?
To do this, you simply need to use search modifiers. The simplest way is to use the “site:reddit.com” modifier.
Simply type in what you are searching for, followed by “site:reddit.com” to the Google search tool.
The results will show you relevant information for the original search term and only show results from Reddit.com.
A more informal way to do this is to simply type in “(your search term) Reddit.” This will show similar results but is less comprehensive than the search modifier approach (it may show results from other websites as well).
When searching for codes, pay attention to the date. Older codes will likely be expired.
The result above shows a discount code that was posted in March of 2019. This is not an active code (it’s expired), yet it shows up on the front page results when you search Google.
4. Join and participate in communities
Reddit’s power lies in its community. This is the best place on the Internet to find communities of people interested in your interests.
Reddit is designed to be actively used — not just browsed occasionally.
To have the best experience with Reddit, find communities that you’re interested in and actively participate in the community.
That could mean participating in daily chat threads, answering questions, bringing up new topics, sharing deals you find, or upvoting/downvoting posts.
This is especially important for less-popular communities. A sub with 1 million members will be active regardless of your participation. But a smaller sub can greatly benefit from each additional active member.
5. Follow specific Redditors
In addition to following subreddits, you can actually follow specific Reddit users. This will add their posts to your homepage mix, similar to how following a sub works.
If you see a Redditor who is consistently posting great deals or promo codes, it could be worth following them to see their posts more often in your Reddit feed.
To follow a Reddit user, simply click on their name to navigate to their profile. Then, click “Follow.”
Note: Redditors can choose to turn off this option. If you don’t see a “follow” button, the user has turned off that functionality.
Following Redditors who post frequently could be useful for finding active codes. This is especially true with any one-time active codes that are posted. Sometimes users will post personalized codes that can only be used a single time.
6. Use Reddit sort features
When you navigate to a subreddit, by default, you’ll be shown the “Hot” feed. This consists of posts that are highly engaged by the community. It tends to favor new-ish posts from the last several days, but this is not necessarily the case.
You can change the sort features to the following:
- Hot: A mix of new and older posts that are highly engaged with/upvoted
- New: A mix of posts that were created recently (sorted by most recent — useful for finding active codes)
- Top: A mix of the top upvoted posts from the selected time period (today/this week/this month/this year/all-time)
- Rising: A mix of posts that are rapidly rising/being upvoted by the community
These sort features are useful for finding valid Reddit promo codes. For instance, you can search by “New” for a better chance of finding codes that are still valid.
Or you could search by “Top — All Time” to identify users that are the most active in contributing useful information and codes. Then follow these users.
7. Use RSS feeds
If you use RSS feeds, you can add specific subreddits or even custom searches to your existing RSS feeds.
Note: If you don’t currently use RSS, this isn’t necessary to learn — but existing RSS users may find it useful.
You can turn a Reddit feed into an RSS feed by simply adding “.rss” to the end of a Reddit URL.
For example:
- https://www.reddit.com/r/coupons.rss would show the main feed of r/coupons
- https://www.reddit.com/r/coupons/new.rss would show the new feed of r/coupons
- https://www.reddit.com/r/coupons/top/?t=week.rss would show this week’s top posts on r/coupons
You can actually turn any Reddit page into an RSS feed. That could be a subreddit feed, a user’s profile, or even a comment thread.
You can use these RSS feeds in any standard RSS reader that you’re already familiar with.
8. Search for money-saving tips and tricks on Reddit
Finding specific promo codes is great — but Reddit is also a wealth of information on other ways to save money.
r/frugal is one of the best places to find inspiration on how to save money. It’s mostly a discussion subreddit, so you likely won’t find many specific deals.
Instead, you’ll find tips and tricks, discussion on strategies, and a safe place to ask any questions you might have.
It’s also common for r/frugal users to discuss alternative products that are cheaper than the original. You may find ways to avoid buying something new altogether and instead simply use things that you already have.
r/LifeProTips is another great subreddit to check out. Consider this creative promo code hack that a Redditor shared:
The broader point here is to use Reddit as a resource for saving money. That means finding discount codes on Reddit, but it also means finding general tips and tricks. Plus, remember that you can always ask questions in subreddits. Just be sure to follow the subreddit rules in the sidebar.
Use CouponFollow for verified promo codes
Reddit can be useful for finding promotional codes and discounts.
However, to find active codes that are verified and working, CouponFollow is the best place to go.
CouponFollow provides active discount codes for thousands of retailers. From electronics to groceries, pet stores, and streaming services, CouponFollow covers it all.
Users can search for specific stores on the CouponFollow website. Better yet, you can use the Cently browser extension to automatically apply coupon codes at checkout.
With Cently, there’s no more searching for coupons or fumbling with multiple promo codes. Just checkout as normal, and Cently will automatically find and test relevant codes and display the best deal possible. It’s the easiest way to find an unbeatable price.
Conclusion
Reddit can be a great source of entertainment, news, and even promo codes. To find active codes, you’ll need to be creative.
If you want to skip the hassle, CouponFollow is the best place to find verified promo codes and coupons from thousands of retailers that will help you get your hands on some amazing savings.
About The Author
Founder and CEO, CouponFollow
As the Founder and CEO of CouponFollow, Marc has a passion for helping consumers save time and money while shopping online. He’s been a bargain and deal hunter since the early 2000s.