What Is Crossposting on Reddit and How to Do It
Crossposting confuses more Reddit users than almost any other feature on the site. Some mix it up with reposting. Others never touch it because the button looks like one more way to get banned. And a small crowd abuses it until the mods step in. The feature itself? Harmless. Everything comes down to how it gets used.
This guide covers what crossposting on Reddit actually means, where a crosspost stops and a repost begins, the exact steps on desktop and mobile, plus the etiquette that keeps mods off a poster's back.
What Is Crossposting on Reddit
Crossposting means taking a post that already lives on Reddit and sharing it into a second subreddit through Reddit's own crosspost feature. The idea isn't even a Reddit invention. It goes back to old forums and newsgroups, as covered in the Wikipedia article on crossposting. Nothing gets uploaded twice. The new post holds no content of its own. It points back at the original, and on a site built around thousands of smaller communities, a decent post rarely has just one natural home.
Open any crosspost and there's a small label at the top. It names the subreddit the post came from and the username of whoever posted it first. Click through and the source thread opens, comments and all. Votes don't carry over though. A clip might pull 40,000 upvotes in its first home, get crossposted, and stall at twelve. Different crowd, different result, same video.
Think of it as a pointer rather than a copy. One original, any number of signposts leading back to it.
Crosspost vs Repost - What's the Difference
People mix these two up constantly, and Reddit treats them nothing alike.
A crosspost runs through the official feature. Credit lands on the original poster without anyone lifting a finger, the link back is baked in, and nothing's hidden. Mods can trace the content in a single click.
A repost works differently. Someone saves the content and uploads it again like they found it themselves. No link. No credit. Half the time, no mention of a source at all.
Does the distinction actually matter? On Reddit, a lot.
Three things, mostly. Credit is the obvious one, since a crosspost keeps the original poster's name attached while a repost buries it. Reaction is the second. Reddit holds grudges over stolen content, and a blatant repost tends to collect downvotes and angry replies within the hour. And moderation, where lots of subreddits remove reposts on sight but don't mind a clearly labeled crosspost at all.
So when something deserves a second audience, the crosspost button is the route that doesn't upset anyone.
Why Crossposting Matters
On paper it sounds like a minor convenience. In practice it fixes a few real problems.
Reach, first of all. Say a post is doing fine in a 50,000-member community. Maybe it deserves a shot in one with two million members. Getting it there takes two clicks, not a rebuild.
It also works as a cheap testing ground. The same clip can sink in r/gaming and take off in r/videos. Nobody really knows beforehand, not even mods who've watched these patterns for years. Every crosspost keeps its own votes and comments, so finding the right home for a post costs nothing but a few tries.
Creators get some protection out of it too. Original work spreads around while the creator's name stays stitched to it, and on a platform that calls out content theft loudly and often, that counts for a lot.
And new communities lean on it to survive. Mods starting a fresh subreddit will often crosspost relevant threads from bigger ones just so the feed doesn't look abandoned while members trickle in.
Timing matters here as much as anywhere else on Reddit. This guide on the best time to post on Reddit digs into when traffic actually peaks.
How to Crosspost on Reddit From a Desktop
On a computer the whole thing takes maybe a minute:
- Open the post to share. Any public post works, whether it belongs to the account doing the crossposting or to a complete stranger.
- Hit Share under the post, next to the comment icon.
- Pick Crosspost from the menu. A fresh post window opens with the original already sitting inside it.
- Type the destination subreddit's name and grab it from the dropdown.
- Fix the title. Reddit copies the old one by default, and a title that worked in one community will often break another community's title rules.
- Add flair if the subreddit demands it, then hit Post.
That's it. The crosspost shows up in the new community with a banner pointing back to the source thread. No Crosspost option in the Share menu? Something's blocking it, and the usual suspects come a little further down.
How to Crosspost on the Reddit Mobile App
The app works pretty much the same way on Android and iPhone:
- Open the post inside the Reddit app.
- Tap Share under the post.
- Tap Crosspost to a community. On some phones the button reads plain Crosspost, nothing more.
- Pick the destination subreddit. Either type its name or go with whatever the app suggests.
- Fix the title, set flair if the community asks for one, and post.
A quick side note on videos. A video crosspost never creates a new file, it just streams whatever the original uploaded. So anyone wanting a copy of a clip saved on their phone or computer before sharing it off Reddit will need a reddit video downloader, which grabs both the video track and the audio track (Reddit stores them separately, oddly enough) and stitches them into one MP4.
Crossposting Rules and Etiquette
Crossposting is allowed across Reddit as a whole. Individual subreddits run things their own way though. Each adds rules on top of Reddit's, and posts that ignore those rules vanish fast, sometimes taking the account's standing down with them.
The sidebar comes first. Nearly every community states there whether crossposts are welcome, restricted to certain days, or banned outright. Reading it takes thirty seconds. Arguing with a mod after a removal takes much longer.
Then there's fit. A gaming clip belongs with gamers, and forcing it into ten loosely related communities looks like spam for the simple reason that it is spam. Spacing counts as well. Five identical posts hitting five subreddits inside ten minutes screams automation, and the spam filter notices. So do the human mods.
Two more things. Personal and support posts deserve to stay where they were written, since dragging someone's story into a huge general subreddit can genuinely hurt them, which is exactly why many support communities block crossposting altogether. And karma farming through mass-crossposts of whatever's trending is still one of the fastest routes to a ban.
One quick test covers everything: would a longtime member of that community post this there? If yes, go for it.
Why the Crosspost Option Is Sometimes Missing
Not every post shows a crosspost button. When the option's missing from the Share menu, the cause is nearly always one of these:
- The destination has crossposts switched off. Mods can kill the feature for their community entirely.
- The source sits in a private or restricted subreddit, and nothing leaves a private community through a crosspost.
- The original got deleted or removed. A crosspost needs a living source to point at.
- The content tags clash, meaning a post carrying a sensitive-content tag won't go into a community whose settings reject it.
- The account's too new or short on karma. Some communities set a karma floor, and crossposts have to clear it too.
There's no trick around these restrictions from inside Reddit. Posting a plain link to the original thread still works, and so does writing a fresh post that names the source. Both are honest. Neither needs the button.
Tips to Get Better Results From Crossposts
Some crossposts take off. Most sink without a trace. The gap usually comes down to a few habits.
Rewrite the title every time, for a start. Titles age badly in transit. What sounded right in the original community lands slightly wrong in the next, and ten seconds of editing fixes that before anyone notices.
Fewer destinations, better results. Two communities where the content truly fits beat ten half-matches, on votes and on how mods treat the account. Scattergun posting burns both.
Then stick around in the comments. Each crosspost grows its own thread, and answering questions there looks like genuine participation. Silence looks like drive-by promotion.
Glance at the result after posting as well. Preview settings differ between subreddits, so a video that looked perfect in its first home can show up broken in the next. A dead thumbnail buries a post faster than any weak title could.
One last thing. Don't crosspost right away. Give the original a few hours alone first. A head start lets it find its footing, and the spam filter sees nothing unusual.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does crossposting give karma on Reddit?
It does. A crosspost earns its own post karma from its own upvotes, nothing shared with the original. The person who made the source post wins too, since curious readers tend to click through and leave something behind, a vote here, a comment there.
Is it okay to crosspost someone else's post?
Generally yes. If a post is public and neither community has blocked the feature, it can be crossposted, no permission needed, since credit and the backlink come built in. Support and personal-story communities are a different matter. A post written for a small, careful audience shouldn't get shoved in front of a huge one, and the person behind it can get hurt when that happens.
Is crossposting just another word for reposting?
No. A crosspost travels with the original poster's name and a working link attached, courtesy of Reddit's own feature. A repost is a manual re-upload with no trace of the original. That's exactly why communities come down harder on it.
What happens to a crosspost if the original post is deleted?
The crosspost survives, votes and comments included. Only the preview dies. In its place sits a grey notice saying the source was removed, and that's that.
How many subreddits is it safe to crosspost to?
There's no official cap, at least none Reddit publishes. Practical limit, though? Somewhere around two or three communities that genuinely fit. Try a dozen in one afternoon and the spam filter flags the account, and it won't care how carefully each individual post followed the rules.
Can videos and images be crossposted on Reddit?
Yes, and not just videos. Images work, galleries work, so do text posts, polls, and plain links. Since media plays straight from the original upload, the quality stays exactly as it was.
Final Thoughts
Out of every option Reddit gives for putting one post in front of several communities, crossposting is the cleanest, mostly because the creator's credit and the source thread never get separated from the content. Reposting can't compete with that, and neither mods nor regular users treat the two the same way.
The clicking takes seconds. Reading a destination community properly, following its rules, reshaping the post until it actually belongs there, that part takes some effort. Still worth doing. Every subreddit has its own culture, its own in-jokes, its own tolerance for outsiders, and a post that respects all that usually ends up in front of the right people.
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Editor · RedLoad Guides
Lauren Dosela is a digital content writer and technology enthusiast who covers social media, online platforms, and practical web tools. She specializes in turning complex digital topics into clear, useful, and easy-to-follow guides for everyday readers.
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