Reddit Gold is one of those features that confuses new users and gets debated endlessly by veterans. Is it just a tip? Does it actually boost a post? Is Reddit Premium worth the monthly fee?
The answers depend on which version of Reddit's award system you're thinking about — because the platform has completely overhauled it twice in the past three years.
This guide covers the full story: what Reddit Gold is, how the current awards system works, what Reddit Premium gives you, and how to use all of it strategically.
What Is Reddit Gold? (And Why the Answer Keeps Changing)
Reddit Gold originally launched in July 2010 as a way for users to support the platform and reward great content. In its original form, gilding someone's post — "giving gold" — bought that user a month of Reddit Premium membership.
For over a decade, the gold system was the heart of Reddit's culture. Getting gilded meant something. It was a signal that the community thought your post was exceptional, not just upvote-worthy.
Then Reddit complicated it. In 2020, the platform replaced the simple gold system with a sprawling coins-and-awards ecosystem featuring dozens of cosmetic awards like Wholesome, Silver, Platinum, Argentium, and more. Users loved the variety at first. Then they didn't. The system became cluttered, confusing, and widely ignored.
In September 2023, Reddit killed the entire coins system along with all legacy awards. The backlash was swift. The "Golden Upvote" placeholder Reddit used as a stopgap was widely mocked as pointless.
Reddit responded. In May 2024, the company reintroduced a revamped awards system at its first-ever earnings call as a public company — a symbolic moment that showed how seriously Reddit takes its monetization features. The new system simplified everything around a single currency: Reddit Gold.
Today, Reddit Gold functions as both a purchasable currency and an award you give directly to content. When you give someone gold, you spend your gold balance and they receive recognition. It's cleaner, more direct, and — finally — tied to real creator earnings.
How the Current Reddit Gold System Works
The current system (post-May 2024) works like this:
Buying Gold. You purchase Reddit Gold with real money. On web, prices start at approximately $1.79 for 100 Gold. On mobile apps, packages start at $1.99 for 100 Gold, going up to 2,750 Gold for $49.99. Gold packages are also available at the time of awarding — you don't have to pre-purchase.
Giving Gold. To award a post or comment, click the award button (the star icon) below it. Awards cost between 15 and 50 Gold depending on the tier. The award appears publicly next to the post, signaling to other users that someone found it worth spending real money on.
Receiving Gold. When your content receives gold, it gets a visible award badge. More importantly, if you qualify for the Reddit Contributor Program, those gold awards convert to real cash.
The leaderboard feature introduced in 2024 adds another dimension: top-awarded posts and comments within subreddits get featured on a leaderboard, creating additional visibility for highly-awarded content.
Reddit Premium: Features, Pricing, and What You Actually Get
Reddit Premium is the paid subscription tier for Reddit accounts, priced at $5.99 per month. It is separate from buying Reddit Gold, though the two systems are connected.
Here's what Reddit Premium includes:
Ad-free browsing. The flagship benefit. Reddit's default experience includes ads in feeds, on the front page, and within subreddits. Premium removes all of them.
Monthly Gold allocation. Premium subscribers receive a monthly allocation of Reddit Gold to spend on awards. This means you can award content without buying additional Gold separately.
Access to r/lounge. An exclusive subreddit only visible to Premium members. It's a relatively low-key community but serves as a signal of membership.
Premium badge. A small gold shield icon appears next to your username, publicly marking you as a subscriber.
Custom app icon. Premium users can customize the Reddit app icon on mobile.
Priority support. Faster response times if you ever need to contact Reddit's support team.
According to Reddit's filings and analyst projections, Reddit Premium had an estimated 4.6 million subscribers globally in 2025, a figure expected to grow alongside the platform's expanding user base of over 1.36 billion monthly active users.
The Reddit Contributor Program: Turning Gold Into Real Money
This is where the current gold system gets genuinely interesting — and strategically important for anyone building a presence on Reddit.
The Reddit Contributor Program pays creators based on how much gold their posts and comments receive. The payout structure works on two tiers:
- Contributor tier: Earn $0.90 per gold awarded to your content
- Top Contributor tier: Earn $1.00 per gold awarded to your content
To qualify as a Contributor, you need to have earned between 100 and 4,999 karma in the past 12 months and have received at least 10 gold. Top Contributor status requires 5,000+ karma in the same period.
Payout minimums apply. You need to accumulate at least $10 in earnings before you can cash out. There's also a provider transaction fee ($2.25 plus 0.25% per payout). Payments are processed through supported payout platforms.
This system transformed Reddit Gold from a symbolic gesture into a genuine monetization mechanism. A post that earns 50 gold pays its creator between $45 and $50. For viral content in high-engagement subreddits, the earnings can be substantial.
For context, consider the scale of the platform: Reddit generated $2.2 billion in revenue in 2025 — up 69% year-over-year — which signals how aggressively the company is developing its monetization ecosystem. The Contributor Program is a direct extension of that strategy, designed to keep top creators active and rewarded on the platform.
How Reddit Awards Affect Post Visibility
One of the most common questions: does getting awarded actually boost a post in the algorithm?
The short answer is yes, indirectly — but not through a direct ranking signal.
Reddit's feed algorithm primarily weighs upvotes, recency, and engagement (comments). Awards are not a direct algorithmic ranking factor. However, they influence visibility through several real mechanisms:
Social proof drives more upvotes. When users scroll past a post and see gold awards next to it, they're more likely to click, read, and upvote. Awards function as a trust signal — a visual cue that someone thought the content was worth spending real money on. This behavior cascades: more engagement feeds the algorithm.
Leaderboard placement. In subreddits where the leaderboard feature is active, highly-awarded posts appear in a dedicated top-awarded section. This creates a secondary visibility channel independent of the main feed ranking.
Psychological anchoring. Award badges change how users perceive a comment or post before they even read it. A comment with multiple gold awards carries implied authority in a thread, which affects how other users engage with it.
For marketers and brands using Reddit as a channel, this dynamic matters. Getting legitimate gold on a brand-relevant post doesn't just feel good — it compounds organic reach.
Read more about how Reddit's visibility systems interact in the Reddit marketing guide.
Is Reddit Premium Worth It in 2026?
The honest answer: it depends entirely on how you use Reddit.
If you browse Reddit daily and find ads disruptive, Premium pays for itself in quality-of-life improvement alone. The ad-free experience is genuinely clean compared to the default, and $5.99/month is less than most streaming services.
If you primarily use Reddit for marketing, research, or content promotion, the calculus is different. The monthly Gold allocation gives you a budget for awarding content — which means you can support community members and signal goodwill without additional out-of-pocket spending. That has soft networking value.
Where Premium falls short:
- The r/lounge subreddit is quiet and rarely a meaningful community benefit
- The premium badge is cosmetic and carries little status in most subreddits
- The Gold allocation may be more than you need if you don't award often
Where Premium genuinely delivers:
- Uninterrupted browsing experience across the entire platform
- Monthly Gold for expressing genuine appreciation for great content
- Supporting the platform financially, which matters if Reddit is central to your strategy
For professional Reddit marketers and brands building long-term presence, Premium is a low-cost signal of serious engagement. For casual users who find ads tolerable, it's optional.
Using Reddit Gold Strategically for Marketing
Reddit users are famously skeptical of marketing. Direct promotion gets downvoted into oblivion. But the awards system creates a legitimate, organic-feeling way to engage with communities — if you use it thoughtfully.
Here are strategies that actually work:
Award genuinely great content in your niche. When you give gold to a top comment or post in a subreddit relevant to your industry, your username becomes visible to everyone who sees that award. This is organic exposure tied to a positive signal — you're the person who recognized quality. Over time, consistent awarding builds a recognizable presence.
Award content that references your brand positively. If someone writes a detailed, honest positive review or case study involving your product or service, gilding it amplifies it. The social proof of "this was good enough to be awarded" reinforces the organic credibility that makes Reddit reviews so powerful.
Use gold to kick-start visibility on your own valuable posts. Awarding your own content is technically allowed, but it's a trust-destroying move if discovered. Instead, use Gold on other people's relevant posts to participate authentically in the community. The goodwill compounds.
Understand the Contributor Program before launching campaigns. If you're working with Reddit-native creators or influencers who qualify for the Contributor Program, awarding their sponsored posts converts your spend into direct earnings for them — creating a compelling native monetization loop.
For a full breakdown of how to build Reddit presence the right way, see the Reddit marketing guide.
A Brief History of Reddit Awards (2010–2026)
Understanding how the system evolved explains why the current version exists and what Reddit was trying to fix.
2010 — Reddit Gold launches. Simple, single-tier. Giving gold granted the recipient a month of Premium. Reddit used it to fund server costs.
2011–2016 — Gold becomes culture. "Getting gilded" became a Reddit milestone. Threads featuring gilded comments became their own genre. The community developed genuine norms around what merited gold.
2017–2019 — Coins and tiered awards introduced. Reddit added Silver and Platinum alongside Gold. Then came Reddit Coins — a virtual currency you could earn or buy. Awards multiplied.
2020–2022 — Award sprawl. Dozens of community and platform awards. Wholesome, Helpful, All-Seeing Upvote, Argentium, Ternion All-Powerful. The system became a collectible ecosystem. Engagement with awards remained high but increasingly superficial.
September 2023 — Full system discontinuation. Reddit killed coins and all legacy awards in one sweep. The replacement was a "golden upvote" — universally panned as soulless and a downgrade from the rich award culture that had built up over a decade.
May 2024 — Redesigned awards relaunch. Reddit reintroduced a streamlined awards system at its first earnings call as a public company. The new system centered on Reddit Gold as the single currency, added leaderboards, and tied awards directly to creator earnings through the Contributor Program.
The arc from 2010 to 2026 is one of Reddit trying to monetize community culture without destroying it — a balance the platform is still calibrating.
FAQ: Reddit Gold and Awards
What is Reddit Gold?
Reddit Gold is the platform's current virtual currency used to award posts and comments. You purchase it with real money (starting around $1.79 for 100 Gold on web) and spend it on awards. When you award someone's content, they receive a visible badge and — if they qualify for the Contributor Program — real monetary earnings at $0.90–$1.00 per gold.
What happened to Reddit coins and old awards like Silver, Platinum, and Wholesome?
Reddit discontinued its entire coins and legacy awards system in September 2023. All coins were invalidated and legacy awards were removed. The platform briefly replaced them with a simple "golden upvote" before launching the current redesigned awards system in May 2024.
What are the benefits of Reddit Premium?
Reddit Premium costs $5.99/month and includes: ad-free browsing across all of Reddit, a monthly allocation of Reddit Gold, access to the exclusive r/lounge subreddit, a premium badge on your profile, a custom app icon, and priority support.
Does giving or receiving Reddit Gold boost post visibility?
Awards do not directly alter Reddit's ranking algorithm. However, they generate social proof that typically leads to more clicks, upvotes, and engagement — which does influence algorithmic visibility indirectly. The 2024 leaderboard feature also gives highly-awarded posts a secondary visibility channel within subreddits.
How do I earn money from Reddit Gold?
Through the Reddit Contributor Program. If you've earned 100+ karma in the past 12 months and have received at least 10 gold, you qualify as a Contributor and earn $0.90 per gold awarded to your content. Top Contributors (5,000+ karma in 12 months) earn $1.00 per gold. Minimum payout is $10.
Is Reddit Premium worth it?
For daily Reddit users who find ads disruptive, yes — the ad-free experience alone justifies the $5.99/month. For Reddit marketers and brand-builders, the monthly Gold allocation adds strategic value. For casual users who browse infrequently or don't mind ads, it's optional. The clearest-cut case for Premium is if you spend significant time on Reddit and value an uninterrupted experience.
Reddit Gold and the awards system are, at their core, a bet that community-driven appreciation is worth paying for. The platform has iterated on this idea for 16 years, making mistakes and course-correcting. The current version — simplified, creator-forward, and tied to real earnings — is the cleanest iteration yet.
Whether you're a daily commenter looking to support great content, a marketer trying to build authentic presence, or someone deciding whether to subscribe to Premium, understanding how gold and awards work gives you a meaningful edge on one of the internet's most powerful platforms.
For more on building a Reddit presence that actually converts, start with what Reddit is and how it works and pair it with the strategies in the Reddit karma guide.