Here is the direct answer: Reddit coins no longer exist in 2026. The original coins and awards system was permanently discontinued on September 12, 2023. You cannot buy Reddit coins, earn Reddit coins, or give the old Silver, Gold, and Platinum awards anymore. They are gone.
What replaced them is a new system built around Reddit Gold — a simplified currency where users buy Gold to give awards, and creators enrolled in the Reddit Contributor Program can earn real money from the Gold they receive on their content.
This guide covers exactly how the new system works, what the old system was, how Reddit Gold and awards function in 2026, and how to make the most of Reddit for account visibility and monetization — including what the Reddit algorithm rewards and how to stay safe managing multiple Reddit accounts.
For the full picture on Reddit account management, see how to manage multiple Reddit accounts, how to warm up a Reddit account, and Reddit shadowbans before you scale any Reddit presence.
What Happened to Reddit Coins?
Reddit launched its coins and awards system in 2017. Users could purchase Reddit Coins and spend them on awards — Silver for 100 coins, Gold for 500 coins, Platinum for 1,800 coins, Argentium for 20,000 coins, and the rare Ternion at 50,000 coins. Receiving Gold gave you a week of Reddit Premium. Receiving Platinum gave you a month.
By mid-2023, Reddit decided the system was too complicated. There were over 50 different award types, the coin economy was confusing, and user feedback consistently said the clutter was worse than the benefit. On July 14, 2023, Reddit announced it was ending the coins and awards system. Purchasing new coins stopped immediately. All remaining coins and awards were usable until September 12, 2023, after which the old system was permanently retired.
Reddit briefly replaced the awards with “Golden Upvotes” — a simplified direct cash purchase for highlighting content. The community responded poorly. Golden Upvotes were not expressive enough and users felt they missed what made awards feel meaningful.
In May 2024, Reddit reintroduced a proper awards system using Reddit Gold as the new currency, connecting awards to creator payouts for the first time. That is the system in place in 2026.
How Reddit Gold and Awards Work in 2026
Reddit Gold is the current currency. Users buy Gold in bundles and spend it on awards to give to content they find valuable. Gold packages start at $1.99 for 100 Gold on mobile apps, with larger bundles available up to 2,750 Gold for $49.99.
Most awards cost between 15 and 50 Gold depending on the design and tier. Some limited or event awards cost more. When you give someone an award, the Gold you spent on it contributes to their creator payout if they are enrolled in the Reddit Contributor Program.
For award givers, the benefit is recognizing content you genuinely value and supporting creators whose contributions you appreciate. For award recipients, the benefit is visibility — awarded posts tend to attract more engagement, more upvotes, and more organic reach — plus potential income through the Contributor Program.
Awards cannot be given in NSFW subreddits, trauma and addiction support subreddits, or subreddits with mature content. Reddit has built these restrictions into the new system specifically to prevent awards from being used inappropriately.
Can You Get Reddit Awards for Free?
The short answer is no, not in any reliable or consistent way. There is no legitimate hack, glitch, or workaround that generates free Reddit Gold or awards. Any website claiming to offer free Reddit coins, free Gold generators, or award hacks is either a scam designed to steal your login credentials or malware disguised as a tool.
The only legitimate ways to receive awards are to create genuinely valuable content or comments that other users choose to award at their own expense, or to occasionally receive promotional awards that Reddit distributes during special events — which happen rarely and are entirely at Reddit’s discretion.
The 90-9-1 rule that describes Reddit’s community dynamic is relevant here. Roughly 1 percent of users create most of the content, 9 percent comment and engage, and 90 percent lurk. The content that earns awards almost always comes from the 1 percent who consistently post high-quality, useful, funny, or insightful material to communities where they have built genuine reputation. There is no shortcut to that.
How Much Is Reddit Gold Worth?
Reddit Gold as a currency does not have a fixed exchange rate in the traditional sense, but the math is straightforward. If you buy 100 Gold for $1.99, each Gold unit costs roughly $0.02. An award that costs 50 Gold therefore costs the giver about $1.00.
For creators enrolled in the Reddit Contributor Program, the Gold received on their content translates to real earnings, but the payout rate varies and Reddit does not publish a fixed Gold-to-dollar conversion for creators. The Contributor Program requires meeting eligibility requirements including minimum karma thresholds, account age requirements, and active community participation.
Reddit does not pay ordinary users simply for posting or receiving upvotes. The Contributor Program is specific, invite-based initially and then application-based, and most users on Reddit will never see direct monetary payouts from the platform.
How to Use Reddit Effectively Without Spending Money
The most sustainable way to build a Reddit presence, earn organic awards, and gain genuine visibility costs nothing except time and consistency.
Build karma first and build it authentically. Leave substantive, specific comments in subreddits relevant to your niche. Answer questions you actually know the answers to. Share experiences that are genuinely relevant to the conversation.
Karma is not just a vanity metric on Reddit — it is an account trust signal that affects how the algorithm and AutoModerator treat your posts. Accounts with minimal karma get filtered automatically in most large subreddits before the algorithm ever evaluates their content.
Post in communities that match your actual expertise or interest. Reddit’s community detection is sophisticated. Posts that feel native to a community’s culture generate engagement. Posts that feel like external marketing or off-topic drops generate downvotes and reports, which damage account health and can lead to shadowbanning.
Follow the 10:1 rule for any promotional activity. For every promotional post or link you share, make nine genuine contributions — comments, replies, questions, discussions — that have nothing to do with whatever you are promoting.
Time your posts for when a subreddit’s audience is most active. Reddit’s algorithm heavily weights engagement velocity in the first 30 to 60 minutes after posting. A post that gains traction immediately outperforms an identical post that gains the same total engagement over several hours.
Managing Multiple Reddit Accounts Safely
For social media managers and agencies running Reddit for multiple clients or operating multiple niche accounts, the account isolation rules are critical and often overlooked.
Reddit’s detection systems watch for coordinated behavior — accounts voting for each other, accounts posting in the same threads within short windows, accounts with similar behavioral patterns originating from the same IP address or device fingerprint. When accounts get linked through shared signals, a shadowban or restriction on one creates risk for all of them simultaneously.
Multilogin’s Cloud Phone and browser environments provide completely isolated environments for each Reddit account — separate device fingerprints, separate residential IP addresses, separate session data. Each account looks exactly like what it should: a separate person on a separate device with no connection to any other account in your portfolio.
For new Reddit accounts specifically, warmup is essential. See how to warm up a Reddit account and Reddit IP banned for the operational detail. The Multilogin Academy guide on preventing Reddit shadowbans covers the full workflow for accounts that need to stay active and avoid restrictions.
Can You Cash Out Reddit Rewards?
Only through the Reddit Contributor Program. Standard users cannot withdraw upvotes, karma, or awards for cash. Contributor Program participants who meet eligibility requirements and receive Gold on their content can convert that Gold to real earnings through the program’s payout mechanism. The program is not available in all countries and has minimum thresholds before payouts are issued.
Reddit has not announced any plans to extend direct monetization to all users. For most Redditors, the platform remains a non-monetized community where the value is reputation, visibility, and community recognition rather than direct income.
Want to earn more on Reddit? Try Multilogin Cloud Phones.
Frequently asked questions About How to Get Free Reddit Coins and Awards
Reddit coins were permanently discontinued in September 2023. The new system uses Reddit Gold, which must be purchased. There is no legitimate way to get free Reddit Gold — any tool or website claiming to offer free coins or Gold is a scam.
The 90-9-1 rule describes Reddit’s participation distribution. Roughly 90 percent of users are lurkers who read without engaging. Around 9 percent comment and vote but rarely create original content. About 1 percent create most of the original posts and threads. The content that earns awards and significant upvotes almost always comes from consistent creators in that 1 percent.
Reddit coins no longer exist. In the old system, 500 coins bought a Gold Award. In the current system, awards are purchased with Reddit Gold. Most awards cost 15 to 50 Gold, with Gold packages starting at $1.99 for 100 Gold.
Reddit coins no longer exist as of September 2023. They were replaced by Reddit Gold. Each Gold unit costs approximately $0.02 based on the entry-level bundle of 100 Gold for $1.99.
Reddit Gold packages start at $1.99 for 100 Gold on mobile. Larger bundles are available up to 2,750 Gold for $49.99. Individual Gold units therefore cost between $0.018 and $0.02 depending on the bundle size.
