Reddit Markdown: formatting posts and comments properly

The formatting that works everywhere on Reddit

Reddit's flavour is close to the original Markdown specification. It is far more capable than a chat app such as Discord, and noticeably narrower than GitHub Flavored Markdown. This is the reliable core:

# Heading 1
###### Heading 6

**bold**  *italic*  ***bold italic***  ~~strikethrough~~

[link text](https://example.com)
https://example.com   (bare URLs link themselves)

- bullet item
  - nested item
1. numbered item

> a quoted line

`inline code`

---

Small rules with big consequences

New Reddit follows the CommonMark rule that a heading needs a space after the hashes. So # Title is a heading and #Title is not. Old.reddit accepted either. That is why one line can be a heading in one place and a stray hash in the other, a split our headings guide traces back to the spec.

Two more rules earn their keep:

• Lists need a blank line before the first item, or they merge into the paragraph above.
• Numbered lists re-sequence themselves, so every line can safely start with 1..

Reddit also autolinks its own references. Write r/formatting or u/spez and it becomes a link with no bracket syntax at all. That is a house extension, so do not expect it in the links guide or anywhere off Reddit.

Code on Reddit: the four-space rule and fenced blocks

Inline code behaves the same as everywhere else: single backticks render monospace and switch off formatting inside. Blocks are where Reddit's history shows.

The historical four-space indent

For most of Reddit's life the only way to make a code block was to indent every line by four spaces. It still works, and it is still the most compatible option:

Here is a code block:

    def total(items):
        return sum(items)

Back to normal text.

The blank line before the indented block is required. The rule is also a trap in reverse. Any paragraph you indent by four spaces quietly becomes a code block, which is why pasted text sometimes turns into a grey monospace slab.

Fenced blocks

New Reddit and the official apps also accept three-backtick fences with an optional language name. The catch is blunt: old.reddit does not render fenced blocks. Readers there see literal backticks wrapped around unformatted code. Reddit never colourises code either way, so the language tag buys you nothing here, unlike the fenced blocks you write on GitHub.

```
def total(items):
    return sum(items)
```

Tip: Choose the block style by audience. Indent four spaces for anything a stranger might read, and save fences for places where you know everybody is on the apps or new Reddit.

Reddit-only syntax: superscript, spoilers and tables

Superscript

A caret raises the text that follows it. A bare caret lifts a single word, while parentheses raise a whole phrase and behave more consistently. Prefer the parentheses form.

E = mc^2
Everyone knows this. ^(Source: trust me)
Stacked ^^carets go higher still on old.reddit

Superscript is Reddit's house style for asides and disclaimers. It is also an easy accident to have.

Careful: A caret in a maths expression lifts everything after it. Write 2\^10 with a backslash whenever you mean a power rather than a whisper.

Spoilers

Reddit's official spoiler syntax wraps text in >! and !<. The words hide behind a black bar until the reader clicks them.

The butler >!did it!< in the library.

This renders on new Reddit and in the official apps. Old.reddit support has been patchy, and some long-running subreddits still carry CSS spoiler hacks from before the official tag existed. Preview rather than trust it blind. Discord solves the same problem with double pipes, which is worth knowing if you cross-post.

Tables

Pipe tables work on Reddit, including alignment colons in the divider row. A header row and a divider row are both mandatory. Without them, the pipes stay pipes.

| Item      | Qty | Price |
|:----------|:---:|------:|
| Keyboard  |  1  |   $89 |
| Mouse     |  2  |   $24 |

Reddit tables have no cell merging, no multi-line cells and no captions. Anything more elaborate belongs in a linked image or an external page. Our Markdown tables guide has the general rules, plus the trick for putting a literal pipe inside a cell.

Reddit Markdown support matrix

Behaviour below reflects the Markdown renderer used for posts and comments. Where old.reddit and new Reddit disagree, the note says so.

The line-break trap and the other things that break

Single newlines vanish

Take the fix first. Leave a blank line between blocks, or end a line with two trailing spaces to force a break inside one paragraph. The blank line is the safer habit, because trailing spaces are invisible and editors strip them.

Here is the cause. In classic Markdown a single newline counts as a space, so these three lines collapse into one paragraph:

Line one
Line two
Line three

New Reddit's renderer usually keeps the break, which is what makes the bug so confusing. Your address list looks right as you write it. Then it arrives as one run-on sentence for everyone reading on old.reddit.

Images, HTML and footnotes

Markdown image syntax does not render on Reddit at all. Upload an image as its own post, or post a link. Image comments do exist, but they are a per-subreddit setting moderators enable, and some subreddits allow Reddit's own GIF syntax. Neither is reliable site-wide, unlike the platforms covered in our images guide. Raw HTML is stripped, and footnotes have never been supported.

Quote and indent quirks

A blockquote swallows the line after it unless you leave a blank line. A reply typed directly beneath > quoted text ends up inside the quote. Nested >> quotes need a blank quoted line between levels, as our blockquotes guide shows. And because four spaces means "code", indenting a paragraph under a list item produces a code block.

Escaping

A backslash before a character prints it literally. The ones worth escaping on Reddit are *, _, ^, ~, #, >, [, ] and |.

\#1 problem      keeps the hash instead of making a heading
5 \* 3 = 15      keeps the asterisk
2\^10            keeps the caret

Underscores deserve special care, because usernames, file paths and snake_case variables are full of them. Wrapping the whole string in backticks is quicker than escaping each one, the same shortcut our bold and italic guide recommends.

old.reddit versus new Reddit, and how to write for both

A large and vocal share of Reddit still browses old.reddit.com and its older renderer. Your words are read through both, so write for the stricter one. The differences that bite are short enough to memorise:

• Fenced code blocks render on new Reddit and show as literal backticks on old.reddit. Indent four spaces instead.
• Single line breaks often survive on new Reddit and collapse on old.reddit. Use a blank line.
• Headings without a space after the hash work on old.reddit and fail on new Reddit. Always add the space.
• Spoiler tags are dependable on new Reddit and the apps, less so elsewhere.
• Subreddit CSS only exists on old.reddit, so custom community styling changes nothing on new Reddit.

A two-minute check before you post

1. Put a blank line between every block, including before lists and rules.
2. Swap backtick fences for four-space indents.
3. Add the missing space after each #.
4. Preview it, then open the thread on old.reddit if the post is long.

Two habits cover almost all of it. Leave blank lines between everything, and prefer the older syntax when two forms exist. Comments cap at 10,000 characters, while self-post bodies allow 40,000.

Where Reddit sits among the rest

Reddit is one dialect among many, which is why the same text can look different in three places. Discord's chat subset is the tighter cousin, and Obsidian shows what changes once the file itself belongs to you. The platform hub lines every app up in one table.

Still deciding what to learn? Our explainer on which Markdown flavor to learn is the short answer. The complete Markdown guide and the cheat sheet are the long one.