Reddit Ads do not have a fixed price or a published minimum budget. Reddit runs a real-time auction, so what you pay depends on your campaign objective, your targeting, and how much competition there is, not a set rate. The "$5 a day minimum" repeated across the web is not in Reddit's current documentation. The only published minimum applies to a single beta product.
If you are trying to figure out what Reddit Ads will cost you, the honest answer is "it depends," but the mechanics are knowable. Here is how billing actually works and what drives the number.
There is no fixed Reddit Ads price
Reddit Ads is an auction, so there is no rate card. Just as important, there is no universal minimum daily or lifetime budget in Reddit's current help pages. The widely repeated "$5 a day" figure does not appear in Reddit's live ad documentation. Budget instead around your goal and audience, and start small enough to test before you scale.
How Reddit Ads bill you, by objective
What you pay for changes with your campaign objective. Per Reddit's ad documentation, brand awareness and reach campaigns pay by cost per thousand impressions (CPM), traffic, catalog sales, and lead generation pay by cost per click (CPC), conversions and app installs pay by optimized CPM or CPC, and video views pay by cost per view (CPV).
Because it is a live auction, your spend is not perfectly fixed even with a daily budget. Reddit notes that "since Reddit Ads relies on real-time, live auctions to deliver ads to users, your ad group may overspend its budget by up to 20%" on a given day.
The one published minimum
Reddit publishes exactly one dollar-figure minimum, and it applies only to Max Campaigns, its AI-automated beta product. For those, the campaign spend cap "must be at least $20 (daily) or $620 (lifetime)." That is specific to the beta and not a general requirement for standard self-serve campaigns, which have no stated minimum.
What actually drives your cost
Three things move the number: your objective, how competitive your targeting is, and the auction itself. There is no reliable independent CPM or CPC benchmark for Reddit, so treat any specific "average cost per click" figure you see on other sites with caution, since Reddit does not publish rates. Where Reddit does give budget guidance, it is contextual, for example recommending a daily budget of "five times your average CPA" for a specific app-optimization tactic, a formula rather than a fixed floor.
How to budget for Reddit Ads
The practical approach is to pick one clear objective, set a modest daily budget you can afford to test with, and measure results against that objective alone before scaling. Ads work best on top of a genuine organic presence rather than as a replacement for it. For the fuller decision on whether to run them at all, see our guide on whether Reddit Ads are worth it, and for the paid product itself, our Reddit Ads guide.
Frequently asked questions
How much do Reddit Ads cost?
There is no fixed price. Reddit Ads is an auction, and you pay by CPM, CPC, oCPM, or CPV depending on your campaign objective. Total cost depends on your objective, targeting, and competition, so budget by testing rather than a set rate.
Is there a minimum budget for Reddit Ads?
Not for standard self-serve campaigns. Reddit's current documentation states no universal minimum, and the common "$5 a day" figure does not appear there. The only published minimum is $20 a day (or $620 lifetime) for the beta Max Campaigns product.
Why is there no fixed Reddit Ads price?
Because it runs on a real-time auction. Prices are set by competition for the audience you target, not a published rate card, which is also why a daily budget can overspend by up to 20% on a given day.
What is a good starting budget for Reddit Ads?
Enough to gather meaningful data on one objective, kept small until you see results. Reddit does not mandate a starting amount for standard campaigns, so test conservatively and scale only what performs.