PERRLA/Guides/APA 7/Reddit post

How to Cite a Reddit Post in APA 7

An APA 7 reference for a Reddit post gives the author (the real name followed by the screen name in square brackets, or the screen name alone when the real name isn't known), the full date in parentheses, the post's title in italics (up to 20 words), the description [Online forum post] in square brackets, Reddit as the site name, and the post's URL. The in-text citation is the author and the year: (MonteResident, 2023).

The format

Author, A. A. [screen_name]. (Year, Month Day). Title of the post, up to 20 words [Online forum post]. Reddit. URL

PERRLA APA Experts · Updated October 21, 2026
Checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition. Every example is formatted by PERRLA's reference engine.

First, the easy way: PERRLA

Paste the thread's link into PERRLA's reference search. PERRLA reads the post from Reddit and fills in the screen name, the post's title (cut at 20 words), [Online forum post], Reddit as the platform, the date, and a clean link to the thread. Paste a comment's link instead and PERRLA cites the comment: the commenter, the comment's date, its first 20 words, and [Comment on the online forum post] with the post's title in italics.

Reddit only knows screen names. If you know who the person is, like an expert who names themself in an AMA, add the real name: keep the screen name in the Name box, and type the first and last name in First and Last (an organization's name goes in Last). Use the full link with /comments/ in it. Share links that end in /s/ and a code aren't thread links, so open them first and copy the address from your browser.

Adding one by hand? Choose Social Media, then An online forum post. Set the role to Username (screen name) and type the screen name, without u/, in Name. Type the post's title in Post Content (for a comment, the comment's text). Then type Online forum post in Description of attached content; that box is where the bracketed description comes from, and the reference leaves it out if the box is empty. For a comment, type Comment on the online forum post and the post's title there instead. Type Reddit in Platform Name, pick the date, and paste the URL. Forum Thread Title is for MLA and Turabian; the APA reference doesn't use it.

Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same reference by hand.

The parts of the reference

1. Author

When you know the author's real name, give it first, in the usual last-name-and-initials form (or an organization's name as written), then the screen name in square brackets. When all you have is the screen name, it becomes the author by itself, with no brackets.

Khosla, S. [FargoSleepDoc].

MonteResident.

Write the screen name exactly as Reddit shows it, capital letters, underscores, and hyphens included, but leave off the u/ in front. Only add a real name the post itself gives you, like an AMA host introducing themself. Don't guess who's behind an anonymous account.

2. Date

Give the year, month, and day the post went up, in parentheses, followed by a period.

(2023, January 10).

Reddit shows how long ago something went up, not the date. On a computer, hover over that time stamp to see the full date. For a comment, use the comment's own date, not the date of the post it's under.

3. Title

A Reddit post has its own title, and that's the title in your reference: up to its first 20 words, in italics, exactly as written. Keep the spelling, capitalization, and punctuation, even IAmA or a typo.

IAmA resident physician at Montefiore Hospital in The Bronx where resident doctors are working to unionize while our nurses are

Comments have no title, so a comment's first 20 words take this spot instead. A hashtag, a link, and an emoji each count as one word.

4. Description

Next comes a description in square brackets, then a period. A post is an online forum post.

[Online forum post].

A comment gets a longer description: the words Comment on the online forum post, then the full title of the post it appeared under, in italics and sentence case.

[Comment on the online forum post We are sleep experts from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine PAAC – here to answer all of your questions about healthy student sleep this school year. Ask us anything!].

The comment description uses the post's whole title, even past 20 words. Only the comment's own text is cut.

5. Site name and URL

Name Reddit as the site, then give the link to the post or comment.

Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/108gxcl/iama_resident_physician_at_montefiore_hospital_in/

The subreddit, like r/IAmA, isn't the site name; it's already in the URL. To get a comment's own link, select the comment's time stamp, or use Share on the comment, then copy the address. Don't put a period after the URL, and don't add a retrieval date.

Examples

A post by a screen name only

A resident physician's AMA from the January 2023 New York nurses' strike at Montefiore and Mount Sinai. The poster never gives a real name, so the screen name is the author, with no brackets, and the 26-word title stops at word 20.

  • Parenthetical citation(MonteResident, 2023)
  • Narrative citationMonteResident (2023)

A post by an organization with a screen name

The CREST.BD network's 2023 World Bipolar Day AMA, answered by psychiatrists, psychologists, researchers, and people living with bipolar disorder. The group's name comes first, then its screen name in brackets.

  • Parenthetical citation(CREST.BD, 2023)
  • Narrative citationCREST.BD (2023)

A comment by an expert

Sleep physician Seema Khosla answering a question in the American Academy of Sleep Medicine's 2022 student sleep AMA, which she posted as FargoSleepDoc and opened by giving her name. Her real name comes first, the comment's first 20 words are the title, and the bracket names the post it answers.

  • Parenthetical citation(Khosla, 2022)
  • Narrative citationKhosla (2022)

In-text citations

An APA 7 in-text citation for a Reddit post or comment gives the author and the year. Use the name that starts the reference: the real name when you have it, or the screen name when that's all there is.

  • Screen name only: (MonteResident, 2023) or MonteResident (2023)
  • Real name known: (Khosla, 2022) or Khosla (2022), with no screen name in the citation
  • Organization: (CREST.BD, 2023)
  • Two citations at once: (CREST.BD, 2023; Khosla, 2022), in the order they appear on your references page

Keep the screen name's capitalization in the citation, even when it starts with a lowercase letter. Reddit posts have no page numbers, so a quote gets the author and year only. A narrative citation names the author in your sentence: Khosla (2022) noted that a nap can add to the total sleep a person gets in a day.

Common mistakes

  • MonteResident. (2023, January 10). IAmA resident physician… [Online forum post]. r/IAmA.MonteResident. (2023, January 10). IAmA resident physician… [Online forum post]. Reddit.The site is Reddit. The subreddit's name is already in the URL, so it doesn't replace the site name or get added beside it.
  • u/MonteResident. (2023, January 10).MonteResident. (2023, January 10).u/ is Reddit's label for a user, not part of the screen name. APA Style's Reddit examples leave it off.
  • [FargoSleepDoc]. (2022, September 12).Khosla, S. [FargoSleepDoc]. (2022, September 12).Square brackets around a screen name only make sense after a real name. When you know the real name, give it first; when you don't, the screen name stands alone without brackets.
  • Khosla, S. [FargoSleepDoc]. (2022, September 12). We are sleep experts from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine… [Online forum post].Khosla, S. [FargoSleepDoc]. (2022, September 12). The AASM and National Sleep Foundation recommend 7-9 hours for adults… [Comment on the online forum post We are sleep experts…].A comment is cited by its own words, with the post's title moved into the bracketed description. Citing the post's title credits the commenter with someone else's post.
  • MonteResident. (2023). IAmA resident physician…MonteResident. (2023, January 10). IAmA resident physician…Social media posts get the full date: year, month, and day.
  • Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/s/…Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/108gxcl/iama_resident_physician_at_montefiore_hospital_in/Share links are redirects that can stop working. Open the link and use the full address with /comments/ in it.

Quick checklist

  • Real name first with the screen name in brackets, or the screen name alone
  • No u/ before the screen name
  • Full date of the post or comment
  • The post's title (or the comment's first 20 words), in italics and exactly as written
  • [Online forum post], or [Comment on the online forum post Title]
  • Reddit as the site, then the full /comments/ link

Questions students ask

Can I use Reddit as a source in a nursing or college paper?

Usually as evidence of what people are saying, not as evidence of what's true. A Reddit thread can show how patients describe an experience or how nurses talked about a strike. For clinical facts, find the study or guideline behind them. Check your assignment's rules, since some instructors don't accept social media at all.

What if the author deleted their account?

Reddit shows [deleted] in place of the screen name, so there's no author to name. The post's title moves to the front of the reference, followed by the date, and the in-text citation uses the first few words of the title in italics, with the year.

How do I cite a reply to a comment?

The same way as a comment. A reply is a comment on the same post, so the bracket still names the original post's title, and the URL is the reply's own link.

Do I use the real name or the screen name in the in-text citation?

Use whichever name starts the reference. If you know the real name, the citation uses the last name only. If the screen name is the author, the citation uses the screen name, spelled exactly the same way.

How do I cite a whole subreddit?

Usually you don't need to. To mention a subreddit in general, name it in your sentence, like r/nursing, and give its link in parentheses, with no reference entry, the way APA handles a whole website. When you use something specific from it, cite the post or comment.

What about a Reddit livestream?

If Reddit didn't keep a recording and nobody posted one anywhere else, your reader can't find it, so APA treats it as a personal communication: an in-text citation only, with no entry on the references page.

Rules checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), Sections 8.9, 8.14, 8.17, 8.22, 9.8, 9.12, 9.14, 9.19–9.22, 9.34–9.35, and 10.15, and the APA Style website's online forum (Reddit) references page. Example posts and comment verified on October 21, 2026: titles, screen names, and post dates read from Reddit's own embed and oEmbed data for each URL; the comment's text read from Reddit's embed and its date from Reddit's API record (archived by Arctic Shift), since reddit.com blocks automated browsing.

PERRLA builds the Reddit reference from the thread's link, screen name, [Online forum post], and all.

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