About r/dating
In its own words:
A subreddit to discuss and explore the dating process and learn from the experiences of others
Community guide
r/dating is for venting, discussing, and learning about the dating process from others’ experiences—not for posting personal ads. Rank #126 (about 6.3 million subscribers). Rules ban trying to get a date here, r4r ads, spam, and harmful rhetoric; NSFW must be marked.
Fit
Process talk and experience sharing. Activity samples are text-heavy at very high volume.
Versus dating_advice and Tinder
dating_advice often wants actionable tips; Tinder is app/screenshot culture; r4r subs are for meeting people. r/dating’s rules say this is not the place to try to get a date—discussion of the process, not marketplace.
Practical pointers
Be polite; give ethical advice; no personal information; no reposting.
SubMouse Editorial
The community was created on Mar 2, 2008, which makes it 18 years old. Since Oct 26, 2026, it has gained 1,549 subscribers (+0.03%). It sits just behind r/Cooking (#125) and ahead of r/BlackPeopleTwitter (#127) in our ranking.
What sets r/dating apart
r/dating is far more text-driven than most big subreddits: 100% of its recent posts are text posts, against a median of 34% across the Top 100. For its size it is unusually busy: about 29.4 new posts a day per million members, more than 83% of the Top 100.
Subscriber growth
Between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026, r/dating grew from 6,266,584 to 6,278,252 subscribers (+11.7K, +0.19%). That is about 265 new members per day. The chart uses our weekly snapshots (9 so far), so it gets longer every week.
What r/dating talks about
Across 698 recent posts (Oct 29–Nov 5), the words that come up most are “date”, “relationship”, “girl”, “women” and “feel”. Other frequent themes are looking, advice, men, man, help and interested. Recurring phrases include “mixed signals”, “red flag”, “cute coworker” and “talking stage”. By format, 100% are text posts.
Popular post flairs: I Need Advice 😩 (321), Question ❓ (215), Just Venting 😮💨 (68), Support Needed 🫂 (54), Giving Advice 💌 (29), Long Distance ✈️ (7).
Activity and best time to post
r/dating gets about 180 new posts a day. The public archive holds 867,031 posts and 9,150,242 comments in total, about 10.6 comments per post. Last week the busiest day was Tuesday (183 posts) and the quietest was Saturday (138). Posting peaks around 17:00 UTC and is lowest around 09:00 UTC.
Rules of r/dating
The moderators of r/dating list 7 rules. In short:
- Be polite and respect each other. Give good, ethical advice.
- This is not the place to try and get a date
- Stay on topic. No r4r ads, spam, advertisements or promotional content.
- NSFW posts must be marked
- No Personal Information
- No harmful or hateful rhetoric
- No reposting
How to join
Open reddit.com/r/dating and press “Join”. Read the community rules in the sidebar before you post: every subreddit is run by its own volunteer moderators.
Frequently asked questions
How many members does r/dating have?
r/dating has 6,278,252 subscribers (Nov 2, 2026), which makes it the #126 safe-for-work subreddit in the SubMouse ranking. It added 11,668 members between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026.
When was r/dating created?
r/dating was created on Mar 2, 2008, so it has been around for 18 years.
Is r/dating still active?
Yes. r/dating gets about 180 new posts a day (average of the last four weeks). Over its lifetime the archive counts 867,031 posts and 9,150,242 comments. In a sample of 698 recent posts we counted 639 different authors.
What is the best time to post in r/dating?
Based on post counts from Oct 29, 2026 to Nov 4, 2026, the busiest day was Tuesday and the quietest Saturday, and most posts arrive around 17:00 UTC, with the fewest around 09:00 UTC. More posts also means more competition, so a quieter hour can help a post get noticed.
What kind of posts are on r/dating?
The community describes itself as: “A subreddit to discuss and explore the dating process and learn from the experiences of others” Recent post titles often mention date, relationship, girl, women and feel. Most posts are text posts (100%).
Is r/dating SFW?
Yes. Reddit does not mark r/dating as an 18+ (NSFW) community, and its own rules forbid NSFW content. SubMouse lists safe-for-work subreddits only.
What are the rules of r/dating?
Join the community on Reddit first, then use “Create post”. r/dating accepts text posts only. It has 7 posted rules, starting with: “Be polite and respect each other. Give good, ethical advice.”; “This is not the place to try and get a date”; “Stay on topic. No r4r ads, spam, advertisements or promotional content.”. Moderators remove posts that break the rules, so read them in the sidebar before posting.
What subreddits are similar to r/dating?
Communities with similar topics include r/dating_advice (4.9M), r/Tinder (6M), r/learntodraw (3.2M), r/TwoXChromosomes (13.7M) and r/AskWomen (5.8M).
Stats from public data (data updated Nov 2, 2026; activity, rules and archive totals via the Arctic Shift archive, Nov 6, 2026). Point and comment counts are archive snapshots and can be lower than on Reddit today. SubMouse is an independent directory and is not affiliated with Reddit or the moderators of r/dating.