About r/dating_advice
In its own words:
this sub is for advice about specific dating situations not general debates. posts about relationships longer than 6 months post go to r/relationship_advice or if you are married post to r/marriage
Community guide
r/dating_advice (#186, about 4.9 million) is for advice on specific dating situations—not general debates. Its own description steers relationships longer than six months to r/relationship_advice and married topics to r/marriage. Rules bar hate/harassment, PUA/red-pill/MGTOW language, spam/DM solicitation, self-pity, gender-war generalizations, and several other low-value patterns. Text (~543.7 ppd).
Versus relationship_advice and marriage
Catalogue description draws a hard timeline split: early dating stays here; longer relationships and marriage belong elsewhere.
What gets removed
Hate speech, personal attacks, spam/ads/DM soliciting, PUA/red-pill/MGTOW language, off-topic/low-effort, self-pity, repetitive topics, gender-war generalizations, and body-count framing are ruled out.
Practical pointers
Ask about a concrete dating situation; keep it specific rather than a culture-war essay.
SubMouse Editorial
The community was created on Sep 27, 2010, which makes it 16 years old. Since Oct 26, 2026, it has gained 7,215 subscribers (+0.15%). It sits just behind r/psychology (#185) and ahead of r/PublicFreakout (#187) in our ranking.
What sets r/dating_advice apart
r/dating_advice 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 110.5 new posts a day per million members, more than 98% of the Top 100. It is also one of the faster-growing big communities: its 0.89% gain since Sep 19, 2026 beats 96% of the Top 100.
Subscriber growth
Between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026, r/dating_advice grew from 4,876,094 to 4,919,684 subscribers (+43.6K, +0.89%). That is about 991 new members per day. The chart uses our weekly snapshots (9 so far), so it gets longer every week.
What r/dating_advice talks about
Across 698 recent posts (Oct 29–Nov 5), the words that come up most are “dating”, “date”, “girl”, “advice” and “relationship”. Other frequent themes are women, friend, men, boyfriend, help and months. Recurring phrases include “age gap”, “second date”, “red flag” and “dating app”. By format, 100% are text posts.
Activity and best time to post
r/dating_advice gets about 540 new posts a day. The public archive holds 1,505,325 posts and 16,077,206 comments in total, about 10.7 comments per post. Last week the busiest day was Monday (656 posts) and the quietest was Saturday (486). Posting peaks around 20:00 UTC and is lowest around 07:00 UTC.
Rules of r/dating_advice
The moderators of r/dating_advice list 9 rules. In short:
- No hate-speech, personal attacks, or harassment
- Sex related Topics
- Spam / Advertising/ Solicitation of Dms
- Pickup Artist / Red pill language /MGTOW
- Off-topic / Low-effort
- Self-pity
- Repetitive topic
- Generalizations & Gender war
- Body Count
How to join
Open reddit.com/r/dating_advice 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_advice have?
r/dating_advice has 4,919,684 subscribers (Nov 2, 2026), which makes it the #186 safe-for-work subreddit in the SubMouse ranking. It added 43,590 members between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026.
How old is r/dating_advice?
r/dating_advice was created on Sep 27, 2010, so it has been around for 16 years. The oldest post in the public archive is from Jan 20, 2011.
How active is r/dating_advice?
Very active: r/dating_advice gets about 540 new posts a day (average of the last four weeks). Over its lifetime the archive counts 1,505,325 posts and 16,077,206 comments. In a sample of 698 recent posts we counted 639 different authors.
When is r/dating_advice most active?
Based on post counts from Oct 29, 2026 to Nov 4, 2026, the busiest day was Monday and the quietest Saturday, and most posts arrive around 20:00 UTC, with the fewest around 07:00 UTC. More posts also means more competition, so a quieter hour can help a post get noticed.
What is r/dating_advice about?
The community describes itself as: “this sub is for advice about specific dating situations not general debates. posts about relationships longer than 6 months post go to r/relationship_advice or if you are married post to r/marriage” Recent post titles often mention dating, date, girl, advice and relationship. Most posts are text posts (100%).
Is r/dating_advice safe for work?
Yes. Reddit does not mark r/dating_advice as an 18+ (NSFW) community. SubMouse lists safe-for-work subreddits only.
How do I post on r/dating_advice?
Join the community on Reddit first, then use “Create post”. r/dating_advice accepts text posts only. It has 9 posted rules, starting with: “No hate-speech, personal attacks, or harassment”; “Sex related Topics”; “Spam / Advertising/ Solicitation of Dms”. Moderators remove posts that break the rules, so read them in the sidebar before posting.
Which communities are like r/dating_advice?
Communities with similar topics include r/dating (6.3M), r/relationship_advice (15.9M), r/Tinder (6M), r/Advice (3.2M) and r/relationships (3.8M).
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_advice.