How to Delete Reddit Comments (Including Old Ones)

To delete Reddit comments, go to your profile, open the Comments tab, tap the menu (three dots) on the comment you want gone and choose Delete, then confirm. You can also delete a comment from inside the thread. Reddit replaces the text with a deleted marker and removes your username, but the replies underneath stay, and any reply that quoted you still shows your words.

That last detail is why Reddit clean-ups need more thought than most. Reddit threads are public, rank well in Google and get copied by other sites. This guide covers how to find everything you wrote, delete it without risking your account, and deal with what’s left behind. If you want to leave Reddit altogether, read our guide on how to delete a Reddit account after this one, because deleting the account alone leaves your comments up.

What happens when you delete a Reddit comment

Item	After you delete your comment
Your comment text	Replaced with a deleted marker in the thread
Your username on it	Removed
Replies to your comment	Stay visible under the deleted marker
Replies that quoted you	Stay, including the quoted text
Screenshots and cross-posts	Unaffected
Third-party archives and mirror sites	May keep a copy
Google results	Usually update after the thread is recrawled

So before deleting, scan the replies. If someone quoted the one sentence you regret, deleting yours won’t remove it. You might need to ask them to edit their reply, or ask the community’s moderators to help if it includes personal information.

How to find your old Reddit comments

Your profile

Your profile’s Comments tab lists what you’ve written, newest first. You can sort by top or controversial, which is a quick way to find the comments that got the most attention. The downside is that profile listings may only reach back so far, so very old comments can drop off the list even though they’re still live in their threads.

Your Reddit data export

Reddit lets you request a copy of your data through its settings or its data request process. The export includes a file of your comments, with links to each one. That’s the most reliable way to find older comments your profile no longer shows. Open the file in a spreadsheet, search for names, places and topics, and follow the links to delete each one.

Search

Searching Google or Reddit for your username plus a topic can surface old threads quickly. Searching distinctive phrases you know you wrote also helps, especially if you used the same stories or turns of phrase across platforms.

Deciding which comments to delete

If you’ve been on Reddit a long time, deleting everything can feel like the only safe move. Usually it isn’t. A targeted clean-up is faster and keeps useful answers intact. Prioritize in this order:

1. Anything that identifies you. Your real name, photos of yourself, your street, your employer, your school, or a story friends would recognize.
2. Anything sensitive. Health, finances, legal matters, relationships and anything about family members.
3. Anything that would read badly out of context. Arguments, insults, jokes that relied on a particular community’s tone.
4. Comments in communities you’d rather not be linked to, even if what you wrote was harmless.

Comments on hobby threads, technical answers and recommendations can usually stay. They’re more likely to help your reputation than hurt it, and once your identifying comments are gone, they’re hard to connect back to you.

How to delete Reddit comments one at a time

1. Sign in to the account that wrote the comment.
2. Open your profile and go to the Comments tab, or follow the link from your data export.
3. Open the menu on the comment. It’s usually three dots beside or under the comment.
4. Choose Delete and confirm.
5. Reload the thread in a private window to confirm it now shows as deleted.

Reddit’s apps and website sometimes differ in where the menu sits. The general route stays the same: find the comment, open its menu, delete.

Edit first, or just delete?

Some people edit a comment to replace the text before deleting it, hoping to overwrite copies. On Reddit itself, deleting is what removes it. Editing first doesn’t hurt, but it won’t reach copies that archive sites already made, and it won’t change quotes in other people’s replies.

Bulk deletion: the options and the risks

Reddit doesn’t offer a built-in delete-all button for comments. Your native options are:

• Delete by hand, prioritized. Start with comments that identify you: your city, employer, school, health, family, photos, or a story only you would tell.
• Hide activity from your profile. Reddit has added settings that let you limit what appears on your public profile. That can stop casual browsing of your history, but the comments stay in their threads and can still be found by search.
• Retire the username. If the account is linked to your real identity, deleting the worst comments and then the account breaks the link on everything that’s left.

Private or hidden options on Reddit

Reddit comments can’t be made private one at a time. A comment is either live in the thread or deleted. What you can adjust:

• Profile visibility settings, which control what visitors to your profile see.
• Whether your profile appears in search and whether you show up in recommendations.
• Your display name and profile details, which you can change even though the username itself is permanent.

None of these remove words from a thread. If a comment identifies you, deletion is the only thing that reliably breaks the connection.

Old comments in Google and archive sites

A deleted comment can still appear in a Google snippet for a while. Once the thread shows it as deleted, Google usually updates the result on its next crawl. If it doesn’t, use Google’s Refresh Outdated Content tool; there’s no cached page to clear. Our guide to removing outdated content from Google walks through it.

Archive and mirror sites that copy Reddit threads are separate websites. Each has its own contact or removal process and its own rules, and results vary. Focus on the copies that actually turn up when someone searches your name or username.

If the problem is a thread about you that someone else wrote, deleting your comments won’t help. Our guide on how to remove a Reddit post covers reports, moderators and Reddit’s own removal channels.

A worked example

This scenario is illustrative, not a real client. Rafael has posted on Reddit under one username since high school. He recently realized that a handful of comments mention his hometown, his old employer and a lawsuit involving a relative.

1. He requests his Reddit data and, when it arrives, opens the comments file in a spreadsheet.
2. He searches it for his town, the employer’s name and his relative’s surname, and flags a short list of comments.
3. He opens each link, checks whether any replies quoted him, and deletes the comment.
4. One reply quoted his hometown. He sends the replier a short, polite message asking them to edit it, and they do.
5. He changes his profile settings so his remaining history isn’t displayed to visitors, and keeps the account for his hobby communities.
6. Two weeks later, a search for his username no longer turns up the threads.

Common mistakes

• Deleting the account first. Your comments stay up without your name, and you can no longer delete them.
• Relying on the profile page alone. It may not show your oldest comments. Use the data export.
• Ignoring quotes in replies. Deleting your comment doesn’t touch someone else’s reply.
• Sharing your password with a tool. A compromised account creates a bigger reputation problem than old comments. If it’s already happened, see our Reddit account hacked guide.

For a wider clean-up across other platforms, our guide to deleting old social media posts covers Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn and TikTok. If old threads keep ranking for your name, our personal reputation management service works on removal where possible and on stronger positive results where it isn’t.

Frequently asked questions

Can I delete all my Reddit comments at once?

Reddit doesn’t offer a built-in delete-all option. You can delete comments one by one from your profile or from links in your data export. Third-party tools exist, but they need access to your account, so only use one through Reddit’s official authorization screen and revoke it afterward.

Do replies disappear when I delete my Reddit comment?

No. Replies stay under a deleted marker. If a reply quoted your words, the quote stays too, and only its author or a moderator can remove it.

Why can't I see my oldest comments on my profile?

Profile listings may only reach back a limited distance, so older comments can drop off even though they’re still live. Request your Reddit data export to get a full list with links.

Does deleting my Reddit account delete my comments?

No. Deleting the account removes your username from your posts and comments, but the content usually stays up. Delete the comments you care about first, then the account.