This study conducted by Minddex, which includes 9,286 Reddit quotes, helps us understand how LLMs use Reddit as a resource. The results challenge many established views on GEO and content strategy.

Key Points:

  • Engagement over content creation: 78% of the Reddit quotes in LLM responses come from organic discussions by third parties, not from content published by the brands themselves.
  • Comments are more valuable than posts: 62% of the quoted material is typically short (150-400 characters) comments, not from the text of the original post.
  • Upvotes are not filters: 82% of the quoted comments have between 1 to 5 upvotes. LLMs read not just the highest-voted content but the entirety of a thread.
  • Relevant content for 6 to 24 months: The median age of quoted Reddit content is 280 days. New content does not gain any privilege.

Asking the Right Questions

As generative search engines (Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, etc.) have changed the way we find information online, the visibility of brands in these responses has become strategic.

In this context, Reddit occupies a unique position. The platform is widely indexed, discussions are perceived by LLMs as an authentic voice, and the content encompasses thousands of thematic niches.

So, how are AI models using Reddit? Which discussions are they quoting? What types of content do they prefer? And what does this mean for a brand's visibility in AI responses?

Minddex attempted to measure these questions in a study published in April 2026. The team analyzed 9,286 Reddit quotes from 291 different sectors. The timeframe covers April 4-20, 2026, and includes 1,854 unique subreddits and 2,066 different threads.

The study is structured around 15 operational questions under four themes: asset strategy, engagement signals, content structure, and LLM mechanics.

A Strategy for More Engagement than Publishing

The first contradiction with conventional intuitions is the core strategy. Many brands spend time and resources creating Reddit threads specifically for their names: organized AMAs (Ask Me Anything), posts published under their accounts, or discussion threads designed to highlight their products or services.

The data from the study shows that this approach is three times less effective compared to the alternative -> participating in existing discussions.

Participating in an existing thread is better - Source: Minddex

Of the 6,248 quotes, 4,874 point to organic threads (discussions that arise without brand intervention), while only 1,374 point to specific threads. In other words, 78% of the quotes come from existing threads with brand participation, not initiation.

In short, instead of creating content, it is necessary to identify relevant discussions happening outside and provide meaningful contributions to those discussions. This paradigm shift is summarized in the study with the expression "initiating discussions" instead of "creating content."

Comments: Where Real Value is Determined

The second important lesson: the content quoted by LLMs is often misunderstood. Brands' attention typically focuses on the main post of a thread, its title, and text. However, the study reveals that 62% of the quotes come from comments, with only 38% coming from the text of the original post.

This figure leads to a practical outcome: the first well-written comment on a thread is often more valuable in terms of AI visibility than the post itself. Because technically it may not stand out, LLMs take the entirety of a discussion, and a clear, concise comment directly related to the question posed in the title is exactly the type of content that can be reused.

The optimal length of quoted comments is between 150 and 400 characters, which is about two or three sentences. The median of the quoted posts is 522 characters, approximately the length of a paragraph. Conversely, only 0.6% comes from comments exceeding 1,000 characters. Therefore, density is more important than scope.

Formats Preferred by LLMs

The study also analyzed the format of the posts from which the quotes were taken. The result is clear: Question-Answer format (posts where the title is a question) accounts for 44.2% of the quotes, while discussion posts account for 35.8%, suggestions for 9.3%, lists for 5.7%, comparisons for 3.1%, and reviews for 2%.

LLMs prefer the question-answer format - Source: Minddex

The question-answer format generates almost as many quotes as the total of all other categories combined. This is not a coincidence: LLMs are themselves systems that answer questions. When a user asks a question to an LLM, they naturally turn to sources that answer similar types of questions.

The strategic implication is clear: it is necessary to primarily target titles that are questions and structure one's contributions as direct answers to the asked question, even in open discussion titles. Writing "The best option for X is Y because..." is always more valuable in terms of AI visibility than an unstructured contribution.

Upvotes and Karma Are Not Filters

This is perhaps the most counterintuitive finding of the study. In the classic logic of Reddit, the visibility of a comment largely depends on upvotes: the comments with the most upvotes are highlighted in the title and thus primarily read by users.

However, LLMs do not operate this way. They take the entire title, not just the most upvoted comments. And the data proves this: 82% of the quoted comments in the study have between 1 to 5 upvotes. Viral or highly upvoted content does not constitute the majority of the quotes held by the models.

Similarly, the study finds no privilege for the author's karma score. Being a recognized user on Reddit with a strong history of contributions liked by the community does not statistically ensure more quotes by an LLM. What matters is the quality and relevance of the content when the model takes the title, not the author's profile.

This finding calls into question two strategies frequently mentioned in discussions about GEO: chasing upvotes and hiring effective contributors on Reddit. Neither aligns with how LLMs operate on the platform.

The Age of Content: Evergreen Content Dominates

A third breaking point relates to digital marketing habits: the freshness of content is not an advantage on Reddit in the context of LLM responses.

The median age of the quoted Reddit content in the study is 280 days, which is about nine months. Content aged between 1 to 3 years alone constitutes 31.8% of the quotes. In contrast, content published within the last ten weeks has only an 11.6% quote rate.

LLMs prefer older content - Source: Minddex

This distribution has a direct impact on how to evaluate Reddit strategy from a GEO perspective: three-month KPIs are poorly aligned. A comment shared today in a title will take several months to start being effective in LLM responses. The relevant timeframe for an AI-focused Reddit strategy is between 6 to 24 months.

This point is structurally important for SEO teams and marketing managers: the foundational work done on Reddit today will not be visible in reports for the upcoming quarter, but will appear in reports for the following year.

How LLMs Use Reddit: Quoting vs. Paraphrasing

The study also examined the mechanism of LLMs reusing Reddit content and measured the cosine similarity between the responses of the models and the Reddit citations defined.

The result is clear: 80% of the citations are paraphrases, not direct quotes. The median similarity is 0.62, which is equivalent to a soft rephrasing. Only 0.2% has been reproduced almost verbatim.

The implication for content strategy: write to be paraphrased, not to be quoted. A text designed for full text, with processed expressions and brand transformations, is completely distanced from the real mechanism of LLMs. What works is content structured to clearly answer a real question; this is a natural community language that an ordinary Reddit user would use to explain something to a friend.

Marketing phrases, brand superlatives, sales arguments: all of these get lost in paraphrase. What remains is the structure of the response and the information it contains.

Subreddits That Increase Visibility

The study for the French-speaking market identifies a dominant subreddit: r/AskFrance. With 669 citations and 51 projects benefiting from this platform (out of 291 analyzed), it constitutes the largest source of visibility for brands targeting a French-speaking audience.

The following subreddits are:

  • r/brico (555 citations),
  • r/france (345),
  • r/voiture (277),
  • r/treadmills (166),
  • r/runningfr (158),
  • r/Livres (146),
  • r/AchatPourLaVie (143),
  • r/PME_FR (141).

This ranking reflects a reality expressed by the study: every sector has its own center. DIY in r/brico, automotive in r/voiture, running in r/runningfr, indoor fitness in r/treadmills. The comprehensive map created by Minddex includes 944 intersecting industries with 1,007 subreddits.

For a brand, before defining its content strategy, it is necessary to identify 3-5 subreddits relevant to its industry. Visibility is built here, not elsewhere.

Citations Are Trackable: A Measurable KPI

One last point that should be emphasized, especially for analysis teams. The study states that 65% of the Reddit citations in LLM responses contain the URL of the directly quoted title. Only 35% appear as text without a link.

This shows that the back traffic directed to Reddit by AI responses is measurable. This is not an assumption: it is a trackable flow and can be integrated into performance dashboards like traditional organic traffic.

For brands developing a presence on Reddit, this opens up the possibility of measuring the impact of GEO strategies concretely, rather than just qualitatively predicting it.

Discover at Minddex: The Reddit study in LLM responses.