How to use imgur for Reddit
Last updated: 7 October 2026
You posted a picture on Reddit and it showed up as a blue link instead of an image. Nothing is broken. You pasted the wrong kind of URL, and Reddit is doing exactly what you asked it to.
Why it happens
Reddit decides how to render a post from the URL you give it:
- A direct image URL ending in
.jpg,.pngor.gif(on ani.subdomain) is treated as an image. Reddit fetches it and shows a thumbnail that expands inline. - A page URL — a gallery post or an album — is treated as a link. Reddit shows a title and a small preview, and clicking it leaves Reddit.
That is the whole difference. Direct link vs gallery link shows how to tell the two apart at a glance.
What to paste where
| What you want | Which Reddit post type | Which URL |
|---|---|---|
| One image, expands inline | Image post, or a link post with the direct URL | Direct link |
| Image inside a comment | Any comment | Direct link, either as raw text or in Markdown |
| A whole set of images | Link post | Album page — you cannot inline an album |
In a comment, either paste the bare direct URL or use Markdown
[text](direct-url). Bare URLs on their own line usually expand; a URL buried inside a
sentence usually does not, because Reddit only auto-expands links it recognises as standalone.
Before you post: check the subreddit rules
Many subreddits restrict which image hosts are allowed, and a number of them now require Reddit's own native image hosting instead of any third party. This is the single biggest reason a perfectly good image post gets removed. Read the sidebar before you upload anything, especially in larger communities.
What changed after 2016
Reddit added native image hosting in 2016, and the volume of Imgur links posted to Reddit dropped noticeably afterwards. If you are posting to Reddit today, the default assumption should be that the platform wants you to use its own uploader. You reach for an external host when:
- The subreddit explicitly requires or allows it.
- You are cross-posting the same image to several places and want one stable URL.
- You are posting images that are not the main content — screenshots inside a long comment, evidence in a discussion, a diagram in a technical thread.
- You want a link that keeps working outside Reddit, on a blog or a ticket.
When Imgur is not available to you
Two things can put Imgur out of reach entirely:
- Regional blocks. Imgur blocked UK users on 30 September 2025 for regulatory reasons. If you are in an affected region, you cannot open Imgur at all, let alone upload to it.
- Account requirements. Signing up is friction, and an anonymous one-off upload is exactly the scenario that got swept up in Imgur's 2023 content purge. See how long imgur images last.
Either way, a free imgur upload here takes seconds, needs no account, and gives you a direct link that Reddit renders the same way it renders any other direct image URL. Pasting it as a standalone line in a comment is the usual approach.