How to Block Reddit on iPhone (App and Website)

Blocking Reddit is harder than blocking Instagram, and most guides get it wrong in the same way.

They tell you to set a Screen Time limit on the Reddit app. Then you hit the limit, open Safari, type reddit.com, and carry on exactly as before.

Here is how to block Reddit properly on iPhone, including the part almost every guide misses.

Why Reddit is harder to quit than other apps

Three reasons, and they stack.

There is no end to the feed. Instagram tells you when you are caught up. TikTok loops. Reddit simply never runs out, because there is always another subreddit, another comment thread, another reply to the reply.

Reddit has no built-in time limits. Instagram and TikTok both ship usage reminders you can set inside the app. Reddit does not. Your only options are iOS Screen Time or a third-party app blocker.

The browser version is fully usable. Blocking the app achieves very little on its own, because reddit.com in Safari gives you everything the app does.

Method one: block the Reddit app with Screen Time

Free and built-in, and the weakest of the four.

Go to Settings, then Screen Time, then App Limits, then Add Limit. Select Social Networking or search for Reddit specifically. Set your limit, and on recent iOS versions you can set it to zero for a full block.

Turn on Block at End of Limit, and set a Screen Time passcode under Lock Screen Time Settings.

The catch is the one every adult runs into. When the limit hits, iOS offers “Ignore Limit for Today” unless you set that passcode, and if you set it yourself, you already know it. At midnight, typing four digits you have memorised is not friction.

Method two: block the Reddit websites

This is the step that actually matters, and the one most guides skip.

Go to Settings, then Screen Time, then Content and Privacy Restrictions, then Content Restrictions, then Web Content, and choose Limit Adult Websites. Then add these under Never Allow:

• reddit.com
• old.reddit.com
• www.reddit.com

The old.reddit.com trap. Reddit still serves its previous interface on a completely separate subdomain. Block reddit.com and leave old.reddit.com open, and the whole block falls over. A lot of long-time Reddit users default to old.reddit anyway, so for them this is the only domain that matters.

Add every variant. Blocking one and not the others is the single most common reason people say blocking Reddit did not work.

Method three: delete the app and block reinstalls

If you do not need the account on your phone, removal is cleanest.

Long press the Reddit app, choose Remove App, then Delete App.

Then go to Settings, Screen Time, Content and Privacy Restrictions, iTunes and App Store Purchases, Installing Apps, and set it to Don’t Allow.

Without that second step, the App Store is one search away at 1 a.m. With it, reinstalling means turning a restriction off first, which is a small but real barrier.

Method four: use a blocker with no override

Every method above shares the same weakness. You hold the off switch, and flipping it takes seconds.

That is the actual failure point. Almost nobody deletes their blocker or resets their phone. They tap the override, because it is free and instant.

A dedicated Reddit blocker fixes that by making the unlock cost something. Pause is free, has no in-app pause button, and blocks websites alongside apps so Safari is not a side door. Before a session starts, you decide whether unlocks are allowed, and with unlocks off there are no ordinary breaks and no early exits. Strict Mode then locks your session settings until it ends.

What to do if you only scroll Reddit at night

If your Reddit habit is a bedtime habit rather than an all-day one, do not block it around the clock. You will resent the block and turn it off within the week.

Set a schedule covering your evening hours instead, starting before you get into bed, with unlocks turned off. Configure it in the afternoon while you are rested, not at eleven at night when you are already negotiating with yourself. How to stop scrolling in bed at night.

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