LaunchRepoThe year in numbers
- Show HN posts in the sample
- 44,624
- Median points per post
- 2
- Posts with 10+ points
- 8.4%
- Posts with 100+ points
- 1.7%
- Median comments per post
- 0
All Show HN posts created from September 1, 2025 to August 31, 2026 (UTC), read from the public Hacker News API on September 30, 2026.
The rules in their own words
Hacker News publishes short, clear rules for Show HN. The middle column quotes them word for word; the right column says what each one means when you prepare your post. Sources: the Show HN guidelines, the general guidelines, the FAQ and the notice on new accounts, all checked on 30 September 2026.
| Rule | Official wording | What it means for your post |
|---|---|---|
| Something people can try | Show HN is for something you've made that other people can play with. | Link to the working product, a demo or the repository. Readers should be able to use it, not only read about it. |
| Not reading material | Off topic: blog posts, sign-up pages, newsletters, lists, and other reading material. | An announcement post or a waitlist is a regular submission, not a Show HN. Post the thing itself. |
| Non-trivial work | The project should be non-trivial. Don't post quickly-generated one-offs | Show work you invested in and can explain: how you built it and why. The rules add that anybody can make a quick one-off now. |
| Your own, and you are there | The project must be something you've worked on personally and which you're around to discuss. | Post your own project and plan to answer questions in the thread for the first hours. |
| Few barriers | Please make it easy for users to try your thing out, ideally without barriers such as signups or emails. | A live demo, a guest mode or a sample account gets you more feedback than a sign-up wall. |
| Only when ready | If your work isn't ready for users to try out, please don't do a Show HN. | No landing pages or fundraisers. Come back once people can actually use it. |
| Not for minor updates | New features and upgrades ("Foo 1.3.1 is out") generally aren't substantive enough to be Show HNs. | A version bump is not a Show HN. A major overhaul can be. |
| No vote requests | Please don't ask friends to upvote or comment. | Share the link where it helps people, but never ask for votes or comments. HN says it penalises this. |
| Human-written, posted by hand | Please don't put generated text in HN posts. | Write your title, text and replies yourself. The same guidelines ask you not to automate posting. |
| New accounts wait | We're temporarily restricting Show HNs because of a massive influx, mostly by users who aren't yet familiar with the site or its culture. | Take part as a reader and commenter first; an account with some history can post an occasional Show HN. |
Is it a Show HN? A one-minute check
Answer these five questions in order. The first "no" tells you what to do instead.
- Can people try it right now, on their computer or in their hands?Not yet a Show HN. Build the demo first; for hardware, a video or detailed article is allowed, for books a sample chapter.
- Is it the thing itself, not a blog post, sign-up page, newsletter or list?Submit it as a regular story instead, without the "Show HN" prefix.
- Did you make it yourself, and is it more than a quick one-off?Only the maker should post a Show HN, and only for work with some depth.
- Is it new, or a major overhaul, rather than a feature release?Minor updates generally do not qualify. Save the Show HN for a big change.
- Will you be there to answer questions after posting?Pick a time when you can stay in the thread for a few hours.
Five times yes: your project fits Show HN. Start the title with "Show HN" and link to the thing people can try.
Show HN vs Launch HN
You may see posts titled "Launch HN" on the front page. They are a different format: the Hacker News FAQ lists startup launches among the features HN gives to Y Combinator, and the launches page shows each one with its YC batch.
If you are not a YC company, Show HN is your format. It is open to everyone who follows the rules above.
What 12 months of Show HN posts show
We read every Show HN post created between September 1, 2025 and August 31, 2026 from the public Hacker News API: 44,624 posts. The charts count posts and show the median points and the share of posts that reached 10 points or more. They describe what happened; they do not prove what causes success.
| Points | Posts |
|---|---|
| 1–2 | 27,446 · 61.5% |
| 3–9 | 13,445 · 30.1% |
| 10–49 | 2,385 · 5.3% |
| 50–99 | 599 · 1.3% |
| 100–299 | 578 · 1.3% |
| 300+ | 171 · 0.4% |
| Posts | Median points | 10+ points | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 2,208 | 2 | 10.3% |
| Oct 2025 | 2,396 | 2 | 10.4% |
| Nov 2025 | 2,616 | 2 | 8.7% |
| Dec 2025 | 3,523 | 2 | 7.8% |
| Jan 2026 | 4,759 | 2 | 8.3% |
| Feb 2026 | 6,217 | 2 | 5.9% |
| Mar 2026 | 5,444 | 2 | 6.6% |
| Apr 2026 | 3,431 | 2 | 9.6% |
| May 2026 | 2,644 | 2 | 9.9% |
| Jun 2026 | 3,473 | 3 | 9.1% |
| Jul 2026 | 4,196 | 2 | 9.5% |
| Aug 2026 | 3,717 | 2 | 8.9% |
| Posts | Median points | 10+ points | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 6,847 | 2 | 8.2% |
| Tuesday | 8,093 | 2 | 8.4% |
| Wednesday | 7,332 | 2 | 8% |
| Thursday | 6,990 | 2 | 8.4% |
| Friday | 5,888 | 2 | 8.1% |
| Saturday | 4,569 | 2 | 8.2% |
| Sunday | 4,905 | 2 | 9.4% |
| Posts | Median points | 10+ points | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00–03:59 | 3,926 | 2 | 8% |
| 04:00–07:59 | 4,161 | 2 | 6.6% |
| 08:00–11:59 | 6,243 | 2 | 6.7% |
| 12:00–15:59 | 13,143 | 2 | 8.5% |
| 16:00–19:59 | 10,602 | 2 | 9.5% |
| 20:00–23:59 | 6,549 | 2 | 9.3% |
| Posts | Median points | 10+ points | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ≤40 | 3,498 | 2 | 9.9% |
| 41–60 | 11,864 | 2 | 9% |
| 61–80 | 29,225 | 2 | 7.9% |
| 81+ | 37 | 2 | 2.7% |
| Posts | Median points | 10+ points | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Code repository | 15,859 | 2 | 9.5% |
| Website | 26,197 | 2 | 7.9% |
| No link (text only) | 2,568 | 2 | 6.1% |
| Posts | Median points | 10+ points | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name – description: yes | 22,226 | 2 | 8% |
| Name – description: no | 22,398 | 2 | 8.7% |
| "I built" / "We made": yes | 2,406 | 2 | 9.1% |
| "I built" / "We made": no | 42,218 | 2 | 8.3% |
| Mentions open source: yes | 2,288 | 2 | 10.8% |
| Mentions open source: no | 42,336 | 2 | 8.2% |
| Mentions AI, LLM or agents: yes | 13,631 | 2 | 6.7% |
| Mentions AI, LLM or agents: no | 30,993 | 2 | 9.1% |
What stands out
- Most Show HN posts stay quiet. The median post has 2 points and 8.4% reach 10 or more. Plan for a thread with a few thoughtful comments and treat a big response as a bonus, not the measure of your work.
- Volume changed a lot: from 2,208 posts in September 2025 to 6,217 in February 2026. In that busiest month, only 5.9% reached 10+ points. More posts compete for the same readers.
- Posts that link to a code repository reached 10+ points more often (9.5%) than posts linking to a website (7.9%) or text-only posts (6.1%). Something readers can inspect and run seems to travel well.
- Titles that mention open source did better (10.8% vs 8.2%). Titles that mention AI, LLMs or agents, now 30.5% of all posts, did worse (6.7% vs 9.1%).
- Shorter titles did slightly better: 9.9% for titles up to 40 characters against 7.9% for 61 to 80.
- The day matters less than people think: by weekday, the share with 10+ points stays between 8% and 9.4%. By time of day, posts from 16:00 to 19:59 UTC did best (9.5%), posts from 04:00 to 11:59 UTC least well.
- Half the titles use a dash between name and description (49.8%), and they did not do better (8% vs 8.7%). Clear words matter more than the format.
Method, sample and limits
Every post tagged Show HN in the public Hacker News search API (hn.algolia.com) with a creation time from September 1, 2025 to August 31, 2026, UTC. That is a full count of the period, not a random selection: 44,624 posts.
We fetched the data on September 30, 2026 in 142 requests, one every 1.5 seconds, in weekly windows split further where a window held more than 1,000 posts. For each post we kept only the ID, time, points, comment count, title length, the type of link and four yes/no title features. We did not store titles, texts or URLs.
Points and comments are the values on September 30, 2026, at least 30 days after the last post in the sample. Threads close to new comments after two weeks, so comment counts were final.
What the data cannot tell you
- Deleted posts and posts removed from search are missing, so the sample leans towards posts that stayed up.
- Points measure votes on Hacker News, not visitors, sign-ups or revenue.
- Ranking also depends on flags, moderation and anti-abuse software, which the API does not show.
- Weekday and time are in UTC; your readers live in many time zones.
- Every difference here is a correlation. A feature that goes with more points does not cause them.
One row per post: ID, UTC time, points, comments, title length, link type and four title features. 44,624 rows, no titles or texts. Free to reuse with a link to this page.
Writing the post
Show HN: Name – what it does, in plain words
- Start the title with "Show HN", then the name and a plain description. Skip hype, uppercase and exclamation marks; the general guidelines ask for exactly that.
- Keep it short and concrete. In the sample, 99.9% of titles had 80 characters or fewer, and shorter titles did slightly better.
- Link to the thing people can try: the product, a live demo or the repository.
- Add a first comment that explains how and why you built it, what is unfinished and what feedback you want. The rules ask you to explain exactly that.
- Write everything yourself and post by hand. No generated text, no automated posting.
After you post
- Every Show HN appears on /shownew straight away. It moves to the /show page once it clears "a small points threshold".
- Stay in the thread and answer questions for the first hours. Respond to criticism with curiosity.
- Do not delete and repost. If a post gets no attention, the FAQ says a small number of reposts is fine when a story has had no significant attention in the last year or so.
- Threads close to new comments after two weeks. Collect the feedback, note what people asked for, and link the thread from your changelog if it helped.
Frequently asked questions
- What are the rules for Show HN?
- Show HN is for something you made that other people can try. Blog posts, sign-up pages, newsletters and lists are off topic, the project should be non-trivial and your own, and you must not ask anyone to upvote or comment. Start the title with "Show HN".
- How do I post a Show HN?
- Submit a regular story on Hacker News whose title begins with "Show HN", link to the thing people can try, and add a first comment explaining how and why you built it. New accounts may be restricted from posting Show HNs for a while.
- How many points does a typical Show HN get?
- In our sample of 44,624 posts from September 1, 2025 to August 31, 2026, the median was 2 points. 8.4% of posts reached 10 points or more and 1.7% reached 100 or more.
- What is the difference between Show HN and Launch HN?
- Show HN is open to everyone who follows its rules. Launch HN posts are startup launches that Hacker News places on the front page as a feature for Y Combinator companies.
- Can I post a Show HN again?
- Do not delete and repost. The FAQ allows a small number of reposts if the story has had no significant attention in the last year or so; a major overhaul can also justify a new Show HN.