sub4sub

noun

On the video-sharing service YouTube, the practice of subscribing to a person's channel in exchange for said person mutually subscribing back to one's channel, often with the goal of artificially inflating one's subscriber count.

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Meanings

nounsub4sub (uncountable)
  1. InternetuncountableOn the video-sharing service YouTube, the practice of subscribing to a person's channel in exchange for said person mutually subscribing back to one's channel, often with the goal of artificially inflating one's subscriber count.

    @EdddyyTv I don't get how you're growing so fast? Got any tips? please don't say sub4sub though or i will cry haha

    2012 December 30, @AynsleyTravel, Twitter
    4 more examples

    Similar to those who subscribe to everyone, secretly hoping those users will subscribe back, we have the Sub4Sub^([sic]) users. Sub4Sub users blatantly tell you they will subscribe to you if you subscribe to them.

    2008, Alan Lastufka, Michael W. Dean, YouTube: An Insider's Guide to Climbing the Charts, O'Reilly Media, →ISBN, page 170

    Sub4sub doesn't get you any actual viewers. Subscribers are not equal to viewers. You want viewers who will actually watch your videos, and that's what's important. Sub4sub people will probably not watch your channel, just like you probably won't watch theirs.

    2017 February 5, u/Asuko_XIII, “Can someone help me understand how sub4sub is bad?”, in r/letsplay, Reddit

    A video maker named Ontus (his YouTube channel name) was a white man who posted a video entitled sub4sub? on YouTube on March 28, 2008. He characterizes the practice as "brilliant" and "awesome" because, if executed widely, it could provide a "launch pad" of subscribers and facilitate meeting new people.

    2019, Patricia G. Lange, Thanks for Watching: An Anthropological Study of Video Sharing on YouTube, University Press of Colorado, →ISBN, page 123

    Requesting subscribers in exchange for subscribing to other channels, commonly known as "sub4sub," is a violation of YouTube's guidelines.

    2023, B. Vincent, YouTube Hacks: Secrets to Boost Your Views and Engagement, RWG Publishing, page 22

Origin

Abbreviation of subscribe for a subscription back or a similar phrasing, otherwise analysable as sub (“a subscription”) + 4 (“abbreviation of for”) + sub (“a subscription”). Compare follow4follow.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

sub4sub. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sub4sub

MLA

“sub4sub.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sub4sub. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sub4sub,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sub4sub.

Source: sub4sub on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.