What are machine learning communities?

Communities for machine learning practitioners and researchers covering model development, MLOps, and applied AI. Reddit has one of the largest communities for general ML discussion, with Discord servers organized around specific tools, frameworks, and deployment environments.

Where do most machine learning communities live?

Skool is the most common platform in this report (19% of 27 listings).

Are most of these communities free?

93% are free to join. The rest require payment, an application, or both.

How big is a typical machine learning community?

Among listings with public size data, the average is 2.5M members and the median is 9K. The median is usually the better signal for a typical group because a few large ones inflate the average.

What do these communities usually include?

Forum is the most common (78%). Others that show up often include live chat, online/offline events, and job board.

How does Hive Index collect this data?

Listings are submitted by community builders and researchers, reviewed for relevance, and updated with platform, feature, member, review, and traffic data where available.

Where can I see the full list?

The full directory is on Hive Index's Machine Learning topic page, where you can filter by platform, size, features, and more.

Machine Learning Communities Report: Stats, Platforms,...

Executive Summary

We analyzed 27 machine learning communities listed on Hive Index to understand where people gather, what these groups offer, and which communities attract the most interest.

The big picture: machine learning communities are broad and fragmented, with many small groups and a few very large outliers.

Source: Hive Index community database · Updated 2026-06-20

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Communities: 27
Platforms: 8
Avg members: 2.5M
Median members: 9K

Where Machine Learning Communities Are Hosted

Skool
5(19%)
Reddit
4(15%)
Discord
4(15%)
Independent Platforms
4(15%)
Slack
3(11%)
Discourse
3(11%)
Github
2(7%)
X / Twitter
1(4%)

Format mix

Forum / feed-based
11(41%)
Chat communities
7(26%)
Private membership
5(19%)
Other platforms
4(15%)

Forum / feed-based is most common (41%), but chat communities is also well represented (26%).

Skool leads, but Reddit and Discord also represent meaningful shares.

Audience Size & Access

Community size

Tiny
<20 members
0(0%)
Small
20-100 members
1(4%)
Medium
100-1,000 members
1(4%)
Large
1,000-10,000 members
6(22%)
Huge
10,000-100,000 members
3(11%)
Massive
100,000-1M members
0(0%)
Gigantic
1M+ members
4(15%)

12 communities have unknown member counts.

Free vs paid

The average is much higher than the median (2.5M vs 9K), which usually means a few large groups are pulling the average up.

How Machine Learning Differs From Other Categories

Machine Learning is more free-to-join, smaller, more platform-diverse, and more chat-heavy, compared with typical Hive Index topics.

Metric	Machine Learning	Hive Index average
Free to join	93%	85%
Median members	9K	25K
Average members	2.5M	669K
Paid or apply-to-join	7%	15%
Live chat	52%	38%
Discord share	15%	16%

Feature Mix

Common features appear in at least 15% of listings.

Common Features

Forum
78%
Live Chat
52%
Online/Offline Events
48%
Job Board
22%
Courses
19%

Niche Features

Newsletter
7%
Paid Community
4%
Requires Application
4%

Live Chat appears on 52% of listings.

What Visitors Click

Outbound clicks / mo: 30

Platform supply vs. clicks

Platform	Communities	Share of communities	Outbound clicks	Share of clicks
Reddit	4	15%	13	46%
Discord	4	15%	7	25%
Slack	3	11%	6	21%
Discourse	3	11%	1	4%
Github	2	7%	1	4%

Share is calculated within this topic.

Reddit gets 46% of clicks but only 15% of listings, so visitors click it more than you'd expect from supply alone.

Most-clicked formats

Forum / feed-based
14(50%)
Chat communities
13(46%)
Other platforms
1(4%)

Most-clicked features

Forum
26(93%)
Online/Offline Events
15(54%)
Live Chat
14(50%)
Newsletter
8(29%)
Job Board
7(25%)
Paid Community
2(7%)

Most-clicked size ranges

Gigantic
13(46%)
Large
6(21%)
Huge
3(11%)

Top-clicked listings

r/MachineLearning
11(39%)
AIML API community
6(21%)
MLOps.Community
3(11%)

Most clicks go to forum / feed-based and chat communities communities.

Trends

Founded year

2008

2010

2011

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

12 communities have no founding year on file.

Most listed groups were founded around 2010.

Methodology & FAQ

Methodology

This report uses communities in the Hive Index database tagged as Machine Learning. We exclude removed or suppressed listings. Member counts, traffic, features, reviews, and ratings may vary by source and are updated periodically.

•This is a smaller slice of Hive Index's database, so read trends as directional.
•Last updated 2026-06-20

FAQ

: Communities for machine learning practitioners and researchers covering model development, MLOps, and applied AI. Reddit has one of the largest communities for general ML discussion, with Discord servers organized around specific tools, frameworks, and deployment environments.
: Skool is the most common platform in this report (19% of 27 listings).
: 93% are free to join. The rest require payment, an application, or both.
: Among listings with public size data, the average is 2.5M members and the median is 9K. The median is usually the better signal for a typical group because a few large ones inflate the average.
: Forum is the most common (78%). Others that show up often include live chat, online/offline events, and job board.
: Listings are submitted by community builders and researchers, reviewed for relevance, and updated with platform, feature, member, review, and traffic data where available.
: The full directory is on Hive Index's Machine Learning topic page, where you can filter by platform, size, features, and more.

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