Reddit Plans Logged-In Browsing as Google AI Search Cuts Referrals

What happened

Huffman announced the plan on the Oct 29 post-earnings call and attributed the referral decline to Google's AI search features. His words were: “Google is crawling us as hard as ever, so the demand hasn't changed from their point of view either. The reality is, the AI mode does not drive traffic, not for us and not to anybody.”

Figures given on the call included: search referrals down by more than one million per week on average in October; US daily active users of 50.7 million, down 2%, the first decline since Reddit listed in 2024; and total daily active unique visitors possibly falling by a low double-digit percentage in the fourth quarter from about 130 million if referrals keep falling. Reddit shares fell 18% in extended trading after the results.

The plan is to test the logged-in-only experience in select markets outside the US in the fourth quarter and assess its impact before any wider rollout; the company said the move aims to deter data scraping. The shift would end two decades of allowing anyone to browse Reddit without an account. As background, Reddit licenses its data to OpenAI and Google and has sued Anthropic, Perplexity AI and three data-scraping companies, accusing them of illegally collecting Reddit data.

Key facts

Test scope: logged-in-only browsing will first be tested in select non-US markets in the fourth quarter, with wider rollout decided after assessment.

Referral decline: search referrals fell by more than one million per week on average in October.

US daily actives: 50.7 million, down 2%, the first decline since the 2024 listing.

Fourth-quarter warning: total daily active unique visitors could fall by a low double-digit percentage from about 130 million if referrals keep falling.

Market reaction and purpose: shares fell 18% in extended trading after the results; the company said the login requirement aims to deter data scraping.