Reddit shifts to "logged-in experience" to protect data from AI scraping

Reddit built much of its audience on open-web search: people appended "Reddit" to Google queries for better answers, and those logged-out visitors arrived without profiles. That pipeline is narrowing as AI-powered search answers questions directly, and Reddit said search referrals dropped by more than 1 million on average per week in October, with a warning that daily active users could fall to a low-double-digit percentage decline next quarter.

The financial picture is mixed. Revenue rose 53% year-over-year to $895 million and net income rose 74% to $283 million, while U.S. daily active users fell to 50.7 million from 53.2 million in Q2 and were down 2% year-over-year. Average revenue per U.S. daily active user rose 53% to $13.82, suggesting Reddit is earning more from the users it keeps.

Reddit frames the logged-in shift as a way to protect its data from AI scraping and to strengthen its position in licensing negotiations with model providers. The company acknowledged that access to a logged-out front page matters, and CEO Steve Huffman wrote that there are still unanswered questions about where the boundaries between logged-in and logged-out experiences should fall. The test in select markets outside the U.S. in the fourth quarter will be the first read on how much of Reddit's search-driven audience follows.