Reddit announced today it's killing its public API and RSS feeds. Here are the exact dates affecting developers:
November 13, 2026 — RSS feeds shut down January 12, 2027 — Unregistered developer apps lose API access (register at developers.reddit.com/app-registration before this date) March 2027 — Full public API shutdown
Why Reddit is doing this?
Two reasons, only one of which they led with. The stated reason: AI bots causing "large-scale scraping and automated abuse." The actual business reason, disclosed in the same week as their Q2 earnings: Reddit's "other revenue" from AI data licensing grew 24% year-over-year to $43 million. Free public API access was undermining paid licensing deals worth tens of millions per quarter.
What breaks:
- Any social listening tool built on Reddit's free API
- Research scrapers using public Reddit endpoints
- AI assistants that pull Reddit content via public access
- Moderator RSS workflows (Reddit recommends migrating to the Discord Relay Devvit app)
- Old Reddit public access — being limited to logged-in users active in the last 90 days
What doesn't break: Third-party Reddit data APIs that operate independent infrastructure rather than wrapping Reddit's own public endpoints.
We built Serpent API's Reddit endpoint on independent infrastructure for exactly this reason. Posts, comments, subreddit search, user profiles, and community data — structured JSON, billed per call, from $0.12/1K. The Reddit public API shutdown doesn't affect it.
If your stack has Reddit API calls, the migration deadline is real. March 2027 sounds far away until you're two months out.
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