Reddit will retire its RSS feeds on 13 November and wind down its legacy public data API, cutting off remaining access in March 2027.
An application programming interface (API) lets outside software pull data from a site automatically, while RSS feeds deliver new posts to readers and tools without visiting the site.
Reddit said both had enabled large-scale scraping and abuse by automated systems.
It will stop accepting new requests for public API access from 31 October.
Paid deals untouched
Reddit's paid content-sharing agreements with Google and OpenAI are unaffected.
It signed licensing deals with the two companies in 2024, worth roughly $60 million and $70 million a year respectively.
Suing the scrapers
Reddit has since sued Anthropic and Perplexity over unauthorised scraping.
It treats scraping as a breach of its user agreement and reserves access for formal, paid arrangements.
Moving the bots
More than 14,000 apps and bots have registered on the platform.
Reddit is tracking the move of its busiest tools, including DeltaBot, MagicEyeBot and RemindMeBot, to Devvit, its own developer platform.
One moderator wrote on the forum that the shutdown was "the final step of a multi-year effort to prevent anyone from accessing that data for free".
Why the data is worth guarding
The retreat from open access comes as Reddit leans harder on its value to AI search.
Users chose a Reddit result 23 billion times in Google searches last year, according to a study by IDHL, a digital marketing agency.
Chris Shelbourn, IDHL's organic search director, said AI engines "tend to trust the kind of content Reddit is full of which is real people sharing real experiences."
A separate survey by Semrush and Emplifi of more than 1,600 shoppers found 26% search Reddit for product opinions.
Of those, 85% said they trust the recommendations they find there.
