Reddit to End RSS Feeds and Public API Access
Reddit is shutting down RSS feeds and public API access to combat AI scraping and monetize user data through commercial licensing agreements.
Reddit announced on September 30, 2026, that it will terminate support for RSS feeds on November 13, 2026, and end all public API access by March 2027. The company stated that RSS has become a "common surface for large-scale scraping and automated abuse." Following these changes, AI assistants, researchers, and social listening tools will be required to enter commercial agreements to access platform data.
To support the transition, Reddit Inc. launched a $1 million App Migration Program, offering $1,000 to eligible apps that move to Devvit, its hosted Developer Platform. While moderators can transition some alerts to the Discord Relay app on Devvit, the company noted there is no replacement for users who utilize RSS feeds for communities they do not moderate.
Simultaneously, the platform is restricting access to Old Reddit. Following a July requirement for users to be logged in, the company will now limit access to authenticated users who have used the legacy interface within the last six months. Logged-in moderators are exempt from this time-based restriction. These measures align with a broader strategy to monetize user-generated content through licensing deals with Google and OpenAI, and follow lawsuits against scraping firms such as Anthropic and Perplexity AI.
