Reddit says it is ending support for RSS feeds on November 13 because the feeds are a target for abuse by AI bots and is ending its public API access in March

Accessing Reddit content via third-party apps and feeds becomes more difficult and potentially more expensive starting November 13.

Reddit has announced it will discontinue its RSS feeds on November 13, citing them as a frequent target for large-scale scraping and automated abuse by AI bots. Concurrently, the company will phase out public API access by March 2027. This move impacts third-party applications, researchers, and AI products that rely on programmatic access to Reddit's vast user-generated content. For moderators who have utilized RSS for alerts, Reddit suggests migrating to the Discord Relay Devvit app. The company also plans to implement restrictions on access to its 'Old Reddit' version, limiting it to logged-in moderators and recent users due to similar scraping concerns. Developers of third-party apps and bots are required to register by January 12, 2027, to maintain API access.

Reddit's decision to terminate RSS feeds and public API access signals a significant shift in its data accessibility strategy, directly driven by the increasing value and potential for monetization of its user-generated content, particularly for AI training. This move effectively centralizes control over data access, compelling external entities, including AI developers and researchers, to pursue commercial agreements rather than utilizing free public feeds and APIs. The company's focus on 'other revenue' and AI licensing deals underscores a broader industry trend where platforms are actively seeking to capitalize on their data assets.

The implications extend to users who preferred RSS or third-party apps for a streamlined Reddit experience, now facing potential disruption or the need to adapt to Reddit's native interface. For AI companies, this means a potential increase in data acquisition costs and a need to establish new partnerships with Reddit, impacting the development and accessibility of AI tools that leverage conversational data. The restrictions on 'Old Reddit' further indicate a tightening of access controls across the platform, suggesting a move towards a more curated and managed ecosystem.