Reddit shifts to a logged-in experience as search traffic falls

Reddit is moving toward a primarily logged-in experience, the company announced during its third-quarter earnings call on Thursday. The decision marks a retreat from the open-web model that has long driven the platform's growth, as AI-powered search cuts the traffic that once flowed in from Google.

Search referrals are shrinking

Global daily active users were flat quarter-over-quarter at 130.3 million. In the U.S., the largest market, they fell from 53.2 million in Q2 to 50.7 million in Q3, down 2% year-over-year. Reddit said search referrals dropped by more than 1 million per week on average in October, and warned that daily active users could fall by a low-double-digit percentage by next quarter if the trend continues. A 10% to 12% drop would put the figure at roughly 115 million to 117 million.

The business is still growing fast. Revenue rose 53% to $895 million, above Wall Street's expectation of about $875 million, and net income climbed 74% to $283 million. Advertising revenue grew 54% to $847 million, while nonadvertising revenue, which includes AI data licensing, rose 35% to $48 million. U.S. average revenue per daily user rose 53% to $13.82; globally it grew 36% to $6.87.

Why logging in matters

According to the company, the shift should protect its data from AI scraping and support licensing deals with model providers. Logged-in users also share more signals about their interests, which helps advertisers target them and lets Reddit personalize feeds and community recommendations. That includes the new algorithmic "For You" feed announced a day earlier.

CEO Steve Huffman called it a big change for someone shaped by the open internet, but said it is "the right decision for our platform and the right decision for our business."

What comes next

The rollout will not happen overnight. Reddit will first test the approach in select markets outside the U.S. in the fourth quarter and has no timeline for a global launch. It acknowledged that a logged-out front page remains important, and said logging in does not require giving up anonymity. Its "incognito mode" is being rebuilt. Huffman admitted that questions remain over where the boundary between logged-in and logged-out experiences should sit.