Reddit will turn off its RSS feeds in November and end open access to its public API next year, saying both have become channels for large-scale scraping by automated systems, TechCrunch reported Wednesday. The changes close two of the last free routes to Reddit's content at a time when the company sells that data to AI developers.

What Happened

RSS feeds will stop working on Nov. 13, 2026. Reddit described RSS as having become "a common surface for large-scale scraping and automated abuse," according to TechCrunch. Moderators who use feeds to track new posts are being directed to Discord Relay, an app built on Reddit's Devvit developer platform. People who follow subreddits in outside RSS readers are not being offered a replacement.

Open public API access will end in March 2027. Developers who want to keep using the API must register approved third-party apps and bots by Jan. 12, 2027. Tools that do not register will lose access after the cutoff. TechCrunch said the shift affects social-listening services, academic and research applications and AI products that pull Reddit data today.

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Reddit is also tightening access to Old Reddit, the site's legacy interface. It will be limited to logged-in users who have used Old Reddit within the past six months. The company again cited abusive scraping and automated traffic as the reason.

Why It Matters

Reddit's content has become a commercial asset. The company's "other revenue" line, driven by AI licensing agreements, rose 24% year over year to $43 million in the second quarter of 2026, TechCrunch reported. Free feeds and an open API made it possible to collect the same posts and comments without a contract. Shutting them means researchers and AI developers who need Reddit data at scale will have to go through approved access or negotiate paid deals.

The cost falls partly on people who are not training models. RSS is a long-standing, low-effort way for readers, journalists and moderators to follow communities, and many volunteer moderators rely on automated tools to keep up with posts. Moderators have previously warned that such changes could make communities hard to manage, according to TechCrunch.

Context

Reddit has been here before. Its 2023 decision to charge for heavy API use forced several popular third-party apps to shut down and set off widespread subreddit blackouts by moderators. The new restrictions go further by removing the free tier of public access rather than pricing it. Reddit is also not alone: many publishers and platforms have moved to block or charge AI crawlers as automated traffic has grown.

What to Watch

The dates to track are Nov. 13 for RSS, Jan. 12, 2027 for app registration and March 2027 for the end of the open API. How Reddit decides which apps qualify for approval, and whether academic researchers get a separate path, will determine how much of the existing tool ecosystem survives. Pushback from moderators and the research community is likely as the deadlines near.