New to this? Read it in simple words
- Reddit is a big website where people talk in groups about many topics.
- On November 13, Reddit will turn off RSS, a simple way to follow new posts.
- Free access for outside programs will end in March 2027.
- Reddit says bots were using these ways in to copy too much content.
- RSS
- A simple feed that shows a website’s new posts in a reader app.
- API
- A doorway that lets other programs read or send data to a service.
- Scraping
- Using software to copy large amounts of content from websites.
Reddit had already warned that RSS could go. On September 30, it set the dates in posts for moderators and developers, together with changes to its moderation tools.
What ends, and when
RSS feeds, which let people follow new posts in a feed reader, stop on November 13. “RSS has been a beloved part of the open web for a long time,” Reddit wrote. But it said RSS had become “a common surface for large-scale scraping and automated abuse”.
Public API access ends in March 2027, Reddit said in a post for developers, according to TechCrunch and TNW. Apps and bots must register on its Developer Platform. From January 12, 2027, Reddit will start cutting off those that have not.
In the coming months, Old Reddit, the site’s classic design, will be limited to logged-in moderators and recent users. New accounts will no longer get it, Engadget reports.
Dates as TechCrunch, Engadget and TNW quote Reddit’s posts.
Who is affected
Moderators who use RSS for alerts can move to a Discord Relay app. “If you use RSS for feeds outside of a community you moderate, there is no replacement,” Reddit wrote.
The end of the public API hits social listening products, research tools and AI assistants that pull in Reddit posts, TechCrunch reports. It says AI assistants will need commercial deals with Reddit for its data.
Moderators criticised the changes in replies to Reddit’s post, TNW reports. More than 14,000 apps and bots have registered to move to the Developer Platform, and Reddit pays $1,000 to each eligible app that completes the move, according to TNW.
The business behind it
Reddit’s posts have become a profitable side business through AI licensing deals, TechCrunch notes. In the second quarter, Reddit’s revenue from sources other than advertising grew 24% from a year earlier, to $43 million.
Reddit already requires people to log in to use Old Reddit, and it says that step reduced automated abuse, Engadget reports.
Reddit’s own words, as the outlets quote them, speak of scraping and automated abuse, not of AI. The link to AI bots is how TechCrunch, Engadget and TNW read the move.
Sources
Every fact in this story comes from the sources below. Open them to check our work.
- 1Research · September 30, 2026Reddit is killing RSS feeds and ending public API access because of AI bots TechCrunch
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We quote Reddit as news outlets quote it and give only dates that at least two of them report. They differ on how recently people must have used Old Reddit, so we leave that out.
Reddit will end RSS feeds and its public API over scraping. Silicon AI News, September 30, 2026. https://siliconainews.com/stories/reddit-ends-rss-public-api
Reddit will end its RSS feeds and public API, hitting feed readers, research tools and AI assistants, with no replacement for some. How we rate the mood
The mood shows how the news frames the event for the tech and AI world: as an opportunity (6 and above) or as a loss (below 5). It is not our verdict on who is right.