Reddit ends RSS feeds (Nov 13) and public API access (March 2027), citing abuse by AI scraping bots
On Sept 30, 2026 Reddit said it will stop supporting RSS feeds on Nov 13, 2026 and end public API access in March 2027. It called RSS a "common surface for large-scale scraping and automated abuse" by AI bots. Third-party apps and bots must register by Jan 12, 2027, and AI assistants will need commercial licenses to access Reddit data.
Key facts
- RSS feeds end Nov 13, 2026; public API access ends March 2027; developer registration deadline Jan 12, 2027
- Logged-out old.reddit access is also restricted for users inactive for 90 days (TechCrunch)
- Reddit's 'other revenue', mainly AI data licensing, grew 24% year on year to $43M in Q2 2026
What happened
Moderators who relied on RSS alerts were pointed to Discord Relay. Researchers and social-listening tools lose free programmatic access.
Why it matters
One of the largest sources of human conversation data on the web is closing its open access points and steering AI access to paid licenses, part of the wider closing of the open web in response to AI crawlers.
Changelog
- 2026-09-30: created (evening sweep run)
Sources (1)
id: 2026-09-30-reddit-ends-rss-public-api-ai-bots · updated 2026-09-30 · open in the interactive timeline