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Reddit announced on October 29, 2026 that it will become a primarily logged-in experience, ending two decades of open logged-out access to nearly all of its content. CEO Steve Huffman made the announcement alongside the company's Q3 2026 earnings. Tests will begin in select markets outside the US, with no global timeline yet.
Key facts
- Testing starts in select non-US markets, in Q4 according to TechCrunch and in the "coming months" according to The Verge.
- Search referrals fell by more than 1 million per week on average during October.
- Q3 revenue rose 53% year over year to $895 million; net income rose 74% to $283 million.
- Global daily active users were flat quarter over quarter at 130.3 million; US users fell from 53.2 million to 50.7 million.
- Reddit has rebuilt its app's incognito mode, which Digital Trends describes as read-only.
Why Reddit is doing it
Huffman gave three reasons in the shareholder letter, as quoted by Engadget: better signals for ad targeting, higher engagement among logged-in users, and protection of Reddit's data corpus. He also said it helps the company adapt to emerging regulations. Engadget notes that Huffman did not mention age verification laws explicitly, but that a login requirement would presumably help with compliance.
Scraping is central. According to 9to5Google, Huffman said the vast majority of unauthorized access happens through logged-out experiences. The company will still sell data licenses, such as its 2024 deals with OpenAI and Google, per The Verge.
The business case also rests on monetization. The Verge reports Huffman said app and logged-in daily users account for over 80% of monetization. TechCrunch reports that US average revenue per daily user rose 53% to $13.82, even as US users declined 2% year over year.
The search problem
Search traffic was "down meaningfully" in Q3, with logged-out and web traffic hit hardest. TechCrunch reports Reddit warned that if the trend continues, daily active users could fall by a low-double-digit percentage by next quarter. Huffman blamed Google's AI mode, telling analysts it does not drive traffic "to anybody, as far as I know," per Engadget.
The Google relationship is also in flux. Engadget cites reports that the licensing deal is worth about $60 million a year and that Reddit may be reconsidering it. Huffman said there are "active discussions" and that any deal must be a fair exchange of value.
What logged-out users will still see
Details are unsettled. Huffman said the company must find "the right boundary" for when a hard login prompt appears. Per Engadget, some version of Reddit will remain accessible to visitors arriving from shared links or search first. 9to5Mac, citing Axios, says the homepage will stay open, while browsing specific subreddits without an account would no longer be possible.
Reddit says anonymity is unaffected. Digital Trends quotes Huffman: "We don't need your name." Sign-up requirements are not changing.
