Reddit CEO: “AI Mode does not drive traffic”; Reddit is moving to a logged-in-only experience

A strong quarter, falling search traffic

Reddit reported its third-quarter 2026 results on Oct. 29. Revenue rose 53% from a year earlier to $895 million, and net income reached $283 million. Daily active uniques (DAUq) rose 12% to 130.3 million, and weekly active uniques (WAUq) rose 16% to 515.2 million.

In his shareholder letter, however, CEO Steve Huffman wrote that “Our search referral traffic was down meaningfully in Q3, with the decline accelerating later in the quarter,” with the biggest impact on logged-out and web traffic. According to the letter, search traffic dropped by more than 1 million referrals a week on average in October. Huffman said that if this rate of decline continues, total DAUq could fall in the fourth quarter by a low-double-digit percentage from the current base of 130 million. The letter does not name a search engine; it refers only to search traffic.

“AI Mode does not drive traffic”

On the earnings call the same day, Huffman said of AI Mode, Google’s AI-powered search mode, according to The Verge: “The reality is, AI Mode does not drive traffic. Not for us, and not to anybody, as far as I know. That’s just a fundamental shift in how Google works. It used to be a traffic driver, now it’s not.” Huffman said AI Overviews and AI Mode at a minimum push everyone down the page, and that the company believes machine-translated content is ranked lower. He said Google is still “crawling us as hard as ever.”

The login requirement

In the letter, Huffman announced that Reddit is shifting to a logged-in-only experience, calling it “a big one for us, and it’s a big one for me.” According to The Verge, he said: “This is a big change for Reddit, where we’ve allowed logged-out access to basically all of Reddit for the last two decades.” The company will run tests in select markets outside the U.S. in the fourth quarter and, depending on the results, roll out an “optimized version of logged-in-only Reddit” globally. No timeline was given for the full switch.

Reddit’s stated reasons are a better user experience, more signals for ad targeting, protection of its data and regulatory compliance. According to Huffman, the vast majority of unauthorized access to the site comes through the logged-out experience. The letter says logged-in and app users account for more than 80% of revenue. The company has also revamped the app’s incognito mode.

According to The Verge, Reddit’s stock fell 29% on Oct. 30, the day after the results.