By Omor Ibne Ehsan
Publication Date: 2026-10-30 12:37:00
Google’s AI search is draining Reddit’s logged-out audience by the millions each week, and Reddit’s proposed fix could shrink that audience even further before it saves the company.
Reddit (NYSE:RDDT | RDDT Price Prediction) CEO Steve Huffman opened the company’s third-quarter call on October 29, 2026, with a problem he cannot fix himself: “Our search referral traffic was down meaningfully in Q3, with the decline accelerating later in the quarter.”
In October, search referrals fell by more than 1 million per week on average. He blamed Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode.
Reddit will respond by fully testing a logged-in-only experience in select markets outside the U.S. in the fourth quarter. “This is a test, but we are going to make this transition,” Huffman said.
Reddit’s 27 billion posts and comments have never been worth more to AI companies. Yet AI search is cutting off the free traffic that built its audience, and a login wall could shrink that audience further…
