Reddit announced on Wednesday that it will end support for RSS feeds on its platform. The company also said it will shut down its public API by March 2027.
The changes were part of several updates for moderators and developers. Reddit said the moves respond to scraping and automated traffic, including from AI bots.
RSS support will end on November 13. Reddit said the format has become a "common surface for large-scale scraping and automated abuse."
"We know RSS has been a beloved part of the open web for a long time, and we're grateful to everyone who used it to stay connected to Reddit," the company said in its announcement.
What RSS Users and Moderators Need to Know
RSS, short for Really Simple Syndication, lets users and apps follow website updates in a standard format. It became popular during the blogging era as a way to subscribe to new posts in news-reading apps.
Google once ran the most popular RSS reader but shut it down in 2013. Companies like Feedly and smaller independent apps took over that market.
For moderators who use RSS for alerts, Reddit recommends switching to the Discord Relay app on its Devvit platform. The company asked moderator teams to move their workflows before November 13 to avoid problems.
Reddit said there is no replacement for RSS feeds used outside of moderator communities. Many moderators have said the change could make their communities harder to manage.
Some users also said RSS was their preferred way to read Reddit content.
Public API Shutdown and Data Licensing
Reddit's public API will close by March 2027. This will affect tools that pull Reddit conversations automatically, including social listening products, research tools, and AI assistants.
AI assistants can currently use Reddit to answer questions. After the API closes, they will need commercial deals with Reddit to access its data.
Reddit's user content has become a source of income through AI licensing deals. In the second quarter, the company said its "other revenue" beyond advertising rose 24% from a year earlier to $43 million.
Developers building approved third-party apps and bots must register them with Reddit before January 12, 2027. After that date, Reddit will remove API access for developers who have not registered.
Reddit also shared updates on its Rules Hub and changes to its auto-mod tools. The company said it is adding safeguards to Old Reddit, the classic text-heavy version of the site.
These safeguards will limit Old Reddit to logged-in moderators and recent users. Reddit said the change was needed because of "abusive scraping and automated traffic."
In the coming months, Reddit will limit Old Reddit access for logged-in users to those who have used it in the last six months. The company first planned a 90-day window but extended it to six months as the news was released.
