Third-party Reddit apps are in big trouble due to an upcoming API access change.
According to one developer, continuing to allow access to an app could cost upwards of $20 million each year.
Even if apps transitioned to only supporting paid users, it still would likely be untenable.
In April this year, Reddit announced some significant changes coming down the pipeline. In a blog post, the company confirmed it would begin charging some developers for third-party access to Reddit APIs. The language of the blog post was incredibly vague, referencing only “a new premium access point” for API access for developers that “require additional capabilities, higher usage limits, and broader usage rights.” In other words, the more data devs use, the more it will cost them.
Now, we actually have some numbers to associate with this upcoming policy change. According to Christian Selig — the lead developer of Apollo, an iOS-only third-party Reddit app — Reddit plans on charging about $12,000 per 50 million requests. This might sound reasonable to non-developers, but Selig makes it clear that this is terrible news.
