Reddit is moving to "a logged-in-only experience," CEO says

Reddit plans to move toward requiring users to log in, with initial tests in selected markets outside the United States beginning in the fourth quarter of 2026. CEO Steve Huffman says the change should help people find relevant communities, encourage repeat use, and provide more information for ad targeting. It would also give Reddit greater control over access to its data and help it respond to changing regulations. The company will use the trials to shape a potential global rollout, aiming to make Reddit a regular destination rather than relying on casual visits from search engines.

The shift comes as search referrals have weakened: Reddit says they fell substantially in the third quarter, with losses concentrated among logged-out users and web traffic. In October, referrals were declining by more than one million per week on average; if that pace persists, daily active unique users could drop by a low-double-digit percentage in the fourth quarter from a base of 130 million. Reddit is prioritizing logged-in and app users, whose activity it considers more valuable. The login push follows other efforts to steer people into accounts and official apps, restrict access to Old Reddit, and limit third-party services through costly API access. Together, these steps improve Reddit’s ability to measure users and ad performance, and to protect its content from scraping. In the third quarter, revenue rose 53 percent year over year to $895 million, while net income increased 74 percent to $283 million.