Reddit Sets November RSS Shutdown and March 2027 API Deadline

Reddit will discontinue RSS feeds on November 13 and end public API access in March 2027, citing large-scale scraping and automated abuse. The company announced the changes alongside updates for moderators and developers, setting deadlines that affect feed readers, research tools, social-listening products and AI services that programmatically access Reddit conversations.

RSS, short for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary, provides a standard format through which users and applications can receive website updates. Reddit said the format has become a common surface for large-scale scraping and automated abuse, despite its long-standing role in the open web.

Moderator workflows face a forced migration

For moderators who use RSS for alerts, Reddit recommends moving workflows to the Discord Relay Devvit app before the November cutoff. The company said it has no replacement for RSS feeds used outside a moderator’s own community, leaving broader monitoring and reading setups without an equivalent option.

Moderators have raised concerns that removing RSS could make community management harder. Users have also said that RSS is how they prefer to follow Reddit content, reflecting the format’s continued utility beyond automated collection.

API closure changes access to Reddit conversations

Public API access will end in March 2027. That decision affects tools that use programmatic access to Reddit discussions, including social-listening services, research workflows and AI products such as assistants. After the public API closes, AI assistants seeking Reddit data will need commercial arrangements with the company.

The policy arrives as Reddit’s user-generated forum content has become part of its AI licensing business. In its second quarter, Reddit reported that “other revenue,” excluding advertising, increased 24% year over year to $43 million. The company’s financial context is also relevant because AI search concerns after Reddit’s strong quarter examines how AI search concerns persist alongside Reddit’s strong quarterly performance.

Developer registration and Old Reddit restrictions

Developers of approved third-party apps and bots must register with Reddit by January 12, 2027. Reddit said it will remove API access after that date for developers that have not registered, so eligible developers need to complete that administrative step before the deadline.

Reddit is also adding safeguards to Old Reddit, its classic text-heavy interface. In the coming months, access for logged-in users will be limited to people who have used Old Reddit within the previous 90 days. Reddit said those measures, like the RSS and API changes, are required because of abusive scraping and automated traffic.

Businesses that depend on Reddit for monitoring, research, moderation or AI workflows should inventory RSS and public-API dependencies, register approved tools where applicable, and prepare replacement processes before the announced cutoffs.