What happened
On June 7, 2023, amid mounting backlash over its API pricing, Reddit announced a partial concession: it would exempt select non-commercial apps that address accessibility needs from its large-scale API charges. A Reddit spokesperson said the company had reached out directly to developers of such tools, which included clients used by blind and visually impaired Redditors such as RedReader, Dystopia, and Luna for Reddit. Reddit also said third-party moderation tools would keep free access.
The concession was widely criticized as insufficient and vague. Moderators of communities like r/Blind noted that Reddit gave no clear criteria for what counted as accessibility-focused, and the exemption did nothing to save mainstream third-party clients such as Apollo, which still faced commercial pricing and shut down at the end of the month.