Reddit Announces the End of RSS Feeds (November 13, 2026) and of Public Data API Access (March 2027)

On September 30, 2026, Reddit published a post in r/modnews titled 'Continuing our infrastructure updates: What's changing in the coming months,' submitted by the account u/judy-funnie. The post said: 'Because RSS is now a common surface for large-scale scraping and automated abuse, we'll stop supporting RSS feeds on November 13, 2026 while preserving moderation workflows that depend on it through supported alternatives.' For common moderator alerts, Reddit recommended 'Devvit apps like Discord Relay' and told mod teams that relied on RSS to 'review your setup and migrate workflows' before November 13. It also said: 'If you use RSS for feeds outside of a community you moderate, there is no replacement.'

The same post covered other changes. Reddit said it was moving 'public data API apps and bots to the Developer Platform,' that 'Over 14,000 apps and bots have registered,' and that developers should register 'before January 12, 2027 to avoid disruption.' It said it was working 'directly with developers to support migrations and close remaining capability gaps.' The post also announced changes to automod access for new communities and to Old Reddit access, which this entry does not cover.

Reddit's October 2026 Mod Monthly newsletter, posted to r/modnews by u/mod_lab, repeated that 'public Data API apps and bots are moving to our Developer Platform as part of efforts to reduce scraping and automated abuse' and gave a timeline: 'October 31, 2026: New requests for public API access will no longer be accepted'; 'January 12, 2027: API access removal begins for apps and users that haven't registered or responded to Reddit's outreach'; and 'March 2027: Remaining public API access ends.' The newsletter restated that 'Reddit will stop supporting RSS feeds on November 13, 2026.'

Outside coverage described the same dates. heise reported that Reddit 'will discontinue its RSS feeds on November 13, 2026' and that 'the public programming interface (API) is also to be shut down by March 2027,' adding that parts of the announcement 'were made rather incidentally when presenting updates for moderators and developers.' heise also reported that AI providers that had accessed Reddit content through the API 'will require a commercial contract with Reddit in the future.' Medianama reported that the changes were announced in posts on r/modnews and r/redditdev. Reddit's r/redditdev post 'Moving Data API Apps to the Developer Platform: migration dates and next steps,' submitted by u/boat-botany on September 30, 2026, described a '$1M App Migration Program' offering '$1,000 payments for eligible apps that successfully migrate,' listed November 30, 2026 as when 'Registration closes for the migration bounty program,' and told developers to apply through the app registration form 'by November 30, 2026, to be considered for the migration bounty program.' Medianama corroborated both details, reporting that a '$1 million App Migration Program pays $1,000 to each eligible app that migrates' and giving November 30, 2026 as the date registration closes for Reddit's migration funding. Medianama also noted: 'Neither post mentions research.'

Both outlets placed the change in the history of Reddit's data access. heise wrote that 'as early as 2023, Reddit made it more difficult for third-party apps to access by introducing fees for the API aimed at high-volume users,' after which 'popular clients such as Apollo were subsequently discontinued.' Medianama's timeline lists 'June 2023: Moderators took subreddits private to protest Reddit's paid API pricing,' Reddit's June 2025 suit against Anthropic, and its October 2025 suit against Perplexity AI and other data scraping companies. This archive covers the 2023 API pricing protest and Reddit's 2025 Responsible Builder Policy in separate entries.