Why everyone is freaking out about the Reddit API right now | Digital Trends

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Reddit announced changes to its API a few months ago, but everyone is losing their minds about it now. What's going on?

Reddit is in trouble right now. After announcing changes in April, news has surfaced that several of the most popular third-party Reddit apps would shut down by the end of the month. On top of that, five of the most popular subreddits are closing down for two days starting on June 12, and every other post on the “front page of the internet” is protesting Reddit’s API changes.

Related In the case of Reddit, it has long maintained a free API. That means anyone building an application could request data from Reddit and use that to build their own application. Someone could build their application with its own interface and any additional features they want, and then use the Reddit API to populate it with things like subreddit information, posts, comments, and user profiles.

Reddit’s API pricing, explained Reddit launched a free API seven years ago, but in April, it announced it would be making changes. Those changes included charging for API access. That means developers who have made an app for Reddit would now need to pay for requests. That’s a high price, too. According to the developer, they pay $166 for every 50 million API calls to Imgur, putting into context just how expensive Reddit’s API changes are. Reddit says that its free API model wasn’t sustainable, as users visiting the site through third-party apps may not see ads that Reddit serves on its website and first-party app.

The math seems like it simply doesn’t add up for Apollo. To illustrate this point, the developer speculates that Reddit spends roughly $0.12 per user, per month. With the API change, Apollo would need to spend $2.50 per user, per month.

 

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Apollo, a Reddit app featured during WWDC, is being shuttered | Digital TrendsApollo, a popular Reddit app that was mentioned several times during WWDC, is being closed following Reddit's API pricing change.
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