Reddit’s Q3 Earnings Call got a lot of attention in the last few days, specifically for an announcement to start moving towards a more logged-in experience. I understand the attention and worry some marketers have expressed, but having listened to the entire conversation, as well as the ModWorld AMA interview, I do not find myself concerned about the future of Reddit or its influence in search and LLMs.
I will get into that more in a second, but another really big point worth highlighting is how important Reddit has become to the user’s journey online.
Reddit reported an average of 515.2 million weekly active uniques in Q3. That isn’t a count of people shopping, but it gives some context for the size of the platform where these decisions are being discussed.
In my experience, Google often helps people narrow their options, and Reddit helps them validate the decision. Once someone has figured out which products might solve their problem, they want to know what happened when another person actually used them, what went wrong, and whether the recommendation still makes sense for their situation.
In Reddit’s May 2026 survey, half of the U.S. respondents said they verify AI recommendations on Reddit.*
What Reddit Said About Requiring A Login
In its Q3 shareholder letter and earnings call, Reddit said it plans to begin testing a logged-in experience in select markets outside the U.S. during Q4. Steve Huffman was clear that Reddit is going to make this change, but the tests will help figure out where and when someone needs to log in.
He also said Reddit wants shared links to keep working and described leaving some access available for people coming from search, opening a shared post, or trying Reddit for the first time. My reading is that someone could still get to the conversation they came for, with the login requirement appearing as they try to go further into Reddit. Reddit still needs to figure out where that login prompt belongs.
That’s a familiar approach for a social platform, and Huffman pointed to peers that have already made this transition. Reddit wants more people using a personalized experience, better signals for advertising, and more control over access to its data. I can see why Reddit would want those things, even if someone dropping in to read a conversation would rather skip the account.
I would still watch what happens in the tests because asking people to log in can affect whether they stay, come back, or join the conversation. Keeping a linked post accessible also doesn’t guarantee that Google’s rankings stay the same or that every LLM can continue accessing Reddit in the same way. But I didn’t hear a reason to jump straight to the conclusion that Reddit is shutting off discovery through search and AI.
Huffman also said data licensing discussions are continuing, including access for training and use within products. There wasn’t a new deal announced, and he left open the possibility of declining a deal. Those conversations are worth following alongside the login tests, without assuming that one tells us how the other will turn out.
See also: Reddit Wants To Be The Destination, Not Just The Source Behind Search & AI
What The Search Traffic Decline Tells Us
Reddit was already receiving less search traffic before these login tests. Huffman said the decline accelerated during Q3 and continued into October. He pointed to Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode as major factors, with lower rankings for machine-translated content as another possible explanation.
Pew’s study of U.S. browsing in March 2025 found that people clicked a traditional result on 8% of visits with an AI summary, compared with 15% without one. A link within the summary received a click on 1% of visits with a summary. That isn’t a measurement of Reddit’s current traffic, but it gives us some context for the click-through concerns.
Fewer clicks don’t mean those Reddit threads aren’t being used. I see Reddit conversations referenced in AI Overviews all the time, helping shape the answers people get. Someone can learn from that conversation and use it to make a decision without opening the thread.
People can still click through from an AI Overview, and those visits still matter. From a search marketing standpoint, I also see value in Reddit threads showing up in the results, being referenced in an answer, and helping shape what people learn about a brand or product.
See also: Reddit Preserved The Part Of The Internet We Broke
Reddit Conversations Are Still The Conversations That Matter
These are the conversations where people get into whether a product will work for their situation, what went wrong when someone else used it, and which trade-offs they’re willing to accept. Someone explains their circumstances, another person challenges a recommendation, and the replies bring out a detail that changes the decision.
If people keep asking the same question about your product, there’s something they haven’t been able to figure out. If they keep recommending a competitor for a particular situation, there’s a reason worth understanding. Being present gives you an opportunity to learn from those conversations and help where your experience is relevant, while respecting how that community works.
Those same conversations can help shape what someone learns about your brand when they find them through search or see them referenced in an AI answer. I would want to understand what people are saying, where they’re getting stuck, and what someone from the company could explain that would help them make a decision.
It always makes me think back to something my co-founder at OGS Media, Bartosz Goralewicz, once said: “Reddit is the only website I know of that told search engines, ‘Pay us, or we’ll pull our content.'”
Reddit’s a continuously evolving platform, and its place online keeps adjusting and shifting, but those conversations continue to be valuable, both to the people making decisions and to the search and AI platforms using them.
*Survey source: Reddit/Attest, May 2026. The survey covered U.S. adults ages 18-65 who use social media, LLMs, and ecommerce monthly, with a full U.S. sample of 13,956 respondents.
More Resources:
- Why Reddit Belongs In Your PR Strategy
- At Mod World, Reddit’s CEO Just Gave Brands More Reasons To Build Their Own Communities
- The Reddit Earnings Story Most Marketers Missed
Featured Image: Brent Csutoras/Search Engine Journal
