Reddit Is Turning Off a Simple Way to Follow Posts
Reddit will turn off RSS feeds on November 13 and close public access to its API by March 2027. The company shared both dates on September 30. The RSS change comes first. The API change comes four months later. TechCrunch
RSS is a plain, no-login feed that lets an app automatically check for new posts. Think of it like a subscription list for updates. Reddit called RSS a "common surface for large-scale scraping and automated abuse". That was the stated reason for ending it. The company gave the same reason, abusive scraping and automated traffic, for new limits on Old Reddit.
For moderators, Reddit said to move alerts inside their own community to the Discord Relay Devvit app before November 13. That tool runs inside Reddit itself. Reddit said there is no replacement for RSS feeds that followed posts outside a moderator's own community. Tools that watched those outside feeds will lose their source.
Reddit also set new rules for Old Reddit, the older and simpler-looking version of the site. Access will be limited to logged-in moderators and recent users. In the next few months, the company said it will limit Old Reddit access for logged-in users to those who have used Old Reddit in the last 90 days. That 90-day rule applies to logged-in access specifically.
Reddit reported second-quarter 2026 other revenue beyond advertising grew 24% from a year earlier to $43 million. TechCrunch
The broader context here is that simple feeds are easy for helpful tools and for unwanted copying. The same plain setup that helped moderators get alerts and helped readers save posts also lets computers pull huge amounts of data without logging in or asking permission.
Looking at what this means for builders and moderators, there are two groups. Inside one community, alerts can move to a tool that runs inside Reddit. That keeps alerts working. Outside one community, there is no planned move. Dashboards that watch many communities, tools that track cross-posts and outside copies that used RSS have no stated path. The November date ends that kind of connection. The March date ends the wider public API path.
In my view, this tradeoff makes sense but will matter for small tool makers. When tools run inside Reddit with logins, Reddit can see who is asking, set limits and stop misuse. That makes daily work easier for teams fighting unwanted copying. For independent developers and busy moderators, it takes away a simple setup that was easy to use. The hopeful result is steadier and better-supported tools for moderators. The risk is less room to experiment around the edges, where many helpful ideas started.
