Reddit reports Google search referrals down 1 million per week in October

Search referrals fall as Google's AI search changes

In its Q3 2026 earnings call on October 29, Reddit said search traffic in October had dropped by more than 1 million referrals on average per week. CEO Steve Huffman attributed part of the decline to how Google's AI Mode and AI Overviews change the search experience, saying AI Mode does not drive traffic for Reddit or, as far as he knows, anyone else.

Huffman said AI Overviews and AI Mode have evolved to push everyone down the search page at a minimum. He also said Reddit believes its machine-translated content is being ranked lower in search results, primarily affecting the company outside the U.S. He added that Reddit remains a top search term on Google and that Google is crawling the site as heavily as ever.

Users flat globally, down in the U.S.; revenue rises

Reddit reported 130.3 million global daily active users in Q3, flat quarter-over-quarter. U.S. daily active users fell to 50.7 million from 53.2 million in Q2 and were down 2% year-over-year. The company warned that if the search-referral trend continues, daily active users could decline by a low-double-digit percentage next quarter.

Revenue increased 53% year-over-year to $895 million, above Wall Street expectations of about $875 million. Net income rose 74% to $283 million. Advertising revenue grew 54% to $847 million, while nonadvertising revenue, including AI data licensing, grew 35% to $48 million. Average revenue per U.S. daily active user rose 53% to $13.82.

Logged-in push starts with tests outside the U.S.

Reddit announced it is transitioning to a primarily logged-in experience to protect its data from AI scraping and support licensing deals with model providers. The company said it will first run tests in select markets outside the U.S. in Q4 2026 and has no timeline for a worldwide rollout. Reddit said logged-in access will not require giving up anonymity and that its incognito mode is being rebuilt.