Reddit’s API tools are getting pricier.
The maker of Apollo, one of the most popular third-party mobile apps for browsing Reddit, may have to close up shop due to Reddit’s recently announced new API (Application Programming Interface) pricing terms. Per app developer Christian Selig, Reddit’s API terms have jumped, and Selig would have to pay $20 million per year to keep running Apollo’s business as it currently stands. This also comes in the face of harsh criticism leveled Reddit’s way, as Apollo has been considered one of the best Reddit browsers given its updates, iOS-friendly design, and general ease of use, which has made the app a popular alternative to Reddit’s official client.
The news comes on the heels of Reddit having assured the developer community that API pricing changes wouldn’t impact those who were building apps to help people use Reddit. Instead, the move was positioned as a way to protect Reddit’s sizable internet forum site from becoming free fodder for companies training their AI systems on large swaths of the internet. Reddit, in turn, seems to be looking to be paid for its “corpus of data,” according to a comment made by company CEO Steve Huffman in a recent New York Times interview.
Acccording to Huggman’s comments, developers who wanted to build apps and bots and researchers who wanted to study Reddit for academic or noncommercial purposes wouldn’t have to pay for the API.
Selig, in return, has commented that this is not the case.
In a post on Reddit, the developer shared that, according to phone conversations he’s had with Reddit, 50 million requests will now cost $12,000 under the new API’s terms — “a figure far more than I ever could have imagined,” he wrote.
“Apollo made 7 billion requests last month, which would put it at about 1.7 million dollars per month, or 20 million US dollars per year,” Selig explained.
The developer also said that making the app only available to subscribers in order to cut down on the number of requests would not be a solution, either, as the average Apollo user uses 344 requests per day, which would mean the average user would cost $2.50 per month. That figure is over double what the subscription currently costs, Selig said.
Selig stated that his company had engaged with Reddit representatives across multiple conversations to address these pricing concerns. While the interactions were characterized as civil and communicative, he expressed that he was “deeply disappointed” with the results.
Apollo currently has around 1.3 million to 1.5 million monthly active users, and roughly 900,000 daily active users. Third-party estimates from app intelligence provider data.ai confirm Apollo has had close to 5 million global installs to date.
“In fact framing it differently, even if I kicked out every user other than the ones that pay a subscription, I would still be in the red every month,” Selig lamented. He also says there’s no plan B in the works as he wasn’t expecting to receive this sort of news.
Reddit’s decision to overprice its API access follows a similar move by Twitter, which cut off a large swath of its third-party developers ecosystem from being able to afford access to Twitter’s developer tools.
Reached for comment, Reddit spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt provided the following statement:
This is absolutely not aimed at “killing” any third-party apps. We have been in contact with third-party apps and developers, including Apollo, over the course of the last six weeks following our initial announcement about API changes, and our stance on third-party apps has not changed. We’re committed to fostering a safe and responsible developer ecosystem around Reddit — developers and third-party apps can make Reddit better and do so in a sustainable and mutually-beneficial partnership, while also keeping our users and data safe.
Expansive access to data has impact and costs involved, and in terms of safety and privacy we have an obligation to our communities to be responsible stewards of data.
Lastly, Reddit data for commercial use will need to adhere to our updated API terms of service and premium access program. We’ve had a long-standing policy in our past terms that outlined commercial and non-commercial use, but unfortunately some of those agreements were not adhered to so we clarified our terms and reached out to select organizations to work with them on compliance and a paid premium access tier.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via TechCrunch, Reddit, and The New York Times