Reddit’s API Price Hike Puts Third-Party App Developers at Risk
Reddit, one of the world’s most popular social media platforms, is facing accusations of driving off third-party app developers by increasing its API access fees. This move has raised concerns of app developers facing closure since they can’t afford the new charges. This article delves into Reddit’s price hike, app developers’ responses, and the consequences of such a move.
Reddit API Price Hike Challenges Third-party Apps
Reddit’s recent move is akin to Twitter’s API access fee hike that resulted in the closure of several Twitter clients who could not afford the new fees. Some Reddit app developers are now making similar accusations about being unable to bear the cost of API access.
Apollo’s Example
One of the victims of the Reddit API price hike is Christian Selig, the developer of the popular third-party Reddit client, Apollo. Apollo offers many features that Reddit’s own app fails to provide. Apollo made 7 billion API requests in the last month, costing about $1.7 million under Reddit’s new fee system. Selig posted on Reddit, “I’m deeply disappointed in this price. Reddit iterated that the price would be reasonable and based on reality, and they would not operate like Twitter. Twitter’s pricing was publicly ridiculed for its obscene price of $42,000 for 50 million tweets. Reddit’s is still $12,000. For reference, I pay Imgur (a site similar to Reddit in user base and media) $166 for the same 50 million API calls.”
The End of the Road For Third-Party Apps
Selig says that he would be unable to afford the new fees, even with paying Apollo subscribers. ‘Even if I only kept subscribers, the average Apollo user uses 344 requests per day, which would cost $2.50 per month, which is over double what the subscription currently costs, so I’d be in the red every month,’ he wrote. Reddit has made it clear that it won’t be tweaking its API pricing even in light of feedback from app developers.
The Price of AI
As with Twitter, Reddit aims to cash in on AI and is pushing up the cost of accessing its API. Many AI language models, such as OpenAI’s GPT-4, were trained on vast troves of data gathered cheaply from open internet services such as Twitter and Reddit. These social networks now believe the AI companies have been given free access to their data and are cranking up the cost of accessing their APIs. However, instead of exclusively targeting the AI companies, the cost of accessing APIs has increased across the board, ruining third-party app developers’ business models.
The Reddit Spokesperson’s View
A Reddit spokesperson said, “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.
“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.”
The Impact
As of now, there are no further details about Reddit’s price hike or if the company plans to accommodate their developers’ concerns. However, it could be detrimental to third-party app developers who can’t afford the increased prices; many may be forced into closure, thereby reducing the diversity of Reddit’s user base.
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