The free ride might be over soon for Reddit lovers, as the company’s CEO said on a Thursday ‘Ask Me Anything’ that they might start charging subscriptions for certain Subreddits.
One could make the argument that Reddit is one of the least-ruined of all social media platforms. Facebook largely just shows you posts from people who are not your friends, or groups to which you do not subscribe, and the “Facebook Reels” previews are just shamelessly tits and ass. The same largely goes for Meta’s other platforms like Instagram. And Twitter, of course, is now Elon Musk’s cesspool ‘X,’ with far-right accounts prominently promoted in the algorithm, and if you watch a cat video, the next thing it immediately serves you up is an Alex Jones video.
But Reddit has pretty much stuck to its roots, letting you pick a Subreddit, and showing you posts in chronological order, with a logical upvoting and downvoting system. That old-school system may be in jeopardy, though, as the Chronicle reports that Reddit is planning to put some Subreddits behind a paywall.
That news came Thursday on the company’s quarterly earnings call, which being Reddit, they held as an “Ask Me Anything” video session with CEO Steve Huffman.
AM(A)A Video: Reddit’s Q4 2024 Earnings
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Right about the 7:00 mark, Huffman responds to the question, “Can you share progress on the development of paid Subreddits?”
“It’s a work in progress right now,” Huffman answered. “So that one's coming. We’re working on it as we speak.”
Admittedly, that does not tell you much. Though Ars Technica notes in their report that “Reddit's paywall would ostensibly only apply to certain new subreddit types, not any subreddits currently available.” So that sounds like your current Subreddits that you know and love would stay free, though honestly, who knows for how long.
This checks with previous reporting from Engadget this summer when Huffman last mentioned paywalled Subreddits. “I think the existing, altruistic, free version of Reddit will continue to exist and grow and thrive just the way it has,” Huffman said in August. “But now we will unlock the door for new use cases, new types of subreddits that can be built that may have exclusive content or private areas, things of that nature.”
The big question here would be whether the Subreddit moderators would be paid, as they currently are not. And those moderators play a pretty significant role in making Reddit (arguably) the least toxic of the big social media platforms.
Reddit did finally just turn profitable a couple months back, following their extremely successful IPO in March 2024. Though a big reason for their newfound profitability is that Reddit is now selling off your comments for “AI training.”
Related: Some Longtime Reddit Moderators Possibly Got Quite Rich Today Following the Company's IPO [SFist]
Image: CHONGQING, CHINA - FEBRUARY 9: In this photo illustration, the Reddit logo is displayed on a smartphone screen in front of a stock chart showcasing Reddit's financial performance, social media industry trends, online community growth, and global digital engagement on February 9, 2025, in Chongqing, China. (Photo illustration by Cheng Xin/Getty Images)
