Reddit to test mandatory login in Q4 after missing user growth targets

Reddit will begin testing a mandatory login requirement for users in select markets outside the United States during the fourth quarter. The announcement came alongside the company's third-quarter earnings release on Thursday.

CEO Steve Huffman stated the company is moving to a primarily logged-in experience. He indicated that the initial tests will occur in international locations before any changes are implemented for U.S. users.

Huffman told CNBC that the company is still determining what logged-out visitors can see. He confirmed that the front page and posts reached through search engines or external links will likely remain accessible. This path allows casual readers to find local threads via search without creating an account.

The company provided four reasons for the change in a post by Huffman. He said a logged-in site would improve the user experience, benefit the advertising business, align with safety regulations, and protect company data. He noted that most unauthorized access to Reddit occurs through logged-out experiences.

In a separate interview, Huffman added a fifth factor: declining search referral traffic from Google. He described AI overviews and chat features in Google's search product as a fundamental shift. He said Reddit will focus on users who visit the site directly.

Third-quarter revenue reached $895 million, exceeding the $878 million analysts expected. However, U.S. daily active users fell 2% year over year to 50.7 million. Huffman warned that total daily users could drop by a low double-digit percentage in the fourth quarter from about 130 million if search traffic continues to decline.

A first-quarter shareholder letter filed with the SEC showed logged-in users grew 7% year over year, while logged-out users grew 26%. Huffman said in February that the company planned to phase out reporting on these distinct user groups later this year.

This follows other recent access changes. In late June or early July, Reddit required a login to use Old Reddit, citing abusive scraping. On September 30, the company announced it would stop supporting RSS feeds on November 13. Its public API stops taking new access requests on October 31, with remaining access ending in March 2027.

The RSS shutoff arrives first on November 13. The login tests are set for the fourth quarter. The company posts its quarterly materials at investor.redditinc.com.