Reddit points to Google AI Mode as a leading theory for falling referrals

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said the company’s search referrals fell by an average of more than 1 million per week during October 2026. He named Google AI Overviews and AI Mode as Reddit’s leading explanation for the decline, and said Reddit planned login-only access tests in selected markets outside the U.S. during Q4.

Reddit’s search referrals fell through Q3 and into early Q4

At Reddit’s October 29 earnings call, Huffman said search referrals had declined meaningfully during Q3, with the drop accelerating late in the quarter and continuing into early Q4. Logged-out and web traffic were most affected, he said. Some effects also reached logged-in users and the app, because a search referral can bring existing users back to Reddit.

Huffman also said Reddit remained a top Google search term and that Google continued crawling Reddit as heavily as before. Those observations describe different parts of the relationship: people could still search for Reddit while fewer referrals reached the site, according to the CEO.

AI Overviews and AI Mode are Reddit’s leading hypothesis

Huffman identified Google AI Overviews and AI Mode as the main part of Reddit’s hypothesis about the referral decline. He also cited a possible second factor: Reddit’s machine-translated content might be ranking lower, particularly outside the U.S. He said Reddit lacked visibility into changes to Google’s ranking systems.

The October figure describes Reddit’s reported search-referral decline, not a count attributed solely to AI Mode. Huffman’s comments identify Reddit’s suspected explanations; they do not assign the entire reported loss to one feature.

Reddit planned login-only tests in selected markets outside the U.S.

On October 29, Huffman said Reddit planned to begin testing logged-in-only access in selected markets outside the U.S. during Q4 2026. He described a broader transition as Reddit’s intention, with test results informing a possible global version. He said the company was still studying which parts of Reddit should prompt users to log in and when, and that some access would remain before a hard prompt.

Huffman cited personalization, stronger ad-targeting signals, deeper engagement, protection of Reddit’s data corpus, and adapting to emerging regulations as reasons for the planned shift. He also said more than 80% of Reddit’s monetization came from logged-in and app users. The company’s plan weighs those potential benefits against a possible loss of reach among people who browse without logging in.