Reddit to Kill RSS Feeds and Phase Out Public API Access by 2027

Reddit will terminate support for RSS feeds on Nov. 13, attributing the decision to large-scale data harvesting and automated abuse driven by artificial intelligence scraping, as reported by The Next Web (https://thenextweb.com/news/reddit-rss-feeds-shut-down-old-reddit-ai-scraping).

In a message delivered to community moderators, Reddit stated that RSS feeds have become a primary vector for automated scraping. While moderators who rely on RSS for moderation alerts will be directed to a Discord Relay application, general users who employ RSS readers to follow subreddits externally will have no official replacement.

The company is also restricting access to Old Reddit, its legacy text-heavy interface. Old Reddit already requires an account login; over the next few months, access will be limited strictly to moderators and users who have accessed the classic interface within the past six months. Reddit said this restriction still preserves access for the vast majority of its existing classic interface user base.

The RSS deprecation aligns with a broader timeline to wind down Reddit's public developer infrastructure. In a separate announcement directed at developers, Reddit stated that public API access will terminate completely in March 2027. The company will stop accepting new API requests on Oct. 31 and will begin cutting off unregistered applications on Jan. 12.

To transition developers to its official Developer Platform, Reddit said more than 14,000 bots and applications have already registered to migrate. The company is offering a $1,000 payout to each eligible application that completes the migration, drawn from a $1 million incentive fund.

Reddit is also altering moderation tooling. Newly established communities, along with existing subreddits that have never used Automod, will no longer be able to use the legacy tool to approve, filter, or remove submissions. Instead, Rules Hub and Automations will serve as the mandatory default for rule enforcement.

Community moderators expressed concern over the changes in forum replies, warning that losing Automod could increase bans. The policy shift follows changes Reddit introduced in August, when it began replacing components of Automod with AI-assisted rule enforcement, as well as broader platform efforts to guard its content against unauthorized commercial crawlers.