Reddit CEO Steve Huffman Says Google AI Search No Longer Sends Traffic as Q3 Revenue Grows 53%

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said Google's AI search no longer sends traffic to Reddit, citing a loss of more than 1 million search referrals per week on average. Crypto Briefing reported the comments from Reddit's October 29, 2026 earnings call, where Q3 2026 revenue was $895 million, up 53% year-over-year.

Huffman's Plan to Replace Search Referrals

Huffman tied the referral decline to Google's overhaul of search through AI features such as AI Overviews, which summarize answers at the top of the page and often draw on forum content. US daily active uniques, the metric Reddit calls DAUq, fell to 50.7 million in Q3 2026 from 53.2 million in Q2 2026, a 2% year-over-year decrease. Worldwide DAUq stayed stable at 130.3 million, and earnings per share landed at $1.40.

Reddit's answer is a logged-in user experience, which the company plans to start testing in Q4 2026, beginning in international markets rather than the US. Channel NewsAsia reported that Huffman warned daily active unique visitors could fall by a low double-digit percentage in Q4. Whalesbook reported that Reddit is restricting logged-out access to protect data and improve ad targeting.

Reddit has licensing deals with Google and OpenAI worth a combined approximate $60 million annually, letting AI firms use Reddit content. The agreements are currently under evaluation as Reddit adjusts to the new search landscape.

Reddit's Advertising and Scale Records

According to akta.pro company records, Reddit operates a public, interest-based community platform serving about 127 million daily active users across more than 100,000 subreddits, monetizing through advertising at 94% of revenue and AI data licensing to Google and OpenAI. The same records list daily active uniques of 126.8 million in Q1 2026, up 17% year-over-year, and monthly active users of 1.1 billion reported in outage coverage of June 2026. International daily active user growth was 26% in the most recent quarter.

Earlier Reddit Product and Access Moves

On October 28, 2026, The Verge reported that Reddit announced a new homepage feed experience with For You and Following feeds, replacing r/all. On October 29, 2026, Bloomberg reported that Reddit will shift to a primarily logged-in user experience, starting tests in non-US markets in the fourth quarter, following third-quarter sales that beat analyst expectations. Also on October 29, 2026, Yahoo reported that Huffman outlined a plan to make signing in mandatory for most content to curb data scraping and declining search referral traffic.

What Reddit Will Test Next

Reddit plans to begin testing the logged-in experience in Q4 2026 in international markets, with a wider rollout to follow the tests.