Apollo, the favored Reddit app for iOS, could face thousands and thousands of {dollars} in charges as a results of Reddit’s new paid API mannequin. According to an replace posted by developer Christian Selig, Reddit could charge Apollo roughly $20 million per year if it continues working at its present scale.
Reddit introduced adjustments to its API coverage in April, which permits the platform to put limits on the variety of API requests made by a third-party shopper like Apollo. But now, we have now extra particulars on what precisely this implies: Selig says Reddit plans on charging about $12,000 per 50 million requests.
That means Apollo, which made 7 billion API requests final month, can be on the hook to pay $1.7 million per thirty days or $20 million per year to proceed working on the identical tempo. Selig notes that even when he determined to solely keep customers who pay to subscribe to Apollo, he nonetheless wouldn’t be making sufficient cash to earn a revenue. The “average Apollo user uses 344 requests per day, which would cost $2.50 per month,” Selig says, whereas an Apollo Ultra subscription prices $1.49 per thirty days or $12.99 per year.
“I’m deeply disappointed in this price,” Selig writes. “While Reddit has been communicative and civil throughout this process with half a dozen phone calls back and forth that I thought went really well, I don’t see how this pricing is anything based in reality or remotely reasonable. I hope it goes without saying that I don’t have that kind of money or would even know how to charge it to a credit card.”
It’s nonetheless not clear what the long run holds for Apollo, although. “My hope at this point is that they listen to the feedback I, other developers, and the community have given them and try to come to an arrangement where both parties can be happy,” Selig tells The Verge. “Outside of that… I’ll have to sit with it for a few more days and think.” Unfortunately, this doesn’t bode nicely for different third-party Reddit apps, together with Rif and Relay, that could be topic to the identical type of charges.
“Without third party apps, I’ll abandon Reddit like I abandoned Twitter”
“The costs we shared with Apollo is the pricing per 1,000 API calls, not a monthly bill,” Tim Rathschmidt, Reddit’s director of client and product communications, tells The Verge. “Our pricing is based on usage levels that we measure to be as equitable as possible. We’ve been, and will continue, to work with third-party apps to help them improve efficiency, which can significantly impact overall cost.”
Reddit’s determination to monetize its API comes simply months earlier than Reddit is anticipated to file for an preliminary public providing (IPO). The firm presently solely makes cash through promoting, and making builders pay to entry its API could make its IPO extra engaging to buyers. In addition to charging builders, Reddit may even begin charging AI corporations to use Reddit to practice giant language fashions.
Reddit may need to consider the variety of customers who may need to depart the platform if their favourite shopper now not works. Apollo, for instance, permits a bunch of nice options for searching Reddit, like quicker loading pages, customizable gestures, a higher feedback structure, and extra. Many customers in Selig’s replace thread are saying they are going to depart the platform if Apollo and different third-party apps now not work, with one consumer stating, “Without third party apps, I’ll abandon Reddit like I abandoned Twitter.”
Update May thirty first, 5:59PM ET: Updated to add a assertion from Christian Selig.
…. to be continued
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