Reddit client Apollo's developer says Reddit plans to charge $12K for 50M API requests and that he would need to pay $20M per year to keep operating the app
and that's a problem for everyone Nadeem Sarwar / SlashGear : Reddit Joins Twitter In Squeezing Devs With Unreasonable Fees John Gruber / Daring Fireball : Reddit API Pricing Would Cost Apollo Developer $20 Million Per Year Evan Selleck / AppleInsider : The best Reddit client app is in danger due to price demands Juli Clover / WRAL TechWire : Reddit price increases threaten popular Apollo app John-Anthony Disotto / iMore : Reddit wants to kill third-party Reddit apps and Apollo could be one of them Emma Roth / The Verge : A developer says Reddit could charge him $20 million a year to keep his app working David Becker / Appleosophy : Proposed changes to Reddit API could mean the end of third-party apps like Apollo Omer Dursun / Neowin : Reddit wants to make a ‘million dollars’ from API following Twitter Bluesky: Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life.bsky.social : Popular Reddit app, Apollo, to shut down because Reddit's new API pricing would cost $1.7M/month or $20M/year. — Elon's really set the bar for big tech companies to show their true colors from layoffs to price gouging on API access. Tweets: Christian Selig / @christianselig : Just got off a call with Reddit about the API and new pricing. Bad news unless I come up with 20 million dollars (not joking). Appreciate boosts. https://www.reddit.com/... Jane Manchun Wong / @wongmjane : I'd use a version of Apollo that has its own forum Back in 2016, a developer of a popular third-party client for a forum in HK (HKGolden) branched out and launched their own forum (LIHKG) after series of disputes with the original forum over API access LIHKG has since become... https://twitter.com/... Ray Wong / @raywongy : This is beyond fucked up. Truly fucked up. Apollo is the best way to use Reddit bc @ChristianSelig gives a shit about details and fun. https://twitter.com/... Andru Edwards / @andruedwards : The attack on third-party social client apps continues https://twitter.com/... Matt Coulter / @nideveloper : All tech companies when they form: “we aren't evil, please build a community around us. Our API is extensible” Then they get a board and start killing the community that made them possible because theoretical profits. We need a different model https://twitter.com/... @giovan_h : Reddit and all these other companies who are making user-level API access prohibitively expensive have forgotten that **the API is the product.** The API is the interface that lets you perform operations on the site. (1/5) https://twitter.com/... @greentetra_ : its very funny how much i use reddit and it will be very funny how little i use reddit as soon as third-party apps stop working. https://twitter.com/... @jonyiveparody : I genuinely love using and highly recommend Apollo. It's absolutely worth its subscription/lifetime purchase options. It will be a very sad day indeed if @Reddit raises its API pricing to these absurd levels and kills this excellent app. 😕 https://twitter.com/... @s8mb : The reality of paying actual money for using the internet instead of “paying with your data” isn't as fun as the competition economists promised. https://reddit.com/... Matt DesLauriers / @mattdesl : “decentralized systems will always necessarily be more expensive than centralized systems” they say. meanwhile: https://twitter.com/... Tim Sweeney / @timsweeneyepic : @ChristianSelig Wow, wasn't aware that porn site subscription prices had gone so high. Must be inflation! @headfallsoff : bro is there even gonna be any of the Old Internet left by the end of 2023 https://twitter.com/... Parker / @pt : It will be interesting if in an attempt to capture LLM training money content sites end up destroying the ecosystems that drive all that content creation. You really don't want your customers rooting against you and it's not clear they can even get real cash for training data. https://twitter.com/... @snazzylabs : This is insanity. It's reasonable to seek lost revenue potential—but at 20x (TWENTY TIMES!) the cost of an overly generous ARPU? They are high (on drugs). https://twitter.com/... Saket Narayan / @saketme : I don't think Reddit is aware that its own mobile apps are terrrrrible. I'm sorry to say this out loud because Reddit has good engineers but I find it impossible to stay more than 5m on the app. https://twitter.com/... Owen Williams / @ow : Damn, looks like Reddit is about to start charging crazy amounts of money for API access. RIP Apollo, one of the best apps on my phone, and all third-party Reddit apps 😡 https://twitter.com/... Phill Ryu / @phillryu : 1. Fails to make mobile app for years 2. Buys an indie third party app to make their app 3. Fails to monetize with ads 4. Fails to make their app decent Reddit: The problem is not us, it's third party clients. Let's turn that accidental success into a failure too. https://twitter.com/... Sindre Sorhus / @sindresorhus : Did Reddit not learn anything from the recent Twitter pricing reactions 🤷♂️ My personal rule is to never make apps that depend on APIs. Companies suck. APIs eventually change or go away. https://twitter.com/... @useclear : Reddit is demanding $20 million/year for @apolloreddit's current API usage. These mostly indie apps helped build Reddit's success, because their own app was horrible to use. Now they are unceremoniously taking them out back. Absolutely monstrous and inhumane behavior. https://twitter.com/... Sebastiaan de With / @sdw : @panzer I don't really get why Reddit isn't being honest and just saying they aren't gonna do third party apps. I mean, I get it. But come on. @cabel : @panzer But Panzer it's so much easier than outright saying “actually we don't want your third party app to exist anymore” @javi : This is incredibly user hostile (not just developer hostile), and I'm so glad I decided not to pursue working there last year after I left Twitter. I hope that they reserve course, although the damage to trust is done. https://twitter.com/... @panzer : API Extortion Era https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Reddit's proposed terms arrived after Twitter had moved to end free API access and introduce paid access, then formalized a ban on third-party clients. That sequence made API policy a direct control point for platforms that depend on outside developers: Twitter's shift to paid API access was followed by its explicit third-party-client ban.
The stakes extend beyond one client. Later coverage found that surviving Reddit clients generally charged monthly fees, with some reaching profitability, showing that access costs can be passed through—but only where a smaller app can sustain a paid-user model: the post-change paid-client ecosystem.
First-order effects
- Apollo faces an API bill its developer says is economically untenable, putting continued operation of the client at risk.
- Reddit users who rely on third-party clients face the prospect of losing those interfaces or paying more for continued access; the proposal also triggers immediate developer and user backlash.
Second-order effects
- Other Reddit client developers must either raise subscription prices, sharply reduce API use, or exit; later evidence that many remaining clients charge monthly illustrates that cost pass-through becomes the viable response for some apps.
- The move reinforces a competitive signal from Twitter: independent social clients cannot treat platform APIs as stable, low-cost infrastructure when the host platform can reset access terms.
Third-order effects
- If this model persists, social platforms can consolidate more of the user experience, advertising relationship, and product data inside first-party apps by using API pricing as a gatekeeper mechanism.
- A smaller, subscription-supported third-party ecosystem may remain, but its scale and feature set will be bounded by host-platform terms rather than developer demand alone.
The trend: Social platforms are turning formerly open developer access into a priced and tightly governed layer, increasing platform gatekeeper leverage over third-party clients.