Reddit is ending RSS feeds. Here’s what changes for Old Reddit

Reddit announced on September 30 that it will end RSS feeds on its platform on November 13, 2026, and close remaining public API access in March 2027. The changes affect how people follow posts and run third-party tools; separate restrictions will limit who can use Old Reddit.

For people using RSS outside communities they moderate, Reddit’s answer about a supported alternative is blunt: “there is no replacement.” Moderators have an alert tool they can switch to, but that does not replace ordinary feed subscriptions. Old Reddit, meanwhile, is not being shut down for everyone.

Why Reddit is ending RSS feeds

Reddit says RSS has become a route for “large-scale scraping and automated abuse.” Its announcement sets a shutdown date for a feature that lets reader apps automatically collect new posts, without requiring someone to keep checking a page.

An API serves a different purpose: it lets software request data directly from a service. As Decrypt explains, feeds and APIs have supported third-party tools, bots and alerts for years. Their withdrawal therefore reaches beyond people browsing Reddit’s website.

What replaces Reddit RSS feeds?

For moderators using RSS to receive alerts about their own communities, Reddit recommends the Discord Relay app on its Developer Platform, known as Devvit. It asks moderation teams to move those workflows before November 13 to avoid disruption.

For feeds outside a community the reader moderates, Reddit says there is no replacement. That distinction matters: a tool offered for moderation alerts is not a general replacement for following Reddit through a feed reader. The statement describes Reddit’s supported options, rather than proving that every third-party workaround is impossible.

TechCrunch reports that moderators had raised concerns about managing their workflows when Reddit first signalled the end of RSS, while users said feeds were how they preferred to access its content. Those concerns concern everyday reading and moderation, alongside the automated scraping Reddit says it wants to stop.

Is Old Reddit going away?

Reddit’s announcement preserves Old Reddit access for some users. Over the next few months, it plans to restrict ordinary logged-in access to accounts that have used the older interface within the preceding six months. Logged-in moderators are exempt from that recent-use requirement.

If you have seen a 90-day threshold, that came from earlier information. TechCrunch says materials Reddit initially supplied specified 90 days, and that the company extended the period to six months as the news went out. Six months is the announced threshold.

Reddit says it already required login for Old Reddit earlier in 2026 to target unauthenticated scraping. It claims that reduced abuse, but its announcement provides no measurement. The additional recent-use restriction is a planned change, with no exact implementation date supplied.

There are still unanswered access questions. The announcement does not explain the six-month rule’s edge cases, including whether an account can regain access after a lapse. It establishes neither a universal Old Reddit closure nor a precise rollout day.

When Reddit public API access ends

The API timetable has several separate deadlines. Reddit says it will stop accepting new requests for public API access on October 31, 2026. On January 12, 2027, it will start removing access from apps and users that have not registered or responded to its outreach.

Remaining public API access is scheduled to close in March 2027, without an exact final day specified. Registration addresses the earlier cutoff; it is not a promise of permanent access through the existing API. Reddit wants developers to move their apps to Devvit.

Reddit says more than 14,000 apps and bots have registered. It describes migration of DeltaBot, MagicEyeBot and RemindMeBot as complete or nearly complete, without specifying which individual tools have finished. That figure measures registrations, not how many migrations have succeeded.

What Devvit can replace—and what remains uncertain

Reddit’s $1 million migration program offers $1,000 payments for eligible migrated apps, free hosting and technical support. Registration for the migration bounty closes November 30, 2026. These are incentives for developers to rebuild tools, rather than a replacement feed service for readers.

Reddit’s migration documentation acknowledges that some existing apps rely on capabilities that do not yet map directly onto Devvit. It describes additional access or exemptions for external websites, server connections and cross-community workflows. App-mention triggers are in beta and require an access request.

Reddit also says it has received more than 100 submissions about community tools needing maintainers or replacements. It promises updates about options and unresolved gaps, and schedules migration updates for November 10, January 12 and February 23 before the final March cutoff.

There is precedent for disruption around API changes: Decrypt reports that thousands of communities went dark in protest when Reddit began charging developers for API access in 2023. That is an earlier dispute, not evidence of a new protest on the same scale.

For now, the announcement establishes future shutdowns, not that RSS or all existing bots have already stopped working. Reddit has identified a route for migrating some tools, but its own documentation leaves gaps unresolved. Whether every affected tool can make the move remains unestablished.