A mid the trend of AI and the use of chatbots for information searches, Reddit's CEO recently stated that the technology has not yet become a significant contributor to their traffic. According to him, in the Q3 2025 earnings call, Huffman emphasized that Google Search and direct traffic are still the two main sources of traffic to Reddit.
“[Chatbots are] not a traffic driver today. I think our relationships with the companies that we work for or work with directly are healthy, and we both learned a lot over the last couple of years, really the value of Reddit’s data and where our respective products can go and how we can help each other. So I’m looking forward to continuing to work on these things with these partners. But they’re not a major traffic driver today.”
Reddit itself has a complex relationship with AI. Since May of last year, Reddit has tightened access to its data and required a license for commercial use.
While Reddit has signed a contract with OpenAI for model training and partnered with Google, it also has a strained relationship with Anthropic regarding alleged data misuse.
However, despite this, Reddit remains resilient, and its primary revenue source is not AI traffic. Despite the challenges faced amidst the rapid adoption of AI and chatbot technology, Reddit has recorded positive financial performance, with revenue increasing 68% year on year in Q3 2025, approximately $585 million.
Unique daily active users also remain at 116 million, with weekly active users around 444 million. This is clearly a significant number amidst the onslaught of AI that is rocking various platforms, including WinPoin and even Google itself.
Meanwhile, Reddit continues to invest in its search experience. According to Huffman, 20% of search volume is now handled by the AI powered answer feature and the main search box. During Q3 of this year, approximately 75 million users conducted searches on Reddit weekly.
Simplifying Onboarding for Attractiveness
As part of its growth strategy, Reddit recently tested a new, simpler onboarding flow with the goal of increasing user engagement from the first time they log in.We want them to see in their first session that Reddit is amazing and has content for them. So, our goal is to connect users with relevant content very quickly.
I quite like this platform because we can get a lot of the latest information and news from around the world, including various unique discussions that we can explore there.