Looks like paywalls are coming soon to a subreddit near you

What do Redditors think? Well, it wouldn't be Reddit if they were happy

Redditors love a topic to gripe about, and this week the focus will likely be on CEO Steve Huffman's claim that paywalled content is coming to the so-called Front Page of the Internet.

Huffman reiterated last year's statements about premium sections on Reddit during an AMA video alongside Reddit CFO Drew Vollero and COO Jen Wong. While premium subreddits were not a major focus of the half-hour discussion, their arrival this year was confirmed.

"It's a work in progress right now – that one's coming," Huffman said. When asked by another redditor if those paid subreddits would be coming in 2025, Huffman acknowledged that's likely the case, along with a broader rollout of Reddit Answers, the site's AI search feature.

It's unclear how or when paid subreddits will take shape, with the only clue being Huffman's remarks during Reddit's Q2 earnings call last year when the idea was first mentioned.

"The existing altruistic-free version of Reddit will continue to exist and grow and thrive just the way it has," Huffman said on the call. "But now we will unlock the door for new use cases, new types of subreddits that can be built that may have exclusive content or private areas, things of that nature."

Huffman's prior statement suggests that existing areas of Reddit will likely remain unmonetized and that the new features rolling out this year will differ from the rest of the site – though details remain unclear. We contacted Reddit to learn more, but haven't heard back.

That, naturally, hasn't stopped redditors from speculating about how it will ruin the site.

Some users opine that paywalled Reddit content is likely a move to steal creators and subscribers from platforms like Patreon, while others speculate that it's likely to expand across the platform, leading to "enshittification" of the platform in the name of pleasing shareholders.

Over on the popular AskHistorians subreddit, a moderator weighed in to explain that, as far as they understood, it was going to be an opt-in feature that wouldn't directly affect subreddits that choose not to monetize.

"The main target for this, I believe, is competition with other websites that support paid content creation but where those creators also will promote on Reddit with freebies," said a moderator named Georgy_K_Zukhov after the famous Soviet general. "They also want to have 'community clubs' which would be extra bonus content for subreddits, but again, it's an [opt-in] thing which we can ignore." 

Along with paywalled content plans, Reddit leadership on the AMA also mentioned monetizing commerce happening in subreddits by implementing a built-in payment platform to avoid redditors having to leave the site for places like PayPal or Venmo to trade or buy something from another user.

"Long term, yes – we would like to do something like that," Huffman said. "The general idea that users are transacting on Reddit opens the door [to the] line of thinking that led us to build the developer platform. The aim there is to allow users to expand what Reddit can be used for – including things as complex as marketplaces, but that might be a little ways out."

Advertising blended into organic user posts was also discussed. Unlike previous concerns about ads masquerading as regular content, this time the focus was on advertisements appearing in post comments.

Wong said that, after launching ads in comments last year, they've grown to account for around 3 percent of the site's ad inventory, which she's thrilled with.

"We're actually really happy with the performance," Wong said. "Comments are a high engagement area for redditors. In a lot of conversation pages people are looking for recommendations – it's a naturally commercial environment."

How Reddit's latest monetization push will pan out remains unanswered, but The Reg can't help but think back to 2023's widespread subreddit blackout after the platform imposed a fee for API access, effectively killing third-party Reddit apps. The blackout didn't accomplish its organizers' objective of keeping the API free, and most closed subreddits have since reopened.

Without the ability to hold fast, any protest against future monetization is unlikely to achieve much either. ®