At the end of April, we learned that Reddit will start charging a monthly fee for using the API. In other words, what external companies can do access to data platform for various tasks, such as running third-party applications or training AI models.
At the time, prices had not yet been determined, but there was a promise that they would be announced “in the coming weeks”. Days passed and now we have news coming directly from Christian Selig, the developer of the Reddit client for iOS called Apollo. According to him, there is little to celebrate.
The price of using the Reddit API
Selig says Reddit API usage prices are “much higher than I imagined.” In addition, he accuses the platform of not fulfilling its promise to establish. “reasonable” scheme and not following in Twitter’s footsteps (remember that Elon Musk has turned off access to his social network’s free API).
The head of Apollo claims that Reddit wants to charge $12,500 for 50 million API requests. At this price, if you take into account that the customer made 7 billion requests last month, they would have to pay $1.7 million per month, or about $20 million per year, to keep the app up and running.
Apollo is a free Reddit client, but allows users to pay. $4.99 $1.49 per month ($12.99 per year) for access to a “Pro” version that offers additional features, or for more additional features. According to Selig, the API needs to change its prices to face its cost.
The client’s average users make about 344 API requests per day, according to the developer, which would translate into a $2.50 monthly cost, higher than what’s currently set (it should be noted that Apollo hasn’t disclosed the price increases in the app for now).
“I hope it goes without saying that I don’t have that much money,” Selig says. The developer also claims to have tried a dozen calls to convince Reddit. make the price more flexible Using their API, but failed. After this news, we have to wait to find out how Reddit and Apollo will follow.
Recall that Steve Huffman, Reddit co-founder and CEO, said in April that the Reddit API will remain free for developers and researchers for academic (and non-commercial) purposes who want to develop applications that “help people use the platform.” . ). He said companies that “float on Reddit, generate value, and don’t return anything” will have to pay.
Images: reddit | pc.vector | Apollo
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