Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said on an earnings call that Google's AI-powered search modes do not help drive traffic to the platform. "The reality is, AI Mode does not drive traffic," Huffman said. "Not for us, and not to anybody, as far as I know."
As part of its Q3 2026 earnings, Reddit reported that search traffic in October "dropped by more than 1 million referrals on average per week." Huffman attributed part of that decline to how AI Mode and AI Overviews change the search experience. He said the two features have "evolved a lot" and now, at a "minimum," push "everyone down the search page."
Huffman also said Reddit believes its machine-translated content is ranking lower in search results. He said this would mainly affect the company outside the US.
Huffman said Reddit remains a "top search term in Google." He argued that "people still want Reddit," and that Google "is not sending them to Reddit the way they used to." He also said Google is "crawling us as hard as ever."
The report notes that Google said it is seeing "lower monetization" in AI Mode ads, though it is bringing AI ads to more countries.
To offset the lost referrals, Reddit is working to become a "direct, sticky, daily destination." It introduced a "For You" feed with recommendations based on user interests. In August, it began testing an experiment that uses AI to turn posts into short videos.
Reddit also announced that it will require all users to log in. Huffman said this will be "better for user experience, better for our ads business, is more in line with safety regulations, and more protective of Reddit data."