Oct 29, 2026 earnings call — Logged-in shift and ad product momentum
Revenue grew 53% year-over-year in Q3 to $895 million, with advertising revenue of $847 million.
Revenue $0.9B (est $0.9B) · EPS $1.40 (est $1.33) · Next-quarter revenue outlook $1.0B–$1.0B
Key quotes
"Moving to primarily logged-in will ensure our users have the best Reddit experience possible and can find the content and communities most relevant to them."
"Reddit Max entered public beta in Q3, and we expanded access and integrated Max into the onboarding experience for new advertisers."
"For best-in-class margins, Reddit shined again. Net income margin was 32%, adjusted EBITDA margin was 45%, gross margins were 91.5%."
Analyst Q&A 11
logging users in vs anonymous access
Q (Benjamin Black · Deutsche Bank): Why change to logged-in only, what will the test measure, and how could this affect attracting new users and monetization runway into 2027?
A: They said the move lets Reddit give personalized recommendations, target ads better, protect data, and adapt to regulations. The test will measure where to put login walls, conversion rates, and engagement after conversion. They noted over 80% of monetization comes from app and logged-in users, and see room to grow ARPU.
"But when a user logged into Reddit, they engage much more deeply." — Steven Huffman (CEO)
Google traffic drop and paid user marketing
Q (Josh Beck · Raymond James): Do Google AI changes explain traffic trends? And can paid user marketing be scaled given improving retention?
A: They said AI Overviews/AI Mode from Google is the main cause of less referral traffic, and machine-translation ranking may affect non-U.S. traffic. On paid app installs, it's early but retention for paid installs matches organic users, so they see scale potential and plan full-funnel and reengagement work.
"But what we like is that the retention that we're seeing is equivalent to our organic users." — Jennifer Wong (COO)
will a light anonymous version remain? engagement signs
Q (John Colantuoni · Jefferies): Will there be a light version of Reddit without login, is this only a test or final plan, and any engagement green shoots beyond user count?
A: They said the test will define the boundary for a light, pre-login experience and that some version will remain for shared links and search. They confirmed this is a test but they will make the transition. They also said feeds work is improving new user retention, posts and comments, and time on site.
"This is a test, but we are going to make this transition." — Steven Huffman (CEO)
content licensing discussions with AI partners
Q (Naved Khan · B. Riley): With logged-in testing and changes, how will Reddit continue licensing its Corpus to partners like OpenAI and Google?
A: They said their position hasn't changed and they are in active discussions but have no updates. Any deal must advance Reddit's long-term strategy and be a fair exchange of value; options include training access or product display, and not doing a deal remains possible.
"any deal we do needs to advance our long-term strategy and has to be a fair exchange of value." — Steven Huffman (CEO)
company history and ARPU outlook
Q (Thomas Champion · Piper): Does current period remind you of past challenges and how will you guide through transition? Also, thoughts on continued U.S. ARPU growth?
A: They said Reddit's unique role is communities and conversations and they're investing in core app improvements to make the experience clearer and more useful. On ARPU, they said Reddit has substantial ARPU potential driven by differentiated, commercial users and context-rich subreddits that lead to strong outcomes.
"I think the ARPU potential of Reddit is as good as anybody." — Andrew Vollero (CFO)
turning weekly users into daily users
Q (Ronald Josey · Citi): What internal product changes will convert WAUs into DAUs, beyond search external issues?
A: They said the main work is adding organization to the feed so similar jobs, content types, and moods are grouped and users more reliably find what they want. That should make the app predictable and encourage daily habit, converting WAUs to DAUs, and help new users understand the product quickly.
"So one of the things that we're working on right now is adding more organization to the feed" — Steven Huffman (CEO)
lost Google traffic and advertiser interest in pretraining
Q (Andrew Boone · Citizens): What types of traffic are leaving from Google and can product changes create sticky use cases? Are brands asking to be included for LLM pretraining ahead of renewals?
A: They said AI Mode doesn't drive traffic and Google changes reduced referrals, but demand for Reddit remains high; their feed and modeling improvements are already raising engagement and can make use cases stickier. For advertisers, they said brands come to Reddit for engaged audiences and measurable outcomes, and pretraining access is not a core part of their advertising partnerships today.
"The reason to come and advertise on Reddit, and we say this really clearly, is to come for the engaged audience and to get competitive outcomes to grow your business, right?" — Jennifer Wong (COO)
M&A to grow users
Q (Vasily Karasyov · Cannonball): Could acquisitions help expand Reddit's user base and is that a higher priority now?
A: They said past M&A were small teams plus tech and that acquisitions for users are not on the radar. The best growth is organic from three channels: unattributed downloads (word-of-mouth), reinstalls (they plan an incognito mode), and converting mobile web/search referrals where they have room to scale.
"The best way for us to grow users is to capture the opportunity that we have right on our doorstep." — Steven Huffman (CEO)
modeling logged-in only and scraping impact
Q (Jason Helfstein · Oppenheimer): How should we model logged-in dynamics and ARPU changes, and will making Reddit logged-in prevent scraping?
A: They said the test is to learn conversion rates and boundary choices; logged-in users already generate over 80% of revenue and growing that cohort matters, but the conversion path is unknown until tested. Making Reddit logged-in will make scraping harder and help protect their corpus, though not impossible.
"Making Reddit logged-in only will assuredly grow that base." — Steven Huffman (CEO)
will logged-out traffic vanish? Google pendulum
Q (Ygal Arounian · Wedbush): Will logged-out traffic decline to near zero and could Google reverse course and send traffic back?
A: They said some logged-out traffic will likely remain for sharing, front page curiosity, and search referrals, but over time app and logged-in DAU should largely converge as the core product. They won't assume Google will reverse AI Mode; instead they focus on making Reddit a sticky direct destination.
"I think we'll always have some amount of traffic from either search referrals." — Steven Huffman (CEO)
third-quarter revenue drivers
Q (Douglas Anmuth · JPMorgan): Any specifics on 3Q revenue growth being strong but less than prior upside, due to users, inventory, or other factors?
A: They said Q3 was strong, growing 53%, with demand concentrated in September and some days where bookings exceeded what could be delivered. They noted they started the quarter with about 50% of business booked and made estimates during the quarter, but overall momentum was strong.
"Look, I think third quarter was a good one. We grew 53%." — Andrew Vollero (CFO)