Reddit’s CEO says Google’s AI Mode ‘does not drive traffic’

In an earnings call, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman stated that Google’s AI-powered search modes are not responsible for driving traffic to the platform. This claim echoes the struggles faced by other websites and publishers. Reddit revealed in its Q3 2026 earnings that search traffic dropped by over 1 million referrals on average per week in October.

Huffman attributes part of the company's challenges with Google traffic to how AI Mode and AI Overviews alter the search experience. He emphasizes that "AI Mode does not drive traffic" for Reddit, neither does it for anyone else. The shift he refers to is a fundamental change in how Google operates, transitioning from a traffic driver to not driving traffic at all.

Huffman also mentions that AI Overviews and AI Mode have evolved and now push users further down the search page. Furthermore, Reddit believes its content translated into other languages may be ranked lower in search results, which would primarily impact the company outside the US. Despite these changes, Reddit remains a "top search term" on Google.

Huffman clarifies that this statement does not indicate a decrease in demand for Reddit among internet consumers; instead, it highlights that Google is not sending users to Reddit as it used to. He also notes that Google continues to crawl Reddit extensively, which suggests that demand hasn't changed from Google's perspective either.

To counter the search referral issues, Reddit is striving to become a "direct, sticky, daily destination." Recently, it launched a "For You" feed with interest-based recommendations and tested an experiment that turns posts into short videos using AI. Reddit announced today that it will require everyone to log in, which Huffman believes will improve user experience, boost its ads business, align with safety regulations, and protect Reddit data.