Reddit CEO: Google's AI search mode does not send traffic to the platform

Steve Huffman, chief executive of the social network and discussion platform Reddit, said during the company's third-quarter 2026 earnings call that Google's AI-powered search modes do not help bring visitors to the site. Reddit reported that search referrals in October dropped by more than 1 million a week on average, and Huffman attributes part of the problem to the way Google's AI Mode and AI Overviews change the search experience.

Huffman's explanation

"The reality is, AI Mode does not drive traffic," Huffman said. "Not for us, and not to anybody, as far as I know." In his words, this is a fundamental shift in how Google works: it used to send traffic, and now it does not.

He said the features have evolved considerably and now, at a minimum, push everyone down the search page. Huffman also said Reddit believes its machine-translated content in other languages is ranked lower in search results, which would mainly affect the company outside the United States.

Reddit nonetheless remains a top search term on Google, he said. In his view, this does not reflect lower consumer demand for Reddit; rather, Google is not sending people to the platform as it once did. He added that Google is crawling Reddit as intensively as ever.

The company's response

To offset weaker search referrals, Reddit wants to become a "direct, sticky, daily destination." A day before the call it launched a "For You" feed with recommendations based on users' interests, and in August it began testing an experiment that uses AI to turn posts into short videos.

Reddit also announced that all users will now be required to log in. Huffman said this will be better for user experience and for the ads business, more in line with safety regulations, and more protective of Reddit's data.

Google said a day earlier that it sees lower monetization in AI Mode ads, although it is bringing AI ads to more countries.