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

Although Google’s AI-powered modes reduce traffic to Reddit, Steve Huffman says that Reddit is still a ‘top search term’ on Google.

Jay Peters

Oct 29, 2026, 10:19 PM UTC

Image: The Verge

Jay Peters

is a senior reporter covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme.

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said in an earnings call today that Google’s AI-powered search modes do not help with traffic to the platform, echoing problems facingother websites and publishers. As part of its Q3 2026 earnings, Redditrevealed thatsearch traffic in October has “dropped by more than 1 million referrals on average per week,” and he attributes part of the company’s struggles with Google traffic to how AI Mode and AI Overviews change the search experience.

“The reality is, AI Mode does not drive traffic,” Huffman says. “Not for us, and not to anybody, as far as I know. That’s just a fundamental shift in how Google works. It used to be a traffic driver, now it’s not.”

He says that AI Overviews and AI Mode have “evolved a lot” and now, at a “minimum,” push “everyone down the search page.” Huffman also says that Reddit believes its content that’smachine-translated into other languagesis being ranked lower in search results, which he says would primarily affect the company outside the US.

However, Reddit is still a “top search term in Google,” Huffman says. “This doesn’t say anything about the internet consumers’ demand for Reddit. People still want Reddit. It says Google is not sending them to Reddit the way they used to.” He also says that Google is “crawling us as hard as ever, so the demand hasn’t changed from their point of view, either.”

(Google’s business has been affected by AI Mode, too: itsaid yesterdaythat it’s seeing “lower monetization” in AI Mode ads, though it’s now bringing AI ads to more countries.)

To try and combat the search referral difficulties, Reddit is working to make the platform a “direct, sticky, daily destination.” Yesterday, it introduced a“For You” feedwith recommendations related to your interests, and in August, it started testing an experiment thatuses AI to turn posts into short videos.

Reddit also announced today that it’s going toforce everyone to log in, whichHuffman claimswill be “better for user experience, better for our ads business, is more in line with safety regulations, and more protective of Reddit data.”

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