Reddit says search referrals are falling and its CEO points to Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode. Here's what its login test means.

Reddit told shareholders Thursday that its search traffic dropped by more than 1 million referrals per week, on average, during October. That followed a third quarter in which search referral traffic was “down meaningfully.”

On the earnings call, CEO Steve Huffman said the biggest part of Reddit’s working hypothesis is Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode. Reddit also plans to start testing a logged-in-only version of the site in select markets outside the U.S. this quarter.

Huffman said the test is partly meant to decide how much of Reddit people can see before a login prompt, including people who arrive from search. Where Reddit draws that line will decide what a logged-out searcher sees after clicking a Reddit thread from Google in the test markets.

Reddit’s third-quarter letter says the search referral decline sped up late in the quarter and continued into October. Logged-out and web traffic took the biggest hit, with some carrying over to logged-in and app traffic because search is a common way users come back to Reddit.

The letter puts October this way, using DAUq for daily active uniques:

“During October, we have seen that search traffic has dropped by more than 1 million referrals on average per week.

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