According to reporting by The Wall Street Journal, Reddit is considering cutting Google’s access to its content when the companies’ $60 million-per-year agreement expires. The news pushed Reddit’s shares down about 8%. Ahead of its July 30 earnings report, Reddit’s stock is down roughly 25% year-to-date.
What the deal covered
The 2024 agreement allowed Google to use Reddit posts to train its AI models. Recently, Google has started showing AI Overviews — generative answers — above traditional search results, which often answers user queries directly on Google’s pages rather than sending users to the original source.
Because this shifts how readers reach content, Reddit is reassessing whether the existing contract still aligns with its business interests and whether renewal or termination would be more appropriate.
Impact on other publishers
Google’s change in how it presents search results has already translated into measurable declines in organic search traffic for several news organizations over the past year: Politico saw about a 23% drop in Google-driven traffic, CNN roughly 25%, and Business Insider experienced a decline of more than 85%. These figures illustrate how the search engine’s AI-driven presentation can substantially reduce referrals to third-party publishers.
Why this matters
The core issue is that Google is obtaining the conversational content produced by communities like Reddit and using it to generate on-platform answers that keep users within Google’s ecosystem. That alters the value chain: content creators continue to produce material, but users are increasingly served summaries or answers directly in search results instead of being directed to the original sites, which can erode traffic and revenue for source platforms.
Next steps
The Wall Street Journal story did not specify the exact expiration date of the agreement. Reddit’s ultimate decision on whether to terminate, renegotiate, or renew the deal will depend on its internal assessment of business impact, ongoing market reactions, and broader debates about how value should be shared between platforms and the communities that supply content in the age of generative AI.
Brief takeaway
Reddit is contemplating ending Google’s AI access when the $60 million-per-year arrangement expires. The development has already affected Reddit’s market valuation and highlights a wider industry conflict over traffic, attribution, and compensation as AI systems increasingly rely on third-party content.
