Reddit Ends RSS on 13 November; Old Reddit Needs Recent Use

Old Reddit keeps working for logged-in moderators and for anyone who has used it in the past six months; everyone else loses it “in the next few months”, on a date Reddit has not set. Reddit RSS feeds still work today and stop being supported on 13 November 2026. Both come from Reddit’s own announcement in r/modnews on 30 September.

There is no replacement for RSS if you used it to follow subreddits as a reader. Moderators get one: Reddit’s Discord Relay app, which sends alerts to Discord or Slack.

Who keeps Old Reddit

Who	Until mid-2026	Now (7 October)	After the six-month rule
Logged out	Full access	Sent to a login page	Sent to a login page
Logged in, used Old Reddit in the past six months	Full access	Full access	Full access
Logged in, no Old Reddit use in six months, not a moderator	Full access	Full access	No access, unless you become a moderator
Logged-in moderator	Full access	Full access	Full access, no usage requirement

The login requirement came first. On 30 June Reddit said it would start “requiring everyone to log in” to Old Reddit over the following month, and it has: opening old.reddit.com logged out on 7 October redirected to a page reading “accounts are required to access old Reddit”. Logged-out browsing of reddit.com itself was not part of that change.

The second step closes what Reddit calls a gap: any logged-in account could still use Old Reddit, “including accounts with no prior Old Reddit use”. Reddit says the six-month window “covers the vast majority of all Old Reddit users”.

A break from Reddit counts against you. Asked whether someone who takes six months off loses Old Reddit for good, an admin replied in the thread: “Yes, if that break corresponds with the six month window they’ll lose access to old reddit unless they are or become a moderator of a community.” The same admin confirmed that moderators’ access “won’t change at all”.

What Reddit has not said is how it counts use. Its posts do not define a visit, say whether logged-out use before the login requirement counts, or give a start date. If you rely on Old Reddit, the one step Reddit’s wording supports is to keep using it, logged in, before the rule arrives.

What happens to RSS

Feed or access	Now	Change
reddit.com .rss feeds (subreddits, posts, users, search)	Working on 7 October	Support ends 13 November 2026
Mod alerts that relied on RSS	Working	Reddit recommends the Discord Relay app
redditstatus.com RSS	Not part of the change	Continues, an admin says
Public data API, used by third-party apps	Open to registered apps	New requests stop 31 Oct 2026; closed to all remaining apps March 2027

Reddit’s announcement does not list feed URLs. We requested five kinds on 7 October — a subreddit, a subreddit’s new posts, a single post, a user and a search — and each returned an Atom feed. The announcement speaks of RSS feeds without exceptions, and its summary says they are “retired” on 13 November, so a feed reader following any of them should expect them to stop. Reddit has not said what the URLs will return afterwards.

For mod teams, Reddit’s help article on Discord Relay covers mod-queue, report and modmail alerts, and says the app checks the queue once a minute. A mod team new to Discord may also meet its age-estimation checks. For everyone else, Reddit’s post is plain: “If you use RSS for feeds outside of a community you moderate, there is no replacement.”

Apps, mobile and third-party clients

The 30 September post covers Old Reddit, RSS, automod and bots. It does not mention Reddit’s own iOS and Android apps, and announces no change to them.

Third-party apps are on a separate clock. Reddit’s developer post says public API access closes in phases: no new access requests from 31 October 2026, access starting to close from 12 January 2027 for apps that have not registered, and public access ending “for all remaining apps and users” in March 2027. Developers are told to move to Reddit’s Developer Platform. Reddit has not said whether a standalone Reddit client can make that move. It is a similar register-by-a-deadline shape to the one Google is applying to Android apps from outside the Play Store.

Why Reddit says it is doing this

Reddit gives one reason for both changes: scraping and automated abuse. It calls RSS “a common surface for large-scale scraping and automated abuse”, and Old Reddit’s logged-out version “a significant source of abusive scraping and automated traffic”. Some outlets framed the move as a response to AI bots; Reddit’s own posts we read say scraping without naming AI.

Reddit’s spokesperson told Ars Technica on 30 September that the change is “not removing Old Reddit for people and moderators who rely on it”. Reddit has also moved away from earlier assurances. In August, CEO Steve Huffman wrote that he had said a year earlier Reddit would not sunset Old Reddit, but “the reality is we’re getting to that time where we need to make some changes”, listing limiting access, migrating key uses and rebuilding it as options. The same post promised “we won’t remove major capabilities before there is a credible replacement”; for reader RSS, Reddit’s September post says there is none.

Questions people ask

Is old.reddit.com shutting down?

Not on any announced date. Reddit is narrowing who can use it: an account is already required, and within the next few months only moderators and people who have used Old Reddit in the past six months will get in. An admin wrote in June that Reddit cannot promise it will be around forever.

Will I lose access to old Reddit?

Only if you are not a moderator and have not used Old Reddit in the six months before the rule starts. Reddit says the six-month window covers the vast majority of Old Reddit users. An admin confirmed a six-month break costs access unless you are or become a moderator.

Does Reddit RSS still work?

Yes, until 13 November 2026. Subreddit, post, user, front-page and search .rss URLs all returned feeds on 7 October. Reddit says it stops supporting RSS on that date and that there is no replacement for feeds outside a community you moderate.

What can I use instead of Reddit RSS?

For moderators, Reddit recommends its Discord Relay app, which posts mod-queue, report and modmail alerts to Discord or Slack. For following subreddits as a reader, Reddit says there is no replacement.

Can I still use old Reddit without logging in?

No. Reddit started requiring a login after its 30 June 2026 announcement. Opening old.reddit.com logged out on 7 October redirected to a login page saying accounts are required to access old Reddit.

Do third-party Reddit apps still work?

Those built on Reddit’s public data API have until March 2027, when Reddit says public access closes for all remaining apps and users. Unregistered apps can start losing access from 12 January 2027. Reddit’s posts do not mention its own apps.