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

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said Google’s AI Mode does not drive traffic to the platform, as the company reported a drop in search referrals during its Q3 2026 earnings call.

Reddit said search traffic in October had fallen by an average of more than 1 million referrals per week. Huffman attributed part of the decline in Google traffic to changes from AI Mode and AI Overviews. He said the features push results down the search page and that, as far as he knows, AI Mode does not drive traffic to any site.

Huffman said Reddit believes machine-translated content is ranking lower in search results, which he said would mainly affect the company outside the US. He also said Reddit remains a top Google search term and that Google is crawling Reddit as much as ever. In his view, that suggests interest in Reddit has not changed, even as Google sends it fewer visitors.

Reddit is working to make its platform a more frequent direct destination. The company introduced a “For You” recommendation feed yesterday and began testing an AI feature that turns posts into short videos in August. Reddit also said it would require everyone to log in. Huffman said the change would benefit user experience and advertising, align more closely with safety regulations, and better protect Reddit data.