Reddit has gone through a lot ever since it announced its new API pricing. The change was met with backlash from moderators and users which resulted in a protest. In the end, the company implemented the pricing, which led to a lot of third-party apps shutting down, save a few, and they are surviving through subscription fees.
Relay for Reddit Subscription Fee
Only a few have survived the Reddit new API policy, and that includes Relay for Reddit. The Android app announced that it will be launching a new subscription service in order to remain operational, and the price will rely on how much a user browses Reddit.
Depending on the user's daily average number of API uses, the prices can range from $1 to $5 a month. The API calls per day can be seen, and the app developer DBrady is encouraging users to share their statistics and suggest potential prices for the app.
For 45 calls per day which covers 45% of users, the monthly fee would be as low as $1. For an average of 100 API calls per day, the price will increase to $2 covering 80% of users. 200 API calls per day would cost $3 and cover 95% of users, while unlimited API calls will cost $5 and cover 99.8% of users.
Unfortunately for people who want to use the third-party app for free, there is no option to do so. But, the prices are low enough if you manage your usage and monitor your stats. It will also be free for the next few weeks, according to The Verge, so users can utilize the app for free until then.
Like most of the third-party apps for Reddit, Relay was free to use before. It's understandable that the developers need to charge the users for using their apps considering that there are now costs from the base app that they might not be able to cover themselves.
Despite the protests, Reddit still went ahead with the new API pricing. Over 8,000 subreddits participated in the blackout, which has since ended now that most of the groups are public again. Not all apps were lucky enough to survive the change.
Apollo Had to Shut Down
One of the most used third-party apps for Reddit, Apollo, was among the ones that decided to shut down amidst the policy change. The creator of the app, Christian Selig, announced that it cannot cover the amount that was needed to pay for access to Reddit's API.
Apollo officially ceased operations on June 30th. Selig says that the new API plan would've cost him $1.7 million a month or $20 million a year, given that it was a popular app that got around seven billion requests a month.
As mentioned in Tech Crunch, 50 million requests already cost $12,000. Reddit claims that the app developer was to blame for the price since he was not operating efficiently. In response, Selig open-sourced Apollo's server code to prove that he "does not do scraping."
