Apollo developer must pay $20 million a year for Reddit API – IT Pro – News

The developer of the favored Apollo app for iOS writes that he must pay $20 million a yr to make use of the Reddit API. Beforehand, entry to that API was free. Reddit itself has not but introduced costs for the API.

In keeping with the Apollo developer, the worth to be paid for the API will depend on how a lot it’s used. Reddit would cost $12,000 for 50 million API requests. he writes based mostly on a dialog with the corporate. He says he pays $166 on Imgur for a similar quantity of requests. Twitter reportedly asks minimal $42,000 for API entry to 50 million tweets.

Its developer, Christian Selig, says Apollo made about seven billion requests to the Reddit API final month, which might now equate to a worth of $1.7 million per 30 days, or simply over $20 million per yr. In keeping with the developer, the worth is “not even near cheap.” He says the common consumer now prices him about $2.50 a month, which he says is “twenty instances increased” than what Reddit is lacking out on because of customers utilizing its unofficial Reddit app.

In keeping with Selig, Reddit isn’t versatile with pricing. Even when he solely provides paying customers entry to the app, he says he won’t be able to pay for the API with the present subscription costs. He nonetheless has to “suppose for a number of days” about what this implies for Apollo’s future, he says in opposition to The Verge. The app maker hopes that an association can nonetheless be made ‘that satisfies each events’.

A Reddit spokesperson tells The Verge that the social media platform fees “per thousand API requests” and that the quantity is “as truthful as doable”, however the precise costs are usually not specified. The spokesperson additionally stated that Reddit “works with third-party apps to assist them enhance effectivity, which might considerably cut back prices.”

Reddit defined final month in its phrases and situations that the corporate will impose ‘limits’ on the free use of its API. When these limits are reached, builders should pay. Reddit hasn’t clarified what precisely these limits entail.