 "Apollo shutting down due to Reddit's new API pricing")
Reddit's most popular third-party app, Apollo, will be shutting down due to the company's new API pricing, which will make the app significantly more expensive to run, said developer Christian Selig.
The app will shut down on June 30, he added.
"Reddit's recent decisions and actions have unfortunately made it impossible for Apollo to continue," Selig wrote on Twitter.
Apollo will close down on June 30th. Reddit’s recent decisions and actions have unfortunately made it impossible for Apollo to continue. Thank you so, so much for all the support over the years. ❤️ https://t.co/HOJaLMW8fx
— Christian Selig (@ChristianSelig) June 8, 2023
Selig went into more detail in a lengthy Reddit post. He reiterated that, based on Reddit's current API pricing plans, he would have to pay more than $20 million per year to operate the app.
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"Going from a free API for eight years to suddenly incurring massive costs is not something I can feasibly make work with only 30 days," Selig wrote. "That's a lot of users to migrate, plans to create, things to test, and to get through app review, and it's just not economically feasible. It's much cheaper for me to simply shut down."
Selig also disputed Reddit's claim that Apollo is "less efficient" than other apps, claiming that Reddit is unfairly framing its data because Apollo only uses a fraction of Reddit's previously stated API rate limits.
Many of Reddit's largest communities will "go dark" or block new posts on June 12 to protest the platform's API pricing changes.
Following the news of the protest, Reddit announced that it would create a special exemption to its new API pricing for developers of accessibility apps, but it does not appear to have made any accommodations that will allow Apollo to survive.
