Popular Reddit app Apollo will shut down on June 30

Popular third-party Reddit app Apollo will be shutting down as of June 30, Apollo developer Christian Selig announced today. The news comes after Reddit decided to start requiring developers to pay an unreasonable amount to access its API.

Selig said in late May that Reddit is charging $12,000 for 50 million requests, and given the number of people using Apollo, that would result in a $20 million per year charge that Selig can’t afford.

Reddit hasn’t moved on its pricing plans despite protests from Reddit users and moderators who trust third-party apps, and the change will make it impossible for Apollo to continue operating. “Going from a free API for 8 years to suddenly incurring massive costs is not something you can feasibly get up and running in just 30 days,” Selig wrote.

Apollo is the most popular third-party Reddit app, mainly due to the work Selig has done. Regularly add new features and updates, and interact with users to get feedback on new functionality. Reddit maintains its own app, but it doesn’t have the same feature options as Apollo, and users who rely on the Apollo app will no doubt be disappointed by this turn of events.

Over the past few days, Selig has been trying to reach an agreement with Reddit, but it has become clear that Reddit has no plans to offer more reasonable API pricing. In fact, Reddit has claimed that Selig tried to extort money from the company and is operating Apollo inefficiently, but has been unable to provide Selig with more information on how the app can be improved to further reduce API usage. Selig thinks he could rewrite the code to make Apollo more efficient in the long run, but Reddit has given him just 30 days to implement code changes, switch to a subscription model, migrate users, and make other updates. In addition to the cost and negative interaction he’s had with Reddit leadership, Selig says the timing is another reason he can’t get Apollo to work with Reddit’s new API pricing.

Selig provided full details on why he made the decision to shut down Apollo, plus he has transcripts and audio of his conversations with Reddit and what led up to this decision.