Popular Reddit Third-Party App Apollo to Stop Working on June 30 Due to API Costs

Apollo, one of the most popular third-party apps for Reddit, will stop working on June 30. That is what developer Christian Selig announces. The app will stop due to the API prices that Reddit will use from July 1. Until now, access to the Reddit API has been free.

Christian Selig announces the end of Apollo in a Reddit post. The developer says that “reddit’s recent decisions and actions” have made it impossible to continue with the app. Selig is going to delete the api token for Apollo on June 30 evening in the Pacific time zone. Until then, the app should continue to work.

The developer emphasizes in his message again that due to the API changes that Reddit will implement on July 1, he will have to pay more than $ 20 million per year in API costs to keep the app running. In an interview with Snazzy Labs Selig said last week that he understands that Reddit will charge for API access, but that he thinks the new fees are unrealistic. Apollo currently has about 50,000 subscribers who pay an average of $10 annually. After June 30, users can choose to have their remaining subscription fees refunded.

Selig also addresses Reddit’s claims that Apollo is “less efficient” than other third-party apps. The developer argues that Reddit frames that data “unfairly” because Apollo uses 0.4 percent of Reddit’s current API limits. Selig also says he is willing to optimize the number of API requests from Apollo. However, the developer reports that the 30-day deadline for the new API prices to take effect is not feasible.

A spokesperson for Reddit informs Tweakers that the company currently has no response to the stopping of Apollo. The company says it will share more information about this on Reddit on Thursday and Friday.

Also the developers of other apps, like Narwhal, previously said that the new API rates are unfeasible. Hundreds of Reddit communities will go black next week because of the high API costs that Reddit will use. Reddit said this week it will continue to allow apps with accessibility features for people with disabilities to access its API for free as long as they are “non-commercial.” That exception does not apply to other third-party apps, such as Apollo. Tweakers recently published a backstory on Reddit’s API changes and user protests.