Reddit is thriving in the age of artificial intelligence, even as rapid-fire synthetic content fills nearly every corner of the internet. The community-driven discussion site is the third most visited website in the United States, behind Google and YouTube (and ahead of Amazon and Facebook), the company said during its third-quarter earnings call yesterday (October 30), citing Semrush’s October 2025 data. Reddit leaders say they are doubling down on the platform’s image “for humans, by humans,” while also using artificial intelligence to help spark more authentic conversations.
Between July and September, Reddit achieved revenue of $585 million, an increase of 68% over the same period last year. Net profit increased more than fivefold year-on-year to $163 million. As of the end of September, the website had 116 million daily active users.
Baruch Labunski, CEO of digital marketing firm Rank Secure, told the Observer: “While Google and other search engines grapple with issues of trust and authenticity, Reddit has what most AI companies are after: verified, nuanced, community-driven content.”
Co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman told analysts yesterday that Reddit is doubling down on its efforts to make the platform a “true search destination.”
To that end, the company announced that it will “redesign the Reddit experience,” focusing on a modern interface with advanced search capabilities. It will continue to roll out its generative AI tool Reddit Answers, a new AI feature that will help users interpret the rules unique to each Reddit subreddit and bring post insights to the top.
Reddit said 75 million users used Reddit’s search functionality each week in the third quarter, and that number is expected to grow. “Reddit Answers provides users with curated, community-supported insights that are often more helpful than traditional web results,” said Hoffman. “Our goal is to have a single, great search experience.”
“It’s a smart move toward a more ‘search forward’ experience, but it’s still a tightrope to walk,” Labunski said. “The winning strategy is to leverage AI to enable Reddit’s self-discovery and IP moderation while keeping the mess of human interactions intact.”
Reddit continues to incorporate more artificial intelligence, particularly in moderation, translation, video, and interactive features. Reddit has launched AI-powered moderator tools in more than 3,000 communities, with a wider rollout coming soon. For example, moderators can use artificial intelligence to view summaries of user profiles. “We’re using artificial intelligence to make it easier to automate these user-written rules or reviewer-written rules, making review more fun and efficient,” Huffman added.
Meanwhile, Reddit’s AI translation can now handle 30 languages, and the company is planning to expand this to drive more international growth.
The platform recently hosted its first-ever video AMA (Ask Me Anything) with NASA, and plans to continue expanding video across its more than 100,000 Reddit subcommunities. Video comment replies are also expanding.
Reddit’s advertising platform is constantly being updated, and the team is currently developing interactive ads. Hoffman said advertising remains their “core business” and they will continue to roll out machine learning-powered dynamic product ads that use user intent data to inform who to show ads to.
Reddit’s heavy focus on search and artificial intelligence proves that the company has grown far beyond a forum site. Martin Jeffrey, founder of digital marketing agency Harton Works, told the Observer, “Reddit has told the market that it wants to be a place where human context is discovered, not just a place for LLMs to crawl.”
