03–01Belowcompute, networks and resources are not recorded per app
Every layer above links to what it rests on. The figure counts the EU, the EEA, Switzerland and the UK as European, as the landscape does.
How it is run
nine questions
ArchitectureWho holds your account and posts?
One company
open protocol: no
move your account and keep your followers: no
hub: Reddit, Inc.
Posts and communities live only on Reddit's own servers; outside apps reach them through Reddit's Data API under a revocable licence, and commercial use needs a separate agreement. The code Reddit open-sourced and archived in 2017 is not a protocol others run, and no account can be moved to another provider.
Reddit Data API terms, s.2.1 licencea non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, and revocable license solely to access and use the Data APIsread 28 Sep 2026
Business modelWho pays, and for what?
Targeted ads · licensing data · subscriptions
Advertising was 94% of Reddit's $2.20bn revenue in 2025. 'Other revenue' ($140m, about 6%) is content licensing plus products sold to users; Reddit Premium subscriptions and Reddit Gold are 'not material', so other revenue is almost all licensing. In the EEA the privacy policy bases personalised ads on consent and non-personalised ads on legitimate interests.
control: Reddit, Inc. (NYSE); CEO Steve Huffman controls 76.1% of the votes, 70.0% of it through irrevocable proxies over shares of Advance (Newhouse family) and Tencent affiliates
Class B shares carry ten votes. As of 31 March 2026 Huffman held 6.1% of the votes himself; Advance Magazine Publishers, part of the privately held Advance Publications, owned shares with 65.2% of the votes and Tencent affiliates 6.1%, both voted by Huffman under voting agreements from March 2024. Reddit is a 'controlled company' under NYSE rules, and Advance names two directors.
For logged-in users the default Home feed mixes subscribed communities with recommendations, in a personalised ranking. Users can turn off Home feed recommendations, sort Home by New, Hot, Top or Rising on the web, or use the apps' Latest feed of subscriptions newest first. Logged-out visitors get Popular, ordered by net upvotes.
Volunteer moderators set and enforce each subreddit's own rules and take most moderation actions; Reddit's employees ('admins') enforce the sitewide Reddit Rules on top, with automated tools, human review and in-house language models, and can remove moderators who breach the Moderator Code of Conduct.
Reddit, moderator code of conductModerators are expected to uphold the Reddit Rules by setting community rules, norms, and expectationsread 28 Sep 2026
AI trainingDoes your content train AI?
Licensed to others
a setting or form to opt out: no
Reddit licenses public posts, comments and usernames to others, including language-model makers (Google's 2024 deal covers model training; OpenAI's gives Data API access for ChatGPT without mentioning training), and the EEA user agreement's content licence expressly includes AI training. There is no opt-out setting: the Public Content Policy points to private communities or deleting posts or the account, and the privacy policy (read from an archived copy, as reddit.com blocks automated access) lists only a general EEA right to object. The Dutch data protection authority is investigating whether the licensing complies with GDPR Arts 6, 13 and 21, the last being the right to object.
Reddit Help, public content policyYou can choose to participate in private communities, which are excluded from our data licensing arrangements.read 28 Sep 2026
counted: average monthly active recipients in the EU, as the DSA requires them
period: Jan–Jun 2026
An upper bound: Reddit states 'no more than' 57.2 million average monthly active recipients in the EU under DSA Art. 24(2), for reddit.com and its apps. The Commission designated Reddit a very large online platform on 31 August 2026.
Amsterdam, KvK 83433880, at a serviced business-centre address. It signs with EEA and Swiss users, has been their data controller since February 2024, and is the DSA main establishment. Designated a very large online platform on 31 August 2026; at most 57.2 million average monthly active recipients in the EU, January to June 2026.
07OwnerWho owns the operator, where someone else does?
Reddit, Inc. · United States
A Delaware corporation in San Francisco, listed on the NYSE. Its CEO holds about 76% of the votes, mostly through proxies over Advance Magazine Publishers (US); Tencent-affiliated holders have about 6%.
07VerificationWho checks users' identity, age or account?
Persona · United States
checks: age
ID needed to post: no
In the EU, only when Reddit suspects a user is under 18 and they try to open mature content, with a selfie or an ID through Persona, or Apple's account age range on iOS. Persona mainly uses data centres in the US and Germany.
also Google · United States: Gemini models behind Reddit Answers, and a licensee of Reddit's content for AI training
Feeds are ranked by Reddit's own models. Reddit licenses users' public content for AI training to Google and OpenAI, and the EEA terms extend the content licence to AI training. The Dutch data protection authority is investigating that licensing.
where: US servers, on AWS and Google Cloud. The move of the controller to the Netherlands did not move the data.
transfers: To Reddit, Inc. and service providers under the Data Privacy Framework and standard contractual clauses. In a Dutch court in 2026, Reddit argued that because Reddit, Inc. manages access to its systems, US law applies and the Dutch authority must go through US legal assistance; the court rejected Reddit's claims against the authority.