Reddit sees AI search as its next big opportunity

Reddit said on Thursday that its AI-powered search engine could be the next big opportunity for its business — not only in terms of sales, but also as a driver of revenue that affects its segment. During the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Thursday, it provided an update on its strategy for combining traditional search with AI and pointed out that while search has yet to make money, “it’s a huge market and opportunity.”

In particular, the company believes that AI search “will be better for many queries.”

“There’s a kind of quiz that we’re, I think, the best — I’d argue, the best on the internet — that are questions that don’t have answers, where the answers are a bunch of opinions from a lot of people,” said Reddit CEO Steve Huffman.

Traditional search, meanwhile, is like navigation – it’s a way to find the right link for a topic or subreddit. But LLMs can be good at that, too, if not better, he said. “That’s where we’re going.”

The exec also noted that weekly search users last year grew 30% from 60 million to 80 million users. Meanwhile, weekly users of AI-powered Reddit Answers grew from 1 million in the first quarter of 2025 to 15 million by the fourth quarter.

“We’re seeing a lot of growth there, and I think there’s a lot of potential there as well,” Huffman said.

Reddit said it is working to change the nature of AI feedback and make its feedback richer, and the drivers for this are already in place.

The company is also thinking about how to position itself where it is not a social network, but a place where people come to answer. Reddit told investors on a call that it is eliminating the distinction between logged-in and logged-out users starting in Q3 2026, as it aims to transform the site – using AI and machine learning – to make it more accessible to everyone.

The company announced in 2025 making a combination its AI search feature, Reddit Answersand its search engine to improve user experience. In the fourth quarter, Reddit said it had made “significant progress” in integrating its extensive search engine with its AI features. It also released five new languages ​​on Reddit Answers and is testing assistants and search results that include “media beyond words.”

While Reddit is seeing value in its AI solutions, it hasn’t been hiding itself. The company’s licensing business, which allows other companies to train their own AI models on its devices, is also growing. Business income is reported as part of Reddit’s “other” income (ie, its non-advertising income). This “other” revenue rose 8% year-over-year to $36 million in Q4 and rose 22% to reach $140 million in 2025.