How is Google still driving half of Reddit’s traffic in a world that supposedly moved on to AI chatbots and social platforms? The platform’s Q3 2025 earnings call shows how the internet still revolves around Google’s orbit, even when everything else is changing.
The Source of Reddit’s Traffic
Reddit had a strong quarter. They pulled in 585 million in revenue, up sixty eight percent year over year. Daily users hit 116 million. Weekly users reached 444 million. They even saw twenty percent growth in daily activity and thirty one percent growth internationally.
Then Steve Huffman explained where the traffic is actually coming from.
According to him, AI chatbots barely register as a traffic driver. Even with tech companies turning AI chatbots into mini search engines, those tools are not pushing users to Reddit. Instead, the real sources are Google and direct visits. The split is close to fifty/fifty.
Remember that Reddit has spent the last year negotiating, licensing, and fighting over how its data is used by the companies building these advanced language models.
AI Is Rising, But It’s Not a Traffic Driver
You would think that with this wave of AI tools, people would drift away from traditional search engines. Yet Reddit’s numbers suggest something else.
AI models pull from Reddit. They summarize the posts users’ make. Yet those models don’t send people back to the platform. They are extraction engines, not traffic drivers.
Meanwhile, Google continues to be the one that brings strangers to Reddit. It’s not a passive relationship. Google is paying roughly sixty million a year to train models on Reddit data. Google’s algorithm decides how and when Reddit posts appear in their search results.
A System That Rewards Scale Over Everything Else
Only companies that are well established, have influence and money to ensure their content pops up in Google searches.
Reddit already has brand recognition, millions of active users. They also have multi-million dollar licensing deals with the biggest tech companies in the world. Even then, half of its traffic depends on how Google chooses to position it.
What does that mean for everyone else trying to get seen online?
Small businesses or freelancers don’t have that kind of influence. People trying to promote their website don’t have partnership deals that guarantee visibility. Nor do they have the influence to weather the changes Google makes to its algorithm. When Google adjusts its ranking criteria, smaller players are the ones to suffer without any real explanation or recourse.
It creates a standard where growth on the internet isn’t just about quality anymore. It’s about being recognized and validated by a single company’s system.
Reddit’s situation highlights something deeper. The internet keeps evolving, but our access to it is determined by one company. AI is integrating itself into our culture, but it is not replacing Google.
The web still revolves around Google. Google still decides which platforms rise. Google decides which websites are shown in search results. The company reinforces a system where visibility is earned only if a company already has influence, money, and long standing relationships.AI is the place we go to ask questions, but it has not changed who gives us the answers. Until something changes, smaller creators, new businesses, and independent writers will continue fighting uphill just to be seen.
