Reddit may block Google from content over AI traffic

For two decades, the arrangement between Google and online publishers was straightforward: Google could index their content, and in return, it sent traffic their way. That unwritten contract is now showing serious cracks.

Reddit has become the most prominent example of this shift. Its stock dropped roughly 9% on Wednesday after the Wall Street Journal reported that the company has considered blocking Google’s access to its content for AI training. The two companies signed a deal in 2024, reportedly worth $60 million annually, allowing Google to use Reddit posts to train its models. That agreement is now expiring, and Reddit is reluctant to simply renew under the same conditions.

The core issue is traffic. Google’s AI Overviews generate summarized answers that appear at the top of search results. Users often read those summaries without clicking through to the source. For Reddit, which sells ads based on the visitors Google once sent, fewer clicks directly means less revenue. According to reports, Reddit executives want the next contract to be usage-based rather than a flat fee.

A Reddit spokesperson responded with caution, telling CNBC the company is negotiating “just like any business should, by focusing on doing what’s best for Reddit.” The statement added, “A lot has changed since those first deals were signed, but our goals are the same.”

This isn’t just a Reddit problem. The Wall Street Journal also noted that major outlets including USA Today, Reuters, Politico, The Economist, and People Inc are all re-evaluating their relationships with Google. The numbers behind the frustration are stark. Between June 2025 and June 2026, Google referral traffic dropped 23% at Politico and about 25% at CNN. At Business Insider, the decline exceeded 85%.

Some publishers are done with polite requests. “It’s time to take a stand and say enough is enough,” said Mike Reed, CEO of USA Today, in an interview with Digiday. Independent research indicates that when an AI Overview appears, click-through rates fall by one-third to one-half. For businesses that depend on referral traffic, that’s not a minor adjustment,it’s a fundamental threat to their revenue.

Reddit finds itself in a unique position. Its data is especially valuable because AI systems rely heavily on its user-generated content. CFO Drew Vollero has described Reddit as the “most cited source” for large language models, with over 25 billion posts. CEO Steve Huffman called the platform’s conversations “like oil for the modern internet.” This gives Reddit leverage. It also licenses data to OpenAI, and its total content deals were valued at $203 million around its 2024 IPO. The business is growing fast,first-quarter revenue rose 69% year over year,and Reddit reports again on July 30. Yet the same AI-powered answers that make its data so desirable are also draining the traffic its ad business relies on. Reddit is both a supplier and a victim of this paradox.

Google pushes back against the narrative. The company says it still sends billions of clicks to websites daily and that AI Overviews actually distribute traffic across a broader range of sites. Liz Reid, Google’s head of search, told Tech Brew, “Search is not a useful product if the web is not a thriving product, and so I think we probably care about that more than any other company in the world.”

Publishers remain skeptical. Google offers a tool to block AI training, but using it can also hurt a site’s ranking in standard search results. Britain’s competition regulator has ordered Google to allow publishers to opt out without that penalty, and Google is testing that change in the UK first.

The old exchange of links for traffic is unraveling. Some publishers have already started charging AI crawlers or blocking them outright. No one has yet agreed on what will replace the old model. Reddit has simply made the problem impossible to overlook.