Christian, the developer of the most excellent Apollo client for Reddit, writing about the pricing model he was quoted by Reddit to keep Apollo working under the new paid API system:

Apollo made 7 billion requests last month, which would put it at about 1.7 million dollars per month, or 20 million US dollars per year. Even if I only kept subscription users, the average Apollo user uses 344 requests per day, which would cost $2.50 per month, which is over double what the subscription currently costs, so I’d be in the red every month.

It’s hard to see this as anything more than what it is: Reddit doesn’t want third-party clients anymore. That’s fine as a business decision and Reddit’s to make. I think Reddit claiming this is even remotely fair pricing is fucking rich.

I also think this has not worked out well for any company that has tried it thus far cough Twitter chirp. I’ll also say that I love Reddit, but there’s no fucking way I am using it as I do today without Apollo as my viewer for Reddit. The native Reddit app is shit.

Too bad.

If Apollo does want me to pay a 2x subscription price? I’m all in, sign me up. Make it 2.5x though.