Christian Selig, the creator of the Apollo Reddit app for iOS, has claimed that Reddit’s new premium API approach might cost his app $20 million every year.
In April, Reddit modified its API policy, allowing them to block API queries from third-party apps like Apollo. The new regulation will levy a fee of almost $12,000 for every 50 million API requests. To maintain its present consumption, Apollo would have to spend $1.7 million per month or $20 million per year.
Even if Apollo limited app access to paying customers only, the income collected would not cover these expenditures. The typical Apollo user makes 344 queries per day, which comes to $2.50 per month. A subscription to Apollo Ultra costs $1.49 per month or $12.99 per year.
Selig was dissatisfied with the excessive costs, noting that they were neither realistic nor anchored in reality. He emphasized that he lacked the financial resources to cover such charges or even comprehend how to pay for them using credit card payments.
Selig also gave perspective by comparing Reddit’s API call price structure to those of other sites. He emphasized that, although Imgur charges $166 for 50 million API calls and Twitter charges $42,000, Reddit charges $12,000.
The sources for this piece include an article in 9TO5MAC.