Reddit says 80 million people now use its search weekly

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Reddit search

Eighty million people use Reddit search every week, Reddit said on its Q4 2025 earnings call last week. The increase followed a major change: Reddit merged its core search with its AI-powered Reddit Answers and began positioning the platform as a place where users can start — and finish — their searches.

  • Executives framed the move as a response to changing behavior. People are increasingly researching products and making decisions by asking questions within communities rather than relying solely on traditional search engines.
  • Reddit is betting it can keep more of that intent on-platform, rather than acting mainly as a source of links for elsewhere.

Why we care. Reddit is becoming a place where people start — and complete — their searches without ever touching Google. For brands, that means visibility on Reddit now matters as much as ranking in traditional and AI search for many buying decisions.

Reddit’s search ambitions. CEO Steve Huffman said Reddit made “significant progress” in Q4 by unifying keyword search with Reddit Answers, its AI-driven Q&A experience. Users can now move between standard search results and AI answers in a single interface, with Answers also appearing directly inside search results.

  • “Reddit is already where people go to find things,” Huffman said, adding the company wants to become an “end-to-end search destination.”
  • More than 80 million people searched Reddit weekly in Q4, up from 60 million a year earlier, as users increasingly come to the platform to research topics — not just scroll feeds or click through from Google.

Reddit Answers is growing. Reddit Answers is driving much of that growth. Huffman said Answers queries jumped from about 1 million a year ago to 15 million in Q4, while overall search usage rose sharply in parallel.

  • He said Answers performs best for open-ended questions—what to buy, watch, or try—where people want multiple perspectives instead of a single factual answer. Those queries align naturally with Reddit’s community-driven discussions.
  • Reddit is also expanding Answers beyond text. Huffman said the company is piloting “dynamic agentic search results” that include media formats, signaling a more interactive and immersive search experience ahead.

Search is a ‘big one’ for Reddit. Huffman said the company is testing new app layouts that give search prominent placement, including versions with a large, always-visible search bar at the top of the home screen.

  • COO Jennifer Wong said search and Answers represent a major opportunity, even though monetization remains early on some surfaces.
  • Wong described Reddit search behavior as “incremental and additive” to existing engagement and often tied to high-intent moments, such as researching purchases or comparing options.

AI answers make Reddit more important. Huffman also linked Reddit’s search push to its partnerships with Google and OpenAI. He said Reddit content is now the most-cited source in AI-generated answers, highlighting the platform’s growing influence on how people find information.

  • Reddit sees AI summaries as an opportunity — to move users from AI answers into Reddit communities, where they can read discussions, ask follow-up questions, and participate.
  • If someone asks “what the best speaker is,” he said, Reddit wants users to discover not just a summary, but the community where real people are actively debating the topic.

Reddit earnings. Reddit Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Results; Announces $1 Billion Share Repurchase Program