Reddit's new API pricing could kill its most popular app with a $20 million bill

Twitter isn’t the only social media platform setting fire to it’s third-party app ecosystem in an attempt to monetize its API.Christian Selig, the developer of the popular Reddit client Apollo, announced on Wednesday that he may soon have to shut down the app because of Reddit’s new API pricing structure.In a post on Reddit, Selig explained that he’s been talking with the company since it announced its plan to start charging for API access to its platform. Selig says that in his discussion, Reddit said it would charge a whopping $12,000 per 50 million API requests.What does this mean for Apollo? The app may very well have to shut down. Selig says that Apollo made 7 billion API requests last month, which would result in a $1.7 million bill just for that 30 day period. He further explained that even if he cut out all free users and went strictly with a subscription-only model, he’d still be in the red financially with Reddit’s new API pricing.”For Apollo, the average user uses 344 requests daily, or 10.6K monthly,” he said, further breaking down that each user would cost him around $2.50 per month. Apollo’s premium subscription tier, Apollo Ultra, currently only costs $1.49 per month or $12.99 per year. There’s also a $50 lifetime plan, which very likely would no longer be feasible to say the least. SEE ALSO: Twitter launches API ‘Pro’ plan for ‘startups.’ Developers think it’s a slap in the face. Reddit first announced its plans to start…Reddit's new API pricing could kill its most popular app with a $20 million bill