Relay for Reddit, one of the very few remaining third-party Reddit apps for Android, is switching to a subscription model. The developer of the app recently announced that they are planning four different subscription tiers, with prices ranging between $1 and $5 per month. Pricier tiers will offer more API calls, i.e. more usage. The subscription model will go live in a few weeks. The app is free to use until then.
Reddit switched from a free to a paid API last month. This change means developers are required to pay the company for accessing its data through their apps. Many popular third-party apps shut down following this switch, with developers accusing the company of charging exorbitant prices for its APIs. However, a few of them live on, including Relay. Their developers planned to cover the costs with a subscription model.
Relay developer has now officially announced the subscription prices. The base tier will cost $1 per month and give subscribers an average of 45 API calls per day. About 45 percent of Relay users make fewer API calls on average, the developer said. For $2 a month, API calls are increased to 100 per day. This tier covers about 80 percent of users at their current usage rate.
The $3 per month tier doubles API calls to 200 per day, covering 95 percent of Relay users. Finally, the most expensive ($5 a month) plan gives users unlimited usage. According to the developers, this tier covers 99.8 percent of users profitably. They would suffer a loss from the remaining 0.2 percent of Relay users, but if enough users sign up, the loss should be covered by others.
Relay for Reddit users can check their average API call volume
API calls mean actions you execute via the Relay app. If you upvote a Reddit post/comment, that’s one API call. Likewise, if you check comments, open posts, or visit profiles, every action will count towards your API calls. This means users need to see how many calls they are making on average each day. If they exceed the monthly limit for their subscription tier, they’d no longer be able to access Reddit through Relay until their subscription renews the next billing cycle.
To simplify things for users, Relay will show their average daily API calls within the app. The feature is already available with the latest version of the app. It also shows a breakdown of what functions you are using the most (voting, comments, mail, feed, etc.). Once the subscription is live, users will see a separate meter that displays their plan usage percentage (the percentage of available API calls used) and the number of days remaining for renewal. If you use Relay, watch out for more updates from the developer in the coming days.