Apollo, an independent Reddit mobile app with extra features, will shut down on June 30 due to the social network’s decision to charge developers tens of thousands of dollars. The plans are connected to Reddit’s application programming interface, or API, which is software that third-party developers need to access in order to integrate their apps with Reddit’s platform. For years, Reddit has allowed app developers mostly unfettered access to their API but decided earlier this year to begin charging developers after expressing concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) tools were improperly using Reddit’s API to their own benefit. In an interview with the New York Times published in April, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said big AI companies were leveraging the social platform’s data to better train their tools and that Reddit “[doesn’t] need to give all of that value to some of the largest companies in the world for free.” Reddit’s new API pricing MetricApp 1App 2Daily active users (DAU)1,0001,000Server calls / DAU100345Total server calls per day100,000345,000Cost per 1k server calls$0.24$0.24Total annual cost$8,760$30,222Monthly cost per user$0.73$2.52 So, Reddit decided to start charging for access to its API. And that is where things get messy because the price that Reddit settled on could force independent developers to pay tens of thousands of dollars simply to keep their apps running. Such is the case with Apollo, whose lead developer warned that, based on how much the app is used, he would be on the hook for just under $2 million per month under…Apollo will shut down as tempers flare over Reddit API changes