Users in a browser can see ads; the cost is subsidised.

Users in a browser, with no ad blocking - the five remaining ones...

Sadly, there's plenty of them. Probably using MS Edge because that's what their computer came with. No adblocker installed.

And that's why they're as much against people using their own mobile web experience as they are third party apps.

A lot of third-party apps don't show Reddit's ads.

There isn't any way to in the first place: the API contains no way to show them even if the apps wanted to.

Why not update the API contract that if you use the Reddit API you need to render the ads? If you don't render the Ads they can come up with some pricing model. Seems like Reddit's pricing is designed by an MBA intern who just joined silicon valley.

That would require the API to also include ad information. I think putting a sensible price on API access would make this a bit simpler, though (and allow for a paid ad-free experience as well). The core issue isn't so much paid API access as the price being so crazy high it can't possibly reflect how much reddit would normally be making from the users of these apps, so instead looks like it is aimed at just shutting down 3rd party apps entirely.