Free Reddit API in 2026: What's Still Free and What Isn't

Search for “free Reddit API” and you find two stories. One says Reddit still offers a free API. The other says it is closed, or priced out of reach. Both are partly right, and the gap between them is what this guide is about.

We read Reddit’s Data API Terms and each vendor’s pricing page on 2026-10-23, then did the maths from them. Reddit’s help-center pages and its own announcement of the access changes would not open with our tools, so the figures that come from them (the 100 queries a minute limit and the access dates) rest on search excerpts and press coverage, and we mark them unverified. Nothing here comes from running anyone’s product, so there are no speed or success-rate numbers. Serpent sells one of the options below, so every sum is shown; its calls start at $0.12 per 1,000.

The options at a glance (read 2026-10-23)

One row per option. “Free part” is what you get before paying. Each paid rate is in the unit that vendor bills, so read the second column before you compare the third.

Reddit’s official Data API: what is free

A free tier exists. The Data API wiki, as quoted in Reddit’s help center, says Reddit enforces a limit on those eligible for free access: 100 queries per minute per OAuth client ID. That figure is averaged over a window reported as 10 minutes, so short bursts are fine. We could not open the wiki page itself, so treat both numbers as unverified. At the ceiling, that is 144,000 queries a day (our arithmetic: 100 × 60 × 24).

You may have seen a second number, 10 queries per minute without OAuth. That comes from Reddit’s 2023 announcement. The wiki today says something different: traffic that does not use OAuth or login credentials is blocked. There is no anonymous tier to plan around.

Free does not mean open. Reddit’s help center describes the Data API as a tool for approved developers. Its Responsible Builder Policy says you must request access and get explicit approval before accessing any Reddit data through the API. It also says you must not hide how or why you are accessing the data, and must not register several accounts or send several requests for the same use case.

Approved clients authenticate with a registered OAuth token and send a descriptive User-Agent that names the platform, the app, a version and your Reddit username. Reddit says it will throttle or block unidentified users. For non-commercial apps, including moderator tools, Reddit points builders to its Developer Platform, called Devvit, instead of the raw Data API.

Where free stops

These are the limits Reddit’s help center, policy and terms describe, as far as we could read them. We paraphrase them. Read the originals, and ask your own counsel how they apply to you.

• Commercial use. Reddit says it covers any use by a business, on behalf of a business, or inside a monetized product. Its examples include apps with ads or paywalls, services or data access sold for a fee, and free features that exist to upsell. For any of these you need Reddit’s permission and a contract.
• AI training. Reddit’s help center says content may not be used as input for model training without Reddit’s explicit consent, and that commercial use of a model trained on Reddit data needs approval.
• Research. The help center names the Reddit for Researchers program as the only authorized route for research with Reddit data.
• Ads next to Reddit content. You cannot display Reddit content and run advertising in the same app or site.
• Data you keep. If a post, comment or account is deleted on Reddit, you must delete your copy. Reddit recommends routinely deleting stored data within 48 hours.
• Stability. The terms say Reddit may set limits at its sole discretion, change or suspend any part of the API, and revoke access without notice. Support is optional on Reddit’s side.

The full wording sits in the Data API Terms, last revised July 20, 2026 according to the page. If your project earns money, or might, assume the free tier is not for you until Reddit says otherwise in writing.

The October 31 cut-off

This is the part most guides skip. Press coverage says Reddit announced on September 30, 2026 that it is winding down open Data API access in stages. We could not open Reddit’s announcement post with our tools, so we relied on PPC Land’s report of October 4. Our earlier post on Reddit API access in 2026 reads the same way.

As reported, the dates are:

• October 31, 2026: new requests for public API access stop.
• November 13, 2026: RSS support ends.
• January 12, 2027: access starts to close for apps and users that have not registered or responded to Reddit’s outreach.
• March 2027: public access closes for all remaining apps and users. No day was given.

Reddit also said it will keep exemptions for partners with written agreements, and it is steering developers to Devvit, which runs your code inside Reddit. We do not know whether an already-approved app keeps working after March 2027, and we will not guess. If you do not have approved access today and the reported date holds, you have about a week to apply. If you do have it, plan for the dates above.

What the official API costs

On the pages we read, Reddit publishes no rate card. The Data API Terms only reserve Reddit’s right to charge fees at its discretion, and Reddit’s help center says commercial users need a contract.

So where does “$0.24 per 1,000 calls” come from? From 2023. When Reddit announced paid access, the developer of the Apollo app said he was quoted $12,000 for 50 million requests, per TechCrunch. Divide $12,000 by 50 million and multiply by 1,000, and you get $0.24. That was one quote to one developer three years ago. Third-party guides in 2026 still repeat it, and they disagree on whether the $12,000 is monthly or yearly. None of them is Reddit. Treat $0.24 as a reference point, not a price you can buy.

One more unit note. A Reddit listing request can return up to 100 items (the API docs give 25 as the default and 100 as the maximum), so one official request can carry a lot of rows. That matters when you compare it with per-record vendors.

Pushshift, archives and PRAW

“Pushshift alternative” is a common search, so here is the status. The terms page at pushshift.io says access to Reddit data through Pushshift is for Reddit moderators, for community moderation, enforcing guidelines and member safety. It is not an open archive any more.

For old data, Arctic Shift describes itself as data dumps, a limited API and a web tool for researchers, moderators and others. It is free and historical, not a live feed. Its page does not say how Reddit’s terms apply to its data, so that question goes to your counsel.

One more name you will meet: PRAW, the Python Reddit API Wrapper. It is a client library for the official API. It gives you tidy Python code, but it needs the same approved credentials, so it is not a way around approval.

The near-free Reddit data APIs, one by one

These are independent services, not Reddit. For each, we read the vendor’s own page today.

Serpent API

Serpent has five GET endpoints, all documented in the API docs and on the Reddit API page: /api/reddit/posts (a subreddit listing by hot, new, top or rising), /api/reddit/comments (a thread, flat or nested), /api/reddit/search (post search), /api/reddit/user (a summary card) and /api/reddit/subreddit (a community summary). Every key is returned on every post, with null where a value was not there.

The price is $0.12 per 1,000 calls on Default, which needs any deposit from $10. A single $100 deposit unlocks Growth at $0.108, and $500 unlocks Scale at $0.084. Search, user and subreddit are one flat charge. Posts and comments cost one unit per started block of 25 rows, so limit=100 is four units, or $0.48 per 1,000 calls on Default. There is no subscription and deposited credits do not expire. New accounts get 10 free calls shared across endpoints, and each free call uses one unit whatever the limit. The site also gives one free demo run a day.

Watch-outs, all from the docs. limit=26 costs the same as limit=50. A short pull is still charged for the blocks you asked for, with a note saying how short it was. Search results carry id, title, author, subreddit, permalink and a few flags, but no score or body, so you fetch posts or comments for those. The user endpoint is a summary card, not a history, and the community endpoint reports weekly activity, not member counts. Reads only: no posting or voting. The Default tier allows 100 requests a minute, the same number as Reddit’s free limit.

Redditapis

Redditapis sells per call: $0.0015 per read ($1.50 per 1,000), with no monthly minimum, credits that do not expire and a $10 minimum top-up. Every account gets 1,000 free reads a month, which is a bigger free allowance than Serpent’s one-time 10 calls. Monthly read plans run from $19 for 30,000 reads ($0.63 per 1,000) to $499 for 2,000,000 reads ($0.25 per 1,000). It also lists write, vote and DM actions, which Serpent does not offer. The pricing page does not say how many rows one read returns.

ScrapeCreators

ScrapeCreators has eight Reddit endpoints, including subreddit posts, post comments and search, and the search docs show one credit per request. You get 100 free credits, plus up to 7,000 bonus credits you can claim. The Freelance pack is $47 for 25,000 credits ($1.88 per 1,000), and Business is $497 for 500,000 ($0.99). Credits do not expire. The page says some endpoints cost more than one credit, so check the endpoint you need.

Bright Data

Bright Data bills per record, meaning one extracted row such as a post or a comment, and lists Reddit post and comment scrapers. The free tier is 5,000 records a month with no card. Pay as you go is $1.50 per 1,000 records, and the $499 plan includes 384,000 records, then $1.30 per 1,000. Failed deliveries are not charged. Because the unit is a row, a 100-post listing is 100 records.

Apify

Apify hosts many Reddit actors, each with its own price. The moxlade actor charges $2.00 per 1,000 posts and $1.00 per 1,000 comments, with no start fee. Apify’s Free plan includes $5 of platform usage a month with no card; paid plans are $19, $199 and $999 a month. Prices differ by actor, so read the one you pick.

Decodo, Data365 and Xpoz

Decodo offers Reddit as a template inside its general Web Data API. Its pages show rates “from $0.15” per 1,000 requests and a free plan of 10,000 requests a month. That is a raw request price, and we found no figure for rows per request. Data365 offers a 14-day trial and a €300-a-month plan but prints no per-call rate for Reddit. Xpoz charges 2 credits per Reddit query, with 500 free credits once (about 250 queries) and $16 a month for 7,500 credits. By our division that is about $4.27 per 1,000 queries.

Lowest price? Among the rates we read, Serpent’s $0.12 and $0.084 per call are the lowest published figures for a flat call or a 25-row listing. Decodo’s “from $0.15” comes close, and units differ. At limit=100 a Serpent listing costs $0.48 on Default, which is above Decodo’s $0.15 and Redditapis’s $0.25 plan rate per request, if those requests return that many rows. Neither says. Our Reddit API provider comparison and cost per 1,000 records post set out the units in more depth.

What free really costs you

• Waiting for approval. You apply, then wait. We found no published turnaround. If Reddit says no, or the application window closes, your plan stops there.
• Setup time. OAuth, a compliant User-Agent, header monitoring and a client library such as PRAW take longer than one URL and a key.
• Compliance work. You must delete content Reddit has deleted, and Reddit suggests doing it within 48 hours. That means a sync job, not just a fetch loop.
• Scope. The moment the project earns money, the free tier no longer fits. Moving to a paid contract then means a fresh negotiation, with no published price to budget against.
• Moving ground. Reddit’s terms let it change or end API access at any time. Its own announcement describes a closure in 2027.
• Vendor free tiers end too. Bright Data, Redditapis, Decodo and Apify refresh monthly. Serpent’s 10 calls and Xpoz’s 500 credits are one-time. All of them are sized for testing.

Cost at 1K, 10K, 100K and 1M calls

This is arithmetic from the published rates, for calls or units as each vendor counts them, ignoring free allowances and tax. Serpent rows assume a flat call or a listing of 25 rows or fewer, and the tier’s single qualifying deposit. Units differ, so read the notes.

How to read it

• Serpent’s rows are per call. The 100-post row is separate because posts and comments cost one unit per started 25 rows.
• Redditapis’s plan row uses the smallest plan that includes the volume: $19 for 30,000 reads, $49 for 100,000 and $499 for 2,000,000. Unused reads roll over for one month.
• Bright Data’s $1,299.80 is $499 plus 616,000 extra records at $1.30 per 1,000.
• Decodo’s $0.15 is the starting rate on its pages, so the rate on your plan may differ.
• Reddit’s $0.24 row is a reference line from a 2023 quote. It is not an offer.

The same job, a subreddit watched by listing

Take 1,000 subreddit listings of 100 posts each. This is arithmetic, not a measurement.

For a smaller, realistic job, take a question monitor that runs 8 search phrases 4 times a day for 30 days, then opens 2 threads a day. That is 960 searches plus 60 comment pulls at 25 rows, or 1,020 calls. On Serpent Default it is $0.12 (1,020 × $0.00012). At Redditapis’s $1.50 per 1,000 reads it would be about $1.53, and its free 1,000 reads a month would nearly cover it. Our question-monitoring tutorial builds that loop.

How to choose

• Hobby, moderation or non-commercial tool, and you already have approval: use Reddit’s free tier or Devvit and follow the terms. It costs nothing and it is the source.
• No approval and a project that earns money: the official free tier is not for you. Contact Reddit for a contract, or buy reads from a third-party data API.
• Small paid reads from your own code: Serpent at $0.12 per 1,000 calls is our pick. It is the lowest published per-call rate we read for flat calls and 25-row listings, there is no subscription, and one key covers posts, comments, search, users and communities.
• A big free monthly allowance first: Redditapis (1,000 reads), Bright Data (5,000 records) or Decodo (10,000 requests) give more free volume than Serpent’s 10 calls.
• Posting, voting or DMs: Serpent is read-only, so check Redditapis or the official API.
• Historical research: look at Arctic Shift’s dumps, and ask Reddit about its researcher program.
• Training an AI model on Reddit data: Reddit’s terms require its consent. Get it in writing first.

Our free X (Twitter) API guide and free TikTok API guide follow the same format if you are comparing platforms.

Quick start and migration

There is no app registration and no token flow: each call is a plain GET with your key in a header. These calls come from the API docs. Search for posts, with a page size that does not change the price:

curl "https://apiserpent.com/api/reddit/search?q=async%20python&limit=50" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"

Then read one subreddit listing and one thread. Posts and comments are priced by limit:

curl "https://apiserpent.com/api/reddit/posts?subreddit=python&sort=top&t=week&limit=50" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"

curl "https://apiserpent.com/api/reddit/comments?subreddit=python&post_id=1abcdef&limit=100&tree=true" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"

The same search-then-thread flow in Python. Search returns results, and each hit’s id is the post_id the comments call needs:

import os
import requests

headers = {"X-API-Key": os.environ["SERPENT_API_KEY"]}
base = "https://apiserpent.com/api/reddit"

hits = requests.get(f"{base}/search", params={"q": "async python", "limit": 25},
                    headers=headers, timeout=60).json()["results"]

top = hits[0]
thread = requests.get(f"{base}/comments",
                      params={"subreddit": top["subreddit"], "post_id": top["id"],
                              "limit": 25, "tree": "true"},
                      headers=headers, timeout=60).json()
print(top["title"], thread["total_comments"], len(thread["comments"]))

That flow is two units, $0.00024 at Default. Check the response’s count, and read the delivery note when a response comes back short. The shape is from the docs; we have not published benchmarks for it. Try it first in the playground, and see pricing for the tier table.

Limits and unknowns

• We could not read Reddit’s own announcement of the access changes. The October 31, January 12 and March 2027 dates come from press coverage, and Reddit’s wording may differ.
• Unverified: the 100 queries per minute free limit and its 10-minute window. Reddit’s help-center wiki returned an error to our fetch tool, so we could not confirm them on the page. Redditapis’s $49 plan for 100,000 reads we did check on its pricing page on 2026-10-23.
• We do not know whether approved apps keep access after March 2027, how long approval takes, or whether Reddit has a current commercial rate or minimum.
• The $0.24 figure is a reported 2023 quote, not a price list.
• Rows per request at Redditapis, Decodo and ScrapeCreators are not stated on the pages we read, so their rates are not comparable per row.
• We measured nothing: no coverage, latency or success rates for any vendor, ours included.
• Serpent’s search results are thin and it is read-only.
• Prices and policies change. These were read on 2026-10-23; re-check before you commit.

FAQ

Is the Reddit API free?

Partly. Reddit’s help center says it offers both free and paid access. The free tier is for approved, non-commercial use and is reported to be limited to 100 queries per minute per OAuth client ID. Commercial use needs Reddit’s permission and a contract, and Reddit has announced that new public API requests stop on October 31, 2026.

What is the Reddit API rate limit?

Reddit’s Data API wiki is reported to set the free limit at 100 queries per minute per OAuth client ID, averaged over a window of about 10 minutes so short bursts are allowed. The same page is reported to say that traffic without OAuth or login credentials is blocked, so the older 10-per-minute anonymous figure is not on the page today. We could not open the wiki page, so treat these figures as unverified.

How do I get a Reddit API key?

Reddit says to request access through its contact form, and its Responsible Builder Policy says you must get explicit approval before accessing Reddit data through the API. Approved clients authenticate with a registered OAuth token. We found no instant self-serve key, and new public requests are reported to close on October 31, 2026.

How much does the Reddit API cost?

Reddit publishes no rate card on the pages we read, and commercial access needs a contract. The $0.24 per 1,000 figure traces to a 2023 quote of $12,000 for 50 million requests that Apollo’s developer reported. Third-party Reddit data APIs publish rates, from $0.12 per 1,000 calls at Serpent’s Default tier.

Is Pushshift still available?

Not as an open archive. The terms page on pushshift.io says access to Reddit data through Pushshift is for Reddit moderators and limited to moderation purposes. Arctic Shift publishes data dumps and a limited API for historical data. Check Reddit’s terms before relying on either.

What is a free alternative to the Reddit API?

Free entry points we read today: Redditapis gives 1,000 free reads a month, Bright Data 5,000 records a month, Decodo 10,000 requests a month, and Apify $5 of monthly credit. Serpent gives 10 free calls on signup, then starts at $0.12 per 1,000 calls. Free allowances run out as volume grows.

Sources (2026-10-23; Reddit help-center pages not opened)

• Reddit Help: Reddit Data API Wiki
• Reddit Help: Developer Platform and Accessing Reddit Data
• Reddit Help: Responsible Builder Policy
• Reddit: Data API Terms
• Reddit for Developers: Reddit API in Devvit
• Reddit: API documentation
• r/redditdev: Moving Data API apps to the Developer Platform (not opened by us)
• PPC Land: Reddit to halt public Data API access in March 2027 (October 4, 2026)
• TechCrunch: Apollo is shutting down (June 8, 2023)
• Pushshift: terms of use
• Arctic Shift on GitHub
• PRAW documentation
• Redditapis: pricing
• ScrapeCreators: pricing
• ScrapeCreators: Reddit search endpoint
• Bright Data: Web Scraper API pricing
• Bright Data: Reddit scraper
• Apify: moxlade Reddit scraper
• Apify: platform pricing
• Decodo: Reddit scraper API
• Data365: Reddit API
• Xpoz: pricing

Our fetch tool returned an error for the Reddit help-center pages above, and we did not open the r/redditdev announcement. Their details come from search excerpts and press coverage. Related reading on Serpent: best Reddit API providers, Reddit API access in 2026, tracking Reddit citations in AI and Google and the free Instagram API guide.