The Cheapest Reddit API for Developers

# A subreddit listing. limit=25 is the default and one block — the cheapest call here.
curl "https://apiserpent.com/api/reddit/posts?subreddit=python&sort=top&t=week&limit=25" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"

# One post's comments, nested. tree=true costs nothing extra; limit does.
curl "https://apiserpent.com/api/reddit/comments?subreddit=python&post_id=1m4k2ab&limit=100&tree=true" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"

# Post search. limit does NOT move the price here — 100 results for one charge.
curl "https://apiserpent.com/api/reddit/search?q=vector+database&limit=100" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"

import os, requests

h = {"X-API-Key": os.environ["SERPENT_API_KEY"]}

# 50, not 40. A started block is charged whole, so 40 costs what 50 costs
# and returns ten fewer posts for the money.
p = {"subreddit": "python", "sort": "top", "t": "week", "limit": 50}

data = requests.get("https://apiserpent.com/api/reddit/posts",
                    params=p, headers=h, timeout=120).json()

# `delivery` is present ONLY when the call came back short. Read it before
# the rows: a short week and a cut-short request look identical in a chart.
if "delivery" in data:
    d = data["delivery"]
    print(d["returned"], "of", d["requested"], "—", d["reason"])

for post in data["posts"]:
    print(post["score"], post["num_comments"], post["title"])

const qs = new URLSearchParams({ name: "python" });

const res = await fetch(`https://apiserpent.com/api/reddit/subreddit?${qs}`, {
  headers: { "X-API-Key": process.env.SERPENT_API_KEY }
});

const { subreddit } = await res.json();
// weekly_visitors and weekly_contributions are what Reddit's own card states.
// They are NOT member counts and are never relabelled as any — a null here
// means the card did not state one, not that the number is zero.
console.log(subreddit.name, subreddit.weekly_visitors, subreddit.weekly_contributions);

{
  "success": true,
  "subreddit": "python",
  "sort": "top",
  "count": 25,
  "posts": [
    {
      "id": "1m4k2ab",
      "fullname": "t3_1m4k2ab",
      "title": "What finally made type hints click for me",
      "author": "example_user",
      "author_id": "t2_9xk21",
      "subreddit": "python",
      "subreddit_id": "t5_2qh0y",
      "score": 1842,
      "upvote_ratio": 0.96,
      "num_comments": 214,
      "created_at": "2026-09-08T14:22:07.000Z",
      "permalink": "/r/python/comments/1m4k2ab/what_finally_made/",
      "domain": "self.python",
      "post_type": "text",
      "language": "en",
      "award_count": 3,
      "is_nsfw": false,
      "flair": { "text": "Discussion", "background_color": "#0079d3" },
      "stickied": false,
      "locked": false,
      "archived": false,
      "media": null,
      "thumbnail": null
    }
  ]
}

{
  "success": true,
  "subreddit": "python",
  "count": 63,
  "posts": [ /* 63 rows */ ],
  "delivery": {
    "requested": 100,
    "returned": 63,
    "reason": "deadline_reached",
    "note": "Delivered the results gathered within this request.",
    "async_endpoint": "/api/reddit/posts/async"
  }
}

# One line per community: date, name, posts returned, top score.
# limit=25 is one block and the cheapest call — deepen only when it pays.
while IFS= read -r sub; do
  curl -s -G "https://apiserpent.com/api/reddit/posts" \
      --data-urlencode "subreddit=$sub" -d "sort=top" -d "t=day" -d "limit=25" \
      -H "X-API-Key: $SERPENT_API_KEY" \
    | jq -r --arg s "$sub" \
        '[$s, (.count|tostring), ([.posts[].score] | max | tostring),
          (.delivery.reason // "complete")] | @csv' \
    | sed "s|^|$(date -u +%F),|" >> reddit-daily.csv
done < subreddits.txt