Reddit API

oauth.reddit.com · Social

Social OAuth2 Free Tier Social Community Forum

Access Reddit posts, comments, subreddits, user data, and search. Free tier: 100 requests/minute. OAuth required for user actions; read-only access available without login.

Authentication

OAuth2 OAuth2 required. Register an app at reddit.com/prefs/apps. Read-only access: use script type app with client_id:secret base64 encoded. Commercial use: contact Reddit.

Sample Requests

GET Get subreddit posts

Get hot posts from r/programming (no auth needed for public data).

https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/hot.json?limit=5

Hover any highlighted part to learn what it does

curl -X GET "https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/hot.json?limit=5"

import requests
params = {
    "limit": "5"
}
response = requests.get(
    "https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/hot.json",
    params=params,
)
print(response.json())

const url = new URL('https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/hot.json');
url.searchParams.set('limit', '5');

const response = await fetch(url); 
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"net/http"
	"net/url"
)

func main() {
	baseURL, _ := url.Parse("https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/hot.json")
	q := baseURL.Query()
	q.Set("limit", "5")
	baseURL.RawQuery = q.Encode()
	targetURL := baseURL.String()
	req, _ := http.NewRequest("GET", targetURL, nil)

	client := &http.Client{}
	resp, _ := client.Do(req)
	defer resp.Body.Close()
	body, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
	fmt.Println(string(body))
}

require "net/http"
require "json"

uri = URI("https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/hot.json")
uri.query = URI.encode_www_form({
  "limit" => "5"
})

http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
http.use_ssl = uri.scheme == "https"

req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri)

res = http.request(req)
puts JSON.parse(res.body)

<?php
$url = "https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/hot.json?" . http_build_query([
    "limit" => "5"
]);
$opts = ["http" => [
    "method" => "GET",
]];
$ctx = stream_context_create($opts);
$res = file_get_contents($url, false, $ctx);
print_r(json_decode($res, true));

GET Search Reddit

Search Reddit posts by keyword.

https://www.reddit.com/search.json?q=API development&sort=relevance&limit=5

Hover any highlighted part to learn what it does

curl -X GET "https://www.reddit.com/search.json?q=API%20development&sort=relevance&limit=5"

import requests
params = {
    "q": "API development",
    "sort": "relevance",
    "limit": "5"
}
response = requests.get(
    "https://www.reddit.com/search.json",
    params=params,
)
print(response.json())

const url = new URL('https://www.reddit.com/search.json');
url.searchParams.set('q', 'API development');
url.searchParams.set('sort', 'relevance');
url.searchParams.set('limit', '5');

const response = await fetch(url); 
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"net/http"
	"net/url"
)

func main() {
	baseURL, _ := url.Parse("https://www.reddit.com/search.json")
	q := baseURL.Query()
	q.Set("q", "API development")
	q.Set("sort", "relevance")
	q.Set("limit", "5")
	baseURL.RawQuery = q.Encode()
	targetURL := baseURL.String()
	req, _ := http.NewRequest("GET", targetURL, nil)

	client := &http.Client{}
	resp, _ := client.Do(req)
	defer resp.Body.Close()
	body, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
	fmt.Println(string(body))
}

require "net/http"
require "json"

uri = URI("https://www.reddit.com/search.json")
uri.query = URI.encode_www_form({
  "q" => "API development",
  "sort" => "relevance",
  "limit" => "5"
})

http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
http.use_ssl = uri.scheme == "https"

req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri)

res = http.request(req)
puts JSON.parse(res.body)

<?php
$url = "https://www.reddit.com/search.json?" . http_build_query([
    "q" => "API development",
    "sort" => "relevance",
    "limit" => "5"
]);
$opts = ["http" => [
    "method" => "GET",
]];
$ctx = stream_context_create($opts);
$res = file_get_contents($url, false, $ctx);
print_r(json_decode($res, true));

Postman Setup Guide

Get Postman ↗

Public read: add .json to any Reddit URL (no auth needed)
Set User-Agent header — Reddit blocks requests without it
For OAuth: register at reddit.com/prefs/apps → script type
Hot posts: GET /r/{subreddit}/hot.json?limit=10
Top of all time: /r/{subreddit}/top.json?t=all&limit=10

Open documentation ↗