What changed in 2023
Until mid-2023 the Reddit API was free for almost everyone. In June 2023 Reddit started charging apps that need high usage limits. The best-known figure comes from the developer of the Apollo app, who was quoted about $12,000 for 50 million requests, which works out to $0.24 per 1,000 API calls. Apollo, and several other third-party Reddit apps, shut down soon after.
Reddit doesn't publish a public price list. The $0.24 figure is a reference point from that quote, not a rate you can buy online.
The tiers today
| Access | Who it's for | Limits and cost |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Personal projects, moderators, non-commercial research | 100 queries per minute per OAuth client. Requires a registered OAuth app. No commercial use. |
| Commercial | Companies, paid products, anything that makes money from the data | Separate agreement with Reddit. Priced by contract. |
| Research | Academic researchers | Applied for through Reddit; approval is case by case. |
Sources: Reddit's Data API terms and help pages, and public reporting of the Apollo quote (June 2023). Terms change; check Reddit's developer pages before you build.
Is the official API expensive?
Per item, not really. One Reddit API call can return up to 100 posts or comments, so if $0.24 per 1,000 calls were your rate, reading a million items would cost a few dollars. The hard part for most teams isn't the price. It's getting there:
- Commercial use needs a signed agreement, and small teams often don't get a reply.
- The free tier forbids commercial use, so a startup, an agency or a paid tool can't rely on it.
- Anonymous reading is blocked. Reddit rejects most automated requests that don't come through an approved OAuth app.
Reading Reddit with Vanefeed
Vanefeed gives you subreddit and user posts, full comment threads and Reddit search through one API key, with no Reddit app or agreement on your side. Results come back in the same JSON shape we use for TikTok, X, YouTube and the other platforms.
| Endpoint | What you get | Price |
|---|---|---|
reddit/profile | A subreddit's or user's details | 1 credit |
reddit/posts | Newest posts in a subreddit or by a user | 2 credits per 20 |
reddit/comments | A thread's comments | 2 credits per 20 |
reddit/search | Reddit search, optionally inside one subreddit | 3 credits per 20 |
1,000 posts or comments cost 100 credits, about $0.10–$0.15 on our packs. Failed calls cost nothing. When Reddit refuses live reading, recent posts can come from a public Reddit archive and are marked as such.
Try it
# newest 100 posts in r/technology (10 credits)
curl "https://api.vanefeed.com/v1/reddit/posts?handle=r%2Ftechnology&limit=100" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $VANEFEED_KEY"import os, requests
r = requests.get("https://api.vanefeed.com/v1/reddit/posts",
params={"handle": "r/technology", "limit": 100},
headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['VANEFEED_KEY']}"})
for post in r.json()["data"]:
print(post["published_at"], post["text"][:80])Which should you use?
- Personal or non-commercial project, happy to register an app: use Reddit's free tier.
- Large company with a legal team and steady volume: talk to Reddit about a commercial agreement.
- Startup, agency or tool that needs Reddit next to other platforms, today: that's what Vanefeed's Reddit API is for.
100 free credits
Enough for about 1,000 Reddit posts or comments. No card needed.