# Is the Reddit API free?

Reddit. Checked September 2026.

Free for non-commercial use, within Reddit’s per-minute quota per OAuth client. Commercial use, which includes most products with paying users, needs Reddit’s written approval and is billed per API call. Getting that approval takes weeks and is not guaranteed.

For public posts, comments, profiles, and subreddits, Openhandle reads Reddit for $0.0025 per request, billed after use, with no application. Reddit endpoints are in beta today.

## GET /v1/reddit/subreddits/{name}/posts?sort=hot

```bash
curl "https://api.openhandle.dev/v1/reddit/subreddits/synthetic/posts?sort=hot" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENHANDLE_API_KEY"
```

```ts
import { OpenHandle } from '@openhandle/sdk';

const openhandle = new OpenHandle({ apiKey: process.env.OPENHANDLE_API_KEY! });
const page = await openhandle.reddit.subreddit('synthetic').posts.list({ sort: 'hot' });

for (const post of page.data) console.log(post.metrics.score, post.title);
```

200 OK:

```json
{
  "platform": "reddit",
  "resource": "post",
  "capturedAt": "2026-09-18T11:04:19Z",
  "source": "live",
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "t3_reddit1",
      "title": "Synthetic Reddit post",
      "community": { "id": "t5_reddit1", "handle": "synthetic", "displayHandle": "r/synthetic" },
      "createdAt": "2026-08-09T15:30:00Z",
      "metrics": { "score": 0, "upvoteRatio": 0.5, "comments": 0, "crossposts": 0 }
    }
  ],
  "meta": { "cursors": { "next": "b3BhcXVlLWN1cnNvcg" } }
}
```

Trimmed to one post and the fields this question needs. The example is a Test subreddit, so you can run it on a free Test key.

## How the Reddit API bills

- **Non-commercial.** Free, within a quota of about 100 queries per minute per OAuth client. Research, hobby projects, and moderation tools.
- **Commercial.** Needs approval through Reddit’s data access request. Billed per API call at a rate Reddit sets. Approval takes weeks.
- **Anonymous JSON.** Appending `.json` to a reddit.com URL without a token is blocked or throttled. Do not build on it.

Check [Reddit’s data API terms](https://www.redditinc.com/policies/data-api-terms) for the current quota and rate. They change. We do not quote their numbers here so this page never goes stale.

## How Openhandle bills

- **Per request.** $0.0025 per live request, lower at volume. A 24-hour cache hit costs less. A 30-day cache hit is free.
- **After use.** No plan, no approval, no minimum. Set a spend limit per key and per month for a hard stop.
- **Failed requests are free.** You pay only when the API returns an answer.

## What you get

Subreddit posts sorted hot, new, top, rising, or controversial. Post comments as threads. Public profiles with karma, their posts, and their comments. Search for posts, profiles, and subreddits. Domain listings for every post that links to a site. Every answer uses the same envelope as Instagram, TikTok, and X.

## When this does not work

These answers are definitive. Store them, do not retry them.

| Situation | Status | Code |
|---|---|---|
| The subreddit is private, quarantined, or banned | 403 | `PROFILE_PRIVATE` |
| The subreddit or post never existed | 404 | `PROFILE_NOT_FOUND or POST_NOT_FOUND` |
| The cursor came from another sort or subreddit | 400 | `CURSOR_MISMATCH` |

```json
{
  "error": {
    "code": "POST_NOT_FOUND",
    "message": "This post was not found.",
    "requestId": "req_01j8…",
    "retryable": false
  }
}
```

Reddit endpoints are in beta. The shape is stable, coverage is still growing. Every new workspace starts with 100 free live requests, no card needed.

## Related

- [Reddit API](https://openhandle.dev/apis/reddit): Every Reddit endpoint with examples.
- [Pricing](https://openhandle.dev/pricing): Every rate, the cache tiers, and the calculator.
- [Pushshift is gone. How do I get Reddit history?](https://openhandle.dev/questions/pushshift-is-gone-how-do-i-get-reddit-history): What an archive was, and what you can build now.