Reddit API Get Post: Grab Content Without Sacrifices

TL;DR

Working with Reddit’s official API often starts with good intentions and ends with rate-limit errors, pagination headaches, and OAuth token fatigue. Then, reality sets in. The process involves navigating authentication hoops, coping with strict query limits, and accepting that historical data beyond the most recent 1,000 posts is simply out of reach, probably it’s in a galaxy far away.

That’s where third-party solutions can lend you a shoulder and let you continue your project. Among them, Data365’s Social Media API offers an alternative path that is a bit wider, with fewer traffic lights along the way.

Reddit API Get Post: Understanding the Foundation

Fetching a single Reddit post with the official API won’t be anything like rocket science, but it does come with a few moving parts. Before jumping into large-scale data harvesting, this is the starting block, your “Hello World” of Reddit API calls.

At its core, Reddit refers to posts as submissions, and when you call for one, the API responds with a JSON payload that covers all the essentials: post ID, title, body text (selftext for text posts), author, permalink, score, number of comments, creation timestamp, and a few flags like whether it’s NSFW or distinguished (mod/admin-made).

There are two main routes for pulling a single post:

• Direct lookup via /api/info:
  You’ll need the post’s full “fullname” ID (that’s the t3_ prefix plus the post’s unique ID, like t3_abc123).

Example API call:

GET https://oauth.reddit.com/api/info?id=t3_abc123

• Subreddit-based lookup via /r/{subreddit}/comments/{post_id}:
  This one lets you grab a post by targeting its subreddit and post ID.

Example API call:

GET https://oauth.reddit.com/r/python/comments/abc123

Both approaches get you to the same result: a single post wrapped in Reddit’s standard API response format.

Before you can make either call, though, you’ll need to have your OAuth2 authentication in place (if you want, read the full story of the Reddit API access). That involves registering an app on Reddit’s Developer Portal, grabbing your client ID, client secret, and setting up your redirect URI (for local testing, something like http://localhost:8080 works just fine).

Once your app is set up, use your OAuth credentials to request an access token, then send your API requests to oauth.reddit.com with the right Authorization headers and a descriptive User-Agent string (Reddit’s API team cares about that one).

For Python users, libraries like PRAW handle most of the OAuth and request formatting for you, making single-post retrieval a breeze:

import praw
reddit = praw.Reddit(
    client_id='YOUR_ID',
    client_secret='YOUR_SECRET',
    user_agent='YOUR_APP_NAME'
)
post = reddit.submission(id="abc123")
print(post.title)

Mastering this single-post fetch is step one. Once this part’s solid, scaling to subreddit-wide or bulk data collection gets much easier, which is exactly where we’re headed next.

Reddit API: Get All Posts From Subreddit Or Everything Everywhere All At Once

So, how does retrieving all posts from the subreddit work? Just point your API call at the subreddit, paginate through results, and off you go. Well… not quite.

The official Reddit API lets you list posts from a subreddit using endpoints like /r/{subreddit}/new, /r/{subreddit}/top, or /r/{subreddit}/hot. Each call lets you pull up to 100 posts at a time, and with careful pagination using the after and before parameters, you can work your way through more. But here’s the built-in ceiling: no matter how you slice it, you’ll hit the 1,000-post wall, but let’s move one thing at a time.

Already getting a headache just reading this? Luckily, Reddit API Get Post isn’t the only way to access Reddit data. For example, Data365 offers an alternative solution that can help you get the insights you need without the typical API struggles.

Curious how it works? Just fill out the contact form, and we’ll be happy to explain how our solution can support your project needs.

Reddit API: Get Posts in Subreddit Or 1,000-Post Limit Edition

So, you’ve figured out how to pull Reddit posts. Congratulations, but you’re not half there. Grabbing a whole batch, maybe everything from a specific subreddit for research, analysis, or moderation, is where Reddit’s official API starts showing its built-in guardrails.

First, let’s talk about the 1,000-post ceiling, the hard stop that catches almost every developer sooner or later. No matter which listing endpoint you use (/new, /top, /hot, or others), Reddit caps your crawl at the most recent ~1,000 posts. It doesn’t matter if you paginate with after and before or switch up sort orders, the wall isn’t moving. Want older content? Not happening, at least through the Reddit API.

To make things “more interesting,” Reddit doesn’t offer any date-range filtering, so you can’t even ask the API to give you posts from a specific timeframe. The API was built with live content consumption in mind, not bulk historical access. That design choice isn’t negotiable, and it affects both free and paid API users equally.

Then there’s the whole NSFW content blackout. Since mid-2023, Reddit’s API has completely blocked NSFW posts and comments from third-party apps. Even if you’re logged in, even with proper OAuth scopes, even for research or academic purposes, around 20% of Reddit’s communities fall into this category. Of course, not all projects will feel this, but in case you need data precisely from those subreddits, that’s a pretty big blind spot.

However, developers wouldn’t be developers if alternatives didn’t exist. You could combine multiple sorts (new, top, controversial) to scrape different slices and squeeze out an extra few hundred unique posts. Or turn to Reddit’s /searchendpoint, but without date filters, pulling anything comprehensive is still impossible. 

And yes, you can always use legacy data archives like Pushshift or download torrent dumps of subreddit history, but are they worth trying, considering all the troubles waiting for you down the road? Outdated content, missing recent posts, and sometimes, the need for terabytes of storage just to get started doesn’t encourage to continue.

Also, let’s not forget about the rate limits 100 requests per 10 minutes if you’re unauthenticated, and 1,000 per 10 minutes with OAuth. Forget to pace yourself, and you’ll meet the dreaded HTTP 429 error before you know it.

For small-scale monitoring or lightweight projects, the Reddit API still works fine as long as your target fits neatly inside that 1,000-post window and doesn’t touch NSFW content. But if you’re aiming for real historical analysis, trend research, or machine learning training datasets, you’ll almost certainly need to look beyond Reddit’s official tools.

In short, subreddit-level access sounds great on paper, but in practice, it’s full of tight corners and low ceilings.

Data365 to Get Reddit Posts: API As Another Smarter Way to Choose

Getting Reddit posts is possible in multiple ways. Depending on your purpose and the resources you have, you can choose the one that truly supports your project. Let’s see what Data365 Social Media API can do for you here.

Data365’s pipeline sits on a managed infrastructure. That means auto-scaling and structured outputs that are actually readable, not something you’d need to clean up for hours before importing.

It’s not about replacing the Reddit API altogether; official endpoints still have their place for real-time tasks and lightweight jobs. But when you want to save hours of development and unlock Reddit post data for real business, Data365 becomes less of an alternative and more of a practical next step.

Here’s what you can count on:

1. You get your data as it is, in a raw form.
2. It collects only publicly available data.
3. We monitor the platform’s updates to support your data retrieval needs, no matter the changes.
4. Developer-friendly documentation.
5. Its high-performance infrastructure lets you power through thousands of subreddit requests every day without breaking a sweat.
6. You can choose from a variety of pricing plans or try a 14-day free trial to understand how well Data365 corresponds with your needs.
7. Ability to collect data from 4 more social media under one roof.

Successful Data Collection Is Around the Corner

Working with Reddit’s official API is great when you have small, one-off tasks, but the moment you need scale, history, or full subreddit coverage, the cracks start to show. And from this moment on, it’s either you’re trying to fix everything over and over again or trying something else.

Having options always matters. Solutions like Data365’s Social Media API are here to fill the gaps Reddit leaves behind. It’s like you’re swapping your folding bike for a reliable commuter train when the distance gets longer and the luggage (in our case, it is data) gets heavier.

So, if your project requires large volumes of Reddit data, and you want a more streamlined, scalable way to get it, Data365’s Social Media API is ready to help. Spin up your first job and focus on building insights, not managing technical hurdles.

There’s even a free trial available if you’d like to take it for a test drive. Fill in the form, and our team will help you get up and running.