Reddit API Pricing: What It Costs and Better Alternative

In 2023, the Reddit API has changed its pricing model. The platform presents a freemium model, yet even after two years, clear tier prices aren’t available. This new direction upset many users, forcing them to look for new tools – third-party APIs, scrapers, self-developed tools. For those who don't want to buy an API cat in a sack, Data365 might be the more sustainable solution for commercial use, especially if you’re seeking transparency and a tool suitable for large-scale projects.

How Much Is Reddit API?

The Reddit API is no longer free for businesses. Non-commercial users can hold off on worrying. Small projects, enthusiasts, and researchers continue to use the tool for free, even though with significant limitations.

The new pricing model is based on monthly API call volume. Here's a breakdown:

• $0.24 per 1,000 API calls for large-scale use
• You may not get permission to use the API for your project at all
• Historical data access may require custom enterprise arrangements
• Strict limits on NSFW (not safe for work) content access

These changes defined new workflows for businesses and the new price wasn’t the only factor they had to adapt to.

Reddit API Pricing: What Does It Matter for Commercial Users?

These limitations and price fluctuations have directly affected how developers, startups, and app creators can access their data. Many communities went dark in protest, highlighting bigger problems, including: 

• Data is no longer easy to access for businesses, independent developers, and community-driven tools.
• API prices for high-volume projects now come with enterprise-level price tags.
• Many platforms now limit batch requests, pagination depth, or historical data access, making it harder to gather comprehensive datasets at scale.
• It’s hard to plan or scale infrastructure when you don’t know which amount of data you'll actually get and how much you will pay for it.
• Relying on a single API with mysterious pricing policies increases business risk.

Those who suffered because of the new policies started to look for alternatives. Data365 has become a preferred option for many businesses by offering access to Reddit publicly available data with simpler terms, no surprise restrictions, and a structure that supports large-scale projects. Ready to try a reliable way to gather data for your projects? Contact us and our team will help you with the optimal tiers according to your requests.

Reddit API Cost and Hidden Fees

As you can already understand, Reddit’s costs are straightforward and reasonable on the surface, but developers should be aware of several potential indirect fees: 

• OAuth protocol is free itself, while in practice it means setting up and maintaining secure authentication flows. That comes with hidden costs: your team’s time, engineering effort, and often additional infrastructure. The real  expenses show up in development hours and complexity.
• ​​Commercial apps need prior Reddit approval, which could mean paperwork, delays, and unexpected legal overhead. 
• The Reddit API integration process is a challenge for many. You must register your app through a lengthy form, get credentials, choose the right scopes, and implement OAuth 2.0. Even if you successfully get through these steps and have your access token, you need to act quickly as it is valid only for an hour. For businesses automating this entire flow is a must. If you make a mistake on this path, things might not work as expected, adding one more step – debugging. 

Looking for a more predictable and developer-friendly alternative? Data365 is a powerful solution for collecting publicly available Reddit data. Dedicated support team, constant update monitoring, clear documentation. Best of all, your data will come in clean, easy-to-use JSON, ready to plug into your workflow.

Reddit API Fees and How They Correspond with the API Limits

Here are the main limits you will probably encounter down the road:​​

1. Reddit API rate limits: Your app’s speed bump

If you're using OAuth 2.0, the access token is valid only for an hour. If during the setup something goes wrong, you will have to repeat a part of the process. Also, Reddit allows up to 100 queries per minute (QPM) per client ID. This limit is averaged over a 10-minute window, so burst traffic is allowed, but briefly.

There are also chat-specific caps:

• 2,000 messages/day per recipient
• 3,000 messages/day total
• 300 chat rooms joined/day per bot

It’s important to note that the Reddit API limits apply per OAuth client ID, not per user. So if 10 users are running under your app ID, they all share that 100 QPM cap.

2. Reddit API authentication: No exceptions

Reddit doesn’t entertain anonymous traffic anymore. Every request must go through OAuth 2.0. Otherwise, prepare for rejection. Also, since July 2023, the Reddit API has NSFW content restrictions, which have affected many third-party apps and projects.

3. Tangled setup process

Finally, the Reddit API has an intricate setup process, making it difficult for non-techies to start the process. While $0.24 per 1,000 API calls may sound alluring, the time dedicated to setting up the tool surpassed savings.

Reddit API Charges: Skip the Complexity with Data365

Commercial, large-scale projects may find the Reddit API costs a maze. The engineering hours needed to throttle requests, the NSFW content limitations, and the lack of pricing clarity for bigger use cases pushed users to look for alternatives or rethink their strategies. And if your project doesn’t get approved by Reddit in the first place, you’re back at square one.

That’s where alternatives like Data365 come in. It skips the red tape and offers:

• Clear, tiered pricing
• Customizable scalability
• Raw data access
• Ability for constant data updates
• No call-per-minute restrictions
• Built-in historical data access
• Straightforward setup and documentation

For commercial projects looking to get up and running without wrestling with such a strict rate ceiling, Data365 offers a more transparent path forward. You can work with multiple platforms, like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and X, to get versatile data from all types of sources. Want to give it a go? Fill out the form, and our team will help you determine the best plan for your project.